Community Foundation of Greenville’s Post

Today we are launching our new, multiyear philanthropic and community engagement initiative that places a sharper focus on achieving better health and vitality in key regions – building healthier communities. Through grants from The Cigna Group Foundation, as well as corporate charitable giving and employee engagement efforts, the initiative will focus on three commitments that are essential to community vitality: improving youth mental health; improving veteran mental health through housing stability; and reducing barriers to health equity. Grounded in data and insights from the Evernorth Research Institute, we are setting goals to address some of today’s biggest health challenges, starting with youth mental health. According to a recent study from Economist Impact, nearly half of parents surveyed reported their teen is experiencing mental health challenges like anxiety and depression. To help address this crisis, The Cigna Group Foundation has opened its first grant application of the year to support youth mental health and well-being. The application will be open through May 22, 2024. Healthier communities don’t just happen – we each need to do our part to create better health for all. Read the full press release: https://lnkd.in/g5PrSRtk

Philanthropy is not an easy field to be in. So many of us are deeply passionate about the problems we want to solve, and see so clearly a better alternative to the current state of affairs. Yet, sometimes it feels like we are staunching wound after wound, addressing problems as they pop up like a high-stakes game of whack-a-mole. When we can break from that, we need to celebrate. We also need to share our learnings and successes with our peers. This is how we can anticipate problems before they arise and create systems change in the ways we dream. We just completed our strategic plan and now is a perfect time to share our new mission: Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation (TTCF) brings together trusted partners to align strategies and inspire philanthropy to nurture a resilient community and environment. We're thrilled to highlight our ongoing collaboration with the Katz Amsterdam Foundation (KAF). This long-term partnership exemplifies our mutual commitment to tackling systemic issues head-on for the people and place we love. Early on in our partnership (way back in 2018), KAF and TTCF joined forces to address critical gaps in mental health and substance abuse services in our mountain towns. Through a thoughtful approach that involved the insights of all 45+ multi-sector Community Collaborative partners, we've identified key priorities and developed a behavioral health roadmap to guide our collective efforts toward lasting solutions over time. Recently, KAF partnered with TTCF to distribute $250,000 in grant funding to four local mental health nonprofits. These grants aim to decrease substance misuse, increase healthy activities, and promote mental health equity for all residents, especially those in communities of color. Rob Katz and Elana Amsterdam, founders of KAF, have been instrumental partners in addressing the unique mental and behavioral health challenges of mountain communities. Their commitment to eliminating inequities and increasing access to care aligns perfectly with our mission here at TTCF. But our collaboration doesn't stop there. KAF also connects mountain towns across the West to share resources, knowledge, and best practices. By leveraging our collective expertise, we're making a difference not only in Tahoe Truckee, but also in communities across the region. Learn more about this partnership in our recent press release below. #philanthropy #familyfoundation #mentalhealthfunders #mentalhealthmatters #communityfoundation https://lnkd.in/gMTmXVSP

"On average, nine out of 10 people in permanent housing remain housed after one year, a success rate Shimkhada attributes to the wraparound services and the program’s philosophy of doing “whatever it takes for as long as it takes” to get and keep people housed..." Learn more about the #SupportiveHousing work we're doing in partnership with Los Angeles County Department of Health Services here: https://buff.ly/3YBciRh #AffordableHousing #HousingForAll #NonProfit

Great article online from Optometry Today about the ongoing work by Expert Focus Specsavers Vision Care for Homeless People and the Bristol Lived Experience group. Vital work highlighting the barriers to eye care that people experiencing homelessness face. https://lnkd.in/d6HPf9Bv Stan B. Josephine Osborne David Brown Philippa Simkiss Hannah Telfer Joni Nettleship #vchp #specsavers #expertfocus #charity #optometry #volunteering #abdo #optometrytoday

What is The Sunflower Hub and why is it useful (and valuable) for anyone working with children & young people? It is firstly about connection, and secondly about support. The reason I created The Sunflower Network in the first place was to identify and create ways to offer specialist bespoke services and provisions to help support practitioners and professionals, whether working individually or as part of a team, who were themselves supporting children, young people and their families. One thing I noticed in the early days of starting Sunflower was that not only did the nature of the work mean that people were very often working in isolation whilst holding and containing a lot for others, but that often there wasn’t regular interactions outside of individual modalities and professions - unless people were working within specific multi-agency teams. I also very quickly became aware of the need for a ‘network’ - other professionals that I might need to refer onto or to consult, people to collaborate with on ideas and projects, to network with - who’s local to me geographically as well as who’s around professionally working in similar or complementary fields. Finding all of the above required time spent on internet searches, or trawling through all the various directories (often hard to navigate) or asking multiple groups on social media - and even then, it could be challenging from a safeguarding point of view to verify an appropriate scope of practice and credentials. And most crucially I found it really hard to find child & adolescent practitioners & professionals let alone specialists or services in particular areas - often it entailed longer and longer searches and requests for help. And so - to help answer a lot of the above - I created The Sunflower Hub. A multi-disciplinary resource to connect up practitioners, professionals & organisations (charities, services, CICs, support groups, research groups) with each other all in one place to save time, and with really detailed search capabilities to streamline finding exactly who we need. And to make it even more accessible - it’s completely free. Free to join, free to use - and will stay so forever. It’s there to help you find support / consultation / connection / networking. It’s also available for the public to use to help them find you as well - so if ever you’re in need of clients, being part of the Hub can help. We already have a few practitioners, professionals and organisations on board and quite a few still within the registration process (this helps with safeguarding as we take some time to verify everyone who joins) but for The Sunflower Hub to be even more useful, we need even more people to join. Get in touch - info@thesunflowernetwork.co.uk - if you have questions or start your registration via our website. We look forward to welcoming you. Photo: taken by me in my beloved Lake District, I think it sums up where we are with the Hub right now. So much potential!

Non-profits are businesses! The advantage is their mission tends to be clearer than a for-profit business in my experience. Read how Lena Wilson applied business concepts + creativity + passion to drive greater success at Vista Del Mar! "NO WRONG DOOR" #vistage #impactaward #growthanddevelopment https://lnkd.in/g3uCdrQ2

We are excited to announce a new research study in partnership with Kingston University and Ofsted’s social care insights team, which will examine the provision of care to children in children’s homes. Children in children’s homes currently have outcomes that underperform those of other children in care and can be at greater risk of going missing, being involved in the youth justice system and experiencing mental health difficulties. At the same time, we know that since 2010-11, expenditure on children’s residential care has risen by more than £1bn, equivalent to an 89% increase (as highlighted by the Children’s Charities Coalition report into social care spending). Much of this has been a result of an increase in the number of children placed in residential care, which has more than doubled since 2011. Worryingly, this trend appears to be occurring, at least in part, as a result of a shortage of suitable alternative placements rather than this type of care being assessed as the best option for the child. The study, funded by the NIHR (National Institute for Health and Care Research) will examine anonymised data from over 25,000 children who had a placement in a children’s home between 2014 and 2023. NCB will lead a series of focus groups and interviews with young people with direct experience of children’s homes as well as with parents, care staff and decision-makers in the sector. Experts by experience will also be involved in the design and dissemination of the research throughout the project. The study will shed light on: - how local authorities make decisions in relation to commissioning children’s placements; - how outcomes for children relate to the type of provision they receive; and - why some placements in children's homes work better than others. Initial findings from the study are expected in March 2026, with a final report scheduled for August 2026. Read more at https://lnkd.in/eKeeCqSP

If you are a social justice warrior - likely one working in a nonprofit or association - digging deep to find the energy to foster an environment that values "long-game" efforts, this post is for you. Between 2014-2020, I was employed with the Alzheimer's Association®. My title and responsibilities changed three times, but the organization's overall mission never changed. One group of constituents we served was family caregivers. We provided quality education and support in the form of free educational courses, support groups, social engagement activities, online blogs and dashboards, and more. We elevated community awareness of what caregivers face by arranging media interviews, setting up awareness days with local businesses and city/state governments, and executing fundraising events. Finally, we committed, alongside a tireless group of volunteers, to advancing state and federal legislation to better support our caregiving population. We organized groups to push through new legislation and educated elected officials on dementia care needs. That last paragraph - you know, the advocacy one - was tough work. You likely know that it can take years to get one resolution signed into law. But I was dedicated - my whole team was dedicated - to the steady, consistent work it takes to raise an issue up high enough in the air so that more people can see it, and then to nurture and educate those people to move change forward. Financial challenges among caregivers are real, and reducing financial despair matters. So we fought, spending countless hours trying to convince our elected officials that they could make a difference and proposing solutions. Unfortunately, for many years, we made very little progress getting bills signed. It was gutwrenching to keep watching all of our efforts - our calls, letters, social media posts, community organizing events, one-to-one meetings, media coverage, etc - be met with "maybe next year." In 2020, I relocated and wasn't able to keep my job. I bid farewell to those efforts, but missed the work and the people. I kept tabs - sent money to my favorite fundraisers and stayed in touch with many constituents - including a number of family caregivers. This week, I read a news article that a bill passed to give family caregivers tax credits in Nebraska. Nebraska is now only the second state in the U.S. offering this. That very bill was something our organization - the team I worked with - started planning with AARP in 2016. That's at least eight years, though likely much more, of pounding pavement and doing what is right. Eight years of "no." One signature later - finally - "yes." I'll close with a favorite quote from Claudia Kennedy: "Everything a person does or does not do has an effect on our society. People have to ask themselves which side they want to be on - the side of change or the side of inaction." People are counting on you. Keep going. Your efforts matter. (Me at Nebraska State Capitol, 2019)

The Vital Work of the Susan Vickers Foundation For tens of thousands of young people in the UK who have experienced the foster care system or been adopted, the road to building a stable, fulfilling life is riddled with challenges. Without a strong support network or access to resources, these youths face higher risks of poor educational outcomes, mental health struggles, unemployment, and homelessness. This is where the Susan Vickers Foundation steps in, providing a lifeline of hope and empowerment and is dedicated to nurturing the cultural capital, education, mental wellbeing, and overall flourishing of foster, adopted, and care-experienced young people across the nation. The Importance of Cultural Capital At the core of the Foundation's philosophy lies the concept of cultural capital – the skills, knowledge, and advantages that enable social mobility. For many young people from disadvantaged backgrounds, a lack of exposure to enriching experiences and networks can perpetuate cycles of inequality. The Susan Vickers Foundation bridges this gap by offering a diverse range of arts, cultural, and personal development opportunities.  Prioritising Education and Wellbeing Education is another cornerstone of the Foundation's work, recognizing its transformative power in shaping futures. In the UK, only 12% of children in care achieve passes in English and Maths GCSEs, compared to 59% of non-looked after children. Through tailored tutoring, educational grants, and collaborations with schools and universities, the charity aims to ensure that every young person has the chance to unlock their academic potential. Crucially, the Foundation understands that academic success is intrinsically linked to mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing. According to UK government statistics, 45% of looked after children had a diagnosed mental disorder, compared to 10% of children from more stable home environments. The Foundation's holistic approach encompasses counselling services, life skills workshops, and recreational activities that promote healing, resilience, and overall well-rounded development.  A Ripple Effect of Change The impact of the Susan Vickers Foundation extends far beyond the individual lives it touches. By empowering young people to overcome adversity and achieve their dreams, the charity is actively shaping a more inclusive, equitable society. Each success story serves as a beacon of hope, inspiring others and challenging societal perceptions surrounding the care system. As the Foundation continues to grow, its mission remains steadfast: to create a world where every young person in the UK, regardless of their background, has the opportunity to thrive, contribute, and leave a lasting legacy of their own.  To learn more about the Susan Vickers Foundation's initiatives or to get involved, visit susanvickers.com.

Check out this Q&A with Jessie Mandle