At the 36th annual John’s Island Community Service League Opening Luncheon, board President Pat Thompson said that since its 1980 founding, the league has enriched the community with more than $10 million in local grants and scholarships. In 2015 the league granted $780,000 to help fund the operating expenses of 34 local nonprofit agencies, awarded $42,000 in academic scholarships to 10 children of John’s Island employees, and made a $50,000 donation to the County Commissioner’s Children’s Services Matching Fund Challenge.
“However, over the last few years we have become so much more than a fundraising vehicle,” said Thompson. “The Service League has truly become a powerhouse in this community. We are leaders who are driving change, we collaborate with agencies and other funders, and we are in the trenches working on strategic initiatives to help revise a child’s future.”
To better reflect those actions, she revealed that the board created a new JICSL mission statement: “Transforming lives in Indian River County through leadership, collaboration and dedicated philanthropy.”
The luncheon was co-chaired by Karen Drury and Diane Feeley, who created colorful table décor featuring stacks of books with spines representing JICSL grant groupings: Adult/Senior Care, Counseling/Mental Health, Crisis/Foster Care, After-School & Summer Camp Education, Other Education, Food, Health & Welfare, Homeless Housing, Nurturing Children, and John’s Island Employees’ Children Scholarships.
Hope Woodhouse, JICSL vice president, introduced the inspirational guest speaker, Children’s Aid Society President/CEO Phoebe Boyer, who operates a $120 budget providing services to more than 70,000 of New York’s neediest children.
Children’s Aid was founded in NYC by Charles Loring Brace in 1853 – pre-social welfare, children’s services or foster care – when between 10,000 and 30,000 homeless children lived in the streets. The orphan train, its first program, placed more than 100,000 children in stable homes across the nation, and he later founded Newsboy/Newsgirl Lodging Houses, children’s convalescent homes and Children’s Aid Industrial Schools to teach orphaned children a trade.
“We help children and their families in some of New York’s highest-needs neighborhoods, by offering comprehensive supports at every stage of a child’s life,” said Boyer. “Our goal is lofty but simple; we want children living in poverty to graduate college and reach their fullest potential. They understood then, like we do today, that poverty is extraordinarily complicated.”
In 1992 Children’s Aid opened its first Community School with a Collective Impact strategy – a school and community resource partnership with an integrated focus on academics, health care, family engagement and support services.
“Once this dynamic partnership is formed, followed by securing the necessary funding and engaging families in the school community, the groundwork is laid to foster the growth of the whole child,” added Boyer.
More than 5 million children are now enrolled in roughly 5,000 Community Schools nationwide, resulting in a marked improvement in academic achievement, student and teacher attendance, parental engagement and school safety.
In 2013 a Collective Impact initiative was launched in the South Bronx, one of the poorest congressional districts in the country, joining nonprofits, businesses, government agencies, parents and schools around a common agenda. Its goal is to build a vibrant community through a continuum of services and guide children on a path toward college and opportunity.
“A cross-section of the community needs to be authentically engaged in the process, paving the way for broad ownership and mutual accountability.”
Stressing the impact of poverty on young people, Boyer added, “We know that poverty hurts. It hurts families and it particularly hurts children; and that hurt is traumatic. It can most certainly have an impact on a child’s brain development. And poverty can scar a person’s psyche for years and years to come.”
