Town Crier's 2006 Holiday Fund gets under way
 joe hu/town crier Three new non-profit organizations have been added to the Town Crier Holiday Fund in 2006, including Jeremiah’s Promise. Above, Executive Director Kim Woody, right, and client Chary Pugh stand in the home for those who still need support beyond the foster-care system. |
The 2006 Town Crier Holiday Fund is making a list and checking it twice as it begins its annual fundraising drive in support of 14 small, local non-profits that serve the needy throughout Silicon Valley.
The $151,445 raised last year helped to finance many diverse projects: A teacher in East Palo Alto took her class on a field trip to the Aquarium of the Bay; a group of leadership students from Alta Vista High School visited local middle schools to train students in trust building and problem solving; and a woman, who prepared to return to the work force after three years of disability with only one pair of shoes and one pair of nylons, was able to select an appropriate professional wardrobe.
This year, the Town Crier’s goal is to exceed last year’s total, raising funds to support the children, families, homeless and seniors served by our grantees. Three new groups have been added to the Town Crier Holiday Fund’s list of recipients: Jeremiah’s Promise, which provides services for foster youth entering the adult world at 18; RotaCare, which provides basic health care for those without health insurance; and Partners for New Generations, which matches at-risk youth with adult mentors and tutors.
The aim of the Holiday Fund, in its seventh year, is to help small non-profit groups that have minimal overhead and make the most of their revenue to help the neediest residents. In other words, the goal is to help groups for which a little goes a long way. The value of each donation is enhanced by the Town Crier staff, which absorbs all overhead and administrative costs. One hundred percent of each person’s donation goes into the fund for disbursement to the organization.
The Community Foundation Silicon Valley serves as the fiscal agent for the Town Crier Holiday Fund. It provides the tax-deductible status for the fund, and each contribution to the Town Crier Holiday Fund will be acknowledged as a 501(c)(3) gift.
Again this year, a group of donors has pledged challenge grants to match community donations. Matching donors as of press time include the Steven and Michele Kirsch Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Charles and Nan Geschke Foundation, the William and Gay Krause Foundation and Los Altos resident Ed Dowd.
Following is a look at the new organizations that will benefit from the 2006 Town Crier Holiday Fund.
Jeremiah’s Promise
Each year, an average of 200 young people in Silicon Valley “age out” of court-appointed foster homes as they turn 18. According to Kim Woody, founder and executive director of Jeremiah’s Promise, it is estimated that within one year, 63 percent of them will be homeless, in prison or dead.
Jeremiah’s Promise, a non-profit transitional living facility in Palo Alto, helps these young people navigate the passage to independence. It offers housing, mentoring, educational tutoring, psychological counseling and life-skills workshops, Woody said.
Currently operating in a rented four-bedroom home, the organization houses five women between the ages of 18 and 21, emancipated from foster care but not yet equipped to assume adult responsibility.
“Our mission is to aid former foster youth who have recently aged out of the area foster-care system,” Woody said. “We are looking for the good kids (the most emotionally stable, those without drug and alcohol problems) - the good ones are completely ignored. And they have the best hope to fit back into society.”
Woody said children are placed in foster care when the parents die or when they cannot care for their children because of neglect or emotional, physical or sexual abuse. Many of these children are separated from their siblings and placed in separate homes.
Woody named the organization after the Old Testament prophet, Jeremiah.
“Jeremiah was a prophet from ancient Israel who spoke a promise that has remained true through the ages. ‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you, not to harm you, plans to give you a hope and a future,’” Woody said.
Since the opening of Jeremiah’s Promise in December 2003, 10 young women have completed the two-year program and are living successfully on their own, she said.
“The girls are going to college and saving their money,” Woody said. “The young people we see two years later are completely unrecognizable.” Woody attributes the positive change to the support the young adults receive at Jeremiah’s Promise.
With the assistance of two East Palo Alto organizations, Jeremiah’s Promise is planning to operate an East Palo Alto facility that can accommodate up to 12 young men.
“It’s the same format as the women’s program,” Woody said. “It’s in the planning stage … the target date to open is in 2008 or 2009.”
The organization also intends to buy a house to shelter young women by raising $500,000 by June 2007 to match a donation of that amount from an anonymous Los Altos donor.
When asked what she enjoys most about her work, Woody said, “watching a kid with so little self-esteem become someone who laughs and smiles and finishes her degree … and who knows that she will never be alone again.”
Jeremiah’s Promise has an annual budget of $303,000.
For more information, call 843-1769, e-mail info@jeremiahspromise.org or visit www.jeremiahspromise.org.
Partners for New Generations
For many young people who live in dysfunctional families or in low-income households where the importance of education may be sidelined, imagining a successful future is a daily struggle.
Partners for New Generations, founded in 1995, is a community-based organization whose mission is to support at-risk community youth through mentoring and tutoring. The overall goals are to encourage students to continue their education and maintain a positive outlook.
Trained adult volunteer mentors meet with students on an “as-needed” basis a minimum of twice a month. They serve as guides, friends and advisers to students doing poorly in school or engaging in risky behavior. During the past year, Partners supplied mentors for 120 students in the Mountain View-Los Altos Union High School District.
Tutors meet with children struggling in reading, science, math or other subjects in Los Altos and Mountain View elementary schools.
“This school year we plan to expand into local (public) junior high schools with tutoring and mentoring, while maintaining at least the same momentum at the high school level,” said Partners co-founder and board member Bob Adams.
Adams said that improvements in grade-point averages for mentored youth were “stunning” and that absenteeism and discipline problems have diminished as well.
Partners’ annual budget is approximately $69,000 a year.
Partners received a $160,000 grant from the Packard Foundation in 2002 that will be exhausted this year. The organization is applying to foundations, corporations and individuals for more assistance.
Supporters and PNG leaders include Mona Armistead, current chairwoman, co-founder Marge Bruno, and longtime volunteers Cindy Luedtke and Nancy Traficanti. Partners began as a tutoring program for grades K-12 and a small mentoring program at Alta Vista High School, sponsored by the Los Altos and Mountain View Rotary Clubs. The Holiday Fund is focused on supporting Alta Vista mentoring and tutoring programs.
For more information or to volunteer, call 949-5908, ext. 4.
RotaCare
RotaCare Bay Area Inc.’s chronic-illness case management program deals with “long-term debilitating illnesses that shorten lives and cause disability and early death,” said clinic manager Barbara Avery. Diseases like diabetes and high blood pressure can show few symptoms at first, but when untreated lead to long-term unemployment and disability, a disaster for the working poor and their families who use the clinic.
El Camino Hospital and its Foundation teamed up with the local Rotary Clubs to establish RotaCare in 1996. The chronic-illness case management program, which the Holiday Fund supports, is one of several medical services RotaCare offers to the growing number of people in the community who cannot afford health care. Other services include immunizations, physicals for children, gynecology and specialty care. Most of the uninsured are the working poor, according to Avery, and many of them do not qualify for government programs such as Medi-Cal, California’s Medicaid health-care program.
RotaCare’s motto - “To relieve the pain and suffering of those with the greatest need and the least access to health care” - is accomplished with the help of the clinic’s 171 volunteers (including doctors, nurses and pharmacists) and donations from the community.
The chronic-illness case management program provides ongoing care to those with conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and asthma. The program addresses the root causes of these health problems and advises patients on how to self-manage their diseases. This means fewer visits to the clinic and emergency room, which allows RotaCare and El Camino Hospital to serve additional patients.
“Early intervention is really critical in these diseases,” Avery said. “What we’re really doing is get these people stabilized. For most of these people, they have no idea what these (illnesses) are.”
Initiated three years ago, the chronic-illness case management program has proven effective. It has served 319 people, with 149 of them graduating from the program. This year alone, 68 people have graduated - meaning patients can manage their own illness, take the proper medications and monitor their situation - making way for 72 newcomers.
Avery cited the recent addition of a bilingual nurse practitioner as a major reason for the surge in graduates this year.
A 501(c)(3) corporation, RotaCare has an annual budget of $500,000.
For more information on RotaCare, call (408) 779-2116 or visit www.rotacarebayarea.org/mountainview.html.
Watch the Town Crier in upcoming weeks for more details about the groups that benefit from the Holiday Fund.
Readers can donate now to the Holiday Fund. Checks should be made payable to: Town Crier Holiday Fund, 138 Main St., Los Altos 94022.
