GIVING The Centre on Philanthropy’s
Fall 2012
focused on a better community
Supplying students with educational needs Back pack and school supplies programmes make it easier for students to go back to school
G
oing back to school is supposed to be an exciting time for advancing students. But for some families meeting the cost of school clothes and supplies can weigh heavily on their budget. Every year organisations across the Island work to ease this financial burden by providing school clothes and supplies for Bermuda’s school children. Here Giving speaks with a few of the people providing this invaluable service. When it comes to helping children, all cultural, social and political barriers fall away. That’s the experience of radio host Gina Spence, whose organisation Gina Spence Productions in Christ has been working to meet the needs of young people for the past 30 years. During that time the charity has gone from providing food, clothing and support for families in one neighbourhood to collecting and distributing school supplies and clothing to children in need throughout Bermuda. “It all comes down to the children. All they want to be is strong, healthy and normal; and to look like all the other children,” she said. This year they aimed to raise $5,000 to $6,000, in partnership with Family Centre and Big Brothers, Big Sisters, to provide families with specific items they needed to send their children back to school. For some, a school shirt was an enormous help. For others, it was a pair of running shoes. Some needed more. Increasingly, she said, parents were struggling to raise the estimated $400 it takes to kit out a child with
Sandys Rotary’s back to school supplies giveway saw more then 350 back packs, filled with supplies, handed out in just 22 minutes. Their’s is one of many programmes that support students as they return to the classroom.
“It all comes down to the children. All they want to be is strong, healthy and normal; and to look like all the other children.” uniform, shoes, sports equipment and school supplies. But they were stunned when a total of $14,000 in cash came in, in addition to donations of clothing, shoes and school supplies. And people from all walks of life were giving them donations, both small and large. “We received money from exempt companies, churches, individuals, soccer groups. It was so diverse,” marveled Ms Spence. “People would come to my job and write cheques: Chinese, Indian, Filipino, Portuguese, Jamaican.
They didn’t have to, but it showed me that people, especially when it comes to children, put culture, class and everything else aside to come through and help.” Her employer the Bermuda Broadcasting Company helped by donating advertising air time and a storage area, while clothing stores like Gibbons Company and the English Sports Shop provided invaluable bulk discounts that allowed the charities to supply even more children with vital supplies. Uniforms, Ms Spence pointed out, were compulsory in Bermuda, and the need to switch to a winter uniform just a couple of months after the start of the year made costs even more of a challenge for parents. Just a back pack full of supplies can be a real help also, and during their recent Saturday morning school supplies giveaway Sandys Rotary Club saw first hand the impact they were having. Their team handed
GIVING is a quarterly publication of The Centre on Philanthropy and is sponsored by the Colonial Group of Companies in Bermuda
out more than 350 filled book bags in just 22 minutes. Organiser Jerry Ming said they were surprised that most of the children seemed to be toddlers, and noted that they were of different races and came from a variety of backgrounds. Mr Ming also said they were stunned by the “level of enthusiasm and responsiveness. It was a real treat watching their eyes light up as they were getting their bags. You’d think they’d prefer to be home watching cartoons and eating cereal, but they were so excited.” The parents were grateful and appreciative, he said, and almost every one made sure their child said “thank you” as they were handed their back pack. “It was very encouraging, given a lot of the negativity you read about kids these days.” This year Christian charity, A LOTT of Sista Love, headed up by continued on Giving page 3
Mentoring builds relationships that last
W
hether you are a qualified teacher or just someone with the willingness to help others, as little as an hour of your time each week could make a huge difference in someone else’s life. Many Bermuda organizations offer mentoring and/or tutoring programmes designed to help local youngsters, and even adults, find their way in the world. All are in need of help from people with a little time to spare. Some need teachers or those with specialised degrees. Others just need people who can offer a friendly ear, play a game of cards, listen to a child read their library book or watch over students completing their homework. YouthNet executive director, Clare Mello, a mentor herself, says it is immensely rewarding. “It’s a wonderful way to spend a lunch hour. It’s not just the children who are benefiting. The mentors have a lot of fun and it is so great to see the mentees growing and achieving.” YouthNet offers a school-based programme for several hundred school children each year. It can involve an adult simply spending an hour chatting with a child, listening
There are many ways to be a mentor and all of them are needed to support our community. (Photo supplied by YouthNet) to a group of children reading, or in a peer mentoring situation (an older schoolchild spending time with a youngster). All YouthNet asks for is an hour a week, with a commitment to stick with the programme for one year. “Almost anyone can be a mentor,” said Ms Mello. “It’s a great way to give back to the community. The kids love to have someone to confide in who isn’t a
parent, or a teacher, or a counselor. It’s a friend.” Another organisation, Family Centre, has partnered with HSBC to establish afterschool homework programmes at Dellwood and T.N. Tatem Schools. And, said Stephanie Guthman, director of Specialised Training and Assessment at Family Centre, they “would love, encourage and desperately need volunteers”. In this case as well, few specialised skills are needed to supervise the children as they play sports and do their homework. “You just have to have an open mind and heart, and flexibility; be willing to be a positive role model for young people. We provide training and orientation for all volunteers.” While mentors usually are not required to have advanced educational training, programmes that involve tutoring generally need volunteers qualified in teaching or related fields such as social work. Particularly special tutors are needed by The Salvation Army’s Harbor Light programme, which works to help people recovering from drug or alcohol addiction find their way back into mainstream society. Director, Augustina Raynor, said many of their clients struggled
with literacy and numeracy, often because they left school at a young age. Some need help passing their high school equivalency exam, or GED, while others just needed to “brush up” their skills enough to enable them to find employment. “Many people don’t think of adults when it comes to volunteering, they only think of children. It takes a special person, with patience and understanding, to work with people with addictions.” The Adult Education School (AES) helps those who have struggled in the traditional education system to obtain the qualifications they need. It is also in need of teachers willing to give up some time to tutor its students. AES volunteers must complete an additional training course and eventually a practicum in order to be a tutor. “We can always use more volunteers,” said executive director Donna Daniels. “But we are very, very selective. They must have very strong interpersonal skills and we need to ensure that our students are valued and not judged. “Anyone interested in volunteering, becoming trained, who is already a teacher and who has the time, should contact us.”
List of some of the organisations providing mentoring and/or tutoring Below is a list of some of the mentoring opportunties in Bermuda. You can also consult The Centre’s online nonprofit directory to search for more organisations ( w w w. c e n t r e o n p h i l a n t h r o p y. o r g / nonprofitdirectory) Sandys 360 Recreational, social and educational programmes aimed at boosting community values and providing opportunities for potentially at-risk young people. Contact Person: Cherie Henderson Phone number: 234-6195 Email: chenderson@sandys360.bm Bermuda Athletic Association Afterschool programme that promotes and encourages amateur sports as well as education for members of the association and the wider community. Contact Person: Kenny Thompson Phone number: 292-3161 Email: kthompson@baa.bm Knowledge Quest Provides scholarships and mentoring support for Bermudians of limited financial means to obtain overseas degrees. Email: info@knowledgequest.bm YouthNet Runs several school-based mentoring programmes aimed at empowering students to make positive life choices. Contact Person: Clare Mello Phone number: 297-5400 Email:clare.mello@youthnet.bm Adult Education School Opportunities for adults who have been unable to gain basic educational qualifications in the traditional system to obtain their GED (high school equivalency) certificate. Contact Person: Donna Daniels Phone number: 292-5809
Email: ddaniels@aes.edu.bm
Email: sheelaghcooper@hotmail.com
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Bermuda Matches children and young people, largely from single-parent homes, with adult volunteers to foster a positive one-on-one relationship that helps the youngsters reach their potential. Contact Person: Esme Williams Phone number: 232-2802 Email: esme.bbbs@logic.bm
Impact Mentoring Academy Empowers young men through education, apprenticeship, life coaching and learning expeditions. Contact Person: Trace White Phone number: 504-3748 Email: impactmentoring@live.com
Mirrors Collection of government mentoring programmes for at-risk young people aged 12-and-up, providing them with positive influences and encouraging personal growth. Contact Person: Ruth Moran Phone number: 334-7677 Association of Bermuda International Companies (ABIC) Offers wide-ranging scholarship programme that connects award winners with member companies in order to provide them with ongoing career guidance. Contact Person: Velina Wheatley Phone number: 295-8932 Email: vwheatley@abic.bm Bermuda Foundation for Insurance Studies (BFIS) Provides Bermudian students interested in careers in insurance and reinsurance with education and training through scholarships, mentoring, career advice and job search. Contact Person: Catherine Lapsley Phone number: 295-1266 Email: cathy.lapsley@bfis.bm Coalition for the Protection of Children A non-governmental organization formed to advocate on behalf of families, it provides a family to family matching programme to provide mentoring and support. Contact Person: Sheelagh Cooper Phone number: 295-1150
Vernon Temple AME Church Village Price Community Centre Offers afterschool math and literacy tutoring as well as homework assistance, specifically for students of Heron Bay Primary School. Contact person: Janice Outerbridge Phone number: 734-1178 Email: vpccbermuda@yahoo.com Family Centre – Middle School Homework and Study Academies Provides a structured and nurturing afterschool environment for students at Dellwood and T.N. Tatem Middle Schools, aimed at improving academic success and social skills, and encouraging positive relationships. Phone number: 232-1116 Email: info@tfc.prevention.bm Young Men’s Social Club Youth Redevelopment Programme Afterschool programme overseeing the completion of homework, aimed at improving students’ skills in literacy, math, science and languages. Contact Person: Kennelyn Smith Phone number: 335-8328 Email: ASAP@ymsc.bm Masterworks Foundation Afterschool and weekend programmes, as well as holiday camps, fostering young peoples’ interest in art and design. Contact Person: Robyn DeSilva Phone number: 299-4000 Email: mworks@logic.bm
The Chewstick Foundation T.W.I.G.S. programme High school afterschool programme currently operated only at Berkeley Institute, designed to encourage students’ creativity through storytelling, dance, poetry, music and performance. Contact Person: Deidra-Lee Bean Phone number: 292-2439 Email: deidra@chewstick.org Brotherhood/Sisterhood of Bermuda Runs a number of mentoring and educational programmes working to provide at-risk youths with support and guidance from caring adults to overcome societal obstacles and reach their full potential. Contact Person: Bill Trott Jr. Phone number: 534-9047 Bermuda Economic Development Corporation (BEDC) The Partnering for Success Programme provides new business owners with advice and guidance from experienced entrepreneurs, professionals or business leaders. Contact name: Jamilla Lodge Phone number: 292-5570 Email: jlodge@bsbdc.bm The Salvation Army – Harbour Light Provides comprehensive range of services to clients recovering from alcohol and/or drug addiction, including help in improving academic skills. Contact Person: Augustina Raynor Phone number: 292-2586 C.A.R.E. Learning Centre Uses computer assisted learning, counseling and life skills programmes to help young people with educational and/or behavioural challenges to obtain high school equivalency and employment. Contact Person: Merle Williams Phone number: 292-0915 Email: caerlearningcentre@myoffice.bm
GIVING is a quarterly publication of The Centre on Philanthropy and is sponsored by the Colonial Group of Companies in Bermuda
Mentoring builds relationships that last
T
he Centre on Philanthropy wants to make it easier for schools to help students give back to the community. This autumn, The Centre is expanding its school outreach programme to show how the use of VOLUNTEER.bm can make meeting community service requirements less cumbersome for everyone. This new effort hopes to provide not only better ways for students to team up with a community group that fits their personality and goals, but also make logging hours easier. All of which will make for a more enriching experience for parents, students and the charities receiving the volunteers. Karen Smith, The Centre’s new school outreach coordinator, actually found The Centre through VOLUNTEER.bm herself, so she understands the value of the system. Ms Smith worked for over 10 years as the reading manager at Cedarbridge Academy and will act as a liaison between The Centre and schools. She says young people don’t always have the foresight to appreciate that volunteering is something they might enjoy and that it can help them in the long run. Some students view it as a chore they must get through to earn mandatory community hours. One of the things the outreach programme will emphasise is that volunteering can be a way to sample a possible career. For example, students may be able to shadow someone working in their aspired field. They could also begin building a support network, something that could prove valuable later on in these tough economic times. “Part of the outreach will be to help
students see how volunteering – even for young people - can make a big difference,” says Ms Smith. “It also brings into focus the importance of giving, and not just thinking of themselves.” The most important thing is for students to view volunteering as positive and rewarding, Ms Smith concludes, not something that’s just mandatory: “Bermuda’s charities need help and young people can give it. They might not know how valuable they can be at their age.” The centerpiece of the outreach effort is VOLUNTEER.bm, Bermuda’s only online volunteer website. Through the website, users can search and sign up for volunteering opportunities that meet their schedule and interests. More than 130 nonprofit organisations are registered on the site. Jennifer Pitcher, The Centre’s volunteer programme coordinator, says, “The website allows students to look for what interests them, versus what a parent or friend wants them to do.” For the school outreach programme The Centre visits classrooms in both public and private schools to promote community involvement. Depending on the needs of the school, representatives may attend a community service fair or an assembly to introduce students to the philosophy of giving back. “The aim this school year is to be more proactive,” Ms Pitcher says. “This includes helping both teachers and students to reduce the piles of paperwork sometimes involved with tracking community service hours.” For school visits, VOLUNTEER. bm is now mobile with The Centre’s
Volunteering can be both challenging and rewarding for young people, as these volunteer landscapers found out working with the Bermuda Institute of Oceanic Sciences.
“Part of the outreach will be to help students see how volunteering – even for young people - can make a big difference.” “interactive kiosk”. With the help of this on-site computer. students learn how to set up their own profile and to search for volunteer opportunities. Through the website, parents, school counselors and the students themselves can keep track of volunteer hours, eliminating the need for paper log-in sheets. A brand new
feature also allows users to post their hours on Facebook, which will make it more interactive and fun for students. “Students can also set their own goals while keeping track of school requirements,” Ms Pitcher says, pointing out that eliminating paper journals, and other forms, will reduce administrative costs for the schools. By encouraging students to seek areas that interest them, The Centre hopes to debunk the perception, among some, that because community service is a requirement of the school curriculum, it must be no fun. “We want to see what inspires the students and to leverage that.”
Helping students back to school continued from Giving page 1
Barbara Thomas, opted to use their usual back to school fundraising drive to completely outfit more than 20 children with everything they needed for school. Some of these children’s families were already being helped by their community outreach programmes, and others were referred to them by organisations that had become aware of their financial struggles. The relief felt by those families, she said, was palpable. “It is very emotionally charged. They so appreciate the help and
some are just overwhelmed. They are so surprised that someone will do all that for them.” Butterfield Bank also holds an annual back to school drive, and this year, said marketing VP Rhonda Joy, they opted to work directly with the schools rather than giving to individuals. The 250-plus school supplies-filled backpacks and lunch boxes they donate annually were handed this year to guidance counselors, to be given out through the school year to students found to be in need. In addition, with the help
of AF Smith and Phoenix stores providing items at cost, they were able to donate supplies like paper, markers, pencils, rulers, folders and other essential supplies. to 23 primary and middle schools. “We listened to the teachers and the principals over the last year and decided that this year we would give the schools the responsibility of giving the supplies out where they are really needed. We know it has been a real help to them.” The slogan on the Sandys Rotary bags says it all, “Education 1st”.
GIVING is a quarterly publication of The Centre on Philanthropy and is sponsored by the Colonial Group of Companies in Bermuda
Give Back Games prove power of fun in the sun
T
he Centre on Philanthropy’s annual beach Olympics, sees twelve of Bermuda’s leading international companies compete to earn prize money for a local charity that they selected. With the inclusion of one additional team, the 2012 Give Back Games raised a total of $77,000 to be shared amongst the charities. Tokio Millennium Re repeated as champions this year and earned the charity they chose, The Reading Clinic, $11,000. All in all, over 120 people took part in the Give Back Games, including charity representatives, who organise and score the events, and a bevy of other volunteers to do everything from count cans to drive the beach buggy. Not included in that tally are the 1786 votes in the Give Back Games Facebook Photo Challenge. Each
team was invited to post a picture on The Centre’s Facebook page and invite people to vote for their photo by ‘liking’ it. Team Argo won the competition with 509 ‘likes’ and earned an additional $500 for their charity, the Bermuda SPCA. Jacques Bonneau, chairman of Ace Tempest Re Group and co-chair of the Games, was instrumental in the creation of the event in 2009. This year he was also on the beach as a competitor. “The Give Back Games are a great opportunity to team build, to compete against other industry concerns in a fun event all the while supporting each companies designated charity and to have the whole community participate in an enjoyable and fulfilling day of giving. The charities win, the competitors win and the community also wins,” said Mr. Bonneau.
Give Back Games 2012 Results Place Company
Charity
Prize Money
1
Tokio Millennium Re Ltd.
The Reading Clinic
$11,000
2
Guy Carpenter and Company, LLC
YouthNet
$9,000
3
Aspen Insurance Ltd.
Family Centre
$6,250
3
ACE Tempest Re
The Eliza Dolittle Society $6,250
5
Catlin Bermuda
Friends of Hospice
$5,500
6
XL
Bermuda Red Cross
$5,500
7
Argo Group
SPCA*
$ 6,000
8
American Safety Re
Bermuda Society for the Blind
$5,500
9
Validus Re
Big Brothers, Big Sisters
$5,500
10
Endurance Specialty Insurance Ltd.
Meals on Wheels
$5,500
11
Arch Reinsurance Ltd.
Salvation Army
$5,500
11
Axis Specialty Ltd.
Aerie Foundation
$5,500
GIVING is a quarterly publication of The Centre on Philanthropy and is sponsored by the Colonial Group of Companies in Bermuda If you have a story about Bermuda’s charitable community that you would like to share please contact us at peter@centreonphilanthropy.org or call 236-7706. To learn more about The Centre please visit www.centreonphilanthropy.org.