Partners in Philanthropy / April 2016

Partners in Philanthropy Partnering with you to love Kalamazoo

April 2016

You’ve already shown your love for this community by creating an Advised Fund at the Community Foundation. Through this publication, we’re offering you an opportunity to demonstrate that love again by supporting one or more of the projects highlighted with a grant suggestion from the fund you established. The programs shared in this publication are among the recent funding requests we’ve received from local nonprofit organizations.

The first opportunity we’d like to share is Community Healing Centers’ innovative Parents as Teachers: Seeds for Success Consortium. On a national level, Parents as Teachers programs have proven successful in addressing children’s needs throughout the first three years of life, including safe sleep, breast feeding and nutrition, parental bonding and brain development. Home visits from trained parent educators also provide information about local resources for safety and literacy.

Because she knows the power of working with partners toward a common goal, CHC’s executive director Sally Reames has assembled a diverse group of nonprofits — Kalamazoo RESA, Comstock Learning

1,000 Kalamazoo County families benefitting from Parents as Teachers

Center, Catholic Charities Diocese of Kalamazoo and YWCA of Kalamazoo — to efficiently deliver these services to Kalamazoo County families. “Along with expertise in specific areas like mental health, teen parenting, addiction, developmental delays, poverty, housing, early childhood intervention, and neo natal abstinence syndrome, each organization brings strong cultural diversity to the table,” says Reames. “That’s so imporant.”

40 hours of training that prepare each parent advocate

Parents as Teachers’ success is measured by the developmental growth of each child participant toward kindergarten readiness, which aligns with our community’s emphasis on early childhood learning and school readiness. To ensure the program equitably serves all of Kalamazoo’s racial, cultural and ethnic communities, CHC also gathers data on the diversity of the participating families.

Inside you’ll find information about more co-investment opportunities.

We hope this information gives you a good understanding of our community’s needs and the efforts we believe will help make it a place where every person can reach full potential.

5 local nonprofits collaborating to support Kalamazoo County kids and families through Parents as Teachers

More Co-Investment Opportunities These co-investment opportunities highlight some recent funding requests from local nonprofit organizations.

If you want to support one or more of these projects through the Advised Fund you established at the Community Foundation, please make a grant suggestion using Kalamazoo Connect — just go to www.kalfound.org and click on the green Kalamazoo Connect link at the top of the page — or complete the grant suggestion form on page four and return it to us by email, USPS or fax. You also may email members of our Donor Relations team, who are available to provide you with more information about these and other community needs. See page four for contact information.

Bronson Park 21st Century Campaign / City of Kalamazoo Some people say Bronson Park is the heart of Kalamazoo County or at least the “front porch” of our county’s core. One could also say Bronson Park needs some help. In fact, that is exactly what the City of Kalamazoo is saying. The Bronson Park 21st Century Campaign is multi-faceted. First and foremost it will fix the crumbling Fountain of The Pioneers and enhance it by providing funding for educational tools that will accurately share the Potawatomi tribe’s experience related to the settlement of the Kalamazoo area.

In addition, the pond will be reconfigured so it can be easily drained to provide event seating, and we’ll see upgrades in the sound and lighting for events, free public Wi-Fi, reforesting to pre-1980 tornado levels and park information delivered through electronic kiosks. To support this project, please select the Bronson Park 21st Century Campaign/ City of Kalamazoo box on the grant suggestion form.

Everyone Needs to Read / Kalamazoo Literacy Council Would you like to help 550 adults learn to read? While the Kalamazoo Literacy Council is already doing a lot — with 205 volunteer tutors serving 413 adult learners — there is much more work to do. More than 24,000 adults in our county struggle to read, and less than five percent receive help. This initiative will strengthen and expand Kalamazoo County’s infrastructure for providing literacy instruction for both English-speaking adults with low literacy skills and adults for whom English is their second language. Everyone Needs to Read will better align resources, deliver best practices in instruction, provide common measurements for success, and strive to sustain this improved system for the long term.

It also will train more volunteer reading tutors, computer instructors and writing instructors.

In addition to free instruction, students also will be able to access free transportation, which can often be a significant barrier for students. Program participants set academic, professional and personal goals and receive quarterly assessments of their progress toward those goals. To support this program, check the Everyone Needs to Read/ Kalamazoo Literacy Council box on the grant suggestion form.

Girls on the Run 2016 / Greater Kalamazoo Girls on the Run There’s a lot that goes into Girls on the Run’s efforts to help participants be strong, confident and self aware. Some of it — like a smile or encouraging word — doesn’t cost a dime. But some of it — like a healthy snack or a new pair of shoes — does. Support for Girls on the Run 2016 will provide scholarships for families that cannot afford the $160 per person participation fee. Participants from public, private and parochial schools in urban and rural settings receive a new pair of running shoes, a healthy snack at each twice-a-week practice, and access to trained coaches and volunteers. The scholarships are a big deal for access: 65 percent of participants need financial assistance. While Girls on the Run is a national program, in the greater Kalamazoo area alone, more than 2,000 girls (at 61 sites) participate in the 10-week program that promotes physical, emotional, mental and character development. To support this program, check the Girls on the Run 2016/ Greater Kalamazoo Girls on the Run box on the grant suggestion form.

Marvelous Music! and Kids in Tune Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra has a long tradition of education and community programming, both in and out of the concert hall. Now, KSO is working to optimize two of its more recent partnerships: Marvelous Music! and Kalamazoo Kids in Tune.

Now six-years old, Marvelous Music! is a dynamic collaboration between KSO and Crescendo Academy of Music that brings music and movement activities to 720 four-year-olds in 45 pre-kindergarten classrooms.

Weekly music classes stress active participation and provide opportunities for expression, teamwork and pre-reading skills, along with engaging materials students take home to reinforce their classroom work.

Kids in Tune, launched in 2011, is an innovative after-school music and youth development program conducted in partnership with Communities In Schools Kalamazoo and Kalamazoo Public Schools.

The idea is that all students can achieve academically, musically, socially and emotionally in a rigorous program with high expectations. There is no charge

for the 100 participants for the 33-week program, which also includes a six-week summer program.

Both programs were developed through evidence-based research and include detailed evaluation. Marvelous Music! pairs its use of surveys and observation with an early childhood evaluation consultant. Kids in Tune supplements Kalamazoo Public Schools and Communities In Schools evaluations with measurements through a national collaborative.

“Both programs increase access to and break down barriers to involvement in the arts in the most highneed areas of the community,” says Peter Gistelinck, president and CEO of KSO. “Both programs directly involve students in a lifetime of music-making for the purpose of helping them succeed in school and life.”

To support this project, select the Marvelous Music! and Kids in Tune/Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra box on the grant suggestion form.

Partners in Philanthropy / April 2016

Grant Suggestion Form To suggest a grant in support of one or more of the projects listed in this publication, please complete this form and return it to the Kalamazoo Community Foundation. You also may suggest grants online using Kalamazoo Connect at https://connect.kalfound.org or by emailing a member of our Donor Relations team.

I/We would like to recommend one or more grants from the fund named below in the amount(s) indicated.

I/We acknowledge that any grant suggestion made does not represent the payment of a personal pledge or other financial obligation, nor is any personal benefit from this charitable distribution expected.

Name Fund Name Telephone Email

Signature Date

q Parents as Teachers / Community Healing Centers

$

q Everyone Needs to Read / Kalamazoo Literacy Council

$

q Bronson Park 21st Century Campaign / City of Kalamazoo

$

q Girls on the Run 2016 / Greater Kalamazoo Girls on the Run

$

q Marvelous Music! and Kids in Tune / Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra

$

Our Donor Relations Team Zac Bauer / 269.585.7236 / zbauer@kalfound.org Coby Chalmers / 269.585.7249 / cchalmers@kalfound.org Joanna Donnelly Dales / 269.585.7260 / jdales@kalfound.org Ann Fergemann / 269.585.7238 / afergemann@kalfound.org Jeanne Grubb / 269.585.7248 / jgrubb@kalfound.org

402 East Michigan Avenue

Kalamazoo, MI 49007-3888

t 269.381.4416

f 269.381.3146

e info@kalfound.org