Appleton

January 18 2016

Sustainability of Non Profits?

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The Fox Valley has easily over 500 non-profit agencies. Many of them are smaller and run by individuals who saw a need not met in the community. Rarely do smaller non-profits collaborate or join together to become one larger agency. The biggest issues that smaller agencies deal with are funding resources and building a client population to implement the goals of the agency’s initial creation. Many people create a non-profit organization because of some event in their life or they saw a need and wanted it addressed in the community.

When I worked for the Boys and Girls Club Fox Valley, most of their programs were and still are funded by community grants, program-specific funds, and state/national grants. The Boys and Girls Club Fox Valley was created in 1998 out of a deadly gang fight that rocked the community back in 1995.
(http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1995-07-06/news/9507060158_1_gang-nicknames-joker-members)

That event sparked a conversation about safe places for teenagers to socialize and spend their free time. When I worked with youth on gang prevention, I did a lot of research through the Office of Justice Programs(OJP) and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP). Most negative behaviors in teenagers occur in the after-school hours. So there is correlated evidence that after school programs help prevent juvenile justice related behaviors. Although, during school behaviors are very much a part of a juvenile justice social worker’s job.

The Fox Valley Community Foundation (cffoxvalley.org) is one place to begin obtaining grants for an agency or a particular initiative that brings value into the community. It also offers beneficial information on financial sustainability of an agency or service. According to their website, 986 non-profits including schools and hospitals received funds from various community grants and personal donor funding sources in the 2014-2015 fiscal year.

January 5 2016

Photo Project to Shed Light on Homelessness

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Several local Northeast Wisconsin homeless and transitional housing organizations are collaborating on a photo project through photo essays. Homeless Connections in Appleton, a temporary living complex is one of the agencies trying to provide awareness for the experiences of homelessness in the area. Visual representations of what people in transition experience sounds like an amazing awareness and outreach campaign. The photos will be on display in April at the Castle Museum.

I would be curious to see if there are aspects of public versus private in the sense of hiding people from busy public areas like Downtown College Avenue. Knowing people in transitional housing, I am familiar with some of the limitations/rules that people have to abide by but also the public’s general reactions to homeless people.
I hope the visual nature of the collaborative project really awakens an awareness of the needs of people in the community and retains the dignity of those whose experiences are put on display.

http://www.postcrescent.com/story/news/local/2015/12/31/homelessness-exhibit-planned-april/77968020/