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Supervisors approve school funding requests

March 1, 2016 2:11 am Published by

Supervisors approve school funding requests – Brunswicktimes Gazette: News

Purchase a Subscriptioin to the Brunswick Times Gazette.

Like never before, Brunswick Times Gazette delivers real value every day. The breakdown is for the funds re-appropriated is: carryover funds from FY2015 – $36,000, Title 1: Improving Basic Programs – $70,041.68, Title 1: Improving Basic Program – $51,019.19, Title VI: Rural Education – $7,629.46, Title VIB: Section 611 (Special Education) – $18,641.70, Part III A: LEP (Limited English Proficiency) – $3,773,91, Part III A: LEP – $974.18. The breakdown for new grant funding is: Security Grant – $70,960, Title III Part A: LEP – $4,407.39, Brunswick High School 21st Century Grant – $187,197, and Meherrin-Powellton Elementary School – $187,197.

Richard Rush, director of business services for Brunswick County Public Schools, presented the FY16 January Budget Tracking Report to the Brunswick County Board of Supervisors that showed the Average Daily Membership for Feb.

Rush said Brunswick County Public Schools received $260,722 in additional grant funding. Grants include: 21st Century Grant for Meherrin-Powellton Elementary School and Brunswick High School – $52,914 for instruction and $3,876 instruction fringes (FICA), additional federal appropriations (Title 1) – $117,424, 21st Century Grant – $36,739, Security Grant – $4,304, Annenberg Grant (technology) $45,365.

The Brunswick County Board of Supervisors will meet with the Brunswick County School Board on Tuesday, March 15, at 6:30 p.m.

New parent resource center opens in North Philly elementary school

March 1, 2016 2:11 am Published by

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Keystone Crossroads PlanPhilly New parent resource center opens in North Philly elementary school Members of the School Reform Commission join parents and school officials in cutting the ribbon to open a new Parent Resource Center at Thomas Pierce Elementary School.

Ahead of Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenney’s push to create 25 “community schools,” the Philadelphia School District is also working to make its schools hubs for community engagement.

“We’re trying to update the resources in those rooms so that parents have access to things like how to enroll children in high schools, information about how they can help teach their children to read, do math, how they can become involved, how they can complete job applications themselves,” he said.

The grant was awarded to the school because of the efforts of School Reform Commissioner Sylvia Simms’ advocacy group Parent Power which has opened similar centers at nearby Murrell Dobbins High School and James G.

Simms and Divine faced questions this week in a piece by The Philadelphia Public School Notebook for their actions and connections regarding the possible charter school conversion of Wister Elementary in Germantown.

UK law firm commits £1m of legal support to social enterprises and charities

March 1, 2016 1:48 am Published by

UK law firm commits 1m of legal support to social enterprises and charities

A London-based law firm has committed 1m of legal support for charities and social enterprises through its new ‘Get Legal’ initiative.

Bates Wells Braithwaite (BWB), which was one of the UK’s founding B Corps, has launched Get Legal to allow more not-for-profits including start-ups and small organisations access to high quality legal services. The law firm has made bespoke legal documents accessible and affordable for charities and social enterprises.

Thea Longley, partner in BWB’s Charity and Social Enterprise team said: “Time and again insight has revealed that charities are under pressure to keep admin costs as low as possible and we know that many small charities cannot afford to take any legal advice at all.

“Our message to charities and social enterprises is that Get Legal is part of our commitment to the sector and has been designed to help you access more straightforward legal documents at a much lower cost. We encourage organisations to embrace this new, digital tool to ensure you’re up to date with duties and regulatory requirements on a range of issues from employment to governance and beyond.”

Many small charities cannot afford to take any legal advice at all.

BWB is working closely with the National Council for Voluntary Organisations (NCVO) and Social Enterprise UK (SEUK) to ensure that charities and social enterprises are aware of the service on offer.

Head of enterprise & membership at NCVO Gillen Knight said: “We know from our members that many of them would feel more confident with the opportunity to check that their legal procedures are robust and up to date. We hope and expect to see many social enterprises taking advantage of this, and getting the advice and support they need.”

To find out more about Get Legal, please click here.

Photo credit: Kaushik Narasimhan

A number of corporates are tired of attracting “cut-throat, high achievers” and are taking lessons from social enterprises in seeking a more diverse workforce, it was revealed at the UnLtd Big Social event last week.

The SE100 Index researchers analyse the results of the sixth year of this unique index, which tracks the growth and performance of social ventures in the UK.

This follows other key leadership announcements in the UK social enterprise sector by the Cabinet Office and Social Investment Business in recent weeks.

Wellston continues process to obtain grant, third meeting held

March 1, 2016 1:48 am Published by

Wellston continues process to obtain grant, third meeting held – The Jackson County Times-Journal: News

WELLSTONa About 23 Wellston residents showed up for the third CDBG Neighborhood Revitalization Grant meeting that was held on a cold and snowy evening in January.

Whitaker Wright, with Community Development Consultants (CDC) of Ohio, gave an overview of the Neighborhood Revitalization Grant Development process once again. If the grant is awarded, Wellston will have a two-year grant period, September 2016 to August 2018, to use the funds along with getting the volunteer projects done.

What they meant by that is, they would use volunteer projects as a measurement of how interested the community is in getting this grant.

If there are any organizations that are interested in volunteering to help the City of Wellston with the match on the grant, please contact Wellston Mayor Connie Pelletier at 740-384-2720 or Tami Phillips with aMaking Wellston Beautifula at 740-418-7830.

Writeras Note: For readers who missed the initial grant meeting visit www.timesjournal.com and search for aResidents show support for next grant venture in Wellston.a

School Choice, But Much More: Making Sense of DeVos Family Philanthropy

March 1, 2016 1:48 am Published by

One of the top families in philanthropy to watch these days is the conservative DeVos family.

The DeVoses’ wealth sprouts from direct marketing. But it worked out well for Richard DeVos, whose present-day net worth of $5 billion makes him one of the wealthiest people in the United States.

With this much wealth on hand, it’s not surprising that the DeVoses are also heavy contributors to charity. Richard and his wife, Helen, run the Richard and Helen DeVos Foundation from their home state of Michigan. Giving by this couple and their kids has touched many areas, but the DeVoses are probably best known as key pioneers in education reform philanthropy.

“School choice” supporters were practically a fringe movement circa 2000: Over the two preceding decades, 25 state ballots proposing new school-voucher programs had ended with 25 majorities of voters saying “nay.” We could very likely chalk up some of it or maybe more than some to the DeVos family, which altogether has three philanthropic foundations to their name, and a remarkable talent for moving money by the truckload into socially conservative causes and putting it to work to shift voters’ and lawmakers’ mindsets in a rightward direction.

Religious charities are their foundation’s favorite kind of grantee. The foundation’s also issued grants to the Inner City Christian Federation, which used the money to provide emergency shelter and counseling to homeless youth and families in Kent County, Michigan; and the Young Life, which spent the money on faith-focused summer camps and after-school clubs.

The foundation likewise has long been a stalwart funder of conservative policy groups. Dick also ran for Michigan governor in 2006, but was bested by the Democratic incumbent.

Dick’s married to Betsy Prince DeVos, and the two run a charitable operation of their own, the Dick and Betsy DeVos Family Foundation, which they started in 1989 with an intention to “serve as faithful stewards” of greater society through “projects that build a strong community.” School choice is one of its areas of interest, along with community health, the arts, and neighborhood revitalizations. It’s awarded grants to such endeavors as Potter’s House, a Michigan Christian organization that runs two faith-based schools (an elementary school and a high school) within the state; and West Michigan Aviation Academy, an aviation-focused charter school in Grand Rapids. Not as controversial, though, as the DeVos’ well-known conservative political persuasions: Steve Lambert, one recent ArtPrize winner, pledged to return his winnings because the DeVos family is on the “wrong side of the fight for civil rights for LGBT people” (You can read more about all of these criticisms of ArtPrize here).

Betsy DeVos is quite the political ringleader in her own right.

Foundations Put Up $150000 to Highlight Philanthropy’s Successes

March 1, 2016 1:26 am Published by

Successes of Philanthropy, which is sponsored by foundations, aims to catch the eyes of movers and shakers in the nation’s capitol. A wide variety of philanthropies, from corporate, private, and community foundations to grant-making nonprofits, will submit successes stories to be published as part of the project.

“We’re not blessed with opportunities to have a television ad during the Super Bowl or a full-page ad in The Wall Street Journal,” said Doug Kridler, president and chief executive of the Columbus Foundation, which donated to the project and contributed a story about the revitalization of a once crime-ridden neighborhood in the Ohio capital.

A 2007 report commissioned by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation for the awareness effort found that more than half of “engaged Americans” could not name a single foundation on the first try, and just 11 percent could offer an example of a foundation’s impact on an issue they care about.

He proposed Successes of Philanthropy instead and now serves as the project’s “curator,” inviting foundations to contribute stories.

Diane Strauss, publisher of The Washington Monthly, sees Successes of Philanthropy “as a way to deepen our relationships with foundations, “some of whom we know, some of whom we don’t.”

If the magazine is able to double its fundraising for Successes of Philanthropy, the staff will consider publishing a special print issue on philanthropy, Ms.

Current donors include JP Morgan Chase & Co., the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation“>Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, Coca-Cola, the Chicago Community Trust, the Robin Hood Foundation, the Columbus Foundation, the Minneapolis Foundation, and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation.

Five-year grant targets student health

March 1, 2016 1:03 am Published by

The first phase will concentrate on identifying what policies, services and projects are already in place in each district.

Those can include review or drafting of a district-wide child-wellness policy or identifying where corporate-sponsorship dollars might be replaced by other means to help students make healthier foods choices at vending machines and development of outlines on how to increase studentsa physical activity.

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COMPREHENSIVE PLAN

From there, projects will be developed to carry the healthier lifestyle decisions to each districtas greater community.

Those initiatives could be a campaign for healthier food choices at convenience stores; businesses and community organizations developing and improving their own worksite/meeting food standards; or implementing policies and plans that promote walking, biking and other alternatives to motorized transportation to increase physical activity.

Katherine Haney is liaison between the Healthy Heart Network and partners each school district has identified to oversee and track the wellness-program efforts, said Network Executive Director Margot Gold.

Once the initial assessments are done, she said, a comprehensive plan will be drawn up with the networkas help that addresses the identified places where improved nutrition and exercise can be added at each district.

Gold said a committee of stakeholders in each district, including parents, administrators, teachers and students, will draw up a plan of action tailored to their schools to present to their respective school boards for approval.

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WILL TRACK DATA

A $1.5 million grant will help the Treasure Valley fight obesity, tobacco use

March 1, 2016 1:02 am Published by

Business of Health

March 1, 2016 1:00 PM

$1.5 million grant will help the Treasure Valley fight obesity, tobacco use

The grant will be spread out over three years with the potential for an additional $1 million.

Trinity Health will award a $1.5 million grant through its Transforming Communities Initiative to the “Promise Partnership,” a partnership between Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center and United Way of Treasure Valley.

On The Spot Improv Club partners with Relay For Life

March 1, 2016 12:52 am Published by

On The Spot Improv Club partners with Relay For Life While On The Spot shows are free of charge, this time the group suggests a donation of $3 or more to Relay For Life for attendees.

Bridgette Beasley, club member and sophomore in microbiology, said that although the shows are usually free, suggesting a donation to attend this show presents audience members with a special opportunity to help support a good cause.

“Our shows are always free, but this one is a little extra special,” Beasley said. “It’s so cool to kind of take what we do every single week and something that we just do for fun, and actually do it for a cause.”

According to Maureen Barry, club president and senior in economics, On The Spot has performed at Manhattan’s Relay For Life events for the past three years, putting on improv shows at around midnight or 1 a.m. each time to encourage Relay For Life walkers.

“Typically at that point, the walkers are a little tired, so we come in and do a little improv, try to jazz them up, keep them excited to keep going throughout the night,” Barry said.

The club already has a performance scheduled for the weekend of April 1-2, the same weekend as the Relay For Life event, which is why the group plans to dedicate tonight’s regular performance to Relay For Life, Barry said.

“We have had an annual philanthropy for Relay For Life because we’ve just had such a great experience working with them, and it’s a great cause,” Barry said.

Kennedy Burton, K-State’s Relay For Life fundraising co-chair and senior in life sciences, said joining forces with campus groups like On The Spot is a way to more closely link K-State students with the American Cancer Society’s cause.

“Any other type of organization that can really take the time to participate in a different organization’s philanthropy or event is really great because you’re getting a broader spectrum of people, and you’re reaching the K-State campus in a wider range,” Burton said.

According to Beasley, cancer awareness is a cause that is likely to mean something to a majority of K-State students, faculty, staff and Manhattan community members.

“I think something like cancer research and awareness just strikes home for a lot of people,” Beasley said.


Ganesh Natarajan is the Founder and Chairman of 5FWorld, a new platform for funding and developing start-ups, social enterprises and the skills eco-system in India. In the past two decades, he has built two of India’s high-growth software services companies – Aptech and Zensar – almost from scratch to global success.




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