PHL GC August Newsletter - Women's Connection

Home Control Panel Custom PagesPHL GC August Newsletter

TTN PHILADELPHIA GIVING CIRCLE

MONTHLY NEWSLETTER

August 2022

Dear Giving Circle Members and Friends,

As many of you know, I began this year in partnership with Mary Klein, leading an effort to make the TTN Philadelphia Giving Circle’s 10th anniversary a special year. We crowned it the “Year of the Child." Amazingly it is now August and, since the beginning of the year, I am proud to say we have become more educated on several challenges facing Philadelphia’s children today. And we have also been fortunate enough to have met some inspiring people and dedicated nonprofits striving to improve the lives of our children along the way.

But one important topic remains — gun violence. We encounter it nearly every day in the news and too many of our children live with it and its consequences. That is why, heading into the home stretch of the “Year of the Child," we are tackling this important issue.

So as a co-lead of the Giving Circle’s 10th Anniversary “Year of the Child” committee, I ask you to please join us on SEP 13th as we hear from both our youth whose neighborhoods are experiencing gun violence as well as those who are trying to make a difference. To learn more, see below.

Sandi Slap

Co-Chair, 10th Anniversary Committee

__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

GUN VIOLENCE & PHILADELPHIA'S CHILDREN -

a Public Health Crisis

Tuesday, September 13th

2:00 to 3:30 pm

via Zoom

Nearly each day the Philadelphia media brings us new stories of gun violence. Too often these stories focus on our children, as victims, or describing the myriad of other consequences they face because of ongoing violence in their neighborhoods. No topic is more timely or urgent in Philadelphia at this time.

Join us SEP 13^thto hear from those who are trying to reduce gun violence and its consequences, as well as from young adults who live in communities that have been directly affected.

Helen Gym, City Councilmember and Advocate against Gun Violence, will moderate an expert panel as we delve into this topic and discuss what can be done to reduce the amount of gun violence we are seeing on our streets. We owe it to our children to be more informed.

So please mark your calendars! And click here to be taken to the event page to register. Registration is $5.00.

---- This topic is too important to ignore ----

DID YOU KNOW THAT . . . The consequences of exposure to violence on child development are very real. The Child Welfare League of American (CWLA) points out that children and youth exposed to chronic trauma can experience inhibited brain development, producing a lasting impact on life outcomes. Likely a result of such exposure, [experts] noted numerous skill deficits among the children and youth they serve who live in neighborhoods that have high rates of poverty and crime. To read more, click here.

JUNE WAS VOLUNTEER DAYS . . .

In June, TTN Philadelphia and Giving Circle members came together to lend a hand to six nonprofits supporting Philadelphia’s children. Last month we featured three volunteer events - The Book Bank, El Centro de Estudiantes and Stomping Grounds Social Justice Cafe. This month we are featuring the other three. On June 2nd, Susan Collins led a group at Tree House Books. Then on June 9th, Sharon Segal spearheaded a group of volunteers at Cradles to Crayons. Finally, on June 11th Carol Cunningham gathered a group of volunteers at Bartram Gardens with representatives from Camp Soujourner. We have found that one of the best ways to get to know the nonprofits we care about is to spend time with them and these events provided us with a brief opportunity to do so. Thanks to everyone who participated and we hope to see you again next year!was volunteer month!

Tree House Books is all about encouraging children (and their parents) to read. This exemplary nonprofit received one of the TTN Giving Circle grants in 2021. It plays an important role as both a giving library and literacy center in its impoverished, North Philadelphia community.

Our group of seven volunteers learned about the exciting, summer book distribution programs and the book mobile from Michael Brix, the Executive Director. We then stamped books, and put together 90 packages of books that would be given to older family members, who we hoped would be eager to read them! The result would be adults modeling for children the joy that can come from reading a wonderful book.

Tree House Books, 1430 West Susquehanna Avenue, Philadelphia

Cradles to Crayons, 4700 Wissahickon Avenue, Philadelphia

Cradles to Crayons provides children from birth through age 12, living in homeless or low-income situations, with the essential items they need to thrive – at home, at school and at play. They supply these items free of charge by engaging and connecting communities. Volunteers play a huge part in this organization and we were told that they are well-organized and crucial to the operation. We sorted and cleaned books for distribution to Cradles to Crayons partners, chatted, got to know each other and, as one volunteer noted, “The ladies loved the activity.” Groups of volunteers organized by TTN have enjoyed working at Cradles to Crayons in the past.

Camp Soujourner, Girls Leadership Camp, offers girls ages 8 – 18 an overnight summer camp program, year-round mentoring service projects, creative arts, and leadership activities. We spent the morning with the Camp Sojourner Executive Director Alisha Berry and Camp Counselors and girls at Bartram Gardens. One group weeded the kiwi vines and planted Dahlias. The other group weeded a number of the community garden beds. We had a chance to interact with the girls and learn about their current challenges and future dreams. After the work session we had pizza together and learned more about the great work that Camp Sojourner is doing to enhance leadership skills for girls. Alisha Berry may arrange mentoring relationships for TTN members with Camp Soujourner girls, but this has yet to be determined.

Camp Sojourner, 801 South 48th Street, Philadelphia

“Everybody can be great. Because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve…. You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.” ~Martin Luther King, Jr.

Year of the Child Campaign

We recently received a note from from a member of the Giving Circle: “Enclosed is my renewal gift “bumped.”

Thank you to all of you who have “bumped” up your renewal gift in support of the “Year of the Child.” As you know, all donations this year support nonprofits whose primary focus is Philadelphia children. Recognizing the extent of their need, and in support of the 10th Anniversary of the Giving Circle, we are asking our members to increase their renewal gift for this one year alone.

This will enable us to reach our ambitious $100,000 goal — significantly higher that the funds raised in any year of our history. We’ve almost raised $75,000! A significant achievement. But we need all-hands-on-deck if we are to reach our goal.

So please consider a “bump” in support of the campaign. The kids in the city need our support more than ever. We encourage you to send your renewal gift early this year. December 31 is the final date for renewal, permitting you to vote in 2023 on which nonprofits receive our support. Thanks, as always to all our generous Giving Circle members.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Giving Circle Member

Each month we are going to feature one of our own Giving Circle members "in the Spotlight." This is a great way to get to know your fellow Giving Circle members and to learn why being part of our Giving Circle is important to them.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

Past Grant Recipients

In honor of our 10th Anniversary, each month we are going to feature one of our past recipients. This month we are featuring the SeniorLAW Center to which we awarded a grant in 2019.

Rebecca Schulman

Meet Rebecca Schulman. Rebecca, a native of Baltimore who earned her MSW from Howard University in 1969, moved to Philadelphia to the neighborhood of Washington Square West in 1984 when her husband Dr. Edward Schulman began a new job at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. Four years later Ed became the head of pulmonary and critical care at Hahnemann Hospital, where he worked until the hospital closed in 2019. They have a daughter and grandson who live in Center City. In addition, Rebecca has a daughter by her first husband and a teenage grandson who live in Atlanta.

When Rebecca joined the Giving Circle in 2016, she immediately joined the Grants Committee. Rebecca’s career as a social worker in Baltimore, with an expertise in foster care, child welfare and hospital social work at Johns Hopkins Hospital, dovetailed perfectly with the work of the Grants Committee.

“I like reviewing the grants,” said Rebecca. “As a social worker, I have a lot of strong feelings about what the needs are.” She also enjoys “working with different people who you wouldn’t get to meet otherwise. Everyone has a different orientation and different opinions and that’s interesting. You get to share ideas.”

Rebecca also brings to the Grants Committee her 20 years of experience as a volunteer social worker with the Philadelphia District Attorney’s Youth Aid Panel, an alternative community-based program for first-time youth offenders. The panel brings together the family of the juvenile and volunteer members of the community to review the infraction of the youth offender and create a contract agreed upon by the panel. If the contract is fulfilled, the juvenile’s record would be expunged. “It was very rewarding,” said Rebecca.

Rebecca is especially pleased that the Giving Circle is dedicating its 10th anniversary year to the Year of the Child. “If you can help a child in the beginning, you’re on the right track.”

contributed by Caroline Lacey

In Philadelphia, senior citizens experience a higher poverty rate than their peers in many other parts of the country. Many of these are women raising young children because their birth parents are deceased, incarcerated, ill, or substance addicts. However, many of these caretakers don’t have legal custody so their intervention on behalf of these children is at risk.

The SeniorLAW Center was established in 1978 with the mission of seeking justice for older people by using the power of the law, educating the community, and advocating on the local, state and national levels. Its goal is to transform lives by emboldening older people with resources and representation to help them be seen, heard, understood, and protected.

So why did the Giving Circle give a grant to the SeniorLAW Center in 2019 when it’s mission is to improve the lives of women and children in Philadelphia? Here’s why.

It’s a common theme that grandparents have to get involved when circumstances prevent their daughter, who is often a single parent, from properly caring for her children. This could be because of substance abuse, incarceration, mental health issues, or general poverty and unhealthy living conditions. If the grandparents are helping out, they have no legal standing to make sure the child is enrolled in school or getting the proper medical care. They also have no protection if an unfit parent returns and tries to take the children back.

The SeniorLAW Center is able to help these caring grandparents get sole legal physical custody of these children so they are able to live in the safe environment they deserve. The process is lengthy. It can take months – and even longer due to COVID backlog – to get a final decree. Children may have to meet with a judge to tell their story and while they are assured of privacy and encouraged to speak their truth, this can put additional strain on them. They are young and living in traumatic circumstances so all of this uncertainty takes its toll.

The good news is that if this is accomplished, the child can find a great deal of relief in the stability and consistency of their grandparent’s home. They can rely on being enrolled in school, of living in a more healthy environment and having access to medical care to address their own physical and mental health issues. This formalized custody can also clarify the boundaries of the child’s relationship with their parents which may continue to be challenging.

Research shows that children flourish in the care of nurturing relatives, godparents, stepparents or any adult who has a kinship bond with the child. They do better in school, have fewer behavioral issues, and more frequently report “feeling loved.” The SeniorLAW Center, which is primarily funded by public and private grants, including foundations, corporate and law firm sponsors and individuals, is in the business of bringing this stability into the lives of children. And this is why the Giving Circle chose them as their 2019 grantee.

For more information on the SeniorLAW Center, click here.

contributed by Susan Collins