Stories

Read these stories about how JMG students approched their philanthropic challenges! . .


Cinderella Asks Dress Recipients to Pay it Forward

A new dress, news shoes, sparkly earrings, dinner, photos. . . high school proms can be a big investment and many young women simply can’t afford the hundreds of dollars they should expect to fork out for that special night. Enter the Cinderella Project. For four years, the Cinderella Project has given away new and gently used donated gowns and accessories available to local girls for that special night.

Belfast Area High School JMG students chose to grant $500 to the Cinderella Project, administered through the Waldo County Cap Agency and hosted by Reny’s in Belfast. According to Belfast JMG Specialist Sarah Lawlor, the students liked the “Pay it Forward” requirement of the project. While the dresses are free, each comes with a tag – and perhaps a verbal reminder upon selecting the dress at the annual event – to do something good for someone else. “It was a bit of a hard sell among the boys,” concedes Sarah, “probably in part because we all go volunteer at the giveaway day and they pictured themselves in a sea of girls and gowns. But, they thought about their girlfriends, their sisters, their neighbors, and eventually voted to support it.”

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“If You Don’t Have Anything Nice to Say. . . ”

JMG Specialist Becky Bardosy recalls the personal connection that one Greenville JMG student had with the Lifejackets program run by the Charlotte White Center. “This young woman had participated in Lifejackets – which some of my students called ‘JMG after school’. She told the class about a day when she was canoeing with a young man on a Lifejackets outing, and was growing more and more aggravated about his inability to paddle or steer. They got to a rock in the river and she told him to just get out and she paddled away. . . She then said that because of the positive decision-making skills and leadership ability she had learned through the Lifejackets programs, she went back and picked him up – whereas a few years ago she probably would have left him there!”

Constructive arguments, personal testimonials, the ability to have a disagreement without fighting—all of these were decision-making experiences gained by Becky’s 22 middle and high school students in Greenville. Becky required that each student express his or her thoughts in a rational and thoughtful way or perhaps talk about a connection to an organization as the canoeing student had. “Independent of the private voting process, each student had to express an opinion or thought about the nonprofit applicants. They realized the power of persuasive argument, and how to influence someone else with constructive approaches rather than just telling that person that he or she is wrong.”

Greenville awarded its grant fund to both the Lifejackets program and the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

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Philanthropy Drops in at the Lewiston ACE Program

Rob Schulz, JMG Specialist for Lewiston’s Aspiring for Careers and Education (ACE) program had a unique challenge in shepherding his students through the philanthropy process. ACE is a drop-in at will program for homeless youth, youth at-risk of homelessness and youth in transition. Rob recalled, “What I found difficult was trying to keep everyone on the same page in the grantmaking process, not knowing who might show up on a given day to participate.”

The needs and challenges among this group of students are great – and learning about how to give to others might generally be a low priority. However, because of their challenges, many students had first-hand knowledge of the programs and services available to help youth and families in the community and will participate in community service with the two funded nonprofits: the Abused Women’s Advocacy Project to put on a film festival for young people portraying the issues and impacts of domestic abuse; and the purchase of young adult books at the Lewiston Public Library, where at least one ACE student will participate in a summer reading program.
 

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Funding Builds Understanding of Mental Health Among Lewiston Sophomores

Most teens do not spend a great deal of time thinking about mental illness. Given the chance to make grants in the community one might expect them to choose a more “popular” cause. For Tina Clark, Director of Development and Community Relations at Tri-County Mental Health Services in Lewiston, being invited to submit an rfp to the JMG sophomores at Lewiston High School provided an opportunity to talk about the reality of mental illness and its impact on every age group.

“Whether we received the JOY funding or not, we were thrilled for the opportunity to meet young people and talk about services available in our community,” she explains. Tri-County offers services for people of all ages living with mental illness, recovering from traumatic events, or just needing support to get through life challenges. “To receive a grant was a bonus, it speaks to how far we have come in reducing stigma and gives us hope that young people who need help will not hesitate to seek it out,” she says. The grant will be used to support basic needs for young clients and their families that are not funded by other sources, such as clothing, books, perhaps dues to join a club. Tina concludes, “We often say that our work offers hope and these young people have given us hope for a future free of judgment and stigma.”    

  

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Partnership Renewed

In their second year of grantmaking, Barbara Jewett’s Livermore Falls High School students renewed their relationship with the Tri-town Ministerial Food Bank both through both their $1000 JOY grant and their contribution of time and labor. Staffed primarily by volunteer senior citizens, the strong, hardworking students gladly help to unload large shipments of food and stock shelves several times during the school year, saving the “regulars” significant muscle strain and a lot of time.

“We had several worthy nonprofits to consider his year, and gave them all serious consideration,” said Barbara Jewett, the Livermore Falls Specialist. The students paid particular attention to the applicants’ operating budgets, and in making their decision felt that the grant would make a more significant impact on the local food bank than on a larger, statewide nonprofit. “We know that our grant last year was used to purchase fresh eggs, milk and produce that families otherwise would not have had,” Barbara adds. In an additional “time” contribution the students spent a day picking apples and the farmer at Kents Hill Orchard donated them to the food bank to supplement Thanksgiving Food baskets.
 

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Having a Choice that Makes a Difference

                                                                  
The JMG students who are residents at Mountain View Youth Development Center in Charleston become accustomed to having very limited choices – their schedules, meals, and an educational curriculum are assigned to them. They also have little input on their day to day activities. “So, imagine what it is like to suddenly have control over grant money,” shares JMG Program Manager Pat Gillis. “Most of the young men had the sense that this experience in philanthropy was ‘bigger than me’ and every one of them chose to step up and take it seriously.”

Ben, who led the Mountain View student JOY Advisory Committee, said that just doing the research on nonprofit organizations was eye-opening. “Starting out, I didn’t know much about any of them, but all of us felt it was important to really understand the role of each one. We wanted to know exactly how the money would be used and how many people would benefit – children in particular.”

Using a detailed matrix that they developed, the Advisory Committee members ranked each proposal for, among other factors, overall mission, impact of grant and quality of application – typos and missing information were noted. The Mountain View students eventually awarded their funds to the Coping and Support Training (CAST) program at the Maine Children’s Home for Little Wanderers in Waterville to address pregnant and parenting teens about suicide and its prevention.

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Many Blessings in a Small Community


The forty JMG Students at Penquis Valley High School provided their grant funding to a very below-the-radar program intended to alleviate hunger among local elementary students. “Blessings in a Backpack” was founded by a local social worker and an elementary school teacher who quietly pack the backpacks of children in need with food for the weekend and for school vacations. Because all children carry backpacks to school, nobody knows who is benefitting, yet the program makes a big difference to the children whose packs are filled. The JMG students were introduced to the program when they helped to pack the bags.

“We don’t have too many really local community nonprofits that serve youth and families, and ‘Blessings’ is a true homegrown effort that very directly meets needs we know are there,” said Carl Wilson, JMG Specialist.

“Our students have a direct connection to the end result and it makes a big difference to our learning about philanthropy. We’re hoping that other local communities pick up on the idea.”

 

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Brewer High School Broadens Volunteer Horizons 

Trying to narrow down a list of nearly 100 potential grantees to a manageable group in order to invite them to submit RFPs is a daunting task. It is not so easy for forty high school students to develop consensus. Jennifer Hikel, the Brewer High School JMG Job Specialist helped guide her students through the criteria and hard choices and was able to make interesting new community contacts through the process.

“We have built some new relationships, specifically with Camp CaPella, an organization that serves children with disabilities that had never heard of JMG. Through the Jumpstart Our Youth (JOY) program Camp CaPella has invited our students to pursue potential volunteer opportunities and we look forward to learning more.” Jennifer said that it was helpful for the students to learn more about the different community organizations as “so often we stick to what we know” which doesn’t always ensure the best outcome. Brewer High School granted $500 to Camp CaPella and $500 to Make-A- Wish foundation.

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“Share the Power of a Wish” is the slogan that captures the mission of Maine’s Make-A-Wish Foundation, a statewide nonprofit organization that grants big wishes to children with life-threatening medical conditions. “Sharing” was also critical to the JMG participants at Messalonskee High whose semester schedule made it necessary for one group of students who had begun work on JOY to hand it off to a second, incoming group of students to complete.

“It was a challenge,” acknowledged Specialist Robin Allen, “but the first semester students created a big Wall of Wishes, posting all of the facts and accomplishments of Make-A-Wish to bring the second semester students up to speed and get them motivated around the cause.” Students were able to maintain momentum in researching the grant recipient and fully contribute to the larger community wish for Ricky Gibson who wished for the Field of Dreams – a lighted football field at Community School District 10-Marranacook, ultimately benefiting a larger community for generations to come.

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Lincoln Academy Leverages Grants

JMG students at Lincoln Academy combined the JOY grant funding - $1000 with money earned from a student fund-raiser to provide two, $800 grants. Much like a charitable foundation, Lincoln Academy hosted informational meetings for potential nonprofit “bidders” to learn more about the RFP requirements, required applicants to present to the class and actively worked together to read and rate the proposals.

Alex Gaeth, Executive Director of the Midcoast chapter of Big Brothers Big Sisters presented an overview of the program. According to Alex, Lincoln Academy is one of the most successful high school programs that participate in the Big Brothers Big Sisters matching program – providing lots of “bigs”. Alex was impressed by the questions he was asked. One student asked me “what can $800 really do for your program?” He replied that $800 is the cost to save a life through making a match between a “little” and a “big” so it would be worthwhile. He was also asked what it was like to lead a nonprofit, “that was a fun one to answer!”

Big Brothers, Big Sisters and Carpenter’s Boatshop each received $800 grants.

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Students in Jeff Kozaka's JMG unit cast a wide net in soliciting RFP's for their JOY grant.  In doing so, they set themselves up for both more research and a serious debate about which organization should receive the funds.  The students are  interested in contributing some “sweat equity” in the form of volunteer time with the organization they choose to fund, so they had no qualms about asking the organizations to clarify details on programs and budget and asked about volunteer opprtunities.

The information gathering set them up to formally debate in groups - five groups of students each representing one of the nonprofit finalists under considerationfor the grant.  The debaters had to present their case for why the organization they represented should receive the grant - and it made a big difference! A class poll prior to the debate placed the grant recipient -  Youth Alternatives/Ingraham - near the bottom of the preference list.  Its debate team did such a thorough job in presenting its merits that it rose to the top and received the total grant. 

To see more of the students' reflections at the March 3rd closing event, scroll down to view the Mahoney Middle School video link.

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Livermore Falls High School Examines Local Priorities

Ultimately, Livermore Falls JMG students had to determine which was more important: playing baseball or having food on the table? Having received donation proposals from both youth recreation nonprofits and the local food bank, the students researched community economic conditions as they discussed how to make their grant award.

At the March 3rd 2009 closing event at Point Lookout  Kendra Hall, VP of Livermore Falls’ JMG organization shared the impact of recent job losses on the local economy and families: 200 workers laid off from 2 local mills with more job losses expected; 460 people including 170 children served each month by the Tri-Town Ministerial Food bank; students experiencing hunger first-hand.

Specialist Barbara Jewett said, “The community service aspect is also very powerful. The food bank is a very grass-roots volunteer organization run mostly by seniors. Our students can help move heavy boxes and unpack deliveries very quickly and with a great sense of accomplishment when finished.”

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The junior high school students in Kara Boone’s JMG group have had the opportunity to include adult community members in their grant-making process as they learn more about what effective philanthropy is. Kara invited a school-board member who is also with the Rotary Club to speak to the students about good grantmaking practices. They have learned all about, “sustainability”, “matching grants”, sweat equity,” and the difference between a “hand-up and a hand-out".

Using a prepared set of questions the students have been able to learn more about community needs and responses from other classroom guests that Kara has invited including an organization that benefits Haitian children. As Kara said, “I wanted them to see that anyone can become a philanthropist once they see a need and have a passion to meet it.”

In using their newly developed evaluation tools, the students chose the Waban Project, a summer camp for children with autism, to receive their JOY grant.

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Philanthropy. Donating. Volunteering. Contributing – all words that imply something given with no expectation of return. Also, sometimes a tough concept for adolescents to grasp. Keith Piehler, JMG Specialist at Warsaw Middle School in Pittsfield has been driving home the idea that giving time, talent and treasure are all important components of being part of a strong community. Several students volunteered early on a Saturday morning to be part of the “Keep Me Warm” weatherization audits in their community – visiting homes and assessing ways for residents to save on heating bills. And all of the JMG students volunteered to spend an afternoon and evening preparing, serving and cleaning up a community dinner offered to thank families for their school support. And afterwards? “The students came up to me and thanked me for the chance to be involved,” said Keith, “no rewards expected, but good feelings experienced by all.”

Warsaw Middle School made its JOY donation to the Pittsfield Public Library's campaign to add a Teen Center, an effort the students can join.

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Portland High School’s JMG students contributed $1000 to the Catherine Morrill Day Nursery. The class determined that they wanted to focus support on very young kids to ensure that they were ready to learn in Kindergarten. Rather than have the Nursery staff present to them at the High School, the Portland students walked across the city for a site visit to meet their young beneficiaries and learn more about Catherine Morrill’s successful approaches to early childhood education. They also did puzzles, read books and participated in “Circle Time”. As they proudly presented their grant check,Catherine Morrill’s Director Darshana Spach invited members of JMG to volounteer time working at a summer festival or other event.

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To educate teens about the occurrence of teen dating violence, the Young Adult Abuse Prevention program (YAAPP) works with its target population to design its programs. As part of its successful JOY grant proposal, YAAPP asked the JMG students at Deering High School to help them design an approach that would speak to their peers. The result is an exhibit entitled “Walking in their Shoes” - intended to show the many facets of domestic violence through colorful and creative shoe sculpture.

“This is so much more than one donation,” said Deering Specialist Robyn Fink, “this is students using their creative talent and growing awareness of what dating violence looks like to invest in education and prevention for themselves, their friends and their peers.”


To see all the JMG sites and grantees, please follow this link:  2009 JOY Grantees