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OCTOBER 2016 CONNECTING PEOPLE WHO CARE WITH CAUSES THAT MATTER

Seeing Connections: Early ChildhoodEducation, Inner-City Gun ViolenceTwo major Community Foundation partnerships are intertwined in their efforts to help children learn and make our community safer.

On the surface, inner city gun violence and early childhood education would seem to have nothing in common. Not so.

Recently, I participated in various meetings about the South Bend Group Violence Intervention and the Community Foundation’s work to implement Responsive Classroom in nine South Bend primary schools. I saw very compelling connections.

The South Bend Group Violence Intervention seeks to reach the tiny percentage of people in our community who drive the majority of gun violence. For complex reasons, including poverty, economic despair and racism, almost all are young men of color.

Responsive Classroom helps teachers provide students with a sense of belonging, personal significance, and the joy of learning. Responsive Classroom uses the power of community and relationships to create a context in which learning is both challenging and fun. You can read more about this effective, proven approach to improving the classroom experience on page 4 of this newsletter.

A key goal of the Community Foundation’s work to improve early childhood education is to help little boys learn to love school so they never become young men at great risk of being hurt or causing harm.

HIGHLIGHTS

Students read together at Harrison Primary Center, one of nine local primary centers implementing the Responsive Classroom approach.

The Community Foundation held its 2016 Annual Meeting & Celebration at the History Museum in late September, reflecting on the successes of the past year with our closest friends and supporters. We welcomed four new Board members—Kyle Chamberlin, Marion Fulce, Amy Kuhar Mauro, and Donna Lamberti—and also thanked our three retiring members for all that they’ve done: Nancy King, M. Patricia Hackett, and James Keenan. Our Board members are very important to us, and we value their service.

Jeffrey P. Costello, Chair Timothy D. Sexton., Past Chair Brad C. Beutter, Vice Chair Mary Jan Hedman, Treasurer Greta Roemer Lewis, Secretary

Spike Abernethy Jose Alvarez Katie Anthony Carl L. Bossung Dr. Virginia Calvin Kyle Chamberlin Hon. Roland W. Chamblee, Jr. Richard C. Currey John Firth Dr. George Friend Marion Fulce Sherri A. Goodwin Mary Jan Hedman Dr. Vincent C. Henderson Pam Jarrett Christopher Karam Amy Kuhar Mauro Donna Lamberti Tina Patton Jeffrey Rea

The Community Foundation’s 2016 Annual Meeting & Celebration

On the surface, inner city gun violence and early childhood education would seem to have nothing in common. Not so.

—Rose Meissner, President

COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF ST. JOSEPH COUNTY • PAGE 2

The Community Foundation holds more than 80 permanent endowed funds that provide annual support to local charities. A recent addition to that list is the Pet Refuge/ABC Clinic Fund.

Run by a dedicated group of volunteers, Pet Refuge is a no-kill animal shelter on South Bend’s south side. On any particular day, Pet Refuge is home to approximately 30 dogs and 120 cats, and another 170 or so animals are being cared for in Pet Refuge foster homes.

Board President Pam Comer estimates that Pet Refuge is responsible for some 750 adoptions each year. “And if the adoption fails, she points out, “Pet Refuge will always take our animals back. Our no-kill commitment to the animal is forever.”

Comer has been in charge of Pet Refuge since 2009, but her commitment to animal welfare goes back much farther.

“Years ago, I remember my Dad telling my husband-to-be, ‘One thing about your future wife —She’ll always take in the strays,’” Comer says, with a laugh.

Pet Refuge moved into its current home off Ireland Road three years ago. The building is strikingly clean and well-organized, featuring ten dedicated “cat rooms” where six or seven cats share a hotel-style space with plenty of climbing shelves. The dogs have their own section of the facility, which includes three large play yards and indoor/outdoor kennels.

The adjacent ABC Clinic, which performs low-cost spay and neuter procedures, has three vets on staff. It’s an efficient and effective service: Over the past five years, the ABC Clinic has performed some 50,000 operations.

Jamie, one of the more than 200 volunteers who keep Pet Refuge going, has been working with the shelter’s dogs for more than 23 years. She often spends three or four days a week at the shelter, and regularly travels to schools to do educational programs on dog safety.

“I do it for the animals,” she says, simply. “Miracles happen here.”

Pet Refuge Endowed Fund Supports Animal Welfare, Spay and Neuter

Board President Pam Comer provides a chin scratch to one of Pet Refuge’s resident cats.

Board President Pam Comer estimates that Pet Refuge is responsible for some 750 adoptions each year.

Michelle, one of Pet Refuge’s more than 200 volunteers, spends a little time with a friend in one of the facility’s play yards.

Endowed Organizational Funds Held with the Community Foundation

How can a nonprofit organization ensure that it’s going to continue to serve our community for decades to come? Through the power of endowment—creating resources that will provide the organization with annual support year after year.

Endowed funds help charities to weather short-term storms and focus on the future. When you make a gift to a charity’s endowed fund, you’re making an investment that will help the charity you love continue to fulfil its mission 50, 75, even 100 years from now.

Chances are, your favorite charity has an endowed fund with the Community Foundation. You can find a full list of the 80+ funds held with the Community Foundation at www.cfsjc.org.

PAGE 3

A new sculpture will be installed downtown to honor King and Hesburgh’s legacies.

The Community Foundation’s African American Community Fund has made a commitment of $50,000 to support a new sculpture that the City plans to install to honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, CSC, and their commitments to civil rights.

The sculpture, which was inspired by the iconic photo of King and Hesburgh holding hands at a civil rights rally (above), will be created by artist Tuck Langland, a retired Indiana University South Bend professor of art and one of the founders of Fire Arts, Inc.

Jitin Kain, Deputy Director of Public Works, says that the City plans to unveil

African American Community Fund Supports New Public Sculpture

This iconic 1964 photograph shows Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (third from left), and Rev. Theodore Hesburgh, CSC (second from left), at a Chicago civil rights rally. The photographer is unknown.

the work in June 2017. It will be located in the Leighton Plaza on Main Street, across from the County Courthouse in downtown South Bend.

The photo of King and Hesburgh was taken in the summer of 1964, at a rally held in Chicago’s Soldier Field celebrating the passage of the Civil Rights Act. The photographer has never been identified; Hesburgh was given a copy of the photo in 1988 at a memorial event for King held at Emory University.

Dr. Virginia Calvin, Chair of the African American Community Fund, announced the commitment at the Community Foundation’s 2015 Annual Meeting & Celebration. Other partners include the Foundation’s ArtsEverywhere Fund, University of Notre Dame, Arthur J. Decio, Visit South Bend Mishawaka, and Great Lakes Capital.

Learn more about the work of the African American Community Fund: Visit www.cfsjc.org/AACF.

It will be located in the Leighton Plaza on Main Street, across from the County Courthouse in downtown South Bend.

More than 170 area high school seniors are competing for this full-tuition scholarship.

Applications for the Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship, which the Community Foundation administers, set a new record this year. More than 170 students submitted applications, more than doubling the previous year’s total. The applicants come from public and private high schools throughout the county, and they’re an impressive bunch: Fifty-five are under-represented or first-generation students, 12 applicants are ranked first in their class, and the average GPA was 4.19.

This is the first year that the applications for the Lilly Scholarship have been due in September. The Lilly Foundation moved the deadline up from its original date in January to give scholarship recipients more time to decide which college or university to attend.

Lilly applicants will hear from the Community Foundation in late October to learn whether they’ve made it to the “short list” of candidates who will be interviewed.

The Foundation’s other scholarships—including the Charles Martin “Touch a Life” Scholarship, the Laiding Community Service Scholarship, and nearly 60 others—have spring deadlines.

All the deadlines and details about the Foundation’s scholarships are at www.cfsjc.org/scholarships.

New Record: Lilly Endowment Community Scholarship Apps

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The Community Foundation’s work with early childhood education has been going strong for over 15 years. During the first decade, our focus was on improving the quality of preschool education in our community. With a team led by Ann Rosen and Sue Christensen at the Family Connection, we trained teachers in Head Start, Early Head Start, and more than two dozen preschools and registered child care ministries in the nationally-recognized HighScope curriculum. By providing coaching, classroom materials, and ongoing feedback, we’ve helped those teachers grow their skills as educators and become more effective in the classroom.

Our work in early childhood education continues today, with HighScope making a dramatic difference in our community’s preschools. But we wondered, What happens to these children when they get into elementary school? Will they continue to receive the quality of education that they deserve?

We found the answer in Responsive Classroom, an approach to teaching and to children that can make the transition from a HighScope classroom

to kindergarten much smoother. In a Responsive Classroom, children are treated with respect and kindness, independence is encouraged, and teachers offer academic choices that engage children in their education.

Three years ago, we launched a pilot of Responsive Classroom in five South Bend Community School Corporation primary centers. Interest spread, and we’re currently supporting the implementation of Responsive Classroom in nine schools: Coquillard, Harrison, Hay, Madison, McKinley,

Responsive Classroom Grows: 3,400 Children Benefit

Monroe, Muessel, Perley, and Warren.

Responsive Classroom focuses on the skills of cooperation, assertiveness, responsibility, empathy, and self control. The approach cultivates a sense of community in the classroom, creating an environment that fosters emotional, as well as academic, growth.

Thanks to Responsive Classroom, over 3,400 local students continue to build on the strong foundation many received as preschoolers in HighScope programs.

Learn more about the Community Foundation’s work in our schools—and how you can support it—at www.cfsjc.org/education.

A teacher and student at Harrison Primary Center exchange a high-five. Harrison is one of nine local primary centers implementing Responsive Classroom.

Responsive Classroom focuses on the skills of cooperation, assertiveness, empathy, and self control.