Columbus Foundation Fellowship Programs

Last week was extremely exciting for me.  I had been compiling a large amount of data on flights to Disney.  I finally finished converting the data into graphs and before me I saw a pattern.  It appeared that flight costs have been rising in the past few years, but when I analyzed the graph it seemed that January tended to be an outlier.  It almost always had the biggest average per fiscal year when it came to the cost of a flight per person to Disney World.  I eliminated the highest January from the data, which resulted in the trend line going from rising to very nearly flat.  I was able to discern that flights to Disney World have not in fact been rising, which is great news for MAW.

I then looked into every single airfare for wishes in January.  They’re only expensive during the first week in January.  My boss and I brainstormed ways to combat these prices.  We figured that the best approach would be to save vouchers to pay for those flights during the first week of January, as many of the reason behind why they’re so expensive are not things we can control, such as rush wishes.  I felt so happy to have come up with some very concrete information that will help MAW project costs for each year, as Disney World makes up about 50% of our wishes.  I’m currently looking into if we use less in-kind resources during January, perhaps contributing to exorbitant flight costs.  I hope to create templates that will help other chapters examine their flights in the same way to see if they similarly have not seen increases or if their flights costs are very high during the first week in January.

The best part of weekend was serving dinner in the YMCA shelter with the Community Shelter Board.  I spent one Saturday a month in high school working with Public Action to Deliver Shelter.  I would come in during the evening to help set up beds, serve dinner, and help with anything else our guests needed.  I have greatly missed doing service like that in college and was so excited to volunteer this past Sunday.  I really enjoyed the connection it made me feel to the community, meeting other people who love to give back, and being able to be of service to people who have fallen on hard times.  They start off with a tour of the facility, which I really enjoyed.  We learned about how the shelter has a program where they coach their guests on how to get back on their feet, from which they have had a lot of success.  I hope to volunteer there again soon.

I spent a surprising amount of time last week out of the office. Monday though Wednesday, I spent a few hours each day at Prevent Blindness Ohio. One of my main projects this summer to observe, analyze, and document how Prevent Blindness Ohio uses the nonprofit management software that GroundWork group provides. This software enables Prevent Blindness Ohio to keep records of donors, volunteers, clients, etc. and use all that information to easily track and report data. Prevent Blindness Ohio is one of Groundwork Group’s most strategic and successful users of this software. My job is to figure out why and to see if there is even any further room for improvement in the software. This will not only help Prevent Blindness Ohio, but all the nonprofits who use GroundWork group’s information management software. All the people I met with at Prevent Blindness made me feel surprisingly welcome as I made PVO my temporary base camp this week.

Besides going to the Prevent Blindness Ohio office in Grandview, I also helped out at a e-recycling event at Grange Insurance Audubon Center on Friday. GroundWork group teamed up with Community Computer Alliance and set up to take everyone’s outdated or broken technology junk. They were accepting almost everything with a cord (except TVs). I was finally able to get rid of my broken espresso machine! Instead of my usually routine, I set out to the beautiful Audubon Center Friday morning to help set up and take donations. We managed to get a lot of good stuff despite the fear of imminent rain over the city.

With coming in and out of the office throughout the week, the week just flew right by. As I think about future positions I may want to pursue, having a job where I’m not at a desk every day is definitely coming to the top of the list. Especially when working for a nonprofit, where you probably don’t have the coolest office or the best pay, being able to be out and about in the community and see the difference you’re making is definitely huge perk.

While at ECDI, I’ve mainly been working on grants for our Women’s Business Center, a wonderful program which supports aspiring and established female entrepreneurs with education, facilities and networking resources. However, seeing at we have a very special event coming up on Tuesday, I thought I’d use my blog post this week to give a shout out to the Food Fort. Located in the warehouse right behind ECDI’s main building is a magical place where most of our favorite Central Ohio food trucks call home. The Food Fort is an affordable culinary incubator for mobile food providers, assisting chefs and owners with overnight parking, food safety inspections and three commercial-grade kitchens for food preparation. If you’ve ever wondered what goes on behind the scenes of a food truck operation, touring the Food Fort is an eye-opening experience. The restaurant business has one of the lowest rates of success, and mobile food providers, whether they are food trucks, food carts or caterers, often lack the facilities and funds needed to make it through the first year. I think it’s great that the Food Fort is able to help foster the culinary culture of Columbus, since our vibrant food scene is one of the main things that I love about my home town.

The Food Fort doesn’t stop at just helping our local food entrepreneurs, it’s also involved in projects to help the greater community. This Tuesday, ECDI is teaming up with the Mid-Ohio Food Bank to sponsor FOOD(truck)FIGHT 2015, an event to raise both awareness and money for those who would otherwise go hungry in our community. Summer is a high demand season for the Mid-Ohio Food Bank, and every $1 raised by taking part in FOODFIGHT 2015 will help to provide 4 meals to those in need! If you have a free lunch break, I highly encourage everyone to grab some coworkers and head over to the Columbus Commons from 11:00 am. to 2:00 pm to enjoy some great food for a great cause!

http://www.foodfighthunger.com/

This Thursday, I took a break from my normal workday at the CELC to attend a Volunteer Administrators Network (VAN) meeting. VAN is a professional network that provides professional development and networking opportunities to volunteer administrators in Central Ohio. Since my primary role at the CELC is to develop a volunteer program, I have officially joined the organization and will be attending the their bi-monthly meetings throughout the summer. Usually, VAN’s meetings are in the form of a presentation, round table discussion or a webinar focused on a particular aspect of volunteer programs. For example, the next few meetings that I plan to attend will focus on building relationships between college students and nonprofits, measuring the impact of volunteer involvement and designing work for today’s volunteers, all extremely relevant topics for the work that I will be doing.

In addition to covering these topics, once a year, the organization breaks from their usual format to participate in an annual service project. My first meeting with the organization on Thursday just so happened to fall on the date of this service project. For the project, we volunteered with the Furniture Bank of Central Ohio, a nonprofit in Columbus that provides free furniture to Central Ohio families suffering from poverty and other challenges, such as the loss of a home due to a fire or flood. The Bank receives furniture donations daily from Columbus area residents and then allows eligible families to come into their showroom and pick out about fifteen items. In addition to receiving donations, the bank has started constructing its own furniture out of donated scrap wood. Since most of the materials that they use are donated and since volunteers provide all of the labor, the Bank is able to produce most items entirely from scratch, including tables, chairs and dressers, for under $10. Today, furniture produced from this project now accounts for 13% of the 1400 pieces of furniture that are provided to families each week.

After spending the morning building coffee tables and dressers at the organization, which I found surprisingly fun, the other members and I grabbed lunch at Tommy’s diner, an old-fashioned diner on Broad Street west of downtown. This lunch was not only a great opportunity to start building relationships with other volunteer administrators in the area, but it also provided an opportunity to pick their brains about starting a volunteer program. Although I have made considerable progress starting up the program at the CELC, the members of VAN were able to pass on to me what they have learned about starting volunteer programs and they challenged me to consider aspects of the program that I had not yet considered. The finished product of my fellowship will surely be stronger due to my involvement with this organization, not only because of the content of their meetings, but also from what I will be able to learn from my new colleagues. I will keep you updated about my involvement in this organization throughout the summer.

Shepherd’s Corner just hosted their 9th annual Farm Fresh 5k race this past Saturday, June 13. This race gives people around the area that opportunity to view more of the land, learn about the purpose of Shepherd’s Corner, and enjoy the company of others who are also interested in caring for the earth! Before and after the race there was also a solar panel tour, and a garden tour so that people could see the resources and methods that Shepherd’s Corner uses. The solar panels supply 80% of the electricity for the main barn, which is where the offices are and activities are held. Shepherd’s Corner is a non-profit organization, and all of the proceeds from the race go towards educational programs and managing the gardens so that the produce can be donated to food pantries.

As people were racing the course they were able to view the diversity that the land of Shepherd’s Corner has to offer, such as the vernal pool, wetlands, open fields, woods, birds, mammals, etc. They are able to get up close and personal with the many dynamics of the farm while pondering on the effects that the surrounding development is having on the wildlife. By revisiting the Ask the Land survey Shepherd’s Corner is trying to figure out what is missing, why it is missing (effect from the developments?), and how it can be restored. This 5k race introduced the community to Shepherd’s Corners efforts, and with their newly gained knowledge they too can help protect the land.

Mark Dilley, founder of MAD Scientist, and creator of the Ask the Land survey, has given me a list of various experts in the field of biology to contact. For example, there is someone who knows a lot about butterflies and moths, someone who knows a lot about plants, etc. This week I will be contacting these people, and scheduling for them to come to Shepherd’s Corner to help with the resurveying. I will be showing them around the trails and into the back woods as they go about identifying the many inhabitants of Shepherd’s Corner. There is so much to learn, and so much knowledge to share with others because this effort is greater than just Shepherd’s Corner. It is about the effects that increased construction is having on all of the wildlife around the world. The world is one giant community, with the plants and animals depending on each other for survival… neither able to survive without the other. 

So as you go out for a walk this week take a minute to look around, survey the wildlife, and ‘ask the land’ what it is that you can do to help protect it!

One of the most refreshing aspects of working for a nonprofit organization is the overall reduced emphasis on the bottom line and the implacable drive to satisfy their mission. Money always matters, even in the sector named for its disinterest in generating it. The difference, at least in general terms, between the business and nonprofit sectors lies with the focus that drives them. The business sector is nearly absolute in its concentration on profits; it becomes a self-devouring practice, allowing individual firms to engage in immoral, unsustainable, and even inhumane policies in the pursuit of the almighty dollar. Nonprofits are supposed to be different; at least that is what we were taught in school.

My experience, insofar as it relates to the attitude and procedures surrounding profits, has reinforced this axiom. The focus with Immigration Counseling Services at the Vineyard Community Center is with our clients–immigrants and refugees with a dire need for quality, subsidized legal aid. Money is important, no organization will persist without proper care to their finances, but profit is not the central or main goal. There are no shareholders in the Third sector waiting on their dividends. Nonprofits do not measure their success solely based on accounting ratios; rather, they measure their affluence in the number of clients assisted, in the number of lives ameliorated. This, I have experienced first hand, and having a career in the nonprofit sector has never been more attractive.

-Abdul Alwattar

This week was another great week! Monday, we had our clinic team meeting where most of our staff was present. It was fantastic to hear what everyone else at the clinic was doing and look at the big picture of our clinic activities, short-term and long-term plan. I spent the rest of the day researching for my other projects, such as learning about how clinics that have won large awards run their staffing and clinic operations and sent out emails and confirmations to sites and volunteers.

Tuesday, we had another outreach visit with the WARM Summer Kids Lunch Club in Westerville at Brookeville Apartments. This event was much smaller than last week’s events, so Megan and I spent more time with each kid. We also gave a whole group presentation of our activities and games. The kids loved trying to brush the Kool Aid, soda, and tea stains off the hardboiled eggs. We talked about our activities with almost everybody at the event – even the staff! There was a staff member from Children’s Hunger Alliance at the event, as well. She was playing with the kids while integrating basic nutrition and healthy eating education. Her presentation aligned very closely with what we were talking about, so she was able to round up most of the kids at the event so we could give a presentation to them! I’ve presented our activities to groups before, but I especially enjoyed this group presentation because kids from as young as four years old to fifth graders were in this group. While we were going through our large group activities and then while we split up to do our games, the older ones really stepped up to teach their younger sibling and the other younger children.

On Wednesday, I spent the whole day at the clinic catching up on confirmation and thank you emails to our volunteers and outreach sites, working a little on my Oral Health Champion proposal, and researching and contacting potential partners, including the Central Ohio Association of School Nurses and Ohio Association of School Nurses. Before I reached out to the school nurses groups, I made sure to completely read many of the resources on the websites of each organization. I learned the different types of school nurses and the licensure process of becoming a Licensed School Nurse (LSN) so the nurse can work independently. The Oral Health Champion Proposal is a project I want to try which engages school administrators and LSNs to learn about the importance of oral health, the current crisis in access to dental care, and the services KidSMILES offers to fill the gap in access to dental care. I also went by our clinic storage unit for over an hour with our dental assistant to move clinic materials and help start organizing our clinic inventory. KidSMILES is really fortunate to have a great relationship with corporate and other organizations that donate lots of materials for the clinic. One big task for me this summer will be to take inventory and organize our materials!

On Thursday, I spent the entire day at the clinic working on finalizing a list and plan to reach out to schools within a 15-mile radius of our clinic. One goal we have for the summer is to start creating partnerships and conversations with Columbus City Schools and other schools that we haven’t had the chance to visit before to be able to visit them in the fall. I compiled a list of contact information of names, emails, phone numbers, and office numbers of principals of my list of schools, which took MUCH longer than I thought it would! However, it was worth the time, because I will be reaching out and hopefully meeting in person with these principals. Not only am I interested in helping KidSMILES make these contacts, but I am personally interested in learning the perspective of school administrators of their students’ oral health and overall health. I always hear statistics of how lack of dental care causes oral health problems in children that detract from learning and lead to missed school, not to mention the financial burden on families as a result of this. I also stayed for the beginning of our scheduled clinic in the evening, where I got to meet our two volunteer dentists, Dr. Sakamoto, who serves on the leadership board of KidSMILES and Dr. Tzagournis, as well as briefly introduce myself to some of their staff.

On Friday, I attended the Franklin County Free Clinics Roundtable discussion all morning. it was located at the offices of Physicians Care Connection, which is an organization that coordinates voluntary health care services in Franklin County. The group helps low-income individuals to find and navigate the health care resources available to them by connecting them to medical homes and improves access by reducing delays to general and specialty care. It was amazing to see how free clinics in central Ohio worked so closely together and how united they are in their mission of helping Ohioans. I talked to several staff members and clinicians from several of these organizations, including Vineyard Free Clinics, Mental Health America, Physicians Care Connection, the Ohio Association of Free Clinics, and more staff members. I also started thinking about ways these clinics could work together to effectively provide for all health needs of individuals in central Ohio. I’ll let those ideas simmer and hopefully I will think of something impactful! I took off early on Friday to go to Cleveland for a conference on Asian American health in Ohio. I’m not familiar with the topics presented at the conference or these populations’ experiences in Ohio, so I’m looking forward to an informative and fun weekend!

Last week I celebrated my 22nd birthday and I was overwhelmed with gratitude to celebrate another year of my life in Columbus. The more I experience this city, the more I love it. In my humble opinion, there is no better place to be 22 than in Columbus, Ohio. Last weekend I enjoyed the Columbus Arts Festival with my coworkers, hit Easton with some friends, and took a stroll through the Short North on Sunday afternoon. My weekend exuded Columbus.

The Per Scholas group (minus a few members) at the Columbus Arts Festival.

It’s good to be in Columbus at any age, not only because of all the city offers to its people, but because of all that its people can offer the city.  There are ample opportunities to help others. Even during my short time at Per Scholas, I’ve seen need in our community. There are 145,000 Central Ohioans without a high school diploma (New Skills at Work). About 13% of people living in Columbus lack basic reading, writing, and mathematic skills (Columbus Literacy Council). 42,100 people in the area are out of work and looking for a job (New Skills at Work). There is plenty of work to be done in our fair city, and through this fellowship I think I’ve met just the people for the job. The folks I have the privilege of serving with this summer are the cream of the crop and they are going to change the world. In fact, they already are. Last week I shared lunch with a few fellows and I got to hear how their passion for service has completely changed the trajectory of their lives.  To my fellow fellows and anyone else reading this, I would say this: don’t let your hearts be hardened by experience or your actions be dulled by cynicism. In the words of anthropologist Margaret Mead, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” We love this city. Let us never tire of trying to make it better.

View from the Columbus Arts Festival last weekend.

Halfway through week 3! *wipes brow*

One of the kind of different things that happen in an arts organization is that you are always open weekends, so your Thursdays become your actual “hump” days. This week has definitely been no less exciting in the beginning than any other.

There are a great deal of things happening at any one time at the PC. This week is our last week of our current NOWISM: Abstraction Today before we put up our summer exhibition, This Just In: New Acquisitions. It is a crazy time for our small organization, as last summer, we were closed to the public. This is our first open summer season and our first ever summer show. This is creating some interesting logistics/questions/policies that we have never needed to deal with before. Again, I am truly amazed by the flexibility and talent of thinking on their feet that the Pizzuti Collection staff possesses. So it’s a little crazy around here, but things are always moving!

This week, I am trying to get everything into place for our Junior Docents, from the Boys and Girls Club Summer Work program, to begin next week (yay!). I’m also hoping to hear soon about when tours will begin for the BGCC Summer Program. I can’t wait to get these kids (and young adults) here! It is my favorite thing when students walk into the PC for the first time. I love to watch the looks on their faces the first time that they experience this exciting art in person. It is one thing to look at a painting in a book, but to see it in person, to walk up so that your nose is an inch away from the canvas, to see where the artist had their hands on the work, see the brushstrokes, lines, fingerprints left in clay…it is an entirely new take on an object. It can be magical. It can be breathtaking. Sometimes, its even an out of body experience. You can completely lose yourself in a painting. I’ve lost an hour before in the galleries, just awestruck that another human being was able to create such beauty. This is why we need art. There is no other way to duplicate these feelings. And everyone should be able to experience them. I am so thrilled to be able to provide access to the kids from the Boys and Girls Clubs to experience these works of art. It very well could change their lives… Or at least provide a fun afternoon away from their everyday lives. Who knows?

Til Next Time!

JC