Vol. 3, No. 1 Winter 2001
The Incarnate Word Foundation's fall 2000 grants, totaling $571,549, support organizations, churches, and agencies serving people in St. Louis City and County, rural areas of Missouri, and East St. Louis, IL. The funded programs work to make lasting improvements in the lives of people, who include incarcerated adults and youth, mentally disabled persons, the elderly, persons with HIV/IDS, and single mothers.
In addition to Annunciation Grants (awards of $10,000 or less), the foundation also awarded five Extraordinary Grants. These grants exceed $10,000 and support new programs and demonstration projects. Catholic Community Services, St. Louis, will use its grant for its capital campaign. Corpus Christi Catholic Church and St. Jacobi Lutheran Church received a joint grant to support a senior home repair program in Jennings, MO. Family Care Health Centers, St. Louis; Incarnate Word Academy, St. Louis; and Sacred Heart Catholic Church, Springfield, MO, will, respectively, use their grants to provide dental care, support a chapel building campaign, and purchase a van for a rural outreach program.
Catholic Community Services, St. Louis; St. Louis Partnership for Children and Youth, St Louis; and Whole Kids Outreach, Ellington, MO, received Incarnate Word Partnership Grants. These awards support operations rather than particular programs and encourage partnerships between the foundation and the grant recipient.
Bridget McDermott Flood, the foundation's executive director, congratulated award recipients at the awards reception January 10: "The positive energy in this room and the relationships we see building among you are very rewarding. Thank you for all you do to make our communities better places to live."
At-Risk Youth
Christian Activity Center, East St. Louis
Lighthouse Community Outreach Center, St. Louis
Operation Safe Street, Inc., St. Louis
Shiloh Adult & Children's Basic Educational Center, St. Louis
St. Matthew the Apostle Catholic Church, St. Louis
Youth in Need, Inc., St. Charles, MO
Community Health and Wellness
Carondelet Community Betterment Foundation, St. Louis
Carver House, St. Louis
Faith and Family Connections (Dress for Success Midwest), St. Charles
Friendly Temple Missionary Baptist Church, St. Louis
Maplewood/Richmond Heights Community Church Cluster
Wesley House Association, St. Louis
Day Care
Bethesda Lutheran Church, Pine Lawn, MO
Union Memorial United Methodist Church Development, St. Louis (ST. LOUIS OK?)
Developmentally Disabled
Gateways, St. Louis
Family Support Services, St. Charles
Vogelweid Learning Center, Jefferson City, MO
Domestic Violence
Family Violence Council, St. Louis
OWL, the Voice of Midlife & Older Women, St. Louis
Education
Incarnate Word Academy, St. Louis
Our Lady of Guadalupe Catholic School, Ferguson, MO
Perry County Community Task Force, Perryville, MO
Springboard to Learning, St. Louis
Employment
WomanSpirit, Inc., Jennings, MO
Workforce Partners of Metro St. Louis (22 agencies)
HIV/AIDS
Doorways, St. Louis
Food Outreach, St. Louis
St. Louis Effort for AIDS
Housing
Franciscan Connection, St. Louis
Intercommunity Housing Association, St. Louis
Hunger/Shelter
Episcopal Diocese of Missouri (food pantries in Sikeston, Ironton, Farmington)
Loving Hearts Outreach, Franklin and Warren counties, Missouri
Northside Community Center, St. Louis
Immigration
Immigrant and Refugee Women's Program, St. Louis
Provident Counseling, St. Louis
St. Elizabeth Academy, St. Louis
St. Louis Inter-Faith Committee on Latin America
Incarceration
Center for Women in Transition, St. Louis
Episcopal City Mission, St. Louis City and County
Let's Start, Inc., St. Louis
Prison Arts Program, St. Louis
Residents Encounter Christ, St. Louis
Maternal/Child Health
Birthright Counseling-St. Louis
Olive Branch, St. Louis
Mental Health
Places for People, St. Louis
Neighborhood Revitalization
Old North St. Louis Restoration Group
St. Louis Association of Community Organizations (SLACO)
Racism
Holy Family Catholic Church, St. Louis
National Conference for Community and Justice, St. Louis
Spirituality
Cardinal Carberry Senior Living Center, Shrewsbury, MO
Edgewood Children's Center, Webster Groves, MO
Vision of Peace Hermitages, Inc., Pevely, MO
Two free half-day workshops, "Keys to World-Class Leadership and Management," will be held at the Webster University downtown campus, 911 Washington Avenue, on March 6 and April 19, 2001. The workshops, for executive leadership, are a two-part series, and participants should attend both if possible. Dan Coughlin of the Coughlin Company, which specializes in enhancing executives' effectiveness, will conduct interactive sessions on practical methods for generating positive energy, communicating with respect, resolving conflicts, using creativity and innovation, and building outcome-based teamwork. Contact Jackie Metzler at Incarnate Word Foundation for details.
Archbishop Geraldo Flores of Alta Vera de la Paz, Guatemala, visited Southside Catholic Community Services in September. At a luncheon provided by the Incarnate Word Foundation, Archbishop Flores, who is revered in Guatemala for his promotion of human rights, fulfilled his wish to meet the people the agency serves and its staff. He said that those who respond to the pain of others make Christ present in this world. His parish in Santo Domingo is a sister parish to St. Joan of Arc parish in St. Louis.
The archbishop also visited La Clinica, a community health center in South St. Louis that provides medical care for the poor, many of whom are undocumented workers ineligible for government health programs. The growing clinic sees about 25 new patients every week. Some 20 physician specialists volunteer their services, and the clinic's medical equipment and medicines are donated.
Contacts: Southside Catholic Community Services, 2647 Ohio, St. Louis, MO 63118, 314-773-6100. Ana Beatriz Paul, Director; Jaime Ramirez, Community Coordinator. La Clinica, 3646 Fairview Ave., St. Louis, MO 63116, 314-664-5565. William Chignoli, Director; Sr. Louise M. Benecke, Patient Care Services Coordinator.
Grantee SpotlightCenter for Women in TransitionThe Center for Women in Transition has a challenging mission: to provide opportunities for offenders in jail or prison for nonviolent crimes to begin anew when they return to their families and society. The program is based on the premise that a restorative approach to justice is more effective in reducing recidivism than is a punitive approach. Restorative justice emphasizes that crime harms relationships in the community and seeks ways to repair that harm by involving the victim, the offender, and the community. Offenders are held accountable--for example, by getting treatment for a substance abuse problem, doing community service, or providing restitution to victims. Restorative justice also stresses healing by providing opportunities for offenders to seek forgiveness from their victims or their families. Sr. Rose McLarney, CSJ, the center's administrator, says, "Our current criminal justice system and our public thinking focus on punishing people. Released offenders meet rejection at every turn--from employers, landlords. We try to provide the support and encouragement they need to reenter the community with a sense of direction." Mentoring programThe core of the center's alternative approach is its mentoring program. More than 80 volunteers mentor women for 10 to 12 months. They support women as they pursue specific goals such as obtaining job training, finding housing, and staying in drug rehabilitation. Through phone calls and visits, they let their mentee know she is not alone and encourage her to stay committed to her goals. AdvocacyBarbara Baker and Sr. Karen Pollard, BVM, direct the center's advocacy efforts to transform the criminal justice system from a system of retribution to one of restorative justice; provide supervised alternative sentencing for nonviolent women offenders, especially mothers with dependent children; and address the problems of children whose mothers are incarcerated. They contact legislators, network with other agencies, and meet with judges, parole officers, and representatives of the state corrections department. To address housing needs, they find landlords willing to rent to the center's mentees and employers who will hire ex-offenders. Program's progressSince the center's founding in 1997, 89 percent of its mentees have not returned to incarceration. Currently about 40 mentees are in the program. In 1999-2000, 42 volunteer mentors were trained, eight women graduated from the program, and three attended college. In 2001 the center plans to study the feasibility of offering transitional housing for women leaving incarceration and pilot a program of transitional conferencing in which mentees meet with family and community support members to discuss concerns and feelings as the transition takes place. "People are our greatest resource, but we've gotten these women in a box and we're not letting them out," says Sr. Gail Borgmeyer, SAC, the center's development director. "Our mentees have so much potential for doing good. Our goal is to bring that potential to fruition--for the women themselves, for their families, and for society." Contact: Sr. Rose McLarney, CSJ, Center for Women in Transition, 2647 Ohio St., Room 302, St. Louis, MO 63118-5207, 314-771-5207, cwit@stlouis.missouri.org From a client in the mentor program:"I've been out of prison for 18 months, a first for me since I began going to prison in 1981. In the past, upon release from prison, I've been thrown out with nothing. Feeling helpless and hopeless, I eventually returned to stealing to support myself. Now I have a mentor who offers cheer, spiritual support, and the most wonderful advice. I'm very thankful she was placed in my life." From a mentor:"The women I mentor challenge me to grow in ways I do not expect. I witness the fierce determination of the women's spirit to keep going in spite of the odds. I share a path with other women walking together--women who are nurtured and supported by the center and one another. We share hopes and dreams, troubles and triumphs, fears, failings, and faith." |
A spring conference, "Behold, I Am Doing a New Thing" (Isa. 43:19), will focus on how women and men religious can sustain their ministries and begin new ones. In facilitated dialogues, participants will have the opportunity to discuss current issues:
A highlight will be the keynote address on spiritual poverty by Barbara Morrison-Rodriguez, DSW. Dr. Morrison-Rodriguez, research professor and associate dean at the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute, University of South Florida, Tampa, has extensive experience in aging and mental health issues.
Sponsored by the Incarnate Word Foundation and the Daughters of Charity Healthcare Foundation of St. Louis, the meeting will be held at the Regal Riverfront Hotel, St. Louis, on May 11, 2001. The registration fee is $10. For more information, contact Jackie Metzler at the Incarnate Word Foundation.
Last summer this newsletter reported on a joint project of the Incarnate Word and Lutheran Charities foundations to maintain stability of the Jennings community by assisting seniors. As a result of the foundations' needs assessment, Corpus Christi Catholic Church and St. Jacobi Lutheran Church are collaborating to help seniors continue to live in their own homes. The churches' program will help evaluate home repair needs, secure contractors to complete the repairs, and offer financial assistance or low-cost loans. Last fall, the foundations each made a grant to fund the program, which may serve as a model that can be used in other communities.
Board members who can help an organization achieve its vision and mission are essential to its success. To help not-for-profits hone their skills in selecting directors, the Incarnate Word Foundation sponsored two free workshops in October.
Representatives of more than 20 agencies, churches, schools, and other not-for-profit organizations attended the meetings, which were led by Virginia Klein and Lyn Pickel of Entrepreneurial Leadership Development, St. Louis. They explored how to use your mission and vision in selecting board members, clarify responsibilities, recruit directors, run productive meetings, and orient new members. For more information, visit our Web site: www.incarnatewordfund.com.
The I Dare You Conference offers lay volunteers who provide social outreach for faith-based groups the opportunity to expand their skills. This unique meeting will improve communication and coordination among faith-based groups, develop partnership opportunities, and provide education in planning programs and building technical skills. The Danforth Foundation, the Daughters of Charity Healthcare Foundation of St. Louis, the Deaconess Foundation, the Incarnate Word Foundation, and the Lutheran Charities Foundation have worked together to develop this unique conference. The meeting will begin with an evening reception on May 11 at the Regal Riverfront Hotel in St. Louis, where it will continue all day on May 12. For more information, visit the conference Web site, www.idareyou.org.
Please note: Applications that are incomplete at the deadline will not be considered for funding.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Sr. Cathy Vetter, CCVI, Chairperson
Linda M. Allin
Sr. Margaret Bonnot, CCVI
Patrick J. Cacchione
Sr. Bernice Coreil, DC
Peter J. Genovese
Sharon M. Homan, PhD
Sr. Mary Kay McKenzie, CCVI
Camilleann Nelson
Sr. Mary Pezold, CCVI
Sr. Yolanda Tarango, CCVI
Thomas A. Villa
STAFF
Bridget McDermott Flood, Executive Director
Jacqueline Metzler, Executive Assistant
Leah Sweetman, Project Director
710 N. Second Street
Suite 400 South
St. Louis, MO 63102
314-621-4090
Fax: 314-621-7971d
e-mail: iwfdn@swbell.net
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