The Alzheimer & Parkinson Association of Indian River County, Childcare Resources of Indian River, Hibiscus Children’s Center and the Ocean Research & Conservation Association are the latest Impact 100 Community Partners, each the recipient of a $100,000 transformational grant at the ninth annual Impact 100 Annual Meeting, held last Wednesday afternoon at the Oak Harbor Club.
The Impact 100 mission is simple yet powerful: “We are women who collectively impact the lives of individuals and our community through transformational grants.” Since its inception, members have pooled their annual $1,000 membership dues and, with last week’s disbursement, have awarded more than $3.3 million in grants. Because 100 percent of membership dues is granted, this year’s three runners-up, Ballet Vero Beach, Indian River County Healthy Start Coalition, and Tykes and Teens, were each presented with $13,000 grants.
Roughly half the 439 members had already voted by absentee ballot. The remainder came to hear brief, heartfelt presentations from each of the seven finalists, who had previously been vetted through an extensive grant committee review process.
Prior to the finalists making their presentations, outgoing board president Suzanne Bertman recognized sponsor Wilmington Trust, the continued support of the Indian River Community Foundation and the McCabe Foundation, the Supervisor of Elections and CPAs for their voting assistance, and the army of volunteers who serve on the Impact board and committees.
Bertman noted that their Visioning Committee has been a particularly successful one, explaining, “A lot of people can’t come up with a transformational idea. So we are willing to go out and talk with them and help them understand what this means; to help them think outside the box.”
Peggy Cunningham, Alzheimer and Parkinson executive director, was the first presenter, making a successful case for a Dementia Friendly Community Initiative. The grant will fund a mobile unit to take Virtual Dementia training to businesses, churches, retail stores and restaurants, law enforcement and others who interact with the public. Cunningham said roughly 6,000 residents, a number expected to double in a decade, are living with dementia; 80 percent living actively in the community.
So that they may better interact with individuals with dementia related disorders, Virtual Dementia training enables participants to experience its effects. Wearing special equipment to distort their abilities, participants are asked to do five simple household tasks. “This has a powerful impact and it prepares them for comprehensive training that is customized to the business or organization,” said Cunningham.
The grant provided to Childcare Resources will fund a Credentialing Program for Early Educators. Shannon Bowman, CCR executive director, noted that 85 percent of brain development happens by the age of 5. “Several decades of research clearly demonstrates that high-quality early education experiences produce positive effects on cognitive and social development in children,” said Bowman.
Despite that knowledge, the state has set the bar low for training of early educators. CPEE will provide more than 120 hours of high-quality training to more than 36 early educators throughout the county, leading to improved learning environments and a greater number of children prepared for kindergarten and brighter futures.
The Hibiscus Children’s Center grant will help fund its Healing Children Through Careers Graphic Design Impact Center, an on-site career development initiative for youth at the HCC Village in Vero Beach. “Our children are often told their lives don’t matter, and if they’re lucky they may get a blue-collar minimum wage type of job,” said Paul Sexton, HCC president/CEO.
The program will prepare teens for competitive technical and white-collar jobs in the graphic design and print industry, and will enable viable employment at HCC for youth who age-out of the system at age 18. Additionally, Sexton said, “The value of the Graphic Design Center is that we will produce revenue based on this new business line. We are dealing with kids that are very tech savvy; they don’t want to get a job flipping burgers.”
ORCA will collaborate with Indian River County students and the Indian River Land Trust to restore impaired areas of the Indian River Lagoon through its Living Lagoon Project. Utilizing previous Impact 100 funding, ORCA created pollution maps, which indicate that the water is cleaner along shorelines with a natural gradient of natural plants; they actually clean the water as it runs off the land.
“The students will grow the plants, and they will plant them along the shoreline, under our direction, in areas of impaired waterfront property that the Land Trust owns and has designated as in need of help,” said Edie Widder, ORCA CEO/senior scientist, adding that they will also create before and after pollution maps. “To provide that information will be a stepping stone to get other communities involved in doing just this same kind of thing.”
The three runners-up were Ballet Vero Beach, which sought funding for long-term scenery and costumes for its production of “Nutcracker on the Indian River”; Indian River County Healthy Start Coalition, to fund a Community Doula Program; and Tykes and Teens toward an Infant Mental Health program in Indian River County.
