At its September 20th, 2011, board meeting, the board made the following four grants:
1) Association of Small Foundations – $15,000
2) Namaste – $5,000
3) Institute of Child Development (Dr. Alan Sroufe) – $10,000
4) Bienvenidos Outreach – $5,000
Congratulations to the fall 2011 grant recipients! Descriptions of these grants are as follows:
1) Association of Small Foundations – $15,000 – Philanthropy Blog
Description—Funding from the Frederick H. Leonhardt Foundation will engage our members in meaningful dialogue through the creation of a thought-provoking blog and accompanying social media strategy. Although ASF has an active member ListServ with more than 300 subscribers, the listserv tends to address “nuts and bolts” topics. The blog will instead address deeper topics, such as philanthropy’s role in the social sector as government decreases its presence, why foundations should work toward and measure impact, and how foundations can successfully collaborate across sectors. Through the blog, foundations will gain insight into complex problems, frame them, and identify solutions. Blog posts will be written by ASF members, staff, and leaders from the foundation and philanthropic communities. ASF’s staff editor, in collaboration with a senior program manager from our Content Team, will manage the blog, schedule posts, and facilitate lively dialogue. A portion of this grant will help us educate our own staff of educators, content experts, and communications specialists about blogs, social media strategy, and other emerging technology tools.
2) Namaste – $5,000 – Bowlbian Attachment Theory “Look See”
Description—Namaste is requesting funding to support a “Look See” opportunity to investigate Bowlbian Attachment Theory. We are requesting funding to sponsor key leadership member’s attendance at The Children’s Center 2012 Bridging the Gap Conference (Salt Lake City, Utah). Identified participants will be required to conduct pre-conference research inclusive of, but not limtied to review of recommended attachment survey readings, i.e. Robert Karan’s “Becoming Attached—First Relationships and How They Shape our Capacity to Love,” and accessing The Children’s Center Lending Library (video archives of past conference material), Presentation Materials, Evaluation Tools etc. Participants will conduct group trainings/discussions in the three months prior to the conference as well as the months following. Focus will be on review of Bowlbian Attachment Theory, comparison and contrasts of various attachment frameworks, review of current applications and the application of acquired knowledge. Our goal is to utilize this valuable experience to focus on attachment work to build on children’s resiliency, support the recovery of families and use relationships to foster change.
3) University of Minnesota Foundation in support of the Institute of Child Development (Dr. Alan Sroufe) – $10,000 – Chilean Attachment Conference
Description—With FHL Foundation support a network of young, Latin American attachment researchers was formed (RIA). A Panama meeting drew participants from Central America. A second meeting in Santiago, January, 2012, will draw from southern South American countries. Workshops/presentations will yield 2/3 of costs, as presenters donate time; yet, costs of bringing members to Santiago are high. Members pay a portion, but most have no institutional support. The conference and RIA’s mission are central to FHL’s work: conveying systems and cross-cultural perspectives on attachment and informing intervention programs with poverty families. Workshops/presentations will cover attachment assessment, the Adult Attachment Interview (AAI), attachment disorders, and attachment-based intervention. These efforts are critical for creating awareness of the new organization and the logistical support it gives for intervention-oriented research in Latin America. We will achieve our goal of representation from each part of Latin America.
4) Bienvenido Outreach, Inc. – $5,000 – General Operating Support
Description—Bienvenidos Outreach has been in existence since 1989 at first serving the homeless population of Santa Fe, then growing to include distributing food boxes, clothing, and household goods to those in need. This past year, we have prepared 17,668 food boxes for 3,452 households. Our homeless services include sack lunches, clothing, and personal care products. We average 65 visits a day to our lunch counter and during the summer/early fall, we see an increase of approximately 20 people more per day. The purpose of our request is to enable us to purchase more food and pantry supplies during our new fiscal year. Sixty percent of the grant would be used for food while the remaining forty percent would be used for supplies needed to efficiently run the pantry’s two food programs (The Food Box Program and The Homeless Lunch Bag Program). Our goal is to continue to feed the increasing numbers of people seeking help from us without having to decrease the size of the boxes we give out each week.
To find out more about the groups who received grants from the FHL Foundation in the fall of 2011, click on the links to organization web sites above. If you have questions concerning these grants, use the Contact Us link above.
