Fall 2011 Capacity Building Grantees
Capacity Building Grants of up to $5,000 per organization have been awarded to eleven nonprofit organizations that serve Richmond residents. Grants were made in four capacity-building categories: Mission, Vision and Strategy; Governance and Leadership; Strategic Relationships; and Internal Operations. Funded projects include strategic planning, executive transition, volunteer management, and computers and data security, among others.
The need for capacity building grants was high with nearly 50 applications reviewed by the RCF Community Investments Committee through a rigorous and transparent process. In response to feedback received through its annual Community Engagement Survey, RCF offered a Pre-application Workshop and consultation for this round to help nonprofits prepare their applications.
The Fall 2011 Capacity Building Grant Recipients are:
Community Alliance for Learning was awarded a capacity building grant to continue and expand Writer Coach Connection in West County classrooms that serve Richmond students through outreach and volunteer management/coordination. WCC recruits, trains, and organizes community volunteers as writer coaches to work with students one on one, in class, on the students' writing assignments. www.writercoachconnection.org
Girls Inc. will develop its Board of Directors through leadership training--focusing fiscal and risk management, strategic planning, fund development, and Board relations. Girls Inc. of West Contra Costa County (Girls Inc, WCCC) has served over 6,000 girls of West County for over 37 years. Girls Inc offers programs to help and inspire all girls to become Strong, Smart and Bold. www.girlsinccontracosta.org
La Cheim School will implement a training program interwoven with a marketing plan to establish important community networks and relationships to increase referrals and build capacity to best serve a changing mental health population. La Cheim has provided educational and mental health programs since 1974. Through therapeutic, caring, and supportive relationships with youth and their caregivers, La Cheim improves the health and lives of children and families. www.lacheim.org
Pacific News Service/New America Media will build the capacity of its Richmond Pulse youth media outlet through acquisition of computers that will enable the outlet to have regular access to its own dedicated computers for reporting and multi-media production. PNS has worked to create platforms for youth voices for more than 20 years. Richmond Pulse began last fall as an online media outlet and training program for youth to report on community issues in Richmond. www.newamericamedia.org www.richmondpulse.org
Read-Aloud Volunteer Program will design and develop a new website to attract volunteers, individual supporters, funders and community partners. In the 2010-2011 school year coordinators and volunteers of RAVP provided over 4,000 reading hours to schools in San Pablo and Richmond. www.ravp.org
Richmond PAL will purchase licensing agreement for a web-based case management system that offers powerful search, dashboard and flexible reporting with on-demand technology. RPAL provides a safe and nurturing environment for youth through programs while building positive relations between Police Officers and the community. www.rpal.org
Richmond Youth Media Productions, Inc. will implement a strategic planning process to facilitate executive succession/transition, as well as accounting management software and training for new leadership. RYMP, under mentorship of experienced media professionals, provides a place where young Richmond people learn video production skills while producing programs that improve the quality of their lives and the lives of others in their community. www.richmondyouthmedia.org
STAND! For Families Free of Violence was awarded a capacity building grant to support the last two phases of a strategic merger and post-merger interaction activity. With over 34 years of experience providing innovative leadership in Contra Costa County, STAND! offers comprehensive services for victims of domestic violence and child abuse. www.standagainstdv.org
West Contra Costa Public Education Fund (The Ed. Fund) will develop a marketing/communications strategy and plan to increase awareness of its programs and activities, so that those in need know of the services available, and in order to create an opportunity for potential donors to learn the value of the organization. The Ed. Fund advocates for excellence in education, and supports/facilitates high-quality learning experiences, community investment in education, and student access to educational opportunities. www.edfundwest.org
West County College Access Network (WCCAN) will facilitate the building of a network of college access program service providers and create a strategic plan and common agenda for the group. WCCAN aims to address at a systems-level, the historically low number of students seeking and attaining a post-secondary degree.
Youth Enrichment Strategies (YES) was awarded a 2012 Capacity Building Grant to consolidate existing databases and data management functions--used to track diverse groups of constituents and applications--into one, multi-user, cloud-based platform. YES enriches the lives of underserved youth, their caregivers and families in Richmond by deepening relationships through experiences in nature. www.yesfamilies.org
Spring 2011 Capacity Building Grantees
Bay Area Rescue Mission
The Bay Area Rescue Mission provides life-changing and life-sustaining help to homeless and impoverished members of the community. The organization will be purchasing and installing a new computer server and new software to improve its ability to track key data sets and improve its back-up and storage capabilities.Brookside Medical Center
The number of monolingual Spanish speaking patients being served by Brookside Medical Center makes up almost 70% of the total patient population. As the organizations moves to online record keeping, it will be developing a web based patient portal in both English and Spanish to meet the growing needs of the community for bi-lingual web site content.
Community Based Employment Collaborative
Under the fiscal sponsorship of the Greater Richmond Interfaith Program, the Community Based Employment Collaborative provides training to help Richmond residents develop the skills necessary to succeed in employment training programs. The project has grown and will now be securing its own 510(c)(3) tax exempt status and creating a fund development strategy to increase its program services.
Community Housing Development Corporation
The Community Housing Development Corporation works to create and sustain vibrant communities by providing high quality affordable housing and neighborhood services. In the last three years the organization has grown to almost 50 employees. In response to this growth, the organization will be conducting a comprehensive assessment of its Human Resource functions including policies and procedures and risk assessment.
Coronado Neighborhood Council, Inc.
Since 1975, the Coronado Neighborhood Council, Inc. has provided scholarships for Richmond youth to attend college. To improve its ability to reach out to both potential scholarship recipients and scholarship sponsors, the organization will be constructing its first web site. The web site will also provide residents of the Coronado neighborhood the ability to access other programs and services in the neighborhood.
East Bay Center for the Performing Arts
A Richmond institution for 43 years, the East Bay Center for the Performing Arts is completing the construction of its new performing arts center in downtown Richmond. The organization provides world class training in the performing arts to children and youth. As the organization approaches the October 2011 opening of the new facility, it will develop a strategic marketing and communications plan to promote the new performing arts center and its programs.
Rebuilding Together East Bay - North
Using the power of volunteers, Rebuilding Together East Bay - North has revitalized 555 homes and 135 facilities since its founding in 1991. The organization works with as many as 1000 volunteers to renovate the homes of seniors, disabled persons, and war veterans. In order to serve Richmond residents, new volunteer infrastructure will be put in place including extensive training for new Richmond volunteers.
Richmond Art Center
Founded in 1936, the Richmond Art Center provides transformative experiences in the fine and visual arts. The Center engages creative exploration and learning through studio art classes and transformative community projects. To improve efficiencies through technology, the Richmond Art Center will be implementing the software program Active Net. The software will enable the Center to provide online registrations, track data, and improve its web presence.
Richmond Main Street
Richmond Main Street is dedicated to revitalizing Richmond's historic downtown area as a vibrant, pedestrian friendly urban village offering products, services, arts and entertainment that reflect Richmond's rich heritage. To continue its work in strengthening the core of Richmond's urban area, Richmond Main Street will be developing a marketing and communications plan, as well as a financial plan to improve the organization's long term impact.
Terrance Kelly Youth Foundation
The mission of the Terrance Kelly Youth Foundation is to inspire and empower youth who face challenging circumstances to become successful, productive contributing members of society. The foundation teaches youth to seek education as an alternative to violence. The Foundation is building a new web site to improve its ability to register youth in its programs, and to increase its ability to communicate with youth, their families, and key stakeholders.
The Latina Center
The Latina Center is dedicated to developing the leadership of Latina women and supporting the health and well being of the Latino community. As the Latino population of Richmond continues to grow, the Latina Center is conducting a comprehensive strategic plan to ensure that it is prepared to meet the needs of this growing population.
The RYSE Center
The RYSE Center was born out of the efforts of young people in Richmond to change the conditions of violence in their community. The Center supports the healthy development of young people through a holistic approach that engages participants in programs grounded in youth leadership and social justice. The Center opened with a strategic vision that led it through its first two years. Now the Center will review its work and set a new strategic direction for the future.
The Stride Center
As an innovative social enterprise, the Stride Center empowers men and women facing barriers to employment to achieve financial self-sufficiency. Through their award winning Information Technology training program, the Stride Center has launched the careers of hundreds of Richmond residents. The Stride Center is the lead organization for the Progress Richmond collaborative and will be conducting trainings and planning with the collaborative members to ensure the longevity of the collaborative's work in providing employment opportunities to Richmond resident.
Urban Tilth
Founded in 2005, Urban Tilth is committed to building a healthy, sustainable and just local food system. In response to community interest, Urban Tilth has built farms at local schools and other community locations and secured government funding and other resources to build these farms. Urban Tilth will be using its capacity building grant to improve its fiscal policies and procedures to manage these new revenue streams.
West County Adult Day Care and Alzheimer's Respite Center
The West County Adult Day Care and Alzheimer's Respite Center provides full time day care for working families who are caring for their frail older relatives so that these relatives can continue to live at home. The Center is seeking to develop strategic relationships with organizations serving Latino families and Richmond's Latino leaders to increase their services to Latino families.
www.westcountyadultdaycare.com
YMCA of the East Bay - Building Blocks for Kids Collaborative
Nationally recognized as a collaborative model of the Harlem Children's Zone, the 27 member Building Blocks for Kids collaborative supports the healthy development of all children and the self-sufficiency of all families in Richmond's Iron Triangle neighborhood. To strengthen its collaborative, Building Blocks for Kids is reviewing and developing operating policies and procedures, membership policies and strategies for ensuring that the collaborative can track its outcomes more effectively.
