Columbus Foundation Fellowship Programs

I was able to help strengthen our existing social enterprise, Street Speech, by making a Secret Shopper Survey.  This survey will involve trained volunteers going out in the community where the vendors sell their papers and interacting with them.  The two reasons we are doing this is to make sure that the vendors are adhering to the Code of Conduct because we have received complaints from companies about inappropriate behaviors and to determine the level of sales professionalism.  Ultimately, we could use this information to help establish grants.  For example, 90 percent of our vendors were able to successfully explain Street Speech to customers.

This week I went to Dogwood Glen, a supportive housing unit funded by the Community Housing Network.  Since one of the workers at the Columbus Coalition for the Homeless (CCH) is a resident manager there he gave us a tour.  It was a real nice facility that allows individuals in Franklin County with severe and persistent mental health issues live independently.   Unfortunately, the waitlist is closed.  However, I would like to thank the Columbus Foundation for funding it.  Photo attached.

CCH had their monthly board meeting this week.  We discussed the long wait list for individuals to get into the shelter.  Earlier this week the number was close to 100 individuals actively seeking to get into shelter and being denied.  Since part of our mission is to “…advocate on behalf of homeless persons and organizations that serve them” we felt that it is necessary to attend a Columbus City Council meeting and express our concern.  The City is one of the funders to the Community Shelter Board, which funds the shelters in Franklin County.   Therefore, members from the CCH and I will be informing the city council members on Monday evening that more money needs to be allocated to building additional shelters.

David

Working for Local Matters has made me realize the breadth of the organization’s influence. There are so many arms within the organization that I can hardly believe it functions as smoothly as it does. As a result of the different programs that Local Matters orchestrates, there are gardens around the city, classes about cooking and nutrition and smart grocery shopping, grocery distribution programs in underserved neighborhoods, and so much more. Not to mention the Local Matters bumper stickers that I see plastered on cars around the city every day or the inevitable presence of a Local Matters table with volunteers and literature about local foods at any food-centered event.

Hard as it may be to believe, Local Matters’ presence is about to become even more apparent as LOCAL FOODS WEEK approaches! I love Local Foods Week. I mean, I LOVE it. The past two years, I haven’t had any affiliation with Local Matters (other than as an occasional volunteer), but I still attended the Local Foods Week events like it was my job. Local Foods Week is a city-wide celebration of local foods, intended to raise awareness about food issues and cultivate community. From the Eat Local Challenge to the Grilled Cheese Throwdown to burrito rolling contests to cooking classes, there’s guaranteed to be an event to please everyone who cares about food in the slightest.

This year, Local Foods Week is from August 11-19, and it’s going to be bigger than ever. Crave Magazine is having their farm-to-plate week, Whole Foods is focusing on local foods, and Dinin’ Hall is serving dishes made from local foods during the same time period in order to spread the fun city-wide. It’s impossible for me to pick one event that I’m most excited for, but one that stands out as especially creative is the Queen of the Sun screening that will occur at Jorgensen Farm on Thursday, August 16th at 7:00 pm. Here’s the official blurb for the event:

“Spend an evening with the honeybees at Jorgensen Farm, presented by Edible Columbus and Whole Foods Market. Val Jorgensen will start the night with a talk about beekeeping at 7:00pm, Edible Columbus and Whole foods will provide honey and snacks while we screen the documentary “Queen of the Sun,” inside the barn at 8. Suggested donation of $5 will go to The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation to protect wildlife through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitat. The Society advocates on behalf of bees and other pollinators by publishing research, lobbying lawmakers and educating land stewards to restore the landscape for the benefit of pollinators. Space limited to 50 guests, reserve your space at ediblecolumbus.com see the movie trailer at queenofthesun.com.”

                If that doesn’t sound like an enriching experience, then check out http://local-matters.org/local-foods-week to see what else will be going on. Join in on the local foods fun – the entire city will be there!

Great news… the Homeless Families Foundation has a new website! Check it out to learn more about all of the work that is being done to assist families and children. Warning: You will be inspired to help out!

Tomorrow night will be “One Wild Night” at the Columbus zoo! This is the Homeless Families Foundation’s 25th Anniversary culmination event where generous donors will be recognized for their support of HFF’s important work. I’m excited to help out at the event in appreciation and recognition of everything that has been accomplished here over the past 25 years!

This past week has included a wide variety of tasks and experiences… I partnered with HFF case workers to collect the home schools of our current families. This was not a quick task in that it included talking to case workers, calling clients, and going out to see clients in their homes. I was surprised to learn that some parents are not sure where their children will attend school next month. For some families, this is a time of intense transition and they have more immediate and pressing concerns to address.

After thinking about it more, I realized it should not have been surprising that some parents are uncertain about where their children will go to school. But this does provide an example of the challenges surrounding my transportation study. Homeless and at-risk children can experience frequent changes in their home addresses as well as their schools. So a transportation plan needs to be flexible; frequent changes should be anticipated.

I’ve also continued to: develop online maps and routes, reach out to area non-profits, learn about child transportation regulations, and solidify costs of a variety of transportation options. And I’ve been working to document all of my work and findings in a PowerPoint file. This has been helpful in allowing me to see where my transportation study stands and where I should focus my efforts over the next 4 weeks.

So there are a plethora of little things that have sparked my interests, touched my heart, teased my brain, and comforted my soul since the last time I blogged, and since I can’t think of just one thing, I will ask of thee to pardon my scattered thoughts and hopefully find something that you can relate to or find inspirational as well.

1) I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again: Every little good thing is worth celebrating. This is the number one thing I’ve learned this Summer and have been reminded of this simple yet so unconventional concept every day of our Summer Learning Academy. These elementary students with Down syndrome may not perform academically like the way most of us did when we were learning to read and perform math, but it seems like I’m the one learning from them. Every time we get an answer right (and I say we, because it feels like it is an accomplishment for both of us and I am rooting so hard for these kids), we do high-fives, say “yayyyy” or put a sticker on our sticker chart. It has never been so fun to learn, these kids are so excited, and it’s a reaction I’ve brought into my own life. Last night, I was putting together a puzzle. I do this a lot, as it is a hobby of mine, but this time was different. Every time I got a piece of the puzzle to fit into place, I caught myself saying (in a dramatically high-pitched voice for a grown man like me) “yayyyyyyy….” It was SO MUCH FUN!!!

2) Don’t take for granted how much people in your life want you to succeed. I can’t say that when I was in grades 1-4 that I recognized my teachers wanted so badly for me to learn the class curriculum, develop social skills, and improve my behavior. In fact, they wanted me to succeed so badly, they put up with a whole classroom of us for 9 months out of the year! Now, we didn’t have Down syndrome students in my class, but I can’t truthfully say I outbehaved these youngsters.

3) I won’t make for a good teacher for the developmentally disabled. No sir. The patience our SLA teachers have is amazing. The creativity needed to maintain the kid’s attention is impressive. To our teachers out there, I salute you. To our parents out there, I salute you, too. But if you want someone to play tag with your kiddo, or go on a bear hunt with him/her (we must have don this 5 of our 7 days, it’s an interactive story with motions and music played on a cd), I’m your man.

4) Columbus is awesome. It is hip. It is fun, innovative, creative. It is sporty (well, thanks to my Buckeyes) and it is smart. It has a great future because of some great businesses, some fantastic leaders, and people who really buy into the heart of the heartland of America. Our population is booming, our business is zooming, and greatness is looming. Thank you Leadership Columbus for your vision and dedication to my favorite city in the world. And thank you Columbus Foundation for everything. I love you. The end.

As a future social worker I have been told how this profession is susceptible to burn out.  This week I was tested with some tough situations.  Firstly I was faced with a homeless woman sleeping at the front entrance of our building.  Even though I told her about the shelter and food resources available she later came back to the office before I left to go home.  Secondly, an intern and I went up to a woman in a nearby park after we noticed she had been sitting there all week.  She explained to us how she was kicked out of Rebecca’s Place, a women’s shelter, and had no where to go.  We called the central point of access to see the shelter availability, but they were all full.  Though it can be easy to be frustrated with the system and the inability to really help someone I need to be able to keep these issues at work.

I have had troubles initially asking people for money to fund my programs.  While the Cramer and Associates presentation taught us how to build donor relationships, I am still finding it hard to ask people to support our programs.  I need to be able to sell our programs to people, who may know nothing about social services and may not even care.  Does anyone have advice or past experience with development?

This week I wrote an article about the effects of family homelessness on children.  I wrote what Columbus is doing and what they still need to do.  I visited the YWCA Family Center and talked with a child advocate and a family receiving services.  The center offered a wide range of services for the children including: a playground, summer camps, trips to COSI, gardening.  I also talked about opening up more family shelters and discussed the new Kinship Program.  This article will be in the new Street Speech edition starting July 20^th.  Buy a copy for a $1 to read it while supporting the homeless individuals who sell them.

David

My transportation feasibility study continues! This week, I’ve been working to collect more information on all of the various transportation options that should be considered. In doing this work, I am constantly reminded that our children are very precious cargo! Unfortunately, many transportation vendors simply don’t have the expertise and/or the appropriate vehicles to transport children safely.

In my (hypothetical) search to purchase vehicles, I drove to Canal Winchester and also met with a sales rep from a company near Toledo. The search is on for safe vehicles with competitive (low) pricing!

I’m also investigating the option of outsourcing some transportation, meaning that (at least to some degree) the Homeless Families Foundation may not need to worry about hiring drivers or purchasing vehicles. I’ve gone to several local companies to learn more about their offerings, capabilities, experiences, prices, etc. It has been an interesting search, as there is a wide variety of options to consider.

This week has also included so many more great experiences…

• I attended the joint Grant Professionals (GPA) / Fundraising Professionals (AFP) meeting, which was a great opportunity to learn from many area professionals, including Dorothy Bastian who works here at HFF.
• I spoke with David Norris at OSU’s Kirwan Institute, who was incredibly helpful and encouraging of the approach I am taking on the transportation study.
• Sue Phillips gave me a warm welcome at Directions for Youth & Families where I was able to tour the wonderful Ohio Avenue Youth Center (very impressive!)
• The executive director of Leadership Columbus, Laurie Marsh, gave an engaging and interactive presentation at the Columbus Foundation this morning.

I’m very thankful for all of these experiences. And I’m working hard to deliver a meaningful transportation study for the Dowd Education Center!

Yesterday I went on my first site visit to Alliance City Schools, as they are my ‘feeding’ focused mission organization that I am conducting a case study on. You see, I had 40 VISTA Summer Associate sponsors to choose from, and in order to have a credible research study, I couldn’t just choose five a random, so I developed a system for choosing, with the most basic criteria being the mission theme. I divided the sponsors based on their mission into five groups: faith-based, youth development and services, poverty alleviation, community development and services and feeding.

As my ‘feeding’ organization, Alliance City Schools Child Nutrition Services is dedicated to feeding area children year round. I woke up yesterday at 5 AM to drive to Alliance, near Canton, and make it there in time to sit down with the School Food Service Supervisor, meet the VISTAs and conduct an interview and focus group session. My first interview went great! I gathered a lot of information and am starting to visualize ways to incorporate it into a report and briefing document that will be meaningful. I was able to visit the Summer Food Service Program sites where the VISTAs organized activities with the kids and observe the kids getting their lunch (pretzels and cheese, fruit, veggies, milk, and sunflower seeds!), and playing dodge ball. It was awesome to see a huge crowd of 15 to 20 kids walking to the school to get lunch and lining up outside waiting. I couldn’t believe how fast they ate their food, rushing off to go play with their friends and the VISTAs.

After all of the kids left after the last snack being served at one of the VISTAs’ sites, I was able to sit down with the group of six and talk about their experiences as an AmeriCorps VISTA Summer Associate and the impact they have on their community. They were all from the Alliance area originally and therefore had a strong connection to the community and the kids with whom they are building relationships.Another conversation I had with the VISTAs talked about how attendance at the locations depended a lot on what was being served that day for a lot of the kids, but some of the kids who were brought by their parents everyday most likely came to receive a free meal. The VISTAs expressed their frustration with the program’s federal government restrictions that do not allow parents to also eat, or for a lactose-intolerant child not being able to have a juice option, because then all children would have to be offered juice. I completely sympathize and understand their frustrations, but it is often hard to make a choice between giving into an observed want or need for one person (potentially jeopardizing subsidized reimbursement for the whole program) and ignoring the wants and needs of the community. That’s why advocating for better policy and transparent decision making is so important.

This video below is a little off topic, but my visit yesterday reminded me of it, and I think anytime you have a TedTalk to share you should. So here is Ann Cooper, she,”has a frontline view of the daily battle to keep kids healthy — and of the enemy, the processed-foods industries that, it sometimes seems, want to wrap every single thing that children eat in a fried coating and then a plastic bag. As the director of nutrition services for the Berkeley (California) Unified School District, she’s an outspoken activist for serving fresh, sustainable food to kids.”

I wish she was my lunch lady growing up!

I really enjoyed my first case study site visit and I’m looking forward to another three I have scheduled for next week.

Until next time,

Melissa