2020 Annual Report

2020

ANNUAL REPORT

PREPARED BY

IMMACULATE HEART COMMUNITY

ImmaculateHeartCommunity.org info@immaculateheartcommunity.org

OUR UNSTOPPABLE MISSION

Dear Friends & Supporters,

It's hard to envision the future. No one has been there. Yet we feel called to move into it, creatively, bravely and generously building bridges and stirring up hope. While we were challenged by the COVID epidemic, we were not stopped by it. Services went on, and in multiple ways we became harbors of hope.

It's not easy, but it is made more possible because we have Community, and are rooted in our faith. As you will read in this Annual Report, we are blessed with amazing Staff Partners in ministry who serve with compassion and resourcefulness. Every day we discover more ways to problem-solve new challenges and to combine resources and efforts in order to contribute to a richer fullness of life for all.

Our Immaculate Heart Community is increasingly diverse: Women and men, married and single, of various denominational backgrounds and ethnicities. It's a rich mix, meant to be shared in joyful service for others.

We hope these pages will give glimpses of how positive change can happen. We are grateful for all our supporters and friends who volunteer their time, talent and resources to help create a more just and peaceful world for all.

With a hopeful heart,

Karol Schulkin, IHM President

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CORITA ART CENTER

With Corita's words "flowers grow out of dark moments" on our minds, we find ourselves full of gratitude and humbled by our community’s support. 2020 brought many curveballs and you have been with us every step of the way.

The pandemic forced us to temporarily close the Corita Art Center doors to the public, but our time away from you has been filled with urgent experimentation and creativity. In the spirit of Corita’s commitment to education, we invested our energy and resources into virtual education programs, continually challenging ourselves to respond to community needs and meet people where they are. We expanded our team to include a part-time engagement coordinator, and together (though dispersed) we built an education program.

When schools paused in-class instruction, we responded by launching Corita 101, our multiplatform education initiative that gives remote access to Corita’s art and pedagogy.

Through free online workshops, downloadable art assignments, bilingual activity packets, and artist videos, we reached students of all ages and created work opportunities for artist educators—one of the most hard-hit workforces—in the process.

As our virtual and mobile arts programs were bringing us to new audiences and diverse communities across the region and around the world, we found ourselves called to action right in our own backyard. In August, we learned that the former studio at 5518 Franklin Ave, where Corita worked during the 1960s, was slated for demolition to make room for five parking spaces. Our community rallied around us, writing letters and petitioning elected officials to have the site reviewed for historic designation before it was too late. We ended 2020 with the news that the Cultural Heritage Commission had voted to recommend landmark status, closing this tumultuous year on a note of hope.

There remains a long road to walk together in preserving and promoting the legacies of significant women artists like Corita Kent. At the outset of this journey, we learned that only 3% of HCMs in Los Angeles are associated with women's heritage. Giving landmark status to Corita’s studio is one critical step in redressing this disparity. However, the work to uphold the legacies of women artists and cultural leaders is ongoing.

We are filled with gratitude for every person and organization that has been on this journey with us, sharing in the faith that the ordinary can indeed by extraordinary.

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LA CASA DE MARIA

A beloved destination for those seeking spiritual growth and a connection to nature, La Casa de Maria served up to 12,000 guests each year and offered programs, workshops, group and private retreats, and conferences that provided a nurturing and healing place of peace. In its pristine beauty and peaceful environment, people of all faiths found rest, renewal, self-actualization, and transformation.

But in January 2018, La Casa de Maria was devastated from damage caused by a mud and debris flow following the Thomas Fire. Fourteen acres were destroyed, nine buildings were completely washed away, and five buildings incurred extensive damage.

Undeterred, Immaculate Heart Community is committed to rebuilding La Casa de Maria and planning for a future to again welcome friends, neighbors, partners and guests to these sacred grounds. While boulders remain, the rest of the debris has been cleared away. The orchards have produced a bumper crop of lemons, limes, and oranges this year, and the Sadako Peace Garden has been dug out of the mud, allowing visitors to sit on the recently repaired stone benches under the “mother tree” that miraculously survived the disaster.

Plans are currently underway to renovate the structures and the property, with expected completion enabling La Casa de Maria to operate at full daytime capacity by late 2022.

Complete rebuild of the property is expected by 2025.

The new design will embrace the spirit and profound history of the site, while employing sustainable design principles that are environmentally responsible and resource efficient, ultimately leading to La Casa de Maria achieving the highest green standards. In keeping with tradition, La Casa de Maria will continue to be a place where groups can retreat, programs to educate and inspire are offered, and disenfranchised, vulnerable, and at-risk populations are served through support, guidance, scholarships, and other opportunities.

In harmony with their mission to protect the Earth, La Casa de Maria will partner with renowned environmental leaders to educate guests and participants on being good stewards of our planet. One confirmed partner, the Bren School of Environmental Science and Management at University of California, Santa Barbara, will collaborate with La Casa to develop educational and research models which will be adaptable to similar landscapes, including Mediterranean climate and areas where flooding and other climate risks exist.

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CASA ESPERANZA

Casa Esperanza faced enormous challenges this past year, including: Serving a community that, at the height of the pandemic, had one of Los Angeles County's highest rates of confirmed COVID cases.

A drive-by shooting,10 feet outside our building, that resulted in a death.

Increased unemployment for our participants and increased homelessness in our area.

A profound digital divide that affected both our youth and their parents ability to engage with LA Unified School District.

While these challenges tested our community and our staff, they did not deter us from ensuring that, in 2020, Casa Esperanza remained a safe and trusted communal hub, with impactful programming. While we were closed to the public, as an essential provider, our staff came into the building every day to answer calls, field emergency requests, and conduct public outreach.

Among Casa Esperanza highlights this year: Created an online after-school learning academy for over 60 youth, where they received virtual tutoring, social connection to their peers, and virtual art workshops.

Over 1,000 individuals and families attended our Protective Personal Equipment, COVID safety events, and safe holiday toy giveaways.

Led Census informational events to ensure that the largely undocumented, Latinx community understood the importance of the census and political representation.

Facilitated a safe 6-week in-person 2020 social distance learning Summer Academy that had 35 youth participants, ages 7-17.

Provided laptops and tablets to adult and youth community members who did not have access to technological equipment and facilitated training sessions on how to use Zoom and other online platforms.

In response to increased stress from COVID in our community, collaborated with LA County Department of Mental Health and Mission Community Hospital to host mental health and similar support groups in-person and virtually, in English and Spanish.

In collaboration with LA City Council President Nury Martinez and LA County Supervisor Sheila Kuehl, led regular food drive events, promoted vaccine informational events and signed up community members for vaccines.

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CASA ESPERANZA (CONTINUED)

“The social isolation caused by the pandemic has had a profound impact on the mental health of the youth and families that we serve. After-school programs such as Casa Esperanza, that provide a safe place for youth to engage and excel with one another, both socially and academically, are essential in helping us eliminate the health disparities in our community."

— James K. Theiring, CEO, Mission Community Hospital

“For those of us who have lived in and served the San Fernando Valley, we can remember how dangerous and dire the neighborhood that surrounds Casa Esperanza once was. The changes in the neighborhood are in large part due to the after-school and other programs that Casa Esperanza has offered during its almost 30 years of existence. Particularly during these uncertain times, organizations like Casa Esperanza are essential to our community.”

— Marie Valencia, Community Chair, Greater Van Nuys Rotary

“Casa Esperanza's historic standing in the community has been essential in creating the bridge between the stakeholders of Blythe St. and law enforcement. This has been one of the chief factors in reduced gang activity in the area. Casa Esperanza’s long track record of success, and the history of trust that they have established with all members of the community, has me confident that they can reach these young people and their families in a post-pandemic world.”

— Daniel Ruelas, Sr. Lead Officer, LAPD Mission Division

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KENMORE RESIDENCE

The year of our Lord 2020 started out like most years, taking down the stringed lights and banishing the Christmas decorations to their appointed closet to await again their appointed time. Somewhere in the last few years, around spring of 2018, we moved to weekly schedules rather than a monthly calendar, too much to cram on one sheet that invariably needed to be updated as soon as it was posted. Those weekly schedules fell off the proverbial cliff just as 2020 spring arrived, arriving as it did with dribs and drabs of coronavirus wafting on the breeze.

Driving the freeways toward Koreatown, the digitized message boards warned drivers not of accidents ahead or Amber alerts, but the never-before-seen mandate to “Stay Home.”

And stay home is what we did at Kenmore, daily chapel, afternoon rosary, weekly bingo, art, movie night, Sittercise, weekend mass, salon, birthday and holiday celebrations, visitors, dining together, casual time together all stopped, an abrupt cessation that sent the house hurling into a new way of being. None of these activities ever resumed at Kenmore.

With all IHMs confined to their individual apartments, what held the house together was the ongoing efforts of our essential workers; the nurses, the cooks, the janitors all kept Kenmore’s heart beating for the last nine months of 2020, glad to have the work in an otherwise shutdown economy despite the risk. We were glad to hear the quiet chatter, the pots and pans clanging, the vacuum running in the hall.

In April, we instituted “gratitude time” at shift changes for caregivers and cooks, the ones who actually held Kenmore together. We hauled the sound system out of the chapel, opened the windows to the patio, and for a brief time each day, walked out of our apartments, masked faces in the windows around the patio, all floors, and sang the IHM "Thank You" song at the top of our lungs.

In May, we started shedding the irrational childhood tantrum that had possessed us, any whose will has been constrained by authority. We had even begun to look up and look out with a capacious curiosity for things outside our will, the glorious late rain beating against the window, the gratitude for the meal delivered three times a day. A healthy breath. That is when we lost Phyllis Straling, ill for so long and finally carried away. The priest was dispatched by way of FaceTime to perform the sacrament of the sick and dying. Later in the year, Gretchen Teeple and Patrice Underwood received this sacred rite in similar fashion.

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KENMORE RESIDENCE (CONTINUED)

In June, as the world community had rebounded through Zoom, we instituted group Zoom in what was formerly the dining room, masked IHMs seated socially distant participated in workshops and visits and Community Assembly virtually, some participating more than in years past when physically taking part posed more obstacles. In time, twice-weekly door-todoor administering of the communion host, individual chapel time and masked movie night found their way into our otherwise stoic routine.

When it was announced in October that Kenmore IHMs would be relocating to St John of God Retirement & Care Center, all but one agreeing, we forewent the holiday season to make the mid-December move deadline with Swiss train-like precision, all IHMs disembarking… without coronavirus incident!

“At the thought of moving away from Kenmore, some of the resident IHMs had sighed, some were frightened, and some were full of argument. But, in short order, they came to see the threshold before them, a frontier dividing the past from a new future, and curiosity fell upon them. They crossed over awakened by anticipation: The time had come. So closes an important chapter in the saga of the Community. Amen."

—Deidra Goulding, Director, IHM Kenmore Residence

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OUR FINANCIALS

OPERATING EXPENSES

Occupancy Expenses 11.4%

General & Other 5.3%

Salaries & Benefits 38.5%

Direct Program Expenses 29.4%

Contract Services 15.4%

OPERATING REVENUE

Program Service Fees 31.2%

Contributions 57.6% Government Grants 3.4% Foundation Grants 6.1%

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OUR DONORS

$500 to $999 Aida S. Serrano-Caballero, IHM Alexander J. Guza Allis Druffel Anita L. Tavera, IHM Ann C. Chamberlin, IHM Anna María M. Prieto, IHM Avis Ridley-Thomas Camilla Tausworthe Carol Collins Chieh-Ru Chu Christine Evelyn Claire Sheehy Commander Chuck Street Consuelo M. Castro David Wyman Diane Cary Dianne Tomsicek McGinnis Donna Arozena Donna M. Alioto, IHM Eleanor G. Perreiah Ellen R. Taylor, IHM Evelyn Chidsey Farmers & Merchant Bank of Long Beach Gary R. Rye, IHM Gretchen T. Dumas, IHM Hermine A. Lees, IHM Hildegard Gray Hollywood Chamber of Commerce Jeanette Peter Jemi R. McDonald Jill W. Whittington, IHM Joan Probst Joan S. Avanzino Joe Dunn John McAndrew Joseph & Ann Swain Kathleen Borger Kathleen Benjamin Ken M. Murphy, IHM Kristin Pilon Laura Distaso Lisa Orwig Margaret Thach Margaret M. Gordon Margery A. Lewis Marilyn Omernick Mark Ridley-Thomas Marla R. Ciarfalio, IHM Mary Anne Karia Mary E. Kirchen, IHM

McDorobrush Family Foundation Michelle Nader Michelle de Beixdon, IHM Monica Hernandez Nelly Bertolina Pamela Skewes-Cox Patricia Negrete Peggy H. Haskell, IHM Penny Hunt Rebecca Veltman Robert K. Bosenmeyer Rose Harris Sandra L. Lynne Sandra Lynne Sharon B. Bagley, IHM Sheila Schlee Sherry P. Purcell, IHM Susan Barger Susan Duquesnal, IHM Thomas Crawford, Jr. William Klenk $1,000 to $4,999 Alexis N. Navarro, IHM Alisa Freundlich Andrea Garber Angie D. Dickson, IHM Ann Wang Anna Pope Anne B. Peterson Antoinette M. Ciketic, IHM Argonaut Charitable Wells Fargo Bernadette H. Hengstebeck, IHM Betsy Merchant Brunilda Fe Chavez Carol Grimes Castruccio Family Foundation Catherine A Smith Wthel Swain Catherine A. Smith, IHM Charmaine A. Aghili, IHM Claire S. Sayegh, IHM Claude Case Diane G. Greenberg, IHM Dorothy G. Washle, IHM Edward W. Hannibal Elaine Scully Elizabeth Cushman Elizabeth Leddy Ella Mae M. Lorack, IHM Fidelity Brokerage Services Food Management Associates, Inc. Garden Visions, Inc.

Gloria C. Martinez Harlene Goodrich Harry Fleddermann Immaculate Heart College Alumnae Association Jayne T. McGuiness, IHM Jean Holsten, IHM Jeffrey Hayden & Eva Marie Saint Joan Houston John K. Keelin, IHM John Swain Judith A. Small, IHM Julie F. Friese, IHM Juliet S. Spohn Twomey, IHM Kathleen A. A Barry, IHM Kathleen C. Cejka, IHM Kathryn M. Clare Kathryn M. Hansen Katrina Steiner Kay Ann Keenan Kitty Murphy, IHM Leila J. Justen, IHM Lenore N. Dowling, IHM Louis M. Castruccio Margaret E. Miller, IHM Maria G. Arroyo, IHM Marian Baird Marijane C. Hebert Marisa E. Antonini, IHM Mary Lyons, IHM Mary M. Snavely-Dixon Mary T. Grove, IHM Marya B. Barr, IHM Meghan Stoll Meiling Lee Michael Dean Michael T. Tompkins, IHM Nan A. Deane Cano, IHM Nancy Latimer Nieves Esquivel, IHM Pat D. Dominguez, IHM Pat M. McAllister, IHM Patricia Boland Uthus, IHM Paul A. Blake Paul Sandorff Pauline K. Krismanich, IHM Rose C. Chamberlin, IHM Ruth Anne A. Murray, IHM Sandra J. Steinbacher, IHM Sheri Ohara-Watton Stephanie Glatt, IHM Steve Jones

Suzanne Young Teresa H. Myers Theresa M. Cabellero Toni S. Stuart, IHM Valerie W. Kelly Victoria Berry, IHM Virginia H. Hurst, IHM Vivian E. Engel, IHM Vivian M. Gabehart, IHM Wells Fargo Bank, N.A. Yer Xiong Yolanda Tilbury $5,000 to $9,999 Adams Mastrovich Family Foundation Anita F. Daniel, IHM Carol l. Daley County of Los Angeles Ethel S. Swain, IHM Gloria L. Kolarik, IHM Jeanne H. Weisel Karol S. Schulkin, IHM L.A. Office of the City Clerk Lucia V. Van Ruiten, IHM, IHM Maria Venegas Marie E. Egan, IHM Mary Becker, IHM Mary F. Fay-Zenk, IHM Pacoima Beautiful Robert Bros Foundation Rosalie R. Rohrer, IHM Ruth & Joseph C. Reed Foundation Susan E. O'Connor Teresa B. Briones, IHM Virginia P. Price, IHM $10,000 to $14,999 Agnes T. Caballero, IHM Cecilia Rodman Moelter Janet M. Leonard Marlene Snyder Patricia C. Joyce Rosalina Baldonado, IHM Walch & Walch $20,000+ County of L.A. Board of Supervisors Florence Gallo Jean A. Scott, IHM Orange County Community Foundation

For information on how you can be part of the Immaculate Heart Community, email us: info@immaculateheartcommunity.org 2020 IHC Annual Report

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