PVF’s Geballe Excursion Grant Supports Fun and Learning at Children’s Fairyland

Imagine a hidden oasis in the heart of a concrete jungle just for children, where fairytales come to life. No, this is not Disneyland or some state-of-the-art facility. It is Children’s Fairyland, an Oakland landmark perched on the edge of Lake Merritt that is still as exciting and relevant today as it was when it was established in 1950. More than 60 years later, Fairyland has remained charming, able to coax out the imagination of a child with ease through its storybook sets, low-tech rides, animals, and gardens. A child can weave through an Alice in Wonderland-themed maze, explore the home of the little old lady who lives in a shoe, befriend a donkey, or hop on a train to feel the wind in their hair. The world is their playground in this magical land.

While in Fairyland adults are only able to attend when accompanied by a child, Philanthropic Ventures Foundation was recently invited to visit for a Head Start Event, in which more than 1,000 children in the Head Start program attended Fairyland for a day of fun and exploration. Head Start is a child development program for three to five year old children from low-income families in Oakland that strives to develop social skills and school readiness. PVF funded a portion of this event through our Geballe Excursion Grant Program, which went to bus transportation for the children and their families.

We were given the grand tour of the 10 acre theme park by C.J. Hirschfield, Executive Director of Fairyland. As we strolled about, it was a delight to see children enchanted by the simple structures, completely immersed in their own imaginations. C.J. showed us her favorite attraction, a small mound of grass that is one of the most popular activities; children spend ages running to the top and sliding down in an endless loop.

Literary allusions are woven throughout the park. Classic fairytale stories come to life through towering statues and interactive structures. As an adult, you may miss the boxes scattered throughout the park, which are set at a child’s level for easy access. These boxes, which are operated by a special key, each play a recording of a different story. One of Fairyland’s most recent accomplishments has been translating each story into Spanish. Children that are more comfortable with Spanish are now included in this literary experience.

These elements are designed to spark a love of reading, showing children how a book can be exciting and magical. Fairyland operates on the belief that early exposure to reading will promote school readiness and a strong educational foundation. C.J. and her team strive for this by fostering a whimsical and engaging atmosphere.

PVF’s Excursion grants are meant to allow children from low-income schools the opportunity to partake in new experiences with their peers outside of the classroom. Fairyland is naturally an ideal excursion, as it effortlessly fuses fun and learning into an experience that even an adult can relish.

For more information about our Geballe Excursion Grant Program, please visit our website!  

Cultivating Change: PVF Funds a Gardening Teacher and her Outdoor Classroom through the Science Resource Grant

Ali Goldstein has always aspired to become a gardening teacher. After beginning her journey working on farms to get hands on experience as a gardener, her next stop was with Americorps, where she ran an after school program at Hoover Elementary that included a gardening component. After securing a small amount of funding from the school district, Ali dove into her passion by launching a small-scale gardening project at the elementary school.

Hoover Elementary is a small public elementary school located in West Oakland. As the garden coordinator for the entire school, Ali plans and teaches 12 weekly classes to 315 students from kindergarten through 5^th grade. Though the daily gardening sessions are short, they are packed with information and materials that relate to plants, insects, and everything in between. Ali coordinates with the school’s resident science teacher (a position rarely seen in a public elementary school) so that her lessons are congruent with what the students are learning in the classroom and also line up with the California State Science Standards.

PVF recently awarded Ali a Science Resource Grant to attend a school garden training program at the Occidental Arts and Ecology Center so that she can learn how to better integrate garden education and ecological literacy into her outdoor classroom. Our Science Resource Grant program supports professional development opportunities like this in addition to materials and excursions related to science and conservation.

Hoover’s garden serves as a natural laboratory where students can apply what they learn and get their hands dirty. The students planted all of the vegetables and flowers present within the tiny but well-used space. During my visit, the 3^rd grade students I met talked to me about the butterflies, bees, and ladybugs that live in their garden. They excitedly pointed out radishes, kale, potatoes, strawberries, tulips, and a fig tree. The students get to plant the seeds, tend to the plants, and watch them grow and change over the seasons. This day they were reaping the rewards of being a vegetable gardener by pulling off ripened sugar snap peas to eat. Soon, they will have a salad party with their homegrown butter lettuce.

Ali stated that she hopes to expand the program next year and integrate a nutrition element to the program so that students can better understand how science, gardening, and a healthy body are interconnected. By funding a professional development opportunity for Ali, we believe that she will become an even more effective teacher and gardener. Our Science Resource grants are designed to support the work that teachers like Ali are doing to enhance their teaching and forge a future generation of science-savvy individuals.

Our Science Resource Grant Program provides grants of up to $500 to K-12 teachers in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties in order to enhance their classroom science programs relating to conservation. For more information on the program and how to apply, please visit our website.  

Helping CASAs Promote a Normalcy Rarely Experienced by Foster Children

We are thrilled to share this guest post by Beth Nolan, who is the Program Director of  CASA of San Mateo County. Beth works closely with her CASA volunteers to apply for our Social Worker/CASA Resource Grant Program.

“I want to come again!”  Hearing those words was so very special for Linda, a volunteer with CASA of San Mateo County.  CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) of San Mateo County partners caring adults with children who have come under the court’s protection because their parents can’t or won’t take care of them.  CASA volunteers meet weekly with a child and spend more one-on-one time with their children than any of the professionals involved in a child’s life. They are often the only consistent adults spending time with and advocating for these children during the entire time they are in the foster care system.

David, age 9, and his two brothers were removed from their parents’ home when he was 7.  He suffered severe neglect, witnessed many incidents of serious domestic violence and had difficulty adapting to his foster home.  He tried to run away several times, had many behavioral problems at school and, because of his negative experiences, he did not trust adults.  He would not talk to his foster mother, his teacher, or his CASA volunteer, Linda.

For nearly two years, Linda met with David weekly.  They visited the zoo, played at the park, and walked her dog at the beach. Though David was willing to spend time with Linda, and even occasionally smiled at her, he remained silent.

Yet Linda never gave up.  This past summer, David could not fully participate in a summer program because he did not know how to swim. Linda applied for a Philanthropic Ventures grant to enroll him in lessons. His first lesson was challenging.  David was afraid of the water so Linda repeatedly encouraged him to get into his swimsuit and into the water, which he did. As David became more comfortable in the pool, he looked over at Linda after each accomplishment with a proud, happy grin. When the lesson ended, David eagerly said to Linda – “I want to come again!”

Since that special day when David found his voice and finally trusted an adult enough to share his feelings, he has continued to speak.

Philanthropic Ventures Foundation continues to help CASA of San Mateo County transform the lives of foster children.  CASA Volunteers have received grants for a variety of causes – each very important to the life of a child.  PVF has made the following possible: tutoring for a 6^th grade girl who is far behind academically due to multiple moves; basketball camp for a 10 year old boy recently reunified with his mother, new glasses for a teen preparing to emancipate from foster care and a laptop for a young man who recently became orphaned.

The ease and efficiency of the CASA Resource Grant Program at Philanthropic Ventures Foundation promotes a normalcy that our foster children rarely experience.

PVF’s EPA Social Venture Fellow Helps a Community Transform its Landscape

PVF has established several fellowship programs in an effort to provide hands-on learning opportunities for university students outside of the classroom. One of these programs is the East Palo Alto Social Venture Fellowship, an initiative that supports an undergraduate student at Stanford to work in East Palo Alto for a year on an innovative project, partnered with a local nonprofit.

This year’s EPA Social Venture Fellow is Irene Jor, who is working towards a degree in Urban Studies. Shaped by her experiences growing up in the rapidly changing urban setting of Boston, Irene chose to pursue a degree in Urban Studies to support community-led urban design and planning. She believes urban development can harm communities if not community driven, and seeks to “disrupt the framework of how urban change occurs in communities of color and how university students work with neighboring communities in their public service endeavors.”

Through the Fellowship, Irene is encouraging community-led urban planning through work with the East Palo Youth Arts and Music Center project, a community initiative working to build a center dedicated to the arts programs arising in East Palo Alto. The Youth Arts and Music Center project is a collaboration of organizations including the Mural, Music and Arts Project; Live in Peace; Youth United for Community Action, and Stanford’s John W. Gardner Center for Youth. The center is slated to open in 2014.

The Youth Action Team has been encouraged to learn relevant urban design skills by participating in activities such as this drawing workshop at Stanford University.

Because the arts center is being built for youth, the East Palo Youth Arts and Music Center project seeks to design the urban space alongside the community’s youth. To do this, they created a Youth Action Team. Irene is working with this youth team, helping them develop relevant skills like project design and implementation, and urban design theory. Through these lessons which include site visits and interactive learning, she is helping to empower the youth to take charge of the way their community is being developed.

Members of the Youth Action Team collaborating at one of their weekly meetings.

PVF visited one of Youth Action Team’s weekly meetings recently to see the work Irene is doing. The meeting was packed with an array of activities. The team broke into groups and sketched floor plans for the future arts center. They also discussed the details of an event they are planning for East Palo Alto youth complete with musician performances, and interactive workshops in urban design to get even more community input into the project.

The Youth Action Team regularly goes on site visits to learn about other art and youth initiatives in the Bay Area. Here they are visiting Art Murmur in Oakland.

Throughout the meeting, there was an air of trust, respect, and engagement. The youth gave meaningful feedback, there was mutual respect between youth and group leaders and a theme of collaboration running throughout the meeting.  One example of collaborative art was a group poem written when a clipboard was passed around and each team member was asked to write one line of a poem, centered on their experiences in the Youth Action Team.

Though a simple concept, the idea of involving youth in community development and empowering them to guide the direction of their evolving community is both innovative and impactful. Irene’s work is helping to ensure that the urban space being built is a grassroots initiative and truly of the youth, by the youth, and for the youth.

PVF’s Mathematics Resource Program Offers Grants to Build a Stronger Foundation for the Future

Exposure to mathematical principals at an early age can help forge a path for future mathematics and scientific learning. According to a report by the National Mathematics Advisory Panel, students should reach mathematics milestones every few years in order to build the foundation necessary to be more successful in their general education. For example, “students who complete Algebra II are more than twice as likely to graduate from college compared to students with less mathematical preparation.”

Recognizing this, the Heising-Simons Foundation partnered with PVF to create the Mathematics Resource Grant Program. This program funds math resources in preschools and kindergarten through third grade classrooms.

The easy-to-apply-to program has provided significant support to preschool and elementary school mathematics programs. Below are a few ways in which teachers and their students have benefited from this program:

Fairmont West Preschool – charting materials to track airplanes in the sky

The preschoolers charted every plane that flew over them during outside play time. They also purchased basic mathematics materials to practice their counting skills. According to the teacher, “Math was incorporated into all the room’s areas with the purchased items, and this sparked our enthusiasm for more extended hands-on math activities.”

Franklin Elementary School – measurement manipulatives

This third grade teacher used her funding to purchase measurement manipulatives for her students, which allowed her students to take a more hands-on approach to learning: “We only have measurement tools for demonstration purposes, so students learn about measurement by watching the teachers.  By securing enough materials for our students to work in small groups, we know that they will be able to practice conducting measurements and make a better connection to the math skills they are learning.”

Santa Teresa Elementary – math boards, number tracks

A 2^nd grade teacher received a grant to purchase math boards and number tracks for her students in order to promote hands on learning: “I have an exceptional group of 2nd graders who are eager to learn and I want to give them every bit of resources possible so that learning will be meaningful and fun. The concept of regrouping with addition and subtraction can be a daunting task for many students – hands on materials help students grasp these new lessons.”

This beneficial program has just received another injection of funding and we are now accepting applications. If you know any K-3 public school teachers in San Mateo or Santa Clara Counties, please encourage them to enhance their mathematics curriculum by applying now!

Where’s James? Seeing the Results of Community Building

Marcelino Plascencia, Assistant Director of Programs, & Anna L. Waring, Executive Director, from Foundation for a College Education

Anna L. Waring, Executive Director of Foundation for a College Education, believes education is the purest and most powerful means of social justice. Foundation for a College Education (FCE) is working towards this form of social justice by increasing the number of students of color from East Palo Alto and the surrounding area who graduate from a four-year college or university.

Of the 130 students who have graduated from FCE’s high school program since 1999, 100% have enrolled in a college or university. Furthermore, 85% of enrolled FCE’s students have either graduated from college or on track to graduate.

How do they get such concrete results?  By developing strong enduring ties not only to the students but also to their parents. We believe this is a triumph of community building.

Using Our Grassroots Expertise to Support Community Initiatives through the Facebook Local Community Fund

Facebook, the social networking giant located in Menlo Park, aims to support local initiatives in its neighborhood as a way to give back. PVF was selected to support Facebook in this effort by administering the Facebook Local Community Fund due to our grassroots approach to grantmaking and knowledge of the local community. Our President and Executive Director can often be seen out in the community meeting with individuals and collaborating on new ways to cultivate change from the ground up. PVF is well-known for “finding ‘em and funding ‘em.” We have a history of working in the community to ignite transformation without involving bureaucracy and large amounts of paperwork.

The Facebook Local Community Fund is designed to bolster the efforts of 501(c)(3) nonprofits in Belle Haven and East Palo Alto. Less than a year old, the Fund has already awarded a total of $200,000 to 42 organizations in the first round alone. $72,500 was given to nonprofits with a history of success serving Belle Haven. Another $72,500 was granted to nonprofits serving East Palo Alto whose programs provide youth access to computer technology, social media, or weekend activities.  To top this off, $55,000 was given to organizations that serve both East Palo Alto and Belle Haven. This large injection of support into the community is only the beginning.

The second round of funding is now open and applications are being accepted until the May 1, 2013 deadline. The application process is streamlined, reflective of our interest in funding people, not paperwork.

Do you think your nonprofit is doing outstanding work in Belle Haven or East Palo Alto? Check out our website for information on how to apply to the Facebook Local Community Fund!