Dear Giving Circle Members,
It is a highlight of the year for me to present the Gift Committee's recommendations to Giving Circle members. Thanks to your 2007 donations, this year the Gift Committee is recommending an $84,000 investment that will expand your impact and sustain our shared commitment to assuring success for Alexandria's Children.
The Committee's recommendations include community programs and organizations that are familiar to Giving Circle members, while introducing new initiatives that will expand crisis outreach to teenagers, and provide needed reading resources and after school mentoring and tutoring to children.
Remember, this is your investment. It is my hope that each of you will use this opportunity to learn more about the Gift Process, the Gift Recipients and, most important, give us your thoughts and ideas. The Board will consider all member input prior to their approval of these Gifts, so please attend an Open House or read the full Gift Recommendation Report and e-mail your comments to Alison DeCourcey, Gift Committee Chair.
A brief summary of the Gift Recommendations follows. More in-depth background on each recommendation can be found in the Gift Committee Recommendations for 2008-09 report that can be downloaded here. To read about how your investment works in the community, visit the Giving Circle website..
Sincerely,
Holly Sloan
WGCA Chair
|
| Priority Gifts
|
The Priority Gifts recommended this year are familiar to WGCA members. Our continued support will help assure that these agencies can strengthen their infrastructure to sustain these programs and the positive outcomes they are achieving. The Gift Committee recommends:
- A 2nd year gift to Hopkins House of $20,000 to support Parent Education Programs. Read the Hopkins House progress report.
- A 4th year gift to Healthy Families Alexandria of $32,000 to support 10 families enrolled in the HFA program. Read the Healthy Families progress report.
- A 4th year gift to the Success by 6/Chiquitos Playgroup of $20,500 to support the operation of the playgroup in Arlandria. Read the Playgroups progress report.
|
| Developmental Gifts
|
For the 2nd year, the Gift Committee has pursued the awarding of Developmental Gifts, financial support of $5,000 or less to support initiatives that contribute to the success of Alexandria's children, but may not fall within the scope of our current Gift Priority - Parental Engagement. The Gift Committee recommends:
- A gift of $4,500 to CrisisLink to a) support the printing and distribution of 5,000 wallet cards to all middle and high school students in Alexandria highlighting suicide warning signs and outlining steps to take if someone thinks a friend is suicidal; and, b) fund 100 calls to hotlines from Alexandria youth.
- A gift of $5,000 to Community Lodgings to purchase sequential academic curriculums for 2nd-8th grades in reading, math, social studies, and science.
- A gift of $2,000 to The Reading Connection to purchase materials and books to give away at Parent Workshops hosted at ALIVE! House, Carpenter's Shelter and Child & Family Network Centers (CFNC). The goal is to serve 100 parents and 150 children through Parent Workshops in Alexandria in 2008 and to distribute over 650 books.
To learn more about these agencies, and the proposed use of the WGCA Gift, read pages 6-8 of the Gift Committee Recommendations for 2008-09.
|
| Continued Dialogue
|
Continue to explore and deepen our understanding of the needs of Alexandria's parents and children by continuing dialogues related to: - Mental Health: Work in collaboration with community stakeholders to find solutions that address the mental health needs of children, specifically ages 0-5, and their parents.
- Parent Support Network: Facilitate collaboration among Alexandria's human service organizations that are currently providing services to parents, working with them to identify and support the implementation of an optimal continuum of services for Alexandria's parents. We expect that the initial focus of this collaboration would be regarding the coordination of playgroups.
|
|
|
|
|
Gift Open Houses
|
|
Tuesday, March 11
7:00 - 8:30 PM
320 S. Fairfax Street
Old Town
at Ellen van Bever's home
Wednesday, March 12
10:00 - 11:30 AM
6118 Vernon Terrace
Belle Haven
at Julee Gately's home
To join the discussion about Gift decisions and get a sense of the thorough, thoughtful and inspiring process your
Gift Committee engages in when they make these recommendations, I
encourage you to attend one or both of the Open House meetings.
Gift Recommendations are not finalized until the members have had an opportunity to respond. Your questions, thoughts, and ideas are all integrated into the final decision made by your elected Board of Directors.
|
|
|
