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| Dear Melanie, | |
Summer is here and many of us are shifting into summer mode, with a different rhythm to our days and, we hope, more time for family, vacation and enjoying the outdoors.Before you make the complete break from your computer/lap top/smart phone screen (it's a nice thought, anyway), take a look at what the GreenLight Fund and our portfolio organizations have been up to during a very busy, productive spring.
Raising A Reader-Massachusetts, Peer Health Exchange and Youth Villages saw major fund-raising successes and valuable programs supported and led by volunteers - another reminder of how critical you are to this collective work of building a better Boston for children and families. Friends of the Children-Boston welcomed a new executive director, Juma Crawford, in June, and the early data is in on the Family Independence Initiative's results after its first six months in Boston.
Enjoy this news from the GreenLight community. Have a great summer. We'll see you in the fall!
John and Margaret
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| VCs vs. Entrepreneurs Golf Tournament |  While it was raining in Boston on Tuesday, June 14, it was dry and almost sunny in Bolton, MA, for the Annual VCs vs. Entrepreneurs Golf Tournament at The International Golf Club. This year's tournament raised more than $200,000 for the Family Independence Initiative (FII) in Boston! With the rain holding off, the VC Team defeated the Entrepreneur Team by one point to capture the trophy and all-important bragging rights.
The proud winners -- the VC team -- of the Seventh Annual Golf Tournament
We want to thank all of the participants who helped make this one of the best tournaments yet. GreenLight also extends a special thanks to this year's tournament sponsors, who made the event possible and successful:
Polachi Access Executive Search, Square 1 Bank, General Catalyst Partners, Commonwealth Capital Ventures, Goodwin Procter LLP, JDJ Resources, .406 Ventures, Breakaway Ventures, Capital Advisors Group, Deloitte, Foley & Lardner LLP, Gunderson Dettmer, Kodiak Venture Partners, Lazard, Morgan Keegan, OnForce, Inc., Stage 1 Ventures, Summerhill Venture Partners, T3 Advisors, Venator Partners, William Blair & Co., Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, Summit Partners, Third Rock Ventures, America's Growth Capital, RR Donnelley, Monderer Design, Long's Jewelers and CitationAir.
For more about the Golf Tournament and to see photos from the event, click here.
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| Juma Crawford named new Executive Director of Friends-Boston | The GreenLight Fund welcomes Juma Crawford as the new executive director of Friends of the Children-Boston. Juma began his work with Friends-Boston on June 13 and brings a wealth of experience helping youth from high-risk communities succeed in school and in life. Much of his work has focused on helping young people from these neighborhoods do well in high school and graduate college. As the Friends-Boston oldest cohorts of Achievers move into middle and high school, Juma's extensive experience with these age groups will help Friends-Boston help Achievers successfully navigate the particular challenges they will face as they become adolescents and teenagers.
Juma Crawford at the Friends-Boston 2011 Friendraiser
Juma comes to Friends-Boston from College Bound Dorchester where he was the director of alternative education and head of Little House Middle School. Prior to his work at College Bound, he served as the Upper School principal at the Community Charter School of Cambridge and before that as faculty co-founder and Foundation board member of the Codman Academy Charter Public School in Dorchester.
Juma has a B.S. in Biological Sciences from Amherst College, where he swam and ran track and field. He also has an M.Ed. from Harvard University with a Concentration in Social Policy and a J.D. from Boston College Law School.
To learn more about Friends-Boston, click here.
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| Youth Villages runs Job Prep Boot Camp with business executives | Youth Villages held its first Job Prep Boot Camp this spring to help prepare transitional living clients for the job search process. The program matched 12 former foster youths with CEOs, human resources executives and other experienced business professionals to learn about networking, interview skills, writing resumes and other necessary job skills. The business professionals signed on as mentors to the youth to provide them with advice and guidance in their job search.
Youth Villages Transitional Living program clients with their mentors. "I can't think of a much better way for an HR leader to give back to the community than through a program like this," said Doug Rosenfeld of Weston, vice president of global human resources and administration for Analogic Corp. "Through no fault of their own, these young adults are in a disadvantaged situation without having the direct assistance of a parent to guide them in their career search. I can't explain how important the influence of my parents was on leading me in the right direction when I was a teenager."
The Job Prep Boot Camp program was conducted over one month and matched these volunteer career coaches with young adults who are enrolled in Youth Villages' Transitional Living program after they have aged out of foster care or state custody when they turned 18. Youth Villages' Transitional Living program is designed to help former foster youth make a successful transition into independent adulthood. The goal of the career prep program is to better prepare former foster youth, who often end up unemployed, homeless or incarcerated because they lack sufficient support in the crucial early adult years, to find, secure and maintain employment.
"Contributing money is nice and feels good, but contributing your life experiences to people who have few mentors but are eager to learn, is far more rewarding," Rosenfeld said.
While the one-month boot camp is completed, career coaches are staying in touch with their mentees to answer questions and continue to support them. To follow up, BNY Mellon held mock interviews for the young adults this month, and the Job Prep Boot Camp will formally end with a social gathering in July.
To learn about Youth Villages' Transitional Living program, click here.
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Peer Health Exchange
2011 Volunteer Development Conference | |
 On March 30, Peer Health Exchange (PHE) hosted its Volunteer Career Development Conference. This annual event is held to connect PHE volunteers with leaders in the fields of health, education, advocacy and other forms of social impact. This year, GreenLight Fund's Executive Director Margaret Hall served as a panelist.
"There is nothing like being in a room of inspired, committed college students who plan to devote their careers to public service," said Margaret after her evening with PHE volunteers. "The year-long commitment they make to PHE and the youth it serves is remarkable. That their work with PHE becomes a springboard to a lifetime of service gives me great hope for the future."
Other panelists at the event were Dr. Barbara Ferrer, executive director of the Boston Public Health Commission, Lindsa McIntyre, headmaster of Jeremiah E. Burke High School, Dr. Karin Leschly, family practitioner at East Boston Medical Center, and Regina McNally, global volunteer project manager at State Street Corporation.
Over the past school year, PHE grew to reach nearly 4,000 ninth grade students in Greater Boston by training over 400 college student volunteers to teach a comprehensive health curriculum. Currently, PHE reaches almost 65% of all ninth graders in the Boston Public School system.
To learn more about PHE, click here.
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| Raising A Reader's Spring into Reading Campaign Exceeds Fundraising Goal | 
Raising a Reader-Massachusetts' inaugural Spring into Reading fund-raising campaign exceeded goals and raised more than $140,000 for the organization's important early literacy work with children and caregivers. With an anonymous donor matching each gift dollar-for-dollar up to $125,000 and the Rodman Ride for Kids providing a generous match as well, the campaign yielded well over $300,000. In the past few months, over a dozen events were held on behalf of this campaign, ranging from backyard picnics to penthouse parties. RAR gained the support of five new corporate sponsors, including Blue Cross Blue Shield and TD Bank. Ten award-winning authors supporting the Spring into Reading campaign by providing special prizes to individual supporters as well. In Massachusetts, one child out of three from a low-income family will drop out of high school because they enter kindergarten behind and never catch up. The success of the Spring into Reading campaign ensures that families-in-need in Massachusetts will receive the critical early literacy support necessary for pre-school children to become ready-to-learn students.
To learn more about RAR-MA, click here.
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Family Independence Initiative - Boston:
The First Six Months |  A recent report from the Family Independence Initiative (FII) shows Boston family cohorts made significant progress toward reaching the goals they have set for themselves in just the first six months.
In June of 2010, 35 families enrolled in FII Boston. These families included 152 individuals (81 children). After only six months these families have seen average monthly household income (excluding subsidies and FII payments) increase approximately 13% from $2,499 to $2,820. Household savings have increased by 22% from an average of $682 to $892.
Progress has not only been in financial terms. Families have undertaken a wide range of initiatives to move forward and improve their quality of life. These include spending more time with their children, building relationships in their community, eating healthier, accessing health care and working on their education. For example, 25% of the 70 children in school improved their grades and about 20% improved their attendance.
To see the full report, please click here.
A Story Behind the Data
Here's one of several individuals' stories included in FII's recent report on the first six months of its work in Boston.
Glorianna, African American, is the mother of two girls:
Before I became a member of FII I was just one of those working moms. Anything and everything I did revolved around work or my kids. There was never any time for me. I would come home from work beat. I was angry at my life. I didn't want to do anything with the girls. I just wanted to hide in my bedroom till the weekend was over. After meeting a few times with my [cohort] I actually found out that I could work, be a mom, and have a life. It was challenging in the beginning because I was also in the process of a divorce, but I was taught one task at a time and anything I wanted to set my mind to I could achieve.
Thanks to all the wonderful friends and staff at FII I have managed to do the following:
· Get through the divorce successfully
· I have started looking into classes (going back to school)
· I have began cleaning up my credit and paying off old debt
· I have been eating right and taking off some unwanted pounds
· I have found programs for the girls to participate in during school vacations
· The girls and I have done things together
· I will be taking a mom & daughter water workout class twice a week
Again, these are things that just didn't matter to me for a while because I was just so overwhelmed and didn't see an out. Thanks to my friends and FII, I know there is a better way. I love you all for your help and support. I couldn't have done this without you.
To learn more about FII, click here.
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Friends-Boston Participates in Lemonade Day!
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Mayor Thomas Menino pays a visit to the Friends-Boston Achievers lemonade stand at the Fire Station in Dudley Square.
On May 1, Friends of the Children-Boston (Friends-Boston) Achievers participated in Lemonade Day Boston and won the "Best Business Results" award given by the event organizers!
Brought to Boston by Babson College and directed by Suzanne Picher, Lemonade Day is a national event dedicated to teaching children how to operate their own businesses and give back to the community through the simple act of building and running lemonade stands. On this first Boston Lemonade Day, lemonade stands popped up throughout Roxbury and other neighborhoods with an estimated 700 children participating. Proceeds from sales at the lemonade stands went to support local causes.
Friends-Boston selected the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute as their chosen cause. Nine-year-old Samyia Jordan of Roxbury was quoted in the Boston Globe as saying, "We learned that it's, like, really fun to help people out.'' "It was my idea,'' 10-year-old Jendayi Williams was also quoted as saying. "We're doing it for the cancer people, to give them toys.''
The Friends-Boston lemonade stand.
To read more about Friends-Boston's participation in Lemonade Day, click here to read the Boston Globe article.
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Family Independence Initiative CEO Maurice Lim Miller elected senior Ashoka Fellow
|  In March, Maurice Lim Miller, CEO and Founder of the Family Independence Initiative (FII), was named a 2011 Ashoka Senior Fellow. Ashoka, the global foundation to advance social entrepreneurship, elected Maurice for his pioneering approach to increase economic mobility. Maurice joins an impressive roster of leading social entrepreneurs who are recognized for their system-changing solutions to the world's most pressing social challenges. |
GreenLight Fund Executive Director participates
on Scaling Impact Panel | At the recent 2011 Conference on Scaling Impact in New York City, GreenLight Fund Executive Director Margaret Hall spoke on a panel on Scaling Impact in Local Communities. Margaret talked about the GreenLight Fund's model of engaging community members in a rigorous diligence process that starts by identifying high priority local needs and then finds and vets innovative programs proven in other cities that can have a significant impact on these needs. She told the group, "With growing national attention on finding and spreading high performance nonprofits, we need to help our local communities attract and support those programs that have the greatest chance of making a significant difference on the specific needs they face."
For more on the conference and other panelists, please click here.
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Save the dates!
| Save the dates for GreenLight Fund's next events!
The GreenLight Gala will be held on Thursday, September 15. To see photos from last year's Gala, click here.
An Emerald Evening will be held on Friday, December 2. To see photos from last year's Emerald Evening, click here.
Stay tuned... GreenLight will be announcing its next portfolio organization this summer!
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| Contact the GreenLight Fund | The GreenLight Team
617.252.3235 or info@greenlightfund.org
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