The Fund For Community Progress Newsletter

FALL NEWSLETTER 2006

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For Terese Curtin, change comes when the human connections are right.

Connecting for Children and Families, where Terry is Executive Director, has been helping families in Woonsocket’s Fairmount community build better futures for their children since 1995.

You could justifiably describe Woonsocket as a community where families have problems. Terry knows the data, such as the numbers on child abuse and teen pregnancy, show a critical need for change.

But, Terry doesn’t start making change by seeking out problems to solve. For her, change comes from building on the strengths in every person, family, and community.

“We can do something in Woonsocket,” says Terry. “It’s not a huge city. And, it’s different in that people are very willing to work together.” Starting from its home neighborhood of Fairmont, CCF is working to make Woonsocket a community that supports healthy families and children for life.

Terese Curtin
PHOTO: JEAN DUFFY

It’s a strategy of optimism, backed up with a broad set of solid, professionally planned and run programs. From referrals for prenatal care to their Teen Action Group, CCF wraps whole families in opportunities to learn, grow, and succeed.
It works. Kids participating in CCF’s tutoring and after school programs do better in school. Parents participating in CCF’s Parents as Teachers program learn how to cope with the stress of a crying baby. It’s all about what Terry calls “protective factors.”

Research shows that successful and nurturing families have a few things in common. Parents bounce back from problems. They have friends and relatives around them. They know the basics of good parenting and how children grow. Their children can deal with anger and frustration without violent outbursts. And when they really need it, they know where they can get help.

Many Woonsocket families need help to develop these qualities. CCF’s work to prevent child abuse and neglect shows Terry’s asset-based philosophy in action. Tragic news stories regularly remind us that the traditional system of removing young victims of abuse from their homes isn’t working very well.

CCF tries to head off abuse instead by working with child care centers and home-based child care providers. CCF shows providers how to value and support parents, and help kids develop emotionally and socially. Providers learn to make referrals when families need help, and, if necessary, how to spot and respond to early signs of abuse or neglect. Most child care providers can adjust or add to their regular programs to include these strategies.

This new program represents just one more thread in the community tapestry being woven at Connecting for Children and Families. CCF brings their web of support to families in so many different ways that they have a point of contact with nearly every family in Fairmount.

CCF’s Parents as Teachers program sends certified Parent Educators on home visits to share advice, activities, and books with pregnant mothers and families with children under five. CCF’s Family Support Center offers drop-in support and problem-solving for families facing urgent needs.

Children and families get support in Fairmount’s schools through CCF’s Child Opportunity Zone services, after school tutoring, and academic summer enrichment. With its new early childhood programs, CCF now offers a continuum of support to families from pregnancy through the middle school years.

Leading CCF since 1997 has been Terry’s dream job. As a young social worker treating substance abuse addiction, Terry chose to make prevention her life work. For the past nine years at CCF, she has dedicated her energy and skills to providing supportive programs and services that build on family strengths. “My priority as a changemaker is to offer opportunities for children and families to succeed in life,” she says.

In Woonsocket, Terry has found just the right place to create a complete, community-based strategy to strengthen families. “It is a privilege to be part of a community where children and families are valued as our number one investment.” . JWH

Elaine Decker Named Executive Director

After a national search for an executive director, The Fund’s Board of Directors has chosen Elaine M. Decker of Providence to lead The Fund to its next level of success. With more than 20 years of experience in development, marketing, and communications, she brings a strong reputation for innovation, risk-taking, and team leadership.

Elaine’s professional positions include Project Manager/Researcher at her alma mater Brown University, Director of Annual Giving at Wheaton College, Marketing Director for Health Enterprises, Owner and Small Business Consultant with Business Theatre Unlimited, and U.S. Marketing Category Director for Colgate-Palmolive Company.

Board Chair Peter Walsh, senior vice president, BankRI, says that the Transition Team, headed by Roberta Hazen Aaronson of Childhood Lead Action Project, was struck by Elaine’s energy, creativity, and commitment to diversity. “She impressed all of us with her experience and talents,” he said. “Elaine will no doubt grow The Fund dramatically while advancing the unique programs of its member agencies. We are most fortunate to have a candidate of her breadth and depth to lead our next generation of advocates.”

Elaine Decker
photo: courtesy of wheaton college

Notes / Member Agencies

George A. Wiley Center After advocating for five years for a low-income affordable energy plan, the Wiley Center won a modest victory when the General Assembly passed legislation to establish a heating assistance program. Although it will not go into effect until 2007, the program will provide discounted rates to a small number of low-income consumers and establish a plan for the forgiveness of 37.5% of the customer’s balance if said customer adheres to a three-year payment plan. A seat on the new Energy Efficiency and Resources Management Council will give consideration to low-income consumers’ interests.

The Housing Network of R.I. monitored legislation at the State House and helped to increase funding for the Neighborhood Opportunities Program from $5 million to $7.5 million. It also created a Supportive Housing Pilot program, supported a state-wide land trust and capacity-building for nonprofit housing developers, and urged continuation of the state historic tax credit. Working with the Housing Works coalition, they will take the campaign for a $50 million housing bond across the state this fall. Passage of this bond would double the production of quality, affordable housing in Rhode Island.

CLAP/Childhood Lead Action Project’s Roberta Hazen Aaronson was honored at the third annual Earth Day Breakfast as a “Lifetime Champion” for her leadership and the agency’s successes in the fight against childhood lead poisoning. She was also chosen by her Fund colleagues as “Board Member of the Year” at its Awards Ceremony last May.

West Elmwood Housing Development Corporation celebrated the grand opening of their Westfield Lofts. These lofts are the result of the $15 million rehabilitation and re-use of two 19th century Rau Fastener mill buildings, the first of a four-phase redevelopment at the Dexter Street site, and consist of 69 affordable and market-rate apartments. Starting at $498 a month, the units will be far less expensive than other loft projects in Providence.

ACORN was a lead organizer on the issue of predatory lending. The General Assembly passed the Home Loan Protection Act to save Rhode Island families from abusive predatory lending practices. The bill creates consumer safeguards including the development of a rate and fee threshold for high-cost home loans and access to education and counseling for borrowers.

AIDS Project R.I.’s Buddy Program was honored with a Community Impact Award by the Volunteer Center of R.I. for the impressive commitment of time and energy the volunteers devote to their assignments. Buddy volunteers provide companionship, support, transportation, and help with everyday tasks such as shopping and house cleaning.

Alliance for Better Long Term Care boasts a banner year for progressive legislation. Elder advocates, ombudsmen and nursing home leaders have long pleaded with government to address issues of abuse, neglect, and exploitation. The General Assembly passed several bills that will overhaul the state’s ability to better regulate the nursing home industry and to ensure the safety and well being of patients.

R.I. Parents for Progress was awarded a grant of $12,500 from the Women’s Fund of R.I. in fall 2005. Parents for Progress will use the grant to launch a Peer Advocate Program and create a speakers’ bureau designed to inform recipients of public assistance of their rights and benefits.

Habitat for Humanity of R.I. – Greater Providence’s Bike and Build team rode across the country last summer, stopping to labor for eight days at Habitat sites along the way. The students combined service and adventure while raising awareness of the affordable housing crisis.

R.I. Parent Information Network’s Vivian Weisman was honored by the American Civil Liberties Union’s Rhode Island Affiliate as Raymond J. Pettine Civil Libertarian of the Year, in recognition of her “tremendous contribution to the Affiliate and to civil liberties over the last two decades.” A reception was held on November 18th at the Providence Biltmore, with guest speaker Barry Lynn of Americans United for Separation of Church and State.

SWAP/Stop Wasting Abandoned Property is expanding its reach beyond Providence to West Greenwich where it is building 50 single-family houses on 60 acres of land. SWAP kicked off its 30th anniversary year last fall with a new video featuring participants in some of its programs. These include building and renovating houses, home buyer education, good tenant program, neighborhood contractor mentoring, and summer jobs programs for youth.

Galilee Mission has renovated its facility in Narragansett. Among the changes were adding insulation, double-paned windows, new shingles, and a rebuilt front porch. The interior of the building had been improved already with commercial-grade kitchen equipment and new furniture.

Mental Health Association of R.I. May marked the 90th anniversary of Rhode Island’s Mental Health Association. Along with other organizations, the agency held its annual “May Is Mental Health Month” by scheduling and publicizing daily lectures, films, concerts, classes, screenings, exhibits, luncheons, and so forth. More than 80 events were held, including online mental health screenings for depression, anxiety disorder, bipolar disorder, or alcohol addiction.

NRI Community Services and NRI Child and Adolescent Service System Program, along with four other agencies, created the Woonsocket Neighborhood Services Association last summer. Other Fund agencies in the collaborative are Connecting for Children and Families and Woonsocket Neighborhood Development Corporation. These agencies share a common goal of strengthening families and join the United Neighborhood Centers of America, which represents several hundred community-based organizations serving primarily low-income urban neighborhoods.

Greater Elmwood Neighborhood Services’ Adelaide Avenue Neighborhood Revitalization project and SWAP/Stop Wasting Abandoned Property’s Friendship–Pine/Providence–Tanner Block Revitalization project each received the John M. Clancy Award for Socially Responsible Housing. They were among 8 chosen from 56 nominees across 20 states in recognition of their creative architectural solutions to problems of income accessibility, limited resources, sustainability, and community integration.

To learn how your support is creating change, visit www.fundcp.org and click on Press Articles. You can keep up on breaking news as this section is updated daily.

George A. Wiley Center and ACORN

Charity begins at home and justice begins next door.

Charles Dickens

Roberta Hazen Aaronson

West Elmwood Housing Development Corporation

Nondas Hurst Voll to Retire

Excerpted from NACG Online June 19, 2006; reprinted with permission

Nearly fourteen years ago, a single mom named Nondas Voll was busy earning a living and sending the last of her four children off to college. She had a long commute to Cambridge, Mass., where she served as Director of Communications at Lesley University. She had served in a similar capacity at Roger Williams University where she also taught and had worked as Deputy Press Secretary for the Governor of Rhode Island.

She hated the commute and she missed her community. Not just her neighborhood community, but her nonprofit community. It was the start of another career.

This summer, Nondas will retire after 13 1⁄2 years as Executive Director of The Fund for Community Progress in Providence, R.I. She will leave behind a blueprint of how to overcome powerful adversaries while “pivoting” to the needs of policy makers to influence their decisions. This genuine, soft-spoken leader has earned the respect of both sides, having marched in “so many marches for justice and peace that I can’t remember,” while dramatically increasing The Fund’s access to businesses and changing public policy in the process.

Nondas became involved with The Fund because of her work as a board member for one of its member agencies — Shelter Services. With fewer than half of the agencies (13) as it has now, The Fund had precious little resources at the time. She had to sell her house in order to make the finances work. She even lent her organization $6,500 to help pay for another employee. But it was worth it.

“It was glorious to walk into an office and be able to be working full time for peace and justice,” she said.

Nondas Hurst Voll
photo: Jean Duffy

All progress has resulted from people who took unpopular positions.

Adlai Stevenson

Glorious, but not exactly comfortable. In 1994, The Fund sued the local United Way because of its unfair practices in several local campaigns, including the City of Providence employee campaign. She discovered that United Way had listed all of The Fund’s agencies in United Way’s campaign booklet. It was a tough three-year battle, with lots of negative publicity about how The Fund was “ruining it for everybody in the nonprofit sector” and going after United Way “just for the money.” In the end, the State Supreme Court ruled in favor of The Fund. It is the only time in U.S. history that a United Way was found liable for monopolistic practice — a decision that surely has helped level the playing field for alternative funds and federations across the country in the years since.

“We democratized philanthropy in Rhode Island,” she said. “Now they all want to support social change — even including United Way and The Rhode Island Foundation. The Chamber of Commerce and the Small Business Administration now honor an Advocate of the Year. They never would have touched public policy years ago. It’s just wonderful.”

There have been many other fights. During the past decade, friends of The Fund have done “sleep-overs” at the State Capitol building to protest proposed budget cuts for low-income families, sponsored films, and held forums. And regardless of the weather, Nondas and many Rhode Islanders held a regular candlelight vigil — every Friday night for 10 years — at the Rhode Island federal building to protest the U.S. involvement in the wars in Central America. Nondas had been a delegate with Witness for Peace in Nicaragua in 1988 and had experienced the war against the poor firsthand.

In addition to her regular schedule, Nondas serves on six boards and two steering committees, including as Board Chair of Community Shares USA, and with Rhode Island Historical Society, the Institute for Nonviolence, ACLU of Rhode Island, Rhode Island Jobs with Justice, Providence Rotary Club, Advocacy Institute, and Rhode Island Peace Mission. She will continue to serve on her local boards and, of course, keep advocating for peace and justice.

“I need to take some time off now and catch my breath.”

Nondas retires with a parting gift that probably couldn’t have been more appropriate. A long-time friend established the “Nondas Hurst Voll Fund” at The Rhode Island Foundation. Interest from this endowment will afford The Fund for Community Progress the opportunity to grant annual scholarships to low-income women. The recipients must be single mothers of a dependent child or children and must be transitioning off of public assistance to begin or continue studies in higher education.

The letter of notification states: “This Fund is created to honor Nondas Voll, a modest, passionate, activist committed to peace, justice, and education.” . JJ

NACG/National Alliance for Choice in Giving represents over 50 federations and funds, serving more than 2,000 social and environmental change nonprofits nationally.

Award for Innovation

Rebecca Morash, a senior systems analyst for Bank Rhode Island, received the first ever Award for Innovation given by The Fund for Community Progress. Morash brought The Fund’s workplace giving program into the Internet age by developing an online pledge program for the organization’s fundraising. The online system will secure and expand ongoing support from local businesses and organizations, and streamline the employer’s in-house campaign process by eliminating the paper pledge system.

Morash was honored at The Fund’s annual Awards Ceremony at the Brown Faculty Club on May 8. She was applauded for creating and developing The Fund’s e-pledge product, which was pioneered at BankRI last fall with ease and success. “Rebecca has donated her time and talents to producing an e-giving product that is the envy of our fellow advocacy federations across the nation,” said presenter Nondas Hurst Voll. “We have proudly created our first Award for Innovation in her honor.”

Rebecca Morash

SAVE THE DATE

Thursday, October 5
Dinner Roast of Mayor of Providence David N. Cicilline
at Rhodes-on-the-Pawtuxet
5:30–9:00 p.m.
$60 per person
RSVP 941-7100
Deadline September 22

Welcome Samaritans of R.I. and Thundermist Health Center

The Samaritans of R.I. and Thundermist Health Center were voted into the coalition as new member agencies last year.

Since 1977 The Samaritans has been Rhode Island’s only nonprofit, volunteer-based agency devoted exclusively to suicide prevention, education, and breaking the stigma associated with issues related to suicide. Interim Executive Director Denise Panichas rightfully boasts that the organization is the state’s most trusted program dealing with support for those who have lost a loved one to suicide. “We are the gateway to care, a lifetime of support, and stronger links to community resources,” she states. Their programs include the Crisis Hotline/Listening Line, 272-4044.

Thundermist Health Center is a comprehensive community health center offering medical, dental, and behavioral health services. Founded more than 36 years ago as a small, free clinic, Thundermist now serves more than 24,000 patients in sites across the state, from Woonsocket to West Warwick to South Kingstown. Last summer Thundermist opened its new flagship, state-of-the-art Health Center at 450 Clinton Street in Woonsocket. The 26,000-square-foot medical center offers beauty and comfort along with clinical quality and efficiency. Thundermist also sends volunteer brigades to Shoulder to Shoulder, a nonprofit organization providing community health services in rural Honduras to people living in poverty.

PROGRESS is published to inform friends of The Fund for Community Progress about the activities and concerns of its member agencies. Gifts to The Fund have a deﬁnite impact on solving problems of poverty, hunger, homelessness, mental illness, housing, discrimination and other issues of injustice. PROGRESS stresses the importance of your continued support as together we “build a better community.”

contributing writers: Jonathan W. Howard, John Jansen, Nondas Hurst Voll