The Home for Little Wanderers: Ambassador Grant Spotlight #2

Alex Parks joined the Ascienzo Family Foundation in the 2015 inaugural class of ambassadors and has been active every year since! Throughout his time as an ambassador, Alex has advocated for The Home for Little Wanderers, a multi-faceted human services non-profit, started over a hundred years ago, that works “to ensure the healthy behavioral, emotional, social and education development and physical well-being of children and families living in at-risk circumstances.” The Home works with children who have been directly affected by trauma, and provides different programs, including therapeutic residential schools, group homes, and preschool programs (which the AFF has funded twice in the past). Covid-19 has disproportionately affected children without stability in their homes, and increased need for students, and parents, to access mental health services. The Home’s grant application explained that most students do not receive the mental health services they need to to stigma and lack of access to services. A $10,000 grant from the AFF will help the Home meet the costs of providing school-based mental health services to school children in Boston. It is essential, especially now, for at-risk children to receive counseling, whether in person or through online video sessions, and to be put in communication with resources such as pediatricians, psychiatrists, and/or social service agencies. With this grant, the Home expects to be able to provide 125 hours of valuable services in schools in the coming year. The AFF has been working with Alex and The Home in grant-funding for the last five years, and we are very excited about this great partnership!

We have previously featured Alex on our blog, and written about the Nick Ascienzo’s visit to The Home!

CultureConnect: Partnership Grant Spotlight #1

CultureConnect is a volunteer-led, community organization in the Mid-Hudson Valley that has served youth in the area since 1994. CultureConnect runs a variety of programs, all centered around activities that “empower the youth and families in our communities to create a future of social justice, global engagement, and cultural competence.” The Ascienzo Family Foundation has previously provided three grants for CultureConnect’s Community Connect program (formerly, Life, Learning, and Language program). In 2017, CultureConnect launched CollegeConnect, a pilot program to support high school students who are the first in their families to attend college. CultureConnect explains: “First generation college students face unique challenges applying to college, often requiring services beyond what high school counselors can provide. CollegeConnect fills this gap by providing each high school student with a professional college consultant who offers their services free of charge. Each family receives around 60 hours of individualized consulting, application help, financial aid guidance, and more each year they are with the program.” This year, the Ascienzo Family Foundation approved a grant to support the CollegeConnect program, providing $10,000 a year for a total of two years. The grant monies will be used to hire a Program Coordinator, and support direct student assistance through tutoring and travel, training & conferences, and office supplies.

Budget Buddies: Ambassador Grant Spotlight #1

This past grant cycle, Ambassador Kyla Gabriel advocated for the third time for Budget Buddies. This year, the AFF was able to provide the organization with $10,000. Budget Buddies was founded in 2009, to help women take charge of their financial futures within their own communities. The Covid-19 pandemic has left more women than ever unemployed and struggling to make ends meet - especially women of color and single mothers. The majority of the AFF grant will help to ease the transition to virtual learning for financial empowerment programs, with some going towards implementing a staff support program and directly supporting women who have various barriers to participation in the workshops- for example, wifi connectivity issues or caregiving responsibilities. Virtual programming allows Budget Buddies to reach many more women and collaborate with more social service agencies in the state of Massachusetts. These financial empowerment workshops will serve around 200-220 low-income women and engage 220-240 volunteers. We are happy to support Budget Buddies for a third year, and excited to see how they grow and offer more support to the participants over this coming year!

Read about Kyla’s previous grant for Budget Buddies, here.

We Bridge from '20 to '21!

We bring you this message from Nick Ascienzo, AFF Founder and Director:

Welcome to 2021, which is not a prime number. It’s divisible by 43 and 47, primes themselves, however!

Through the pandemic upheaval and racial injustice this country faced in 2020, AFF evolved to meet the growing needs of the communities we serve - new ones, as well - expanding our mission and directorship with the addition of Fran and Jen - seeking, as well to stay true to our core beliefs while addressing forces which challenged us. Once a month meetings (yes, we really used to have get-togethers only every 4 or 5 weeks) turned into weekly Tuesday chats, and there were a series of initiatives that transformed the foundation into a more proactive non-profit than one we had managed in our previous 5 years. While metric analysis is one means of evaluating our progress and standing, there exist substantive narratives in our database of correspondence which more than support the numbers I’ll present below. We have not only bestowed grants and goodwill this year, but we’ve also been the beneficiaries of wonderful connections that have influenced our actions. And now a look at some of those numbers and thoughts:

0: There are no outstanding grants to complete - The first time we have finished all necessary documentation and check disbursements at the end of any year!

1: Our new intern Sophia, who has already placed her imprint on a number of behind the scenes projects!

2: Fran and Jen - How would this year have unfolded without the two of you? You have complemented our directorship with vibrant views and compassion!

3: Brittany, Ali, and Sophie - You continue to motivate me and all of us with graceful nuance - in 6 years you’ve become the collective lodestar of our foundation!

7: The smallest number of ambassador grants we’ve ever approved in a year, but huge in impact for The Home for Little Wanderers (Boston), Loyalty Foundation (NYC), Jane Addams Resource Corporation (Chicago), Budget Buddies (Boston), Foundation for Ellis Medicine (Albany), Sunflower Bakery (outside of DC), and Partners in Restorative Justice (Rochester); Thanks to Alex, Jonni, Isaac, Kyla, Damon, Tom, and Rohan!

12: The number of Partner Initiative Grants with organizations in the Hudson Valley, all creative proposals to meet the limitations brought about by the pandemic. Eight of those groups were new partners, a response to our grant solicitations in September - We welcome InFlight, Ramapo for Children, Poughkeepsie Farm Project, Soul Fire Farm, Kite’s Nest, Sister-2-Sister, Kingston YMCA Farm Project, and Worker Justice Center of NY to our family!

26: Two rounds of Mini-Grants at $250 each resulted in this number of donations which went out to ambassador communities from Oakland to Austin to Chicago to New Haven. The funds supported the COVID relief work being done in the first few months of the pandemic. 

43: The number of unique organizations/agencies we funded including Red Hook Responds who we fiscally sponsor, as well. RHR is a beacon of community caring, serving over 20,000 meals since March!

521: The last number of votes we received (that I remember in my FB free world-view) relative to the Mid-Hudson Heroes Award sponsored by Ulster Savings Bank…... We ultimately will receive $2,500, that will go to Red Hook Responds!

2021:  A “Happy New Year” wish is somewhat dulled by an insidious virus, but no one wants our present year to linger on for sure! May the hope of a much healthier space for all be transparent even through our cloudy lens - Our Leadership role in 2021 begins with that hope - Subsequent action we implement, allows for a better space, as well!

$6,500: The Mini-Grant funding total

$52,000: The Ambassador Grant total

$71,988: The Local Giving amount which was not part of the Partnership Initiative

$280,106: Our Partnership Initiative pledged funding for 2021 & in a few cases for 2022

$411,094: The Total for all Charitable Gifting which is almost 250% times that of 2019.

∞: My level of gratitude to all of you for creating a better environment for those whose voices were but whispers in a once-in-a-century year. (Yes, that’s the infinity symbol!)

Ambassador Spotlight #8!

Name: 

Betsy Kirtland

How long have you been an ambassador?

Since... 2015? First class of ambassadors :)

What organization(s) have you been proud to sponsor?

Fleur de Lis Circle Week, and the Mystic Learning Center

Thoughts you have on your advocacy and the organization(s).

It has been such a privilege to be able to advocate on behalf of the Mystic Learning Center and Fleur de Lis Circle Week over the years. Volunteering with them will always be fun and rewarding on an individual level, but being able to bring in money to these often underfunded programs, and seeing those funds put to use and have real impacts on the kids is really awesome. The MLC and Circle both serve kids in need - the MLC provides after school programming for kids from economically underprivileged families, and Circle is a free, week-long camp for girls who have lost a parent. The AFF funds that both programs have received have gone towards food for the kids, bus transportation for field trips, equipment for fun activities, and so much more. There's something really special about watching as a kid's eyes widen while they try out a science experiment, or hearing them laugh while they play a fun game for the first time, and it makes me proud to know that I, through the AFF, made it happen.

If you are in a profession or field of work, what background/present employment status would you like to share?

I got my Masters Degree from Tufts in 2017, and now I am a Structural Engineer at Stantec working in Boston. I've always been fascinated by bridges, and now I get to design and help construct them! I'm literally living my childhood dream. I also am a lecturer at Tufts, where I teach a class called Bridges for Resilient Cities, which touches on structural engineering as well as the importance of designing our infrastructure to be resilient.

Anything you'd like to share about your personal life? Fun thing or things you still do, in spite of the pandemic?

Unfortunately, I don't have anything interesting to share... but I hope to get a dog in the next few months!

Betsy was previously featured on our blog here and here!