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Welcoming Every Child

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After listening to a story, children work on a related craft project. Photo Credit Matthew Higbee

The Connecticut Children’s Museum makes accessibility, in the broadest sense of the term, its highest priority. The exhibit rooms are designed to stimulate the unique interests and abilities of every child. There is a music room, a nature room with a glass enclosed beehive, a room with puzzles and logic games, rooms for reading and rooms for playing make believe. 

Physically, the museum makes a special effort to accommodate children with special needs. All furnishings are compliant with American with Disabilities Act standards for children and all signs are duplicated in braille.

In addition, children of various backgrounds and income levels are brought to the museum on field trips, opportunities created through partnerships with schools and early childhood programs. 

“What is most important for us is that every child can come here, and that we are ready for them when they come,” said Director Sandra Malmquist. Read more here.

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Nonprofit Board Obligations

Four obligations: this is what my associate Jeff Wilcox ((Jeffrey R. Wilcox, CFRE, is president and chief executive officer of The Third Sector Company, Inc.) contends are the simple parameters a nonprofit board should follow to be great.

The first obligation is guaranteeing to the community that a resilient organization is at work on its behalf. Fiduciary accountability is just the beginning. Community equity runs a close second. A vote of no confidence in an organization and its leadership can send an organization down in flames while there’s still money in the bank.

The second obligation is making sure an efficient and defined infrastructure of paid and unpaid people are working towards defined results to benefit the community. An organization’s picture of success, whether an annual or multi-year set of stated deliverables, requires a structure that operates within clear policies; and, each element of the structure, including the board, has performance measures to contribute to the organization’s success in accountable ways.

The third obligation is making sure the organization is evolving with the community it serves. The duty is relevance. Not resting on the laurels of the past, integrating technology and new methodologies, stopping old and stale programs, collaborating with competitors, and making sure the faces of the organization resemble the faces of the community being served are just the starting places for demonstrating relevance in a changing world.

The fourth obligation is assuring sustainable human talent and financial resources are in the pipeline at all times for the next generation to carry on. Term limits; a robust leadership development strategy for volunteers, staff and board; a commitment to succession; and clear methodologies, strategies and expectations for everyone to have a defined role in stewarding the financial contributions from the community creates an insurance policy and investment portfolio to face the future.

I think Jeff has done a good job of translating how a board's can live its fiduciary duties (care, loyalty and obedience) while adding some of the dimensions to how these duties are executed (policy, planning and evaluation). Obligations? Maybe if understood as executing the fiduciary duties.

The balance of this article is found here: http://thirdsectorcompany.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/LBBJ-Column-145-The-ABCs-of-Great-Boards.pdf

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New Haven’s Mary Wade Home, at 150 years, continues to expand mission

‘The people here are like family’

NEW HAVEN >> Millie Sullivan is 95 years old, uses a wheelchair after having suffered a stroke, has some hearing loss and is president of the Resident Council of the Mary Wade Home.

It’s people like Sullivan, who previously lived in New Haven, who exemplify the resident-centered focus of the assisted-living facility in the city’s Fair Haven neighborhood, which is celebrating its 150th anniversary this year.

“I listen to any of their gripes and then report it to the department whether it’s complimentary or negative and I ask for ideas,” said Sullivan, who has lived at Mary Wade for two years in the 94-bed Kimberly skilled-nursing section.

While any group will have some complainers, they don’t number many at the Mary Wade Home, where the staff attempts to meet each resident’s individual needs and desires. They’re “very nice, they’re very pleasant; they make it really feel like home because they have activities in the morning, in the afternoon and in the evening, so we’re kept busy,” said Sullivan.

Marian Lemley, 88, who moved to Mary Wade’s Boardman assisted-living facility from West Haven, hasn’t slowed down since she arrived nine years ago. She’s a member of the Chatham Square Neighborhood Association and has tutored children in a Fair Haven homework club.

“What we do is make sure that they’re doing their homework rather than running around the neighborhood,” she said.

“I have a very strong commitment to it,” Lemley said of Mary Wade and its role in New Haven. “Honey, if I didn’t like it, I would have moved out a week after I moved in!”

Lemley, who just became a great-grandmother for the first time, helps sell tickets to events such as the Christmas bazaar and is engaged in a variety of ways.

“Whatever comes along and needs doing I do,” she said.

She’ll visit with new residents who may have questions or be a little confused about the transition from what may have been a longtime home.

“Basically the people that are here are family. Absolutely. I say that with no reservation at all,” Lemley said. “They’re always willing to go the extra mile.”

So is Lemley. “For a couple years I was Miss Mary Wade” for the annual neighborhood parade, “dressed up in the costume and the whole bit,” she said.

Mary Wade was the sister of Lucy Boardman, one of the founders of the home in 1866, along with the wife of Eli Whitney and other prominent women of New Haven. They started the home originally for young women and children.

“The ladies represented all the churches of the New Haven community” Hunter said.

Later, the home served only elderly women; the first men didn’t arrive until the 1980s, which “caused a little bit of controversy” with a few residents, according to Chief Executive Officer David Hunter, who arrived at Mary Wade as administrator 35 years ago. The skilled-nursing center was added in 1989 and in 1993 the Mary Wade Home launched an adult day center, which draws elders from all over Greater New Haven.

“That became so successful we built an addition to that in 2000,” Hunter said.

Hunter is as focused on his staff members as he is on the residents.

“Providing quality jobs to people in the area has always been, for me, important,” he said. “We have a very strong scholarship program. We help a lot of people. Even though we do a lot for senior care, we do a lot for people in this area.”

Since the 1990s, the home has bought houses in the vicinity, which it rehabilitated as affordable housing. Some staff members live in those houses.

As head of an elder-care residence, Hunter has seen many residents finish out their lives at Mary Wade. “To me there’s a hallowedness about this land and this building,” he said. “And to me it’s an honor to be the steward of it.”

Laurene Ortowski, director of dietary services, has been with the Mary Wade Home for 33 years.

“I learned our culture by coming here as a young girl,” she said. “Our residents always came first. … The expectation was always high, our service of caring, the delivery of services, and it trickled down to every department.”

Ortowski told of buying special ingredients to make a porridge for a West Indian resident — who wasn’t happy until her third try — and of a new program in which a choice of meals are brought to the residents by the dining staff. “Our residents get to choose their selection right from the cart,” Ortowski said. “We get to spend time with our residents.

The attitude is, “We’re a guest in their home and we work for them,” she said. Never before “did I ever work for a place where the residents and the staff always came first.”

“I love it here. It’s my second family,” said Jessica Soto, a certified nurse’s aide and medical technician who has been on the staff for 14 years. “It’s my second family because I treat them as if they were my own grandparents and the staff is great to work with as well.”

“It’s not like an institution; it’s a home. We go way above and beyond to make sure it’s person-centered care,” said Rosanne Mondrone, community relations director, who also admits new residents. She started 19 years ago as a nurse in the skilled-nursing unit.

“If you’re not all on the same page, you don’t want to be here, because there’s a high level of expectation. … I think we’re very unique in the way we treat families, we treat people, we treat each other,” Mondrone said.

Tiffany Burnham is Mary Wade’s recreation director, responsible for planning most activities for residents. Besides traditional trips and entertainment, she has the help of a newfangled computer program that allows residents to Skype their great-grandchildren, watch vintage TV shows and commercials, listen to all kinds of music and take tai chi classes.

Called “It’s Never Too Late,” the system can be used on five computer terminals at the home and for groups on a large screen in the community room. It has multiple benefits, Burnham said.

Designed with seniors in mind, she said of the program, known as “IN2L,” “I would say connecting with not only families because it has a whole email capacity and Skype, but being connected with past interests.

“There’s also capacity for people who are unable to verbally communicate,” said Burnham.

The variety of music is especially helpful to connect with those who are unable to verbalize, she said.

“They’re staying connected with their life history,” said Kara Hunter, director of marketing and David Hunter’s daughter. “The things they loved, the things they were around.

“The grandchildren, the great-grandchildren are so computer-oriented, this really acts as a bridge,” Kara Hunter said. “It’s a really nice way to bridge all those interests together and give everyone something to do.”

Activities include trivia games and Family Feud. And there’s a spiritual section that includes a guided rosary.

Looking to the future, David Hunter said there are plans for a new building across Pine Street that will include a unit for residents with dementia, as well as apartments for singles or couples.

“We want to be a good neighbor in this Fair Haven residential area,” he said. “At the same time, we are compelled to grow and expand our mission to be of service to the growing number of senior citizens.”

As part of its 150th-anniversary celebration, the Mary Wade Home will hold its 11th annual wine dinner at 6 p.m. April 30 at the Omni New Haven Hotel. Tickets to the gala, which will feature Tuscan wines of Carpineta, are $200. For more information, go to www.marywade.org/events or contact Kara Hunter at khunter@marywade.org or 203-672-7813.

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Greetings!!

2016 Spring is bringing in another Walk For Autism. Come rain or shine it promises to be another great success for this coming year. There will music, food trucks, entertainment, bounce houses and so much more. It will be on Sunday, May 1st beginning at 9:30am at Choate Rosemary Hall Athletic Field Wallingford, CT.

If you need full information then please contact: Grand Apizza, 111 Grand Ave, New Haven @ 203/624.7646 either Lisa or George can give full and detailed information concerning this great event for Autism.

The website is: www.ctautismwalk.com.

Thank you and hoping you can join!!!!

Patricia Illingworth

Grove Street Cemetery

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By Anna Bisaro, New Haven Register

Photo Credit: Catherine Avalone — New Haven Register 

NEW HAVEN >> As Aly Tatchol Camara biked to the very edge of Criscuolo Park, fishing poles slung on his back, he found he would not be alone at Grape Vine Point this cold, March evening.

Two poles already rested on the stone wall, lines dropped into where the Mill and Quinnipiac rivers meet before emptying into Long Island Sound. A 13-year-old boy told Camara through his shivering that he hadn’t had any luck yet that night in catching anything. The boy said he was there to try to bring fish home to his family.

Just to the right of the poles was a sign from the state Department of Energy and Environmental Protectionwarning that if anyone spots raw sewage in the water, they are to call and report the sighting.

Combined sewer overflows, contaminated storm water runoff, lawn fertilizers and lingering chemicals from dozens of power and manufacturing plants are just some of the pollutants hurting Greater New Haven watersheds. All three rivers in Greater New Haven — West, Mill and Quinnipiac — are on theimpaired waters list of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

While pollution limits activities like swimming and paddling in these rivers, it also poses a significant risk to those who consume fish from them. Thestate Department of Public Health advises that any fish caught from the Quinnipiac River should be consumed only once a month, due to the dangerous contaminants present in fish tissue. Blue crab from the Mill River should not be eaten at all, the department warns in its 2016 consumption guide.

Camara, 51, said it was still a little too early in the year to catch much, but he said he likes spending his summer evenings at the edge of Criscuolo Park. A native of West Africa, Camara has been in the United States since 1996, he said, and he now teaches African dance and drumming in New Haven.

He mostly fishes for sport, releasing much of what he gets, he said. Fishing in the evenings keeps him away from television and out of trouble, he said with a laugh.

“This is a place for us to spend time,” Camara said. “You meet a lot of friends here.”

CONTAMINATION THREATS

Based on the health advisories from the state health department for 2016, fish in the Quinnipiac may be contaminated with polychlorinated biphenyls, commonly referred to as PCBs. The recommendation that any species of fish caught in the river only be consumed once a month applies to both high-risk and low-risk groups.  Continue reading . . . 

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L-R Erika Vergara, Sister Doretta D’Albero, and Sister Mary Ellen Burns standing in front of their offices in Fair Haven.

In 1906, a small congregation of nuns from the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus left their home in Tuscany to perform missionary work in New Haven. The United States was in the midst of a great wave of European immigration, and the Sacred Heart sisters were called to help other newly arrived Italians in need. They took in orphans, taught sewing classes, provided religious instruction to children, and assisted new arrivals with the difficult transition of starting over in a strange place.

A century later, sisters from the Sacred Heart congregation are once again helping recent immigrants find stability in Greater New Haven. Located in the former convent of Saint Rose of Lima in Fair Haven, Apostle Immigrant Services offers legal assistance to immigrants trying to navigate the dizzyingly complex immigration system. The core of their work is resolving visa issues that risk breaking families apart or are preventing individuals who are stuck abroad from reuniting with families already in the United States. Many of the clients come from horrific war zones or countries with oppressive governments.

“The stories you hear make you think twice about ever criticizing or complaining about anything,” says Sister Doretta D’Albero, an accredited Bureau of Immigration Appeals representative with Apostle. Continue reading.

 

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The second election for student representatives to the Board of Education will be Thursday, April 7 and Friday, April 8 in all New Haven Public high schools across the district. Last year, several members of City Hall, the Board of Alders and the Board of Education volunteered to monitor the elections in the schools.

Volunteers are needed for the following roles:

          Election Day observers:  

           -- Stationed in each school to ensure that the process is going smoothly.

          -- Also need extra volunteers to help with actual election process (checking in students, etc) in the larger schools like Cross & Hillhouse

         -- Between the hours of 7:30am-2:30pm, for as many or as few hours as your availability allows

         Ballot Counters:

         -- Work with Committee to count paper ballots after elections close

         -- Begins at 3:00pm on Friday, April 8 and continues until counting has finished, for the duration of the count

If you can help out in any way, please contact Randy Goldson at nhpsstudentvoice@new-haven.k12,ct.us or 347-295-5931. Please let us know the capacity in which you are volunteering, your preferred school and/or role (if applicable) and the hours that you can commit on each day.

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Poetry at Grove Street Cemetery

A Much Happy Spring To All....

April if the month of Poetry. Today, I would to bring forward a writer residing at 22 Cypress Ave John William DeForest.

DeForest is well known for his writing genre The Great American Novel.

Or the more general movement of literature toward realism, and he also wrote poetry.

Born in Seymour (known as Humphreysville) he was the son of a very prosperous cotton manufacture. DeForest spent must of his time overseas writing and creating literature and poetry.

One of his most scholarly works is entitled The History of the Indians of Connecticut, from the Earliest known Period to 1850.  He served in the Civil War in the 12th Connecticut Volunteers. He is also praised for his work Miss Ravenel's Conversion from Secession to Loyalty. He was a contributor to The Altantic Monthly and other magazines.

Photo is from Wikipedia:

He died in 1906 from heart disease in New Haven.

All the best,

Patricia B. Illingworth 

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Nonprofit Board Strategic Planning

The Concord Leadership Group via Associations Now has completed their 2016 survey of 1000 CEOs, board members and others to provide some lessons about nonprofit strategic planning, CEO succession planning and other nonprofit matters. I would pose that 1000 responses is certainly worth a heads-up.

I must observe that the survey authors have a pretty negative feeling about the nonprofit sector (read their forward) and even their interpretation of the survey responses was pretty negative - more negative than even I generally believe. For instance, one result is I that 70% of nonprofits having strategic plans. This is great news!

And maybe it's just good marketing on the author's part,but I found the points for "why" strategic planning pretty good.

Specifically, for those who do strategic plans, they are:

More likely to collaborate with other nonprofits
More likely to have boards “open to taking calculated risks”
More likely to evaluate its CEO annually
More likely to have a process for measuring leadership effectiveness

These would indeed be great resulting outcomes from planning, presuming of course, these are actually results from strategic planning processes versus just values and beliefs shared in the survey.
WHAT GETS A BOARD TO SUPPORT STRATEGIC PLANNING?
BY MARK ATHITAKIS / MAR 28, 2016

A new study suggests that strategic planning remains a struggle for boards. A clearer picture of life without a strategic plan may help.

We don’t seem to be getting much better, as organizations, at strategic thinking.

That’s one of the main takeaways from the Concord Leadership Group’s “Nonprofit Sector Leadership Report,” a study by the nonprofit consultancy of more than 1,000 CEOs, board members, and other leaders. Some of the results echo familiar points: Nonprofits are weak at succession planning, for instance (only 77 percent have one, pretty good compared to other surveys), as well as CEO evaluation (only 61 percent of boards do it annually).

It’s not surprising, either, to see that so many organizations are weak at strategic planning as well. According to the survey, 29 percent reported not having a strategic plan, and 19 percent of those that said they do have a plan said it’s not written down.

Which must make those quarterly board-meeting prep sessions rife with intrigue.

“Problems are best expressed as real threats rather than specific solutions.

But one thing the survey does a good job of highlighting—in a way that isn’t often done—is finding the correlations between strategic planning and other measures of success for an organization. Those with a written strategic plan were:

More likely to collaborate with other nonprofits (83 vs. 76 percent)
More likely to have boards “open to taking calculated risks” (65 vs. 51 percent)
More likely to evaluate its CEO annually (36 vs. 21 percent)
More likely to have a process for measuring leadership effectiveness (75 vs. 50 percent)

It seems almost commonsensical, then, to put in the time to put together a strategic plan. So why do we resist it?

Partly, to put it simply, because it’s hard. “Many board members, at least in my experience, in their day jobs they’re not necessarily used to being in roles that require them to think or act or work strategically,” Jolene Knapp, CAE, told me in January. And many boards, uncomfortable with the rigorous process of environmental scanning and self-contemplation that goes into a useful strategic plan, wind up with ones that mostly ratify what they’re already doing (or not doing). So much so that I proposed killing the term “strategic plan” and replacing it with something that hinted more strongly at the forward-looking nature of the document. (I still like “futures committee” as a term for the task force charged with this work.)

The advice of the Concord Leadership Group survey is to boil down the strategic-planning process to four straightforward questions:

What are we doing, and why are we doing it? This is effectively the mission statement, with a nod toward the changing environment in the industry.
How are we going to get it done? This lays out the goals and objectives for the span of the strategic plan.
How will we fund it? This can mean dues, nondues revenue, and donations. But as the study points out, this can also identify partners and collaborations that can support a nonprofit’s work.
Who will we tell about it? That is, how will the goals be communicated to the staff who will implement it, the volunteer leaders who will hone and expand it, and the public who will support it? (The last particularly meaningful for associations that do government-relations work.)

Beth Gazley and Katha Kissman, authors of the bookTransformational Governance, based on their research on association leaders, echo that rough outline, and point out some of the ways they can encourage boards to actually begin to do the work that goes into it. In many cases, highlighting the perils of doing nothing can do the trick. So can getting the board to look squarely at the problems it faces. “Problems are best expressed as real threats rather than specific solutions (which come later),” they write. “Some boards and CEOs in our study reported member dissatisfaction, apathetic board members, missed opportunities, and other real threats to their association’s future.”

Strategic planning is never going to be easy, if it’s done well. But clarifying the stakes of not doing it, talking through the benefits of the process, and making the process as painless as possible can help make that essential work happen.

What do you do to get your boards engaged in the strategic-planning process, and how do you make that process effective and meaningful? Share your experiences in the comments.

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New Haven CT- Cheryl Burack, Executive Director of Family Centered Services of CT has been selected to represent the CT Coalition for Child Development Education (CCCDE) at the 15th World Congress of the World Association for Mental Health in Prague, Czech Republic to be held May 29-June 2, 2016.   Burack will be giving a Poster Presentation and discussion on behalf of the group and co-authors, Robert Margolies, Ph.D. and Janet Pozmantier, M.S.W. 

 

The mission of the CCCDE is to provide all Connecticut high school students with prerequisite knowledge to prepare for the early care of human beings.  A long term vision is to build child development centers in high schools, where teacher and community day care is present, providing a community service as well as teaching platform for educational activities. In her role as a member of the steering committee of CCCDE, Burack has advanced its mission and philosophy that parenting is life’s most important endeavor, and is the underpinning or our entire social structure and function. Eighty to ninety percent of youth will become future parents. Yet there are few educational requirements that prepare future parents with information concerning child development, infant mental health, and parenting preparedness. Scientific understanding in the latter areas has been burgeoning and is readily available for educational dissemination. The group is helping to address this issue in its pilot teaching programs.

 

Burack, a leader in the area of child welfare, has served as Executive Director of Family Centered Services of CT for over 27 years. Family CT is a private nonprofit community-based organization dedicated to ending child abuse, neglect and victimization across the life span.

 

Founded in 2001 the CT Coalition has successfully lobbied for child development to be included in the state curriculum as an elective. The Coalition has held state wide forums at the Capitol, testified before the Education Committee and the Task Force on the Achievement Gap and worked to include the issue in the State Early Childhood Plan called, Ready by Five: Fine by Nine. With funding from the Graustein Memorial Foundation and the Napier Foundation, the Coalition has developed a dynamic child development course now available without charge to middle and high schools in the Connecticut. For more information about the CT Coalition for Child Development Education visit: http://ct-coalition-for-child-development-education.org .  For information about Family Centered Services of CT, visit www.familyct.org.13358892255?profile=original

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Tickets Now Avaiable

Tickets are available now for the 11th Annual Spring Cocktail Party & Auction to benefit Family Centered Services of CT on May 5, 2015 at Amarante’s in New Haven, CT. 

Reverend Dr. Frederick “Jerry” Streets, nationally known for his research and work with victims of trauma will be speaking about leading and living “A Purpose Filled Life".

Doors open at 5:30 for the Auction Preview.  Tickets to this sell-out event are $75.00 per person.  Tables of 10 at available for $ 600.00 and tables of eight are available for $480.00.  

Family CT has sought to develop and implement innovative programs that protect children from harm and ensure their healthy development.  

To purchase tickets visit www.familyct.org 

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The Quinnipiac River is home to an array of aquatic plants and animals, as well as waterfowl like the white heron. Learn more about The Quinnipiac River at www.thequinnipiacriver.com

Grants Support Research into the Sources and Effects of River Contaminants an Anti-Pollution Public Education Campaign, and the Continued Development of a Recreational Trail along the River's Edge.

New Haven, CT (March 28, 2016) – The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven is pleased to announce that $117,700 in grants has been awarded from the Quinnipiac River Fund to support 8 programs that study and restore the river and surrounding ecosystem, provide education and improve recreational access. 

The River flows 40 miles from west of New Britain southward to Plainville, Southington, west of Meriden, Cheshire, through Wallingford, Yalesville, North Haven and into New Haven Harbor.

“The Quinnipiac River historically had many industries on its banks that discharged their waste, metals and chemicals into it, so it is now taking much effort to get the river clean once again,” said Nancy Alderman, chair of the Quinnipiac River Fund’s advisory committee. “The grants for this year will once again contribute to the ongoing work of restoring the river’s health.” 

Grants and distributions from the Quinnipiac River Fund are recommended each Spring by the advisory committee consisting of Alderman, President of Environment and Human Health, Inc.,  Gordon Geballe, Associate Dean of the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies, and Roman Zajac, Professor, Department Chair of the University of New Haven’s Department of Biology & Environmental Science. Committee recommendations are brought to The Community Foundation’s Board of Directors for approval. Since being established in 1990, the Fund has distributed $2 million in grants. 

Learn more about the Quinnipiac River and projects supported by the Quinnipiac River Fund, along with the history of the river and recreational opportunities at www.thequinnipiacriver.com

2016 Quinnipiac River Fund Grants 
Organization Description Total Amount Awarded
New Haven Land Trust Inc. to support educational programming, improving trail and sign infrastructure, and organizing volunteer events at Quinnipiac Meadows/Eugene B. Fargeorge Nature Preserve and Long Wharf Nature Preserve as well as  land acquisition work at Quinnipiac Meadows Nature Preserve. $15,000
Quinnipiac River Linear Trail Advisory Committee to support the purchase of additional benches along Phase III of the trail which will add 1.25 miles to Fireworks Island as well as graphic art designs for the informational sign to showcase history, natural history, and location information. $5,000
Quinnipiac University to support the study of  plasticizers and other chemical pollutants from industrial point sources in Wallingford and North Haven with an emphasis on the pollutant's impact to indigenous fish populations in the Quinnipiac River. $24,000
River Advocates of Greater New Haven to support Lunch and Learn sessions for municipal department of public works crews in the lower Quinnipiac watershed for best practices in stormwater pollution prevention; enforcement of public access at an abandoned, neglected Quinnipiac River site at Lowe's on Route 80 in New Haven; education of phosphorus control; and monitoring of pollution and diversion permits. $20,000
University of New Haven to support the study of several sites along the Quinnipiac River to determine whether endocrine disruptors are present and then trace their source. $11,500
University of New Haven to support the study of  benthic algae to detect seasonal variation in species composition, as well as testing copper content in situ algal samples and conducting mesocosm copper uptake experiments to test the bioremediation potential of various algal species. $12,000
Yale University to support the study of sediment accretion and elevation change in the Quinnipiac marshes, and for a wildlife-exclusion experiment to test the hypothesis that herbivory is preventing vegetation from recolonizing mudflat areas. $13,500
Yale University to support the study of the risk of runoff from artificial turf fields into the Quinnipiac River's watershed.
$16,700
   

The Quinnipiac River Fund is a component fund of The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven. It was established in 1990 by a court settlement of litigation between the Connecticut Fund for the Environment, the Natural Resource Defense Council and the Upjohn Company concerning wastewater discharges from Upjohn’s plant in North Haven.  The settling parties agreed that distributions from the Fund were to be used “to improve the environmental quality of the Quinnipiac River and the New Haven Harbor and the watersheds of these water bodies, and otherwise to benefit the environment of these resources.” 

Thanks to the generosity of three generations of donors, The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven awarded over $30 million in grants and distributions in 2015 from charitable assets of more than $500 million and composed of hundreds of individually named funds. In addition to its grantmaking, The Community Foundation helps build a stronger community by taking measures to improve student achievement, create healthy families in New Haven, promote local philanthropy through www.giveGreater.org® and The Great Give®, and encourage better understanding of the region. The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven’s 20 town service area includes: Ansonia, Bethany, Branford, Cheshire, Derby, East Haven, Guilford, Hamden, Madison, Milford, New Haven, North Branford, North Haven, Orange, Oxford, Seymour, Shelton, Wallingford, West Haven and Woodbridge. For more information, visit www.cfgnh.org or follow The Foundation on Facebook (www.facebook.org/cfgnh) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/cfgnh).

###

Media Contact
Tricia Caldwell
Director of Communications
203-777-7090
tcaldwell@cfgnh.org

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13358891659?profile=originalThe Community Foundation for Greater New Haven announces The Great Give® 2016, The Foundation’s seventh community-wide online giving event to raise funds for local nonprofits serving Greater New Haven. Over a 36-hour period from May 3 at 8:00 am to May 4 at 8:00 pm, gifts made to over 400 participating nonprofits will be eligible to be matched; more than $190,000 in matching funds and prizes for nonprofits is available. Grand prizes will be awarded to the nonprofits that attract the most number of individual donors ($15,000), get the greatest number of new donors ($10,000), raise the most money ($5,000) and more. Gifts will be matched on a pro-rated basis with additional funds by The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven and Valley Community Foundation. Local businesses and corporations, including Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Liberty Bank Foundation and others, are offering prize and match money during the 36 hours. Additional features for donors have been added. A list of participating nonprofits, prizes and rules is online at www.thegreatgive.org

The Great Give® is the annual giving online event on giveGreater.org®, a local resource for learning and giving created in 2010 by The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven to increase philanthropy in the Greater New Haven region of South Central Connecticut. Since its beginning giveGreater.org® has distributed over $4 Million to local nonprofits. Donors wishing to support their favorite cause or charity can visit giveGreater.org® to find information on local nonprofits, including their mission, governance, programs, financials and community impact. Donors can also stay connected by visiting www.facebook.com/givegreater and following @givegreater on Twitter. The Great Give® 2016 is being held in conjunction with Give Local America’s day of giving.

Thanks to the generosity of three generations of donors, The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven awarded over $30 million in grants and distributions in 2015 from charitable assets of more than $500 million and composed of hundreds of individually named funds. In addition to its grantmaking, The Community Foundation helps build a stronger community by taking measures to improve student achievement, create healthy families in New Haven, promote local philanthropy through www.giveGreater.org® and The Great Give®, and encourage better understanding of the region. The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven’s 20 town service area includes: Ansonia, Bethany, Branford, Cheshire, Derby, East Haven, Guilford, Hamden, Madison, Milford, New Haven, North Branford, North Haven, Orange, Oxford, Seymour, Shelton, Wallingford, West Haven and Woodbridge. For more information, visit www.cfgnh.org or follow The Foundation on Facebook (www.facebook.org/cfgnh) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/cfgnh).

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AREA NONPROFITS INVITED TO PARTICIPATE IN 36-HR ONLINE GIVING CAMPAIGN

Thousands of dollars in prizes available; Registration required by April 1, 2016

The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, the region’s permanent endowment and largest grantmaker to area nonprofits, invites local nonprofits to participate in The Great Give® 2016. Participating nonprofits can earn special prizes in addition to the donations given online by individuals. The Great Give® 2016 is the seventh major community-wide giving event on giveGreater.org® taking place for 36 hours starting 8:00 am on May 3 and ending 8:00 pm on May 4. More than $170,000 in matching dollars and prizes will be provided by The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, the Valley Community Foundation, Alexion Pharmaceuticals, Liberty Bank Foundation and other generous community sponsors.

Nonprofit organizations serving the region and that are interested in participating must register by April 1, 2016 at www.thegreatgive.org or by calling 203-777-2386; eligibility requirements apply. Businesses interested in supporting the nonprofit community through prize sponsorship are asked to contact Sharon Cappetta, Director of Development, at 203-777-7071.


Thanks to the generosity of three generations of donors, The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven awarded over $30 million in grants and distributions in 2015 from charitable assets of more than $500 million and composed of hundreds of individually named funds. In addition to its grantmaking, The Community Foundation helps build a stronger community by taking measures to improve student achievement, create healthy families in New Haven, promote local philanthropy through www.giveGreater.org® and The Great Give®, and encourage better understanding of the region. The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven’s 20 town service area includes: Ansonia, Bethany, Branford, Cheshire, Derby, East Haven, Guilford, Hamden, Madison, Milford, New Haven, North Branford, North Haven, Orange, Oxford, Seymour, Shelton, Wallingford, West Haven and Woodbridge. For more information, visit www.cfgnh.org or follow The Foundation on Facebook (www.facebook.org/cfgnh) and Twitter (www.twitter.com/cfgnh).

Media contact:
Tricia Caldwell
tcaldwell@cfgnh.org
203-777-7090

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As a nonprofit, community based dance school, New Haven Ballet (NHB) offers classical ballet training to a many throughout the City of New Haven.

“We provide the highest caliber of classical ballet training in the region,” says Artistic Director Lisa Sanborn.

Boasting a roster of 500 students, from 3 – 18 years old, some of these students practice up to 6 days a week perfecting their skills.

“They are tremendous athletes. They cross train, very seriously, but they’re also artists,” says Sanborn. “It’s really something very special that we are looking for in these students.”


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Nonprofit Board Recruitment

Board member recruitment is never an easy task. But let's say your nonprofit is successful in identifying a candidate, is the criteria for selection singularly a set of skills, knowledge, expertise and lens that make the candidate the "right" fit? I would propose there to be one more element: passion for mission. And how to measure or determine passion? While action (lots of experience or knowledge about the mission is an indicator of passion, I pose that the candidate's understanding of the organization's theory of change would be a clear indicator of fit.

Theory of Change answers three questions: what is the issue, concern or interest that calls for action; what is the solution or action around this issue; and what is the desired result? If a prospective candidate's answers or perspective to these 3 questions is consistent with the board's, fit is highly likely. If the candidate does not have any perspective consistent with the board's own collective declaration of responses to these questions, then the candidate, in my opinion, is likely not a good fit. As an indicator, an individual's understanding of and willing to engage around the theory of change will assure the rest of the board that a future partner has been identified.

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Wake-up Call For Nonprofits

Less than a decade ago, before the dramatic and sadly increasing disparity between "the haves" and "the have-nots" (now an issue in the presidential campaign), luxury brands typically dispersed their giving to a wide range of nonprofits: culture, education, health and a range of social service organizations all doing good in many creative and altruistic ways. The luxury brands that gave, a generous percentage of their marketing budgets did little to promote (many thought “tout”) their good corporate citizenship...

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/269739/wake-up-call-for-nonprofits.html ;

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Request for Compassionate Hospice Volunteers

Are you a good listener who enjoys being with other people? Have you been looking for a way to have an impact on someone else’s life? If so, please consider becoming a volunteer for Regional Hospice and Home Care. 

Hospice Volunteers are needed in the New Haven area as Regional Hospice and Home Care expands its services becoming the exclusive hospice provider at the Smilow Cancer Hospital at Yale-New Haven.

Training will be provided. After training, the volunteer’s schedule is flexible.

Interested applicants should contact Mary Beth Hickey (MHickey@RegionalHospiceCT.org / 203-702-7415) or complete a volunteer application on our website: https://regionalhospicect.org/volunteer/online-volunteer-application/

Thank you for your consideration!

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Regional Hospice and Home Care’s team of experienced clinicians have been providing physical, emotional, spiritual and bereavement support to children, adults and their families through our palliative and hospice care program for the past 30 years. Regional Hospice and Home Care is a nonprofit, state-licensed and Medicare-certified home health care and hospice agency. Now, with the opening of our new private-room, specialty hospital for palliative and end-of-life care — the Center for Comfort Care & Healing — Regional Hospice and Home Care can bring that same hope and compassionate care close to home and under one roof. For more information, visit www.RegionalHospiceCT.org. Follow us on twitter: @RegionalHospice. Like us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/RegionalHospiceandHomeCare.  

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Naugatuck Valley Community College Nursing Class of 2016. Photo courtesy of CT League for Nursing.

There are a myriad of different options when choosing a nursing career and the Connecticut League for Nursing (CLN) is ready and available to help individuals make informed decisions about their futures.

  

For over 10 years the CLN has published a guide to nursing education and professional development. That spiral bound document is now available online at www.ctnursingguide.com.

What are the differences between nursing degrees, including undergraduate and graduate? What Connecticut schools offer nursing programs?  How do you know what nursing track to take? What jobs await nursing school graduates? 

All these questions and more are answered via this online guide. Also included is “Intentional Advisement,” which offers “unbiased nursing counseling for those who are either interested in entering the profession of nursing, at any level, or looking to continue their education into graduate degrees,” says CLN Executive Director Marcia Proto.

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Nonprofit Board Fiduciary Duty of Loyalty

"She was their landlord and she raised the rent," he said. "There's nothing illegal about that."   This is the attorney's response for his client facing federal prosecution for stealing or misappropriating federal dollars.  Not illegal?  Not a violation of the fiduciary duty of care (self-dealing and conflict of interest)?  I beg to strongly differ that, the list of harm the accused has done against her health center is lengthy and for sure, illegal in my opinion.  But let's also recognize that the thefts or redirecting of grant funds is not her only violation.  Stacking the board with cronies who would effectively sign-off on misappropriations is a serious violation not to mention that shouldn't her cronies also be indicted?  

If a core principal of a nonprofit is "to do no harm", the core principal of governance should be leveled at an even higher bar where the "owners" not only do no harm but do everything in their might to ensure success.  Illegal and beyond is what happened at this institution.  I can only hope that the federal prosecutors are successful in demonstrating both intent and result and that this trial might be held-up to demonstrate to all who serve on nonprofit boards what is their duty and responsibility.

 Here's the Philadelphia Inquirer story. 

Tartaglione pleads not guilty to federal fraud charges.

by Jeremy Roebuck, Staff Writer.

Facing federal charges for allegedly bilking a nonprofit clinic out of hundreds of thousands of dollars, Renee Tartaglione - a member of one of the city's best-known political families - showed no sign Thursday that she was worried.

 
In federal court for a brief arraignment hearing, Tartaglione, 60, pleaded not guilty to 53 counts including conspiracy and fraud.

"I'm feeling good. I'm feeling confident," she said as she left the Market Street courthouse afterward with her husband, Democratic ward leader Carlos Matos.

Both have weathered past run-ins with controversy. Her forced smile seemed to say that this, too, her family would survive.


Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20160226_Renee_Tartaglione_pleads_not_guilty_to_federal_fraud_charges.html#Pvmvj28DD2XegFwH.99"We've reviewed the indictment microscopically," he said. "From what we've been able to initially determine, the allegations are tissue-thin."

Federal authorities believe they have pinned Tartaglione - daughter of former elections chief Margaret Tartaglione and sister of State Sen. Christine M. Tartaglione (D., Phila.) - at the heart of an elaborate fraud.

For years, she served as board president of the Juniata Community Mental Health Clinic, which held city contracts to provide mental-health and substance-abuse services to Medicaid recipients.

In an indictment unsealed last month, prosecutors alleged she treated the nonprofit as a personal slush fund, siphoning off its government funding to line her pockets at the expense of low-income patients.

Between 2007 and 2012, Tartaglione bought up buildings the nonprofit used in the poverty-stricken Fairhill neighborhood of North Philadelphia and allegedly raised the monthly rents nearly 1,500

According to the indictment, the Juniata clinic was paying $4,800 a month before Tartaglione took over. By 2012, prosecutors say, its monthly rent had shot to $75,000.

All the while, authorities allege, she stacked the clinic's board with cronies and yes-men, and was issuing Juniata checks to employees for services they never provided with the understanding they would cash them and return the money to her.


Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20160226_Renee_Tartaglione_pleads_not_guilty_to_federal_fraud_charges.html#Pvmvj28DD2XegFwH.99

Tartaglione's tenure at the clinic's helm came at a tumultuous time for her family. She became board president in 2007, the same year her husband was sentenced to a three-year stint in federal prison for bribing three Atlantic City councilmen.

Three years later, Tartaglione was forced to resign as her mother's chief elections deputy, for breaking rules barring politicking by city employees. The allegation that drove her out was that she was managing Matos' Democratic 19th Ward in Kensington while he was behind bars.

After his release, Matos also had a role at the Juniata clinic, though he has not been charged in his wife's federal case. He worked as a counselor even as he received mental-health treatment there while on federal probation.

DiStefano, however, said Thursday that he didn't see much illegal in anything the government had alleged.

"She was their landlord and she raised the rent," he said. "There's nothing illegal about that."

jroebuck@phillynews.com215-854-2608


Read more at http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20160226_Renee_Tartaglione_pleads_not_guilty_to_federal_fraud_charges.html#Pvmvj28DD2XegFwH.99

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