It is tough to say who had a better time at the party! The Heroes had a great time and loved hanging out with their college friends for the day. NU students were given an opportunity to hang out with the kids they are dancing for. The B+ Foundation is very proud of how the students have handled their relationships with the Heroes. We take pride in making sure that we partner “our kids” with groups who are going to take the responsibility seriously. You have lived up to our expectations and we are very happy with the relationships that have been built. Getting to know these kids and working with them will be all the motivation that you need when you get tired during the 30 hours of DM!

If you believe in karma then you will not surprised to hear that the ‘Cats took town Iowa the next night. The offense erupted to lead the team to an 83-64 victory. There were several Heroes in attendance to cheer on the team that they had met the night before. Thank you to NU Athletics and Maureen Palchak for helping make this happen!

A big ‘Thank You’ also goes out to the Northwestern Men’s Soccer team and Maureen Palchak, Assistant Director of Marketing/Community Relations at NU Athletics. Players from this year’s Big 10 championship team helped local AYSO soccer players work on their skills at NU’s indoor practice facility. All of the participants were given B+ t-shirts to take home in addition to autographed schedules from the team. It was a great way for NUDM and B+ to get the word our in the local community. B+ is always looking for ways to spread our message and connecting with youth soccer players is a great way to do that because it was Andrew’s favorite sport. Thanks for helping us spread the word about The B+ Foundation!

Save the date: the big event announcing the grant recipients is the evening of May 24.

In 2011, ECF funded 27 proposals adding up to $200,507, each one addressing Evanston’s needs through the innovative work of local nonprofits. They were:

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago  $7,500
Evanston Community-Based Mentoring Program
To expand current program to serve an additional eight youth inEvanston.

Center for Independent Futures  $15,000
Full Life Futures Program
To offer students in special education at ETHS who are the most at-risk an opportunity to develop independent life skills and supportive relationships.

Warren W. Cherry Preschool  $5,750
Getting At-Risk Children to the Kindergarten Starting Line Together with Their Peers
Continuing community outreach efforts to ensure at-risk children receive a quality early childhood education.

Child Care Center of Evanston  $7,082
Expansion of Preschool Program
To add another two-year-old classroom due to increased need.

Childcare Network of Evanston  $7,500
Communitywide Scholarship Fund for Families in Crisis
To provide financial assistance toEvanstonlow income working parents who are ineligible for child care.

Children’s Home + Aid  $6,000
Rice Child + Family Center: Evanston Foster Care Outreach Project
To build awareness of and support for foster children served at the Center.

Connections  $13,750
Next Steps Top 20 Project
Targeting clients most at risk of mortality due to homelessness and helping them transition to stable housing.

Erie Family Health Center, Inc.  $13,500
Erie Evanston Health Center: Community Health Education and Outreach
To provide important health education and outreach activities in theEvanstonandSkokiearea.

Evanston History Center  $5,000
150th Anniversary Project Coordinator
To hire a temporary staff member to coordinate the Center’s community partnerships forEvanston’s 150th anniversary.

Evanston In-School Music Association (EISMA)  $3,000
Concerts for Kids
To present live, educational concerts in a broad range of musical styles inEvanstonschools.

Evanston School Children’s Clothing Association (ESCCA)  $3,000
To Purchase Children’s Footwear
Supplying new gym shoes and winter boots for free distribution to District 65 students.

Evanston/Skokie School District 65 School Age Child Care  $1,280
Creative Dance at Oakton
To teach students in the after school program the joy of fully engaging their bodies and minds in self-expression.

Evanston Symphony Orchestra Association  $3,000
Music In Your World
To bring the popular music education program to the McGaw YMCA pre-school, using music to teach important pre-reading and math skills and provide cultural enrichment to a diverse group of children.

The Family Room  $10,000
New Mothers Support Programs
To provide support groups in three areas: low-income mothers, uninsured mothers, and mothers experiencing perinatal depression.

Grandmother Park Initiative  $3,800
Grandmother Park Initiative Community Outreach
Marketing and advocacy efforts to establish a needed tot lot inEvanston’s 5th Ward.

The Harbour  $5,000
Safe Harbour Emergency Shelter
Providing emergency shelter, crisis intervention, and comprehensive services for homeless and runaway girls ages 12-21.

Jumpstart for Young Children, Inc.  $7,780
Book Buddies Pre-K Program
Supporting a weekly program with Evanston Public Library to develop the language and literacy skills ofEvanston’s preschool children.

LIFT-Evanston  $8,000
Online Social Service Directory
Expanding current housing website to include all social services forEvanstonresidents.

James B. Moran Center for Youth Advocacy  $5,000
Ask a Lawyer Program
To support a monthly, walk-in legal clinic providing hundreds of low-incomeEvanstonresidents access to legal advice and referrals on a variety of matters.

Northlight Theatre  $5,150
Northlight On Campus – Speak Up! At Evanston Township High School
Supplementing current theatre programming while maintaining the high artistic standard set by ETHS.

North Shore Senior Center  $5,600
Outreach to Identify and Provide Support to Older Adults with Vision Loss
Expanding outreach, education and social services to seniors with visual impairment.

Open Studio Project  $5,200
Video Art and the Process
Providing video art making workshops to disadvantaged middle school and high school boys, culminating in a public screening/exhibit.

PEER Services, Inc.  $7,200
Reducing the Spread of HIV Through Support and Risk-Reduction Education
To assist individuals living with HIV/AIDS to maximize their health and reduce the spread of HIV by providing education and support services.

Rebuilding Together North Suburban Chicago  $5,000
Home Repair Services
To repair and rehab homes for homeowners in need.

Youth Job Center of Evanston  $8,150
WILL: Women Invested in Learning and Livelihoods
To help young, working women, ages 18-25, advance from “working poor” jobs to living wage positions with advancement potential.

Y.O.U. (Youth Organizations Umbrella)  $8,265
Service Learning for Y.O.U.th
To address the community’s “civic engagement gap” by involving youth in meaningful service learning activities.

YWCA Evanston/North Shore  $9,000
Job-Readiness and Economic Life Skills Coaching
Providing job-readiness workshops and comprehensive follow up with an Economic Life Skills Coach to help women move toward self-sufficiency

SPECIAL FOUNDATION INITIATIVE
Communityworks: Every Child Ready for Kindergarten, Every Youth Ready for Work  $16,000
Family Support through Home Visiting
Grant supplements funds drawn from the Foundation’s Communityworks Fund and other sources toward 2011 program expenditures of $213,200. Key partners: Infant Welfare Society of Evanston and Evanston/Skokie School District 65.

We are so happy that the dancers are connecting with their B+ Heroes. DG and ZBT were thoughtful enough to invite B+ Hero Vana Kayalik and her family to have dinner at the sorority house. After dinner everyone went to Northwestern production Dolphin Show: 42nd Street. Vana, her sister Alara, and the rest of the family had an amazing time at the show. They had nothing but great things to say about the DGs and ZBTs and were thankful for such a wonderful night.

This is NUDM. This is B+. This is why we dance.

Strong communities need strong leadership. The visionaries who started the Foundation saw a future where leaders from diverse Evanston communities worked together. They created Leadership Evanston to make that happen. This year’s signature Leadership Evanston class is our 20^th!

More than 500 people have graduated. 77% of them still live and/or work here, vastly enriching the pool of visionaries, advocates and problem-solvers who will rise to our community’s challenges.

Leadership Evanston Broadens and Deepens Connections That Make Our Community Run

Program participants value what they learn about leadership, about Evanston, and about themselves –and the networks it helps them build:

Aracely Canchola, a founder of the Evanston Coalition for Latino Resources, credits Leadership Evanston with helping her develop organizational skills and confidence to engage Evanston’s growing Latino population.

Carolyn Dellutri, Executive Director of Downtown Evanston, calls LE “life-changing: it grounded me and gave me resources and connections… we are all agents of change.  What we learned we will apply in the community.”

Leadership Evanston Impacts Our Community in Many Ways

Signature Leadership Evanston participants work together to launch projects with concrete outcomes, such as:

• West End Market—brings fresh produce to underserved area
• Downtown Evanston Gift Card—encourages support of local businesses
• City of Evanston 311 program—makes information more accessible to all

And leadership is built through additional programs:

• Encore Leadership—for seniors
• Snapshot Evanston—a one-day immersion
• Public Service Challenge—to encourage participation in electoral politics

Nonprofits contribute mightily to civic, cultural and economic life in Evanston. They help attract people to buy homes and start businesses here. And the Foundation connects them to each other—and to new ideas.

Nonprofits Contribute Mightily to Evanston’s Economic Life

A 2009 survey by Evanston Inventure that we helped produce found that even smaller nonprofits that don’t own property have a significant impact. 

Twenty seven participated in the survey and reported that they:

• Employed 120 people full-time and 79 part-time, with a payroll of $6.7 million
• Bought $391,700 in local goods and services, from office supplies to pizza
• Paid $125,535 in city fees
• Occupied 61,000 square feet of commercial space, through which they paid property taxes indirectly through rent
• Had total budgets of $13.9 million

DM Support of ECF Supports Evanston’s Economic Vibrancy

We’re at the heart of all this. We foster accountability, sustainability and efficiency in Evanston’s nonprofits. Our grants support their work. We convene them to share ideas for making our community stronger. Nonprofit leaders build skills through Leadership Evanston and our nonprofit workshops. Through ECF programs they strengthen their fundraising, build stronger boards, and plan for the future. 

Our work helps Evanston’s nonprofits deliver on their missions, invest more in local needs, strengthen the well-being of Evanston’s residents, and hire more people – and that in turn strengthens our local economy.

The achievement gap between low-income students and their more affluent peers has troubled Evanston’s schools for years.  Under a challenge from the Grand Victoria Foundation’s Communityworks initiative, in 2003, The Evanston Community Foundation convened Evanston residents seeking solutions and launched Every child ready for kindergarten, Every youth ready for work.

We started at the very beginning – ages 0 to 3 – because research tells us that the achievement gap begins long before kindergarten.  We’re helping Evanston’s most vulnerable families give their babies a strong start on life and learning to ensure school and life success.

In 2008, the Grand Victoria Foundation put $2 million in matching funds on the table.  They challenged Evanston to build an endowment to provide a long-term, reliable stream of financial support for the programs and services that Every child offers.

 Three years and 170 donors later, we met the challenge! Our endowment is fast approaching $6 million—positioning us to increase program investments from $175,000 in 2011 to $300,000 in 2014.

Our Impact

We’ve invested $883,000 in Evanston’s youngest children in just five years!

50 families every year receive home visits through District 65 Family Center and Infant Welfare Society of Evanston. For the first the three years of the child’s life, home visitors visit weekly or bi-weekly bringing toys, books, tips on early learning and a sympathetic ear. Parents say the visits help reduce stress and teach vital parenting skills.

Home visitors arrange for screenings for about 160 children a year to spot health and developmental problems that can hold kids back.

1 screening, 1 better future:  When Demarcus was an infant, his teachers at Teen Baby Nursery observed that he favored one side over the other. They shared their concerns with his mother and made a referral to Child and Family Connections for further evaluation. As a result, Demarcus saw a developmental therapist for several months and the issue was completely resolved. He transitioned to the toddler room right on track developmentally.

Our Future Plans

With a growing endowment, ECF will make further investments in Every child ready for kindergarten. We’ve partnered with Northern Illinois University since 2007 to ensure the effectiveness of home visiting. A new project with Erikson Institute and D65 will explore reasons why 15-20% of new District 65 kindergarteners reported no preschool experience when registering for school—information that our grantee partners can use. 

Although we are making a noticeable impact, there are more children and families who need our help.  Census data shows increasing rates of poverty in Evanston – 17.3% in 2010 vs. 11.1% in 1999 – and a higher rate now than in Cook County as a whole. In 2011, our endowment allowed us to serve 15% of Evanston’s target families. Our growing endowment, and support from Dance Marathon, will help us broaden the ways in which we help them—and to reach more families in future years.

The awards to 28 organizations and projects amount to a record $200,500. They were selected from 64 proposals, and represent some of the best thinking on how to meet Evanston’s challenges now and for years to come. The size of the funding pool is a testament to the foresight of the many donors to our general endowment and field-of-interest funds, whose contributions in the last 25 years continue to give and grow, and to the generosity of a dedicated group of grantmaking partners, especially Northwestern University Dance Marathon 2011. Bringing Evanston’s assets—its dollars, its people, its institutions—together to help Evanston thrive as a vibrant, inclusive and just community: that’s the heart of ECF.

The grants listed below span priority areas including arts and culture, basic human needs, community development, early childhood, family support and counseling, housing, seniors, workforce development and at-risk youth. If you are a supporter of the Evanston Community Foundation, we hope when you browse them you will reflect on the role you play in making sure we’re here for GOOD, as a force for positive change, now and forever.

2011-12 Responsive Grants announced May 26, 2011

Big Brothers Big Sisters of Metropolitan Chicago $7,500
Evanston Community-Based Mentoring Program
To expand current program to serve an additional eight youth in Evanston.

Center for Independent Futures $15,000
Full Life Futures Program
To offer students in special education at ETHS who are the most at-risk an opportunity to develop independent life skills and supportive relationships.

Warren W. Cherry Preschool $5,750
Getting At-Risk Children to the Kindergarten Starting Line Together with Their Peers
Continuing community outreach efforts to ensure at-risk children receive a quality early childhood education.

Child Care Center of Evanston $7,082
Expansion of Preschool Program
To add another two-year-old classroom due to increased need.

Childcare Network of Evanston $7,500
Communitywide Scholarship Fund for Families in Crisis
To provide financial assistance to Evanston low income working parents who are ineligible for child care.

Children’s Home + Aid $6,000
Rice Child + Family Center: Evanston Foster Care Outreach Project
To build awareness of and support for foster children served at the Center.

Connections $13,750
Next Steps Top 20 Project
Targeting clients most at risk of mortality due to homelessness and helping them transition to stable housing.

Erie Family Health Center, Inc. $13,500
Erie Evanston Health Center: Community Health Education and Outreach
To provide important health education and outreach activities in the Evanston and Skokie area.

Evanston History Center $5,000
150th Anniversary Project Coordinator
To hire a temporary staff member to coordinate the Center’s community partnerships for Evanston’s 150th anniversary.

Evanston In-School Music Association (EISMA) $3,000
Concerts for Kids
To present live, educational concerts in a broad range of musical styles in Evanston schools.

Evanston School Children’s Clothing Association (ESCCA) $3,000
To Purchase Children’s Footwear
Supplying new gym shoes and winter boots for free distribution to District 65 students.

Evanston/Skokie School District 65 School Age Child Care $1,280
Creative Dance at Oakton
To teach students in the after school program the joy of fully engaging their bodies and minds in self-expression.

Evanston Symphony Orchestra Association $3,000
Music In Your World
To bring the popular music education program to the McGaw YMCA pre-school, using music to teach important pre-reading and math skills and provide cultural enrichment to a diverse group of children.

The Family Room $10,000
New Mothers Support Programs
To provide support groups in three areas: low-income mothers, uninsured mothers, and mothers experiencing perinatal depression.

Grandmother Park Initiative $3,800
Grandmother Park Initiative Community Outreach
Marketing and advocacy efforts to establish a needed tot lot in Evanston’s 5th Ward.

The Harbour $5,000
Safe Harbour Emergency Shelter
Providing emergency shelter, crisis intervention, and comprehensive services for homeless and runaway girls ages 12-21.

Jumpstart for Young Children, Inc. $7,780
Book Buddies Pre-K Program
Supporting a weekly program with Evanston Public Library to develop the language and literacy skills of Evanston’s preschool children.

LIFT-Evanston $8,000
Online Social Service Directory
Expanding current housing website to include all social services for Evanston residents.

James B. Moran Center for Youth Advocacy $5,000
Ask a Lawyer Program
To support a monthly, walk-in legal clinic providing hundreds of low-income Evanston residents access to legal advice and referrals on a variety of matters.

Northlight Theatre $5,150
Northlight On Campus – Speak Up! At Evanston Township High School
Supplementing current theatre programming while maintaining the high artistic standard set by ETHS.

North Shore Senior Center $5,600
Outreach to Identify and Provide Support to Older Adults with Vision Loss
Expanding outreach, education and social services to seniors with visual impairment.

Open Studio Project $5,200
Video Art and the Process
Providing video art making workshops to disadvantaged middle school and high school boys, culminating in a public screening/exhibit.

PEER Services, Inc. $7,200
Reducing the Spread of HIV Through Support and Risk-Reduction Education
To assist individuals living with HIV/AIDS to maximize their health and reduce the spread of HIV by providing education and support services.

Rebuilding Together North Suburban Chicago $5,000
Home Repair Services
To repair and rehab homes for homeowners in need.

Youth Job Center of Evanston $8,150
WILL: Women Invested in Learning and Livelihoods
To help young, working women, ages 18-25, advance from “working poor” jobs to living wage positions with advancement potential.

Y.O.U. (Youth Organizations Umbrella) $8,265
Service Learning for Y.O.U.th
To address the community’s “civic engagement gap” by involving youth in meaningful service learning activities.

YWCA Evanston/North Shore $9,000
Job-Readiness and Economic Life Skills Coaching
Providing job-readiness workshops and comprehensive follow up with an Economic Life Skills Coach to help women move toward self-sufficiency

SPECIAL FOUNDATION INITIATIVE
Communityworks: Every Child Ready for Kindergarten, Every Youth Ready for Work $16,000
Family Support through Home Visiting
Grant supplements funds drawn from the Foundation’s Communityworks Fund and other sources toward 2011 program expenditures of $213,200. Key partners: Infant Welfare Society of Evanston and Evanston/Skokie School District 65.

Grants are funded in part by the generous contributions of Northwestern University Dance Marathon and the following grantmaking partners:

Anonymous (3)
Lisa Altenbernd and Steve Hagerty
Diana Cohen and David Spitulnik Charitable Fund
F2 Foundation
Kaplan Family Fund
Carla and Jim La Rochelle
Rubens Family Foundation

And these donor-advised funds of the Evanston Community Foundation:
ABS Fund
Sally and Richard Ennis Fund
Jon Kimmel Memorial Fund
Mary Laflin Rockwell Fund
Weisblat Family Fund
Zunamon-Cunniff Family Fund