|
|
|
|
 |
|
Women Transforming Sonoma County Through Collective Philanthropy - Sept. 2020
|
|
|
As I sit down to write my president's message, the sky is dull grey and the air quality index is at an unhealthy 212 according to PurpleAir.com. If you feel a bit irritable, nervous, or distractable you are not alone. According to one survey about our current mental health during the pandemic, 50% of respondents endorsed answers to questions that would place them into the category of having an Anxiety Disorder. The good news is that the pandemic and the smoke in the air isn't permanent. And anxiety needn't be either. We must continue to social distance, but we don't have to distance socially. Keeping in touch with each other effectively contributes to our mental health.
The Leadership Team and volunteers at Impact 100 RC have been offering some wonderful ways to keep in touch. In the past month the Education Committee organized a presentation by Oscar Chavez, Assistant Director, Human Services Department of Sonoma County who spoke about the ways that the Pandemic has changed the county work forceand about work underway to better measure the impact of services provided by both the county and local nonprofits. We have attended Zoom presentations from four of our Community Grants winners. Bear Cub Scholars, Burbank Housing, Verity and Jewish Community Free Clinic shared information about the services and their agencies. We have had over 45 members at each of these events and have had a chance to learn more about each of these exceptional programs. We have had another Cocktails and Conversation and will have an orientation for newer members on September 16th. Please check your Email to see what is coming up.
The Racial Equity study group continues to meet bi-weekly. We have been reading Ibram X. Kendi's, "How to be an Anti-Racist", and exploring our own biases. We have been surprised how old experiences continue to affect our thinking. Recently we were honored to have Lorez Bailey address our group. As a black woman professional she spoke poignantly about how challenging growing up black in Sonoma County has been for her three daughters. Despite their obvious achievements they have been the continuous subject of micro-aggressive behavior over many years. Although many parents need to occasionally advocate for their children's education, she and her husband have had to continually support their children in defense of thoughtless and/or racist behavior.
Please be sure to mark your calendar for our biggest virtual gathering of the year on November 7th when we award the next Impact grant. I hope to "see" all of you there.
Jan Gilman & Suzy Marzalek, Co-Presidents
Impact 100 Redwood Circle
|
|
|
Stay connected by attending these upcoming
Wednesday, Sept. 16
7:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Contact Sarah Dove
8:30 a.m.
Taylor Mtn. North Entrance
Note: space is limited and pre-registration is required
NextGen Social Hour
Tuesday, Sept. 29
7:00 - 8:00 p.m.
Open to members & guests who want to learn more about Impact 100 RC
Note: advanced registration is required.
Annual Meeting
Saturday, Nov 7
10:00 a.m.
Stay tuned for details!
|
|
Membership
Please welcome the newest member of our circle:
Nancy Tealdi
|
|
|
|
|
|
Updates From Our Grant Recipients
Catholic Charities
 |
| | Academic Hub |
Toni Abraham, the Impact 100 RC-funded Children's Resource Manager, has set up a resource for families where a maximum of seven school-aged children can obtain distance learning and homework support in 1.5 hour increments. This allows the students to safely distance, obtain a respite from their small rooms, and receive help with all aspects of their schooling. Catholic Charities has a strong WiFi connection, allowing students security in completing their work - a challenge for many low-income students. Toni is also able to model the importance of school for parents and provide structure for the students.
Catholic Charitie's Margie Pettibone explained to the Liaison Committee that "The Impact 100 RC grant could not have come at a better time. I had no idea, and neither did our staff, how critical this resource would be for the Family Resource Center".
Currently needed:
Sneeze guards (18"x24") to help keep students safe from COVID The cost for the sneeze guards are $60; they would like four (4) in total: Click here to order.
Loretta Zweig & Cynthia Schmidt, Liaison Co-Chairs
|
 Membership Committee
We currently have 240 members; 196 individual members and 44 Dyad members.
Our Cocktails and Conversation get together scheduled for September 9th was postponed until September 14th at 7:00 PM, due to power outages.
Zoom Tutorials are being offered for any members who need help with any matter concerning our Impact 100 ZOOM meetings. To sign up please email Sharon Beckman
In order to be eligible to vote for our Impact 100 RC Impact Grant recipient for 2020 and two runners up, every member must be in good standing on September 30th, 2020. When renewing, please remember to mail in your renewal application with your renewal fee donation.
Membership Committee members are continuing to notify renewing members of their processed renewals and are reaching out to members regarding pending renewals. Everyone is being notified by an email on the first day of their renewal month and by subsequent follow up emails.
Charlene Staples & Bev Curry, Co-Chairs
|
|
NextGen
The NextGen Committee's monthly hike to engage younger members and their friends will be on Sunday, Sept 20, 8:30 a.m.at Taylor Mountain Regional Park. All members are encouraged to reach out to younger women in their social or professional circles. Who wouldn't want to spend a couple hours enjoying the fall colors and comraderies of our group? Invite them to join you on a hike!
We'll also be hosting a zoom social hour for NextGen members and their friends, as well as general members and their younger guests interested in learning more about Impact 100 and the NextGen program. It will be on Tuesday, Sept 29 from 7:00 to 8:00 pm. Both events are on the website with registration links.
There is a new recruitment flyer on the website that provides information about the program. Click here to access the flyer. Please forward to any young women who might be interested. You can also send contacts who may be interested in NextGen events and the program to Robin Wendler, NextGen Chair rwendler@rocketmail.com 707-889-4497.
|
The Collective Power of Women
As we plough ahead "virtually" for the culmination of the year-long grant selection process and general meeting, let us be buoyed by the power of "us" during these strange and difficult times. We are, through collaboration, awarding $100,000 to a deserving non-profit in November and $10,000 each to the two Impact Grant finalists. In addition, we have given another $80,000 in Community grants. As important, we have, through our collective efforts, provided a voice for organizations who are helping our community, and remained an anchor in a shifting sea of change. Despite all, we have engaged and informed ourselves and created the framework where every member will have the opportuni ty to make an informed choice on where her donation goes by voting for the Impact 100 grant.
We should be reminded that as women, we are celebrating the 100-year anniversary of a hard-fought battle of women's right to vote. Not until the late 19th century was it recognized that American women were autonomous individuals who deserved their own political identities. And not until August 1920, was the Nineteenth Amendment ratified, granting women the right to vote, known as women's suffrage, and ending almost a century of protest.
Those were tough times. While today's challenges are different, the word "suffrage" seems an apt description. Most of us have found it difficult to stay upbeat and positive. We have scrambled with change. But the silver lining to 2020 is that we have demonstrated that the collective power of women is alive and well and should be cause for celebration. So, let's do just that-together. Stay tuned for upcoming notices about our November virtual meeting and how to exercise your vote. Exciting times ahead.
Valorie Bader, Marketing Committee
|
|
Education Committee
Recap of ED Talk - Sonoma County Human Services Dept.
|
| | Oscar Chavez |
The Education Committee hosted a fast-paced, highly informative, Powerpoint free ED Talk on August 25 with the Sonoma County Human Services Department, Assistant Director, Oscar Chavez. We are not positive, but we might have come close to overloading the Zoom Chat Box feature! It was brimming with insightful questions and comments from our members, stimulating even deeper conversation regarding the current and future needs of our community, and the manner in which those needs are being addressed. The impact of COVID-19 on the services provided to fire evacuees at the Fairgrounds and Red Cross collaboration efforts, were just some of the real time issues impacting our community that week which Oscar shared openly with members. Clearly, he needs to come back and keep the conversation going!
DID YOU KNOW?
- Sonoma County Human Services Department (HSD) has transitioned 90% of its services to a teleworking model as a result of COVID-19, with fewer employees available to work. This has created both challenges and opportunities in servicing at-risk populations.
- HSD employs over 1,000 staff, providing a vast array of critical services through these four divisions: Adult and Aging, Economic Assistance, Employment and Training, Family, Youth & Children.
- HSD partners contractually with numerous nonprofit organizations to help fulfill its service obligations. State and county revenue losses can result in the reduction of those contracts, which hurts nonprofits and our community overall.
- There is a link to Upstream Investments.org on our website under the Education tabclick here. Learn about HSD efforts to encourage evidence based, prevention focused programs in our community. You can search programs by service area, sector, demographic, and other useful criteria. Please note, this is just a partial list of nonprofit organizations who may be eligible for nomination.
Watch for the announcement and your invitation to the next ED Talk October 21, 2020. The speaker will be Bill Carter, Director, Behavioral Health Division, Sonoma County Department of Health Services.
Thea Hensel & Laurie Parish, Co-Chairs
|
|
Impact 100 RC Governance Update
The Governance Policies and Procedures document has recently been updated and is a document that the Leadership Team reviews regularly and updates annually. Click here to view on our website.
We wanted to highlight an important section of the document regarding promoting and publicizing activities of Impact 100 RC and Community Grant recipients.
Part of the commitment that Impact 100 RC makes to both its Impact and Community Grant recipients is to promote their events and activities, such as volunteer opportunities, client needs, fundraising events, and program successes or challenges. Impact 100 RC may publicize grantee activities and news through Impact 100 RC's website, newsletter, Facebook page, other social media, and emails to members. Any inquires by grantees should be directed to the appropriate liaison (Impact or Community Grants). No actual solicitation or collection of funds shall take place at membership, committee or Leadership Team meetings.
After the grant period has expired (two years for the Impact grant and one year for the Community grants) former grantees may post items on Impact 100 RC's Facebook page and submit announcements/updates for publication in Impact 100 RC's newsletter. These updates will be printed as space allows. Impact 100 RC will not send emails to our members on behalf of former recipients.
We do not promote activities and events for non-profit agencies that have not been recent recipients of our grants. Needless to say, that may leave out many outstanding agencies. For example, if one of our members asks if we can publicize an upcoming event or fundraising drive, for an agency outside of our circle of recipients, we must unfortunately decline despite the fact that it may be a wonderful opportunity to support Sonoma County. Instead, we would encourage the member to consider nominating that agency in the next round of grant funding.
Carol Lynn Wood, Vice President Governance
|
Contact our Newsletter Editor:
If you have questions or suggestions for The Impact 100 Redwood Circle Communique, please contact Editor, Jan Houts at impact100newsletter@gmail.com
|
|
|
|
