Author Archives for Michael

Two adjustments to Oneontaas Summer Food Service Program will allow the service to benefit more individuals this year, an organizer said Thursday.

Thanks to funding from United Way, adults accompanying children to the afternoon program this year will be able to partake alongside their kids, according to Christy R. This will be the third year Catholic Charities has offered the service.

aPeople from low-income families depend highly upon free school meal programs to give their children free or reduced lunch and breakfast,a Houck said. And letting adults in on the program will help even more, she said.

Catholic Charities sponsors the program, but there are many other area organizations that contribute to the effort, including the Oneonta City School District, which will offer a bookmobile once or twice a week; Fidelis Care, which will make smoothies on Fridays; and the First United Presbyterian Church in Oneonta, which coordinates volunteers to serve meals and will be doing a craft once a week.

aItas a really great partnership and such a relaxed and comfortable atmosphere,a Houck said. Department of Agricultureas online Summer Meals Site Finder, children who donat live in Oneonta can find free meals at Otego Elementary School, Charlotte Valley Central School, Wilber Park in Milford, Morris Central School, Unadilla Valley Central School, the village of Sidney, the First United Methodist Church in Walton, Walton High School, Townsend Elementary School in Walton, the Delaware-Chenango-Madison-Otsego BOCES, Guilford Elementary School, Jefferson Central School, Stamford Central School, Greenlawn Elementary School in Bainbridge, Perry Browne Intermediate School in Norwich, Guernsey Memorial Library in Norwich, Richfield Springs Elementary School, the Oneida-Herkimer-Madison BOCES and Deposit Elementary School.

Healthy Connections Inc. Department of Health and Human Services to increase access to health care.

A $1 million grant was received last month to build a 3,000-square-foot expansion at Healthy Connections’ headquarters, 136 Health Park Drive, for more exam rooms and counseling services space.

Since its inception in 2009, The Community Foundation’s Youth Grantmakers program has offered opportunities for Inland youth to discover the possibilities of creating a stronger community through their own engagement in philanthropy.

The Youth Grantmaker program has been working toward a goal of empowering Riverside and San Bernardino county youth in addressing the issues important to them through their participation in the issuance of grants.

In ceremonies held at the Sturges Center for the Arts in San Bernardino on June 5, Grier Pavillion at Riverside City Hall on June 12 and Temple Isaiah in the Coachella Valley on June 26, the Youth Grantmaker program celebrated with the 15 non-profits selected to receive a total of $28,648.

“Because of this organization, we learn that, though we may be young, we can still have an impact on the communities we’ve come to love,” said Saachi Kudtarkar, a Youth Grantmaker who graduated from North High School and will be attending the University of California at Los Angeles.

Eleven students from five high schools comprise the Youth Grantmakers program in San Bernardino. They awarded five grants to five nonprofits in 2015-16: $2,500 to Big Brothers and Big Sisters, $2,500 to Foothill Family Shelter, $1,000 to the Hamilton Essentials Foundation, $2,000 to Project Fighting Chance and $2,000 to Youth Hope Foundation. I have learned more about my community and how important youth involvement is,” said Vivian Gutierrez, a Youth Grantmaker who graduated from San Bernardino High School and will be attending San Bernardino Valley College.

To find out more about the Youth Grantmakers Program, call The Community Foundation at 951-241-7777.

House Creek teacher high jumps for grant – Copperas Cove Herald: Education

I’ve never been afraid to ask hard questions in defense of students, which has irritated school officials,” she said.

Van Housen said she will “continue to stand up for my job and the children and families I have served proudly for so many years.”

Attorney Nathan Willems filed aA petition for a temporary injunctionA on Van Housen’s behalf in May, seekingA to prevent the district from firing her.

He said Friday that theA petition became “moot” as a result of the termination notice, but said Van Housen can opt to fileA a lawsuit for the same reasons specified in the petition.

The petition cited a portion of Iowa law that says a public employee cannot be discharged for disclosing information to a lawmaker or other public official if the employee “reasonably believesA the information evidences a violation of law or rule, mismanagement, a gross abuse of funds, anA abuse of authority or a substantial and specific danger to public health or safety.”

The petition saidA Van Housen believes the district failed to make a community room available to the public, constituting “a violation of law or rule, a gross abuse of funds or an abuse of authority.”

Pedersen has said he denies the allegation that the district failed to make the community room available, noting staff members use publicA space for district and public purposes depending on scheduling.

In the days leading up to her placement on leave, Van Housen exchanged emailsA with Grant Wood Elementary Principal Joe Divoky about using aA community room at Grant Wood for a meeting of Rose Oaks ApartmentsA residents.

At breakfast, a lesson in effects of emotional traumaAt breakfast, a lesson in effects of emotional trauma

United States Senator Gary Peters. Thoughts and prayers are great but they are not enough and we have to take action.”

Peters applauded Battle Creek and its many agencies for gathering to talk about the the effects of trauma and how best to ensure it doesn’t lead to violence.

“I am not aware of communities doing what you are doing here,” Peters said.

Schilling said later it’s important to understand that everyone has experiences that affect them and for an entire community it is important to understand trauma and how it can affect everyone.

“It takes people from every branch of the community and bringing them together and having discussions about how we are affected by this,” she said.

She said people suffer trauma from their everyday experiences within the community and events elsewhere.

“The problem is beyond the crisis;A it is the longer term.”

Schilling said communities have to learn how to cope with the long-term effects of trauma, not just the immediate needs following a crisis.

“Everyone wants quick fixes, but there are no quick fixes,” she said.

George Voinovich forged timely and historic partnership with the city’s business community: Thomas Vail (Opinion) | cleveland.com George Voinovich forged timely and historic partnership with the city’s business community: Thomas Vail (Opinion) In 1981, then-Mayor George Voinovich, left, to show his support for the new “Cleveland’s a Plum” campaign backed by Plain Dealer Publisher and Editor Thomas Vail, right, throws out the “first plum” at the Indians-Yankees’ game, May 29, 1981 The idea for this now universally renowned and widely used vehicle to help communities was born out of crisis and necessity in Cleveland in 1979 with the help of the city’s new mayor, George Voinovich. Its population was declining but remained diverse, and the community continued to enjoy the tremendous assets of cultural and philanthropic institutions, including one of the nation’s best symphony orchestras and art museums; the Cleveland Foundation — the second largest community foundation in the country, founded in 1914 and United Way, the first in the nation, started as The Community Chest in 1913.

From this core emerged the public officials, led by Voinovich, able to reach out and form a partnership with executives from the private sector, including myself, as publisher of The Plain Dealer.

4 things George Voinovich did for Cleveland

When Voinovich was elected mayor in November 1979, with The Plain Dealer’s support, he knew he needed the help of the business community.

Most notable and important was the aptly titled “Operations Improvement Task Force,” chaired, funded, and staffed by the private business community to, as then stated, “help improve the quality of life for the people of Cleveland by making local government more responsive to citizen needs.”

This unique and inspired civic revival effort operated for 27 months from December 1979 to March 1982 and reported at its conclusion that 443 of its 649 recommendations (68 percent) had been implemented and another 166 (26 percent) were in process.

This revolutionary effort saved the city and its finances and was the result of a truly admirable public-private partnership between the administration of then-Mayor Voinovich (later to become Ohio governor and a U.S. senator) and the Cleveland business community.

In this, starting with George Voinovich and the many who helped him from the private sector, Cleveland has been most fortunate in having so many here who inspire us all with their efforts to make our community a better place for everyone.

Thomas Vail was editor and publisher of The Plain Dealer from 1963 to 1991.

Only organizations with annual budgets of $250,000 or less, or independent performers, are eligible.

The Barr Foundation is contributing an additional $250,000 to the program, making for a total of $1.75 million to be distributed across three years.

Allyson Esposito, the Boston Foundation‘s director of arts and culture, says the new fund will support “new work, culturally specific work, and avant-garde and contemporary work.”

“There’s a need to give artists and small organizations some wiggle room to create new works, to experiment,” she added. Those artist grants will be divided into awards of up to $1,000 distributed throughout the year, and fellowship-style grants of up to $10,000 intended to support artists’ work broadly.

EdVesters, the Boston-based philanthropy centered on bolstering public education, was expected to announce $650,000 in new grants for its program known as Boston Public School Arts Expansion; the city school system will also begin a revamp of its arts-education policy, which dates to the early 1990s.

Though the prospect looms as a long-term goal, neither the Boston Creates report nor the newly announced programs call for any specific mechanism to create a dedicated revenue stream that would fund efforts like these into the future something that would potentially be of much greater import than any initiative unveiled this week.

“I am committed to finding a sustainable public funding stream for arts and culture. A cultural facilities study is underway, but Walsh also announced a pilot program to encourage Boston organizations to make existing spaces available to performers.

Initial participants are the Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary, which will make an auditorium available in evening hours; the AT&T flagship store, with a balcony space suitable for rehearsals; and the Plummers & Gasfitters Local 12 union hall in Dorchester.

Though AT&T is involved in the rehearsal space pilot program and Eastern Bank has pledged new money to the Boston Cultural Council, other corporate support or corporate dollars does not appear to be a key component of the newly announced efforts.

When asked if the city reached out to General Electric which was lured to its planned headquarters in the Seaport District with help from a package of city and state incentives including $20 million in property tax breaks to contribute funds or otherwise participate, Joyce Linehan, the mayor’s chief of policy, said only that the city is “approaching any corporation that wants to talk to us about this plan.”

“Once corporations start to see the incredible investment of the city and of the philanthropic world, and the mayor gets up to use the bully pulpit to say ‘This is something that’s very important to me,’ as he’s said all along, then corporations will begin to come along,” Linehan said in an interview at City Hall.

In-kind donations from area museums include a pledge from the Museum of Fine Arts to assist the city with maintenance and preservation of publicly owned art.

Marlborough: Friends of Marlborough Seniors awarded $100K – News – MetroWest Daily News, Framingham, MA – Framingham, MA MARLBOROUGH – The Friends of the Marlborough Seniors was recently awarded a $100,000 grant from the Cummings Foundation for various programs that will enhance seniors lives.The grant was awarded as part of the Cummings Foundation’s “$100K for 100″ program which provides $100,000 grants to 100 community organizations across Greater Boston. More than 470 community organizations applied for the grant program.”Our organization is incredibly grateful to the Cummings Foundation for their continued support,” said Sean Nicholas Fay, president of the Friends of Marlborough Seniors. “Our ability to serve Marlborough’s seniors is due in large part to the generosity of the Cummings Foundation and this grant will allow us to enhance the lives of countless seniors in our community.”The funds will be used for transportation, dementia programs, subsidized meals and educational, cultural and recreational opportunities.”We are very proud of the proud of the programming we have for seniors,” said Mayor Arthur Vigeant. “Our beautiful new senior center is always bustling with activity and the Cummings Foundation grant will enable us to continue offering these great services to Marlborough seniors.”Vigeant and Council on Aging Director Trish Pope accepted the grant during a ceremony at TradeCenter 128 in Woburn last week.The $100K for 100 program supports nonprofit organizations that are not only based in but also primarily serve Middlesex, Essex and Suffolk counties. MetroWest Daily News, Framingham, MA

As president of the Community Foundation of Northern Illinois, I recently signed 134 scholarship checks totaling $196,097. It is also humbling to know that all of these scholarships would not exist without the generosity of donors in this community over the last 63 years.Three of the checks I signed were for Colman Scholars. Each of those students received a $2,500 scholarship in their freshman year and $10,000 per year for the remaining three years of their undergraduate education.The Colman Scholars are students in engineering, computer science and technology. Louis and Violet Rubin endowment to match an equal amount raised by the colleges.Together, the $8 million in permanent scholarship endowments will make an additional $320,000 worth of scholarships available for local students every year. mainImageContainerInnerHTML += ”+htmlencode(mainImageData_caption)+”; mainImageContainerInnerHTML += ”+mainImageData_caption+”; mainImageContainerInnerHTML_sm += ”+mainImageData_credit+”; mainImageContainerInnerHTML_sm += ”+mainImageData_caption+”; $(‘#art-main-image-credit-container_sm’).css(‘width’,smimgwidth).css(‘padding’,’3px ‘+(mainImageData_leftPadding – 3)+’px 0 0’); $(‘#art-main-image-caption-container_sm’).css(‘width’,sm_img.width).css(‘padding’,’5px 0 0 ‘+(mainImageData_leftPadding + 3)+’px’); $(‘#art-main-image-caption-container’).css(‘width’,img.width).css(‘padding’,’5px 0 0 ‘+mainImageData_leftPadding+’px’); $(‘#art-main-image-credit-container’).css(‘width’,img.width).css(‘padding’,’5px ‘+(mainImageData_leftPadding)+’px 0 0’);