#1 – It’s a two way street.  Funders are our partners—keep them informed of the good and the not so good—often times they are able to help.

#2 – We’re all in this together.  Recognize other nonprofits as potential partners/resources, not competitors.

#3 – Know your own environment.  Don’t always presume people know about the challenges our clients face—take the time to bring light to new issues and why they are important.

#4 – Don’t give up!  Just because you aren’t being funded now doesn’t mean it will not happen in the future.  Relationships take time to build.

On this note, I want to say thank you to everyone on the panel for their feedback.  And especially take this time to thank all of our funders, friends, volunteers, and advocates, both new and old, who have invested in a partnership with The Children’s Village.  Embedded in our very mission is the word “partnership”, yet we are humbly reminded everyday that this partnership extends beyond the youth and families we serve.

For more information about CV’s Partners visit Our Partners Page.

Panelists at the AFP event were professionals from:
The Foundation Center
US Trust
The Frog Rock Foundation
Entergy
Con Edison
Community Foundations of the Hudson Valley

Elisabeth Vieselmeyer
Grants Manager

It was this: A precious Harlem community memberdied. She was only 13 years old and her name was Annie. She was killed. Annie loved school and she loved her friends. And her friends loved her too. She was going to school every day and coming home. Doing her homework and thinking about what she’d do on the weekend. Laughing at a joke, reading a book. What came between her and her everyday life, and the future she will never know but was surely dreaming of was this: A man with a gun.

Thanks to our rich partnership with The Children’s Village we at LitWorld are blessed by the extraordinary and resilient children who live there and with whom we work. The Polo Grounds Towers house over 4,000 families in one of the poorest neighborhoods in New York: the four square blocks of the Polo Grounds have the highest juvenile arrest rate in the five boroughs, and 28 percent of the families fall below the federal poverty line. The children who live here are precious children and their lives are glowing with the potential of who they are and who they can become. But this will not be possible unless we stop isolating entire communities and join together to take action of support.

Here on the Huffington Post I shared the story of a mural project we created with CityArts that has brought much joy and conveyed the hope of the children who live in this area for their own bright futures. But this story is not a story of hope. This is instead a story of a young girl whose life was completely and unnecessarily ended. I am so sad and sorry this story has to be told. I wish there were no stories like this. Not here in New York, not anywhere in this country, not in this world.

Annie was shot and killed by her 28-year-old brother. Her mother was also shot and critically wounded by her son, who then engaged in a shoot-out with the police. If it was not so easy for her brother to get a gun, Annie would still be walking to school today. The children at the Polo Grounds would be greeting their friend Annie tomorrow morning.

Children everywhere face unimaginable challenges every day, but especially in poor, stressed communities where adults themselves are struggling to survive difficult lives. It is these communities where when a child is shot the news barely reports it. It is up to us to pitch in as an entire world community to take care of not only our own children, but all others too. It takes the world to raise a village. And this village really and truly belongs to all of us.

Why is our desire to defend the right to bear arms greater than the right of children to a safe life?

Why is it so rare that the press actively reports the story of a child shot and killed in a poor community?

All children are our children, wherever they live, and whomever they are, and it is our duty to protect them, defend them and give them their rights. The right to safety, to food, to water, to shelter, to a quality education.

How can we help, right now?

First, join us this Wednesday from 4:30 to 6 p.m. for a Stop the Violence March with our friends and neighbors of the Polo Grounds.

Second, let’s campaign together to end violence by insisting our lawmakers to keep guns off of the streets, out of the homes of our children, and out of the hands of people who cannot be responsible with them. No exceptions.

Pam Allyn
CV Volunteer, Founder of our Books for Boys literacy program

*This post originally appeared on the HuffPost and can be read here.

HARLEM, NEW YORK, NY — April 23, 2012 – Harlem Dowling Westside Center for Children and Family Services (HDWC), established in 1836, one of the first charitable institutions dedicated to children and the very first to provide for “children of color” in the United States, and The Children’s Village (CV), a 160-year old charity serving children and families, announce a strategic alliance.

In announcing the alliance, Timothy Mulvaney, President, HDWC Board of Directors, said “We are excited to be working with The Children’s Village. We know this agency well and share common values. We believe that, together, we can strengthen both our agencies, provide cost effective programming, and significantly enhance services to our respective communities.”

In the coming months, the organizations will develop a strategic vision for their joint future, while retaining the independence of each organization’s founding charter and service mission. Dr. Jeremy Kohomban, the President and CEO of The Children’s Village, has been appointed the President of Harlem Dowling.

“We are thrilled that Harlem Dowling chose The Children’s Village for this strategic alliance,” said Bill Krupman, Chairman of the Board of Trustees of The Children’s Village. “We share a similar history and we are deeply committed to the mission and the future of this remarkable organization.   Together, we will continue to build on our collective good work on behalf of New York’s children and families.”

________________________________________________________

Founded in 1836, Harlem Dowling-West Side Center for Children and Family Services is a non-profit child-welfare agency whose mission is to serve and assist children and their families in crisis and distress. Its services include foster care, adoption, preventive services and related assistance to children and their families to enable them to live in a stable and nurturing environment. www.harlemdowling.org

Founded in 1851, The Children’s Village works in partnership with families to help children develop the skills and positive attitude needed to succeed as healthy contributing adults.  Each year, CV serves more than 10,000 of New York’s most at-risk children and their families.  Programs include short-term residential programs, shelters, street outreach, foster and adoptive homes, a community center in Harlem, programs for youth involved with the juvenile justice system, and a host of family support services. http://childrensvillage.org

NEW YORK, NY — The Children’s Village (CV) has been awarded a $100,000 grant from the Alliance for Children and Families to implement a pilot project to explore, test, and gain understanding of the elevation of strategy within nonprofit human service agencies. The grant is part of the Alliance’s multi-year pilot project Strategy Counts! funded by the Kresge Foundation.

Strategy Counts! offers CV the opportunity to continue the work of transforming its historical image and culture as a residential agency to better reflect its broader  community-based programs and mission. CV will use the grant to work with New York-based Management Solutions to develop a strategic transformation that will include the Board, stakeholders, and all levels of the organization.

“For more than 160 years, The Children’s Village has been a leader in residential programming for at-risk youth, but as we have grown and embraced the need to keep children in the community with families when possible, our focus has shifted,” said Dr. Jeremy C. Kohomban, CV President and CEO. “Today, 80% of the children and families we serve are part of our community programs. Strategy Counts! will help us take the next steps in ensuring that  our operations, culture and image reflect this important shift, and we are delighted to have been chosen to be a pilot site. ”

The Children’s Village is one of 14 nonprofits around the country participating in the Strategy Counts! initiative.

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Founded in 1851, The Children’s Village www.childrensvillage.org works in partnership with families to help children develop the skills and positive attitude needed to succeed as healthy contributing adults.  Each year, CV serves close to 10,000 of the New York area’s most at-risk children and their families.  Programs include shelters and street outreach for homeless and immigrant youth, foster and adoptive homes, a community center in Harlem, and a host of family support services.

The Kresge Foundation is a $3.1 billion private, national foundation that seeks to influence the quality of life for future generations by creating access and opportunity in underserved communities, improving the health of low-income people, supporting artistic expression, increasing college achievement, assisting in the revitalization of Detroit, and advancing methods for dealing with global climate change. The foundation works in six program areas: arts and culture, community development, education, the environment, health, and human services. In 2010, the Board of Trustees approved 481 awards totaling $158 million; $134 million was paid out to grantees over the course of the year. For more information, visit kresge.org.

The Alliance for Children and Families, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2011, is a nonprofit national membership association of private, nonprofit human service providers in the United States and Canada. Motivated by a vision of a healthy society and strong communities, the Alliance strengthens the capacities of North America’s nonprofit child- and family-serving organizations to serve and advocate for children, families, and communities. The more than 350 members of the Alliance provide an array of community-based programs and services to all generations, serving close to 3.4 million people each year. The Alliance is accredited by the Council on Accreditation. More information about the Alliance is available at alliance1.org.

Suzanne’s boys each let her know what they wanted for Christmas. Each gift cost the roughly the price of a first class round trip ticket to North Pole. (By the way, Jetblue doesn’t fly there).  As we were discussing the billions of dollars that the advertising industry spends to connect with your kids on levels that parents only dream of, I thought about giving you a few pointers on how to prevent tantrums and meltdown from your kids, while keeping you out of bankruptcy court.

#1 Make a list

Have a conversatin with your kids. Tell them to give you a list of several gifts that are within a pricerange that you determine.  Also, tell them, how many gifts they will get off of that list.  If they want to negotiate that’s fine. Instead of two $40 gifts, Johnny may want one $90 gift. Work with him. Be creative. Have him contribute the extra $10.

#2  Check it twice

Now go through that list and choose the gifts you’re going to buy. But don’t tell them what they gifts are. (if at all possible, get them something that’s not on the list ALSO. Total suprises are still in season)

#3 Don’t be naughty. Be nice.

If you have relatives who you know will give money (grandma, grandpa, Grandma…), talk to your children (or the relative) about using that money to get something off the list that you didn’t choose.

Most kids know you’re Santa. It’s a really good idea to help them understand the life lessons of sharing, planning and compromise. This is a perfecrt opportunty for that. Also, remember to talk to them about the gifts they are going to give.

Do the same with younger kids. There’s no reason that they should be lead to believe that they can ask for and receive everything the advertisers are showing them on television and printed ads.  Furthmore, you may want to have them watch more commericial free programming. PBS, Netflix and the ever reliable DVD are great for that.

By the way, when my son was born at 11:30 that night, I asked him for his list. He gave me a blank stare. You know the one. You may get that too. But work with them. Have a happy holiday!

-Donald

Donald Somerville
Senior Family Services Coordinator

Here are six tips for keeping your holiday cheer…

1.  Set Expectations—So you saw the perfect party happen in your favorite holiday movie recently and you’ve decided it’s time to recreate it? Maybe that’s not the best idea… unless your family comes with a lighting crew, a well-written script, make-up artists, and prop assistants. The real thing never plays out like it does on the big screen, and that’s ok. Set expectations that work for you and your family and go with it.

2.  Delegate—Clearly you’re Super(wo)man. You do more in a day that should be allowed for one person, and you do it every day. Rather than throwing it into overdrive, why not take this year to get a little help. Choose the parts you love the most for you and then let people help. Think of chairing your own Holiday Committee!

3.  Budget—In economic times like these you probably don’t need to be reminded of this one. Even still this is the time of year when everywhere you look is an ad for something at “never before seen prices!” It’s easy to get carried away, so take the guess work out and plan ahead for what you’re able to do this year and then call it a day.

4.  Reassess and prioritize—You’re halfway to the goal line for your holiday season. How did you do on numbers 1-3? Think about it. Make adjustments. Make it happe

5.  Take care of yourself—You can’t take care of others if you don’t take care of yourself. Perhaps it’s cliché, but it probably became that way for a reason. Everyone knows you’re Super(wo)man (see above), so you’re going to get asked to do a lot. There’s no shame in carving out time to do a few things that will give the holidays a little personal cheer for you, and when you make it all look easy it will be better for everyone.

6.  Keep things in perspective –You know this one. At the end of the day it’s not about the gifts, decorations, or a perfectly prepared meal. If you finished the holiday season by sitting around a table with the people you care about then it’s a success.  Remember, the holidays are about people connecting-those are the times we remember.

Keep these tips in mind as the holidays quickly approach. Hopefully they’ll help you stay a little cheerier and enjoy the end of 2011.

-Dan

Dan Melnick, PhD

Director of Residential Support Services
He has been serving CV kids and families for 13 years.

The funds raised are being used for the Lanza Activities Center, which has become the hub for life on our Dobbs Ferry campus as well as a resource for families in our community programs. In addition to recreation facilities (including an Olympic-length swimming pool and high-end fitness room), the Center also offers career-training opportunities through its cafe, commercial kitchen, and barbershop.

Mrs. Lanza has supported The Children’s Village for many years and has taken a personal interest in older youth finding permanent families, completing high school, going on to post-secondary education, and successfully getting and keeping a job.

No matter how big or small, your donation, with the support of the Lanza Family Foundation, is giving youth the chance they may have never had. Thank you for your ongoing commitment to our children and families.