Thursday, October 16, 2014

Emerging Philanthropist Program

In March I was accepted into the inaugural class of Harrisburg's new Emerging Philanthropist Program (EPP) - a collaboration between Harrisburg Young Professionals and The Foundation For Enhancing Communities (TFEC).
The program is designed to "engage Harrisburg's emerging business and community leaders with the great possibilities that lie within philanthropic endeavors in Harrisburg." As a group, we will engage in those possibilities by awarding a $5,000 grant to a local non-profit organization.

To prepare ourselves to select the grant recipient, we attended a series of panel discussions featuring  philanthropic leaders in our community (One speaker had "Civic Leader" listed as a title on their nameplate. Impressive, right?! That's a title I want to hold someday!). At the panels we learned about:
  • Assessing the needs of the community
  • Fundraising
  • Grantmaking
  • Engaging the next generation in service

On Tuesday night, we met for another powerful session. We heard from three area non-profits. They are lesser know, but they are doing INCREDIBLE things! If you are looking for a group to get involved in, these three might be worth checking out:

Neighborhood Center of the United Methodist Church - Through their Young Mothers Together program, The Neighborhood Center provides support for pregnant and parenting teens through "counseling, advocacy, group support, emergency pantry, and apprenticeships." The staff and volunteers mentor the girls, teach them skills to support their child, and help them to begin to set goals for their lives. One easy was to support this program is by collecting Campbell's Soup labels - LEARN MORE

Samara - Samara takes a multigenerational approach to interrupting the cycle of abuse. They run small group sessions for both parents and children that focus on "healing families through nurture, education and self-discovery." This program, founded in 2008, is absolutely inspiring to me. They are giving parents (who may not have grown up in a supportive family environment) a vision of what a positive family environment could look like. And they do that without judgement. Everyone is welcome as they are. Support this program with your donation of time or treasure - LEARN MORE

The Joshua Group - Working in the heart of Allison Hill, where the high school dropout rate is almost 50%, The Joshua Group works to, "provide hope and support for at-risk youth particularly through educational and vocational opportunities." They run a strong after school program that focuses on tutoring and mentoring local youth, and are seeing awesome results - Joshua Group students have better attendance rates, higher GPA's and a 97% promotion/graduation rate! Support this program by volunteering your time to tutor or by donating items on their wish list (school supplies, cleaning supplies, etc.) - LEARN MORE

#bethechange 


1 comment:

  1. Awesome groups indeed! How will you ever choose? So excited for you to have such an awesome a cool experience to be part of

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