New Stories

Small Steps is a children's center that provides high-quality care for infants, toddlers and preschoolers. Their philosophy is a center grounded in love that affirms diversity in culture, class, race and religious beliefs. Many of the families are referred by welfare agencies, tribal nations and charitable human service organizations. A Scholarship Fund was created to provide low- or no-cost services to 8-12 qualifying families per year who do not have the financial means to pay for childcare as they seek or maintain employment. Bread for the Journey of Ashland was honored to contribute $600 to their scholarship fund. http://www.mfccor.com/smallsteps.html

Marian Spadone is an artist whose personal mission is "to change the way our modern culture handles death.” This means reclaiming actual hands-on care of loved ones who have died, as well as re-thinking burial or cremation choices to reflect ecologically sound principles.

She is involved in leading several projects toward achieving this goal. One is to lead a circle of people who are training to do in-home after-death care. A second is to assemble a gallery exhibit of hand-painted and decorated shrouds and burial containers, inviting people to examine a casket, shroud or cremation urn without being in an ”immediate need” situation. The first show stimulated much community discussion and creativity. In a third project, Marian brings cremation containers to high school classes in order to have students talk about death and make art with the feelings that arise in the process. These decorated ”boxes” are then given to local funeral homes for the homeless or others who are unable to afford funeral costs.

Bread for the Journey of Ashland gave Marian a grant of $700 to help support further development of each of these caring initiatives.

Inner Child Cafe is a restaurant with internet access, a gift store, an indoor play space and a community classroom. Children are able to play while parents check e-mail, study, meet with friends or take part in one of the many groups that meet there. Providing a warm, safe, indoor space for children and adults to come together, the cafe places an emphasis on supporting the creation of healthy families. In a world where so many places are off limits to young children, Inner Child Cafe is truly a community treasure. Bread for the Journey of Ashland was happy to provide a grant of $600 for "scholarship memberships" to low-income families who would otherwise be unable to take advantage of the facilities. http://www.innerchildcafe.net

Agnes Baker Pilgrim is 82 years young and the oldest living female elder from the Takelma Band of the Rogue River Indians. Honored as a “Living Treasure” by her tribe, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz, and as a “Living Cultural Legend” by the Oregon Council of the Arts, Agnes participates in spiritual and educational events and ceremonies, speaking to youth and adults about protecting the Earth and living a balanced, productive life. Agnes shares her native crafts and wisdom with groups all over the world. She is chairwoman of the International Council of the Thirteen Indigenous Grandmothers, and will be featured in a documentary by Carole Hart, called “For the Next Seven Generations, the Grandmothers Speak.” Last year this Council gathered in Oaxaca, Mexico and Dharamsala, India, where they had an audience with the Dalai Lama. Bread for the Journey of Ashland was happy to provide a grant of $800 to the Agnes Baker Pilgrim Fund to assist in supporting her work this year. www.agnesbakerpilgrim.org

As one of the premier yoga teachers in Ashland, Sheryl Grunde offers a wonderful pre- and post-natal yoga program. She leads women in yoga while they are pregnant and then leads them in specially designed poses and stretches that include their newborns once they give birth. Bread for the Journey of Ashland gave Mama Yoga a grant of $250 to give scholarships to women who would otherwise not be able to take her classes.

Photos by Matsubara © 2006

Rogue Valley Peace Choir member Hideko Snider was just ten years old and living in Hiroshima when the U.S. dropped the first atomic bomb. Her mother (who also loved to sing) was among the hundreds of thousands who lost their lives. Like all the Peace Choir’s members, Hideko believes that presenting songs of peace, compassion and harmony can bring solace and comfort to many who have lived through the terrors of war, as it has for her.

Through Hideko’s continued friendships with people in Hiroshima and throughout Japan, the Peace Choir has been invited to sing in Japan at an annual ceremony on August 6, 2006, which marks the anniversary of the bombing. The Choir’s “Peace Journey Ambassadors” will share a message of peace and hope with the people of Japan by singing at the Peace Park in Hiroshima and several other venues across the country.

The Peace Choir was founded in 2003, and is composed of over 100 members from throughout the Rogue Valley of southwestern Oregon. Members are people from all walks of life – teens to octogenarians – who share a common desire to present songs that echo the hopes and dreams of a peaceful world – a dream that lives in the hearts of people across all nations. The music of the Peace Choir transcends borders, religious and cultural differences, and speaks of the beauty of the earth and of the wisdom, love and aspirations of the human spirit. All concerts are a pure gift of the heart. Bread for the Journey of Ashland gave them a grant of $500 to support the continuation of their work.

“How might your life have been different if there had been a place for you? A place for you to go a place of women, to help you learn the ways of woman.” - Judith Duerk

Inspired by a sentiment such as this one written in the book Circle of Stones, a small group of women in Ashland have been creating a structure for girls in their community to sit in circles with women Mentors. The Rose Circle are women...mothers, daughters, grandmothers and friends... who are interested in providing a vehicle for the young women in their community to explore and understand themselves, each other, and the world, in a safe and empowering environment. A grant of $500 from Bread for the Journey of Ashland to this fledging non-profit organization went a long way in helping to provide a mentor training for women. Circles have begun and another Mentor training is scheduled for February 2007. www.therosecircle.org

Atlanta

Helping Neglected Children

Chestnut Manor is a group home for boys located in Lithia Springs, GA. Founded in1999 by Jerry and Shirley Brady, it serves boys who have been removed from their family homes due to neglect, abuse or abandonment. The children are usually angry, have poor impulse control and are experiencing family and academic problems. Jerry and Shirley help children develop character and coping skills so they can handle their problems in a more productive manner.

Bread for the Journey of Atlanta is happy to provide a grant of $1100 to fund an educational field trip for the children of Chestnut Manor

Reading World Academy in Decatur, GA is a day care center that serves many families who are struggling to make ends meet. Often the children at Reading World do not receive any gifts for the holidays because their parents cannot afford them. Bread for the Journey of Atlanta is honored to provide a grant of $1100 so that every child at Reading World will receive a gift for Christmas.

The mission of Loving Kids Inc is “to provide a positive and nurturing outlet for children who are considered at-risk in low-income, underprivileged families through various activities and resources.” The group provides special-needs children and families with services ranging from gifts during the holidays to field trips to sporting events. They recently launched “Loving Kids Transportation” which provides free transportation to important appointments. Bread for the Journey of Atlanta was happy to provide a grant of $1000 to help with the launch of this new program.

Georgia Oliver United Methodist Church provides food for 40 low-income families in Lilburn, GA. This program is designed to help transform lives and restore hope to the tired and the hopeless. Bread for the Journey of Atlanta is happy to provide a grant of $1500 for the purchase of a used ice machine for food co-op meetings.

Chad Hale is a minister who, for the last 25 years, has lived and worked in one of Atlanta’s most punishing neighborhoods. Georgia Avenue Community Ministries (GACM) provides four food co-ops to struggling families in this neighborhood, two miles south of downtown Atlanta. Distributing food to people who are hungry is a starting point, but hardly describes Chad and his work at all. This organization is part therapy, part church service and fully about creating a sense of community in a tough neighborhood. Bread for the Journey of Atlanta is honored to provide a grant of $1000 to support a fundraising event for GACM.

Patti McCabe is one of those special young people who wears her enthusiasm and positive energy on her sleeve. As the very hands-on director of Posada Esperanza ( Hope Inn), she has built a home-like environment to shelter immigrant women and children in Austin, Texas.

Patti recognized the need to create an opportunity for the women, many of whom are victims of domestic violence, to come together to create a future free of violence for their families. The Women’s Empowerment Project aims to do just this through education, healing, and support.

Patti turned to several of the former residents — women who have “shown us their courage to bring their families to safety, access their rights, and support their peers in recognizing that each person is worth being treated with dignity and respect.” These guests will share their experiences while videos and PowerPoint presentations will be used to impart information, provide perspective, and initiate discussion.

The grant from Bread for the Journey of Austin of $900 will provide the videos, educational handouts, and incentives to make this valuable educational workshop a reality for the resident women and children. As women transition to the larger community they will carry this education and empowerment with them.

The primary mission of Florence’s Comfort House (FCH) is to provide a safe haven for the children of Montopolis, a neighborhood where families confront poverty, unemployment, drugs, prostitution and violence on a daily basis. Children receive a variety of services including meals, snacks, books, educational materials and outings. The children learn to give back by helping elderly neighbors, caring for stray animals, and performing other community services. FCH also assists other neighborhood residents including the elderly, teens and adults who are going through temporary difficulties.

The Austin Chapter of Bread for the Journey felt very privileged to help FCH establish a new project which will help a group of women in the community teach neighborhood youth how to sew. As the older youth learn, they will in turn mentor the younger ones.

A grant of $1,000 will fund the purchase of two sewing machines and all related supplies. The project will not only serve to pass on a useful life-long skill but will also strengthen the bond among the women and youth in the community, while bolstering the self-esteem of all involved.

One of the most serious questions facing our criminal justice system is how to help inmates avoid becoming repeat offenders once they are released. Nancy Baxter and Rosie Merkt worked with the penal officials in Dearborn County, Indiana, to present a personal growth/self-help workshop in the county jail. The intent is to help the inmates regain (or, in many cases, gain for the first time) the self-esteem and inner peace necessary to function in the outside world. This is modeled after a program in Harrison County, Indiana, which has managed to successfully reduce the number of released inmates who return to jail within a couple of years of their release.

Although the county is very interested and excited about the program, they have no funds in this year’s budget to support it. Bread for the Journey of Cincinnati provided a grant of $1000 to help Nancy and Rosie purchase the supplies and materials needed to conduct the first several workshops.

Advocates for healthy and respectful long-term care throughout the country use creative approaches to reach out to residents and their families, helping them to understand and exercise their rights and to create a positive experience of long-term care. One of their challenges is in developing a rapport with the residents who live in these facilities, especially those beginning to exhibit mental deterioration. Pro Seniors is a not-for-profit senior citizen advocacy and ombudsmen organization servicing five counties in the area of Cincinnati, Ohio. They are replicating a successful Pennsylvania project where volunteers gave teddy bears to nursing home residents. The teddy bears serve to build rapport between the volunteers and residents, since the residents more easily remember the volunteers on their next visit, associating the teddy bear with their caring interest.

Bread for the Journey of Cincinnati provided a $500 grant to Pro Seniors to purchase enough teddy bears for several of the nearly 200 nursing homes in the five-county area as a trial program. The stuffed teddy bears will wear shirts printed with Pro Seniors’ name and telephone number, to help the volunteers in their effort to develop relationships with these residents and their families.

The Cincinnati chapter of the Weston A. Price Foundation is a not-for-profit organization whose aim is to improve health by helping to restore nutrient-dense whole foods to modern households through education, research and activism. They encourage people to seek out products that are as good for the health of their bodies as they are for the health of the local economy and environment. They delight in directly supporting the people who produce the foods we all consume, and the producers are happy to know that they have enough local consumers to make a living doing what they love. It certainly adds a dimension of community when consumers are on a first-name basis with the people making their food.

Bread for the Journey of Cincinnati provided a $550 grant to the Weston A. Price Foundation to design and print a local resource guide that will encourage families in the Greater Cincinnati area to buy directly from the farmers, producers, and retailers of products that are consistent with the goals of their organization.

Brian Barhaugh has been empowering youth through real-work experiences for many years. He recently started the Youth School Reform Institute (YSRI) to train young people to make sure that their voices are heard regarding school reform and improvement efforts in Denver. It’s Brian’s belief that too often, their valuable ideas and insights are left out of school improvement discussions. When included, they can help to build community trust and to develop culturally engaging school designs.

Bread for the Journey of Denver met with three of the young people working with Brian, and were very impressed with their ideas. The chapter gave them a grant of $1500 for stipends to pay the youth that are involved. Through YSRI, they will be trained to gather and analyze data and help educate adults on how to incorporate their ideas in reform efforts. Lee — one of the students involved — says, “When the voices of students are routinely unsolicited or ignored amid reform planning and implementation, the directions assumed by teachers and administrators can be misguided, particularly when their efforts directly clash with the students’ own concerns.”

After four years of operating out of a 500-square-foot leaky-roofed garage in Denver’s West side, the Derailer Bicycle Cooperative is ready for a new home. Bread for the Journey of Denver was pleased to give them $1,200 to pay for four months of rent in their new location. A small group of young adults started the collective with one incomplete set of tools, seven bikes and four volunteers. At first, they were open just one day a week, making bikes available to those who needed them, and helping others get parts and repair their own bikes. A few years later, the persistence of two 8-year-olds from the neighborhood compelled them to add another day to their schedule.

The program has now grown to include monthly classes for people who want to learn about bike repair; a build-a-bike course where people can build their own bike from the frame up over four sessions: a bicycle library where people can borrow bikes for free; an extensive bike shop with a variety of tools; and classes that are offered at local schools and organizations. Bread for the Journey of Denver is pleased to help them continue to provide this important service to the citizens of Denver.

Tyrone Buckmon and Chuck Sproling grew up in northeast Denver. Unlike most of their friends in Manual High School, they were fortunate to be able to finish high school, go on to college and pursue professional careers. They credit this good fortune to the positive adult role models in their lives, including their parents, community leaders and coaches. Now in their 30s, they have both decided to do the same for others, so they started Assistant Coach Inc. to give back to the community that they grew up in. They began helping kids in Denver’s suburbs to learn life skills through basketball training, and now want to start another program in their old Manual High School neighborhood. This neighborhood had gone through some very challenging times recently when the Denver Public School system decided to close this school because of low test scores.

Youth Biz’s vision is to help young people develop the character, ethics and skills to become productive, fulfilled and responsible members of their communities. They do this by helping kids start and run their own businesses. Screen-printing t-shirts is one of their most successful moneymaking endeavors. While learning business skills, these young people also improve their academic performance, acquire computer and public-speaking skills, and complete a community leadership project.

DaShara Ross and Tyquela Davidson came to Bread for the Journey of Denver to ask for help in starting a new Youth Biz internship program. They wanted to begin to pay kids who demonstrate leadership potential to learn specific skills, which they could then share with other community groups and organizations. Bread for the Journey of Denver was very impressed with these girls’ business acumen, and gave them a grant of $1,100 to fund two intern positions for the 2006/2007 school year.

Ellie Valdez Honeyman met Maria Castillo more than ten years ago. Their friendship grew quickly based on their shared experience of raising children with disabilities. Maria often struggled to find written information about the services she needed in her native Spanish language. So the two friends decided to do something about it and formed Grupo Vida, an acronym for “Venciendo Incapacidades y Desabiliidades con Amor,” which translates as “Overcoming Handicaps and Disabilities with Love.” Many years later, the group is still run entirely by volunteers and has grown to provide a variety of services for families of children with disabilities throughout Colorado. They educate parents on available resources, provide emergency assistance, and organize an annual conference. All information is provided in both English and Spanish. Bread for the Journey of Denver gave Ellie and Maria a grant of $1,000. With this grant, they could begin to publish a bilingual newsletter three times each year to better connect parents to information and resources that will help them advocate effectively for their families.

Rhythm Vision and Butterfly Hope, two small non-profits in the Denver area, found that they share the same goals of strengthening the social and academic skills of young people through artistic exploration. They decided to join forces and create a summer program as part of Cheltenham Elementary’s enrichment program.

Bread for the Journey of Denver gave them a grant of $1200 that will help 40 kids to experience drum making, drumming circles, drama, as well as songwriting and recording over four weeks this summer. Past experience with drumming has shown that it can help kids channel anger constructively and overcome low self-esteem, as well as help them develop leadership skills and learn how to work as part of a team. One young man who had extreme difficulty engaging in conversation was able to find his voice through a Rhythm Vision program last summer. His growing confidence in writing and performing rap lyrics helped to diminish his speech impediment so much so that, by program’s end, he was a lead musical contributor.

Brenda Mosby knows how challenging it is to seek employment, and having an emotional, physical or psychological disability must make the prospect even more daunting. So she started Gateway to Access Resources (http://gatewaytoaccess.org) in order to support people of ALL abilities in contributing to their neighborhood and community through employment.

Brenda and her colleague Lynda Drake work very hard to find a good match between employer and employee. They offer coaching, counseling and assessments, training and adaptive technology. But most importantly, they offer that personal touch of ongoing friendship and support to both the employer and employee as the working relationship evolves over time. If a client needs help in picking out what to wear for a job interview, they are there to help. If better speaking skills would help a client get a certain job, they take them to Toastmasters to help them learn to better express themselves. Bread for the Journey of Denver gave these two dedicated women $1300 to purchase computer hardware and software that is specifically designed for the disabled.

A small group of community-minded leaders has been working for the last year to create a charter school in Montbello, one of Denver’s most diverse neighborhoods. Working their way through the Denver Public Schools’ charter approval process, they meet each month to further define how Denver Collegiate Academy will serve its fifth- through eighth-grade students. Their mission is to create an “environment of academic excellence, respect, resilience and community responsibility, [where] Denver Collegiate Academy students will affect change in their local communities and, eventually, the world.”

Bread for the Journey of Denver gave this hard-working group $1000 to purchase a high-quality printer and pay for other board of director-related expenses that will move them closer to their goal of opening a charter school.

Many of us feel overwhelmed when faced with what to do about global warming and ongoing reports of how our lifestyles are damaging to our earth, but not Jennifer White and Diane Dandeneau. Because of their commitment to help us “live sustainably from the heart,” they started an organization called ConservED (http://conservedproject.com). Together they are working to provide sustainability education for small businesses and individuals in the Boulder-Denver area. Change is needed and conservation is critical to the health of our future. Through classes, workshops, presentations and consulting, they help us learn what each of us can do to truly make a difference through the products we choose and the businesses we support.

Bread for the Journey of Denver gave them a $1000 grant to support their efforts and help them publish the Green Heart Guide, a listing of businesses that have made a commitment to the sustainability of our planet (see www.GreenHeartGuide.net).

Co-coordinators Leta Sharpe and Allison Rankin

Whittier Elementary School student artists

Bird houses created by students

Art teacher Marie Henan with artist/ co-coordinator Jennifer Mosquera

Leta Sharpe and a group of her neighbors love their eclectic neighborhood in central Denver. As new homeowners and parents, they realize how important a strong public school is to their community. So although most of their kids are not yet of school age, they decided to work together to support their local elementary school, Whittier Elementary. Their first fundraising effort is called, “I Believe I Can Fly: A Celebration of Community and the Arts at Whittier Elementary.” They are bringing together local musical performances, kids’ art, an auction with goods and services from local businesses, and all kinds of family fun in order to strengthen their community ties and support their local school and its arts program, in particular.Bread for the Journey of Denver gave them a grant of $1,300 to create a website and handle publicity for this exciting and worthwhile event.

After working for PBS and the Ready To Learn program for young children, Jocelyn Miller decided to take her skills in working with parents and young children to a new level. She is opening a parent resource center to “help adults and youth develop strong self-esteem in order to positively establish themselves in their school, workplace, home and community.” Through workshops and activities both in the center and with other community organizations, Jocelyn will focus on building skills for success and confidence, as well as strong family relationships.Bread for the Journey of Denver gave Jocelyn a $1,000 grant to purchase furnishings and supplies for the resource center. Jocelyn hopes that, through her efforts, she will be able to carry on the legacy of social awareness and community involvement that she learned from her father, Robert A. Miller.

The YWCA of Kauai wanted to bring actress/educator Brenda Curren to Kauai to conduct a workshop called What Girls Know. This workshop is part of the YWCA’s initiative to prevent sexual assault and violence against women and girls. It consists of two components, one with a group of young women, and the other with trainers who will continue this process in Kauai in the future. The girls’ workshop helps to meet the need of girls to talk and build relationships with each other, to advocate for each other, to practice overcoming obstacles, develop character, and experience all features involved in doing difficult work (including the joy of the finished product!). It also provides the girls with training and experience in presenting their work to the public. Over the course of three weeks, a group of 12 - 20 young women will create a piece of original theatre based on their own ideas and stories. This will be rehearsed and then performed before a public audience.

Bread for the Journey of Kauai was happy to grant $700 to the YWCA of Kauai to pay for Brenda Curren’s travel expenses from NYC to Kauai.

Laura Taylor’s vision of peace includes a world in which all people honor diversity, treat one another with respect, and resolve conflict by listening. Toward that end, she volunteers her time to teach these skills to children in several elementary and middle schools throughout the island of Kauai. After several years in operation, her program – the Aloha Peace Project – is ready to expand by creating a lending library of award-winning videos that focus on issues of bullying, anger management and perseverance, doing the right thing, cliques, decision making and drugs, among other relevant topics. Bread for the Journey of Kauai is honored to support Laura in this character-building endeavor with a $1,000 grant.

Travis Williams, who goes by the name “Trinity,” is an aspiring musician, dancer, actor and producer whose vision is to bring disadvantaged children and their families who live on the island of Kauai together to play, work, and celebrate life. When he came to us with a dream of creating a multi-media event complete with performers, costumes, lighting and music in which everyone would participate — including parents, children, teens, teachers and surfers –his level of passion convinced us that he would make it happen. Bread for the Journey of Kauai’s contribution of $700 will help pay the overhead for his first production.

Carol Yotsuda - Creator of Van Go!

For the past 29 years, Garden Island Arts Council (GIAC) has been providing art and culture programs for the island of Kaua`i that include visual art exhibitions and workshops, Hawaiian Music programs and concerts, an ARTS newsletter, and much more. As an art teacher for the past 37 years, Carol Kouchi Yotsuda has recently become the volunteer Executive Director of GIAC. Kaua’i’s 56,000 residents are scattered alongside one main highway that encircles the island. Carol noticed that people living at the island’s farther reaches rarely take part in the cultural activities offered in the more densely populated areas of Kaua`i. Recognizing the significance of these activities in people’s lives, Carol declared, "If they don't come to us, then we will go to them." Hence the birth of Van Go!

Equipped with supplies and a teaching artist, a van drives out to small neighborhoods, schools, gathering places, community centers and loosely organized groups to give workshops in percussion, painting, sculpture, kite-making, and other art forms that the residents may request. From the western-most Barking Sands in Mana to the northern-most Waipa Community in quaint Hanalei, Van Go! brings Art to the People and People to the Art. Bread for the Journey of Kauai presented a challenge grant of $1,500, to encourage other Kaua`i residents to support this program. Carol raised another $1,644 for a total of $3,144 to help Van Go! in fulfilling its mission.

For many, the North Shore of Kaua`i is paradise. It has beautiful beaches, lush tropical vegetation, and many magnificent vacation homes. However, for others, particularly for at-risk children, paradise has its price in that there are very limited educational opportunities available to the resident youth population. For example, there is not even a public junior high or high school in this community. Prior to moving to Kaua`i, Suzette Dunning worked as a program designer, behavioral specialist and educator working with disadvantaged youth. Recently, she has dedicated her efforts to seeking out ways to provide tutorial services for students who do not have access to and cannot afford other educational support.

The $2,500 Bread for the Journey of Kaua`i grant is providing seed money to establish a pilot tutoring program, purchase much-needed learning materials, and provide one-on-one mentoring services for disadvantaged youth on Kauai’s North Shore.

“Hale Mea Ai” is a community garden project located in the city of Lihue on the Island of Kaua`i. This garden, housed near a cluster of low-income homes, was created to help re-educate the residents in the practice of growing, harvesting, preparing and eating vegetables and herbs. In addressing health issues and sustainability, Puna Kalama Dawson, a “Hawaiian Cultural Practitioner,” and other gardeners work closely with the children and parents within this community of 475 residents to educate them about healthier food choices.Most recently, Bread for the Journey of Kaua`i granted them $2,000 for fertilizer, hand tools, and seed monies in support of this community effort. Mahalo a nui loa.

KANUIKAPONO Learning Center perpetuates and teaches the Hawaiian Culture as a living, breathing being … as something that cannot be contained in a classroom alone. A school without walls, KANUIKAPONO believes that the natural environment provides the best classroom. Outreach sites throughout the island serve as authentic learning environments for the curricula, and are configured to mirror the natural world of learning. These include working in authentic and natural environments, diverse age groupings, and recognition of multiple intelligences and learning styles. The development of the whole child as a part of the natural environment – as well as the human community – involves emotional, spiritual, mental and physical development. Parents and other family members are required to actively participate in the educational growth of their children. One of the learning sites was in dire need of a shade structure so that the children would not have to be exposed to the intense sun all day long. Bread for the Journey of Kaua`i provided $1,000 for materials and labor to build a safe structure. See www.kanuikapono.org to learn more.

Working in partnership with San Quentin State Prison, Insight Prison Project (IPP) founded by Jacques Verduin, helps inmates learn new ways to respond to life’s pressures with a program of 18 classes reaching 300 prisoners each week – classes such as Violence Prevention, Anger Management, Positive Parenting and their Victim/Offender Healing Dialogues. As part of its overall rehabilitation mission, IPP's programs combine psychology with practical self-awareness techniques to help inmates shift from reacting blindly to cultivating skillful responses. Through this re-education, the experience of insight is then integrated into lasting behavioral change so that inmates can successfully reunite with their families and positively contribute to their communities.

One of the inmate graduates recently wrote, “I have learned to find freedom in myself, found ways to make choices, learned to be a parent and role model, learned tools to control my temper. I will be going to school to become a juvenile counselor to teach young adults that life in prison is no life. Thank you for all the changes.” Bread for the Journey of Marin County is honored to play a small role in IPP’s mission of rehabilitation over punishment by offering them a grant of $2,000 to help furnish their newly rented office with computer equipment and furniture.

James Steven Farnsworth is a violinist with a vision to enhance the lives of people who are “shut –in” by offering live musical concerts. During the holidays, he created a program called The Twelve Days of Christmas in which he performed a violin concert of holiday songs for those in Nursing Homes. We attended his performance at Redwood Retirement Community in Mill Valley where one elder woman said, “This concert helped me to finally get into the spirit of Christmas. It has been a difficult year and I have not felt like celebrating until now.” Bread for the Journey of Marin County was happy to fund three concerts by giving James Steven a grant of $240.

Tighe O’Sullivan and Aleks Carendi’s lives have been shaped by the game of soccer. Its transformative power has not only positively impacted their lives, but also the lives of thousands of youth and adults they have coached or played with.

Having traveled worldwide for soccer, they know that this sport speaks a universal language, crossing age, gender, economic, race and religious barriers. This led them to create United States Sand Soccer Championship (USSSC), which gives others this opportunity to play together and experience the cross-cultural benefits of “playing on an equal field.” In creating a championship, they open up the opportunities for youth and adults throughout the western United States to share in the passion of the game.

Bread for the Journey of Marin County contributed $5,000 in scholarships and sponsorships for underprivileged youth to play at the USSSC championship games.

Recently launching its pilot project this summer, On the Bricks is a six-week grassroots mentoring and support re-entry internship program for youth returning to Oakland from the county juvenile hall or the California Juvenile Justice Division. This new endeavor — associated with One Fam, a community support coalition — targets youth and young adults recently released from prison or juvenile hall who demonstrate a desire to be part of a caring community. On the Bricks (a term for returning to the streets from prison) focuses on matching up participants with mentors who bring the individual into a community where they gain assistance and purpose as well as an experience of helping others. The mentorship program includes job preparedness, education in citizens’ rights, community service, as well as visits to places that inner-city youth may never have experienced before (such as hiking in a nearby redwood park). The participants interact with people who are truly making positive impacts in the community. The participants learn that they really matter to others! Bread for the Journey of Oakland supported Tony Coleman with a gift of $1,000 for this worthwhile project.

Jamestown Community Center, Treehouse Project, San Francisco Mission District

Alex was a 13 year-old boy who had grown up participating in many of the Jamestown Community Center’s programs. Alex was now beginning to stay out late, experiment with drugs, and was in danger of joining a local gang. For the sake of Alex and other Jamestown youth in similar situations, Saul Hidalgo and two staff members searched for services that might help them. When they found none, they initiated Treehouse – a weekly all-volunteer get-together where adolescent boys could receive mentoring and guidance from adult males who they know and trust. The program was an instant hit. The boys not only began sharing their struggles within the safety of a circle of peers; they also sought out support from the group’s leaders.

Bread for the Journey of Oakland gave the Jamestown Community Center a grant of $500 to help fund the newly expanded Treehouse program, now serving elementary-school-aged boys and adolescent girls. Since these groups currently operate with very little funding, the Bread for the Journey grant will help pay for meals that the youth prepare and share with each other when they meet every Friday afternoon. Today, the original group of boys remain at the heart of Treehouse. Alex, now 16 years old and a B student, continues to attend his peer support group, as do all of his fellow founding members.

Returning to California after her studies with Dr. Suzuki in Japan, Ms. Cynthia was committed to demonstrating Dr. Suzuki's belief that music has the power to make a difference in the lives of all children. After 14 years of a successful private teaching practice, she met Dr. Ana Jimenez at the Orange County Children's Therapeutic Arts Center (OCCTAC).

Dr. Jimenez had established the ideal environment in her Children's Center for Ms. Cynthia to develop an urban violin program which engages young children in significant musical accomplishments before they are old enough to be vulnerable to the negative influences in their community. The program is called the Santa Ana Suzuki Strings of OCCTAC and within two semesters, Ms. Cynthia had prepared 30 children with the skills needed to begin playing the violin; however, not all of their parents could afford the miniature instruments they would require.

Bread for the Journey of Orange County provided a grant of $2,000 to cover half the cost of purchasing ten violins. This provided Santa Ana Suzuki Strings at OCCTAC the leverage they needed to negotiate a discount from the dealer, and to kick-start a matching-grant program involving the parents for the remaining cost of each violin.

Eliseo Quintero is a very gifted teacher with the Orange County Children's Therapeutic Art Center. This is a small, private organization that serves the Mexican-American community of Santa Ana, CA. For quite some time, Eliseo has wanted to start a dual-immersion language program for pre-schoolers. This program, called Kinder Readiness, teaches the children their morning lessons in Spanish, then reviews the same curriculum in the afternoon, except in English. The program serves to connect the two languages, with the books, tapes, pictures, etc. making it easier for the children to learn both. Bread for the Journey of Orange County was happy to provide Eliseo with a grant of $2,000 to buy this curriculum and create the program he was dreaming of..

Rick Cryder received one of the early grants from the Orange County Chapter of Bread for the Journey. He was creating beautiful glass angels to give to children in hospitals, as well as to the families who’ve lost loved ones in the 9/11 tragedy and in military service overseas. Since these lovely angels are never sold, only given away with love, Rick needed funding to acquire non-profit status. The following year, Bread for the Journey gave him a grant to help set up a program to create the glass angels in a juvenile facility.Now the Orange County Probation Department has asked Rick to teach teenagers incarcerated at their youth guidance center. The price of materials is high, so Bread for the Journey promised to double whatever the Department raised, which was $1000. We gave Rick a $2000 grant for machinery and tools he needs to work with these youngsters.

Each year, the students at Casco Bay High School of Portland, Maine, are given a break from their regular high school curriculum to focus on an issue of collective and personal significance. One class took to heart that they “are what they eat.” During their post-Thanksgiving-break “intensive,” they designed a weeklong curriculum exploring the food they eat and how it affects the wider community.

They spent a day with a member of the local chapter of Slow Food USA, learning about everything from agricultural history to food marketing, economics and culture. They took another day in the field, talking with farmers and helping harvest root vegetables. The rest of the week was spent with local community agriculture groups, and then the real action began. The students baked bread at a local bakery, and then took a batch of it to a local soup kitchen where they helped serve lunch. They sold the rest of the bread in a public square, with the proceeds going to a local charitable organization. The intensive concluded with an action plan developed by each student identifying food-related problems – and solutions – from his or her own community, focusing on the benefits of eating and shopping locally. Bread for the Journey of Portland gave a grant of $500 to the class for transportation and to pay for the bread’s ingredients.

When most people think of education, they think of kindergarten through 12 th grades. But there is life – and learning – after high school. The adult education program of Portland, Maine, serves 1,700 students, many of them recent immigrants striving to create new lives for themselves, in a new land and with a new language. The program is perennially under-funded, as their thirty old-and-sporadically-functional computers will attest.

Enter the COWS – Computers On Wheels. This is a mobile computer lab, with twenty modern wireless laptops, accessible by any student in any classroom. The lab has the added benefit of freeing up what was the computer room. In a program with 35 students per class and active waiting lists for half the English for Speakers of Other Languages classes, extra space is vitally important. The computers offer English language support through Rosetta Stone software, as well as web-based software and personal storage space. The entire lab and support services cost a little more than $20,000. Bread for the Journey of Portland contributed $3,000, and soon after received word that the Adult Education program had received enough other funds to get the lab up and running in time for the second semester.

The Sobrato After Shelter Program in Gilroy is a place where homeless families come to rebuild their lives. In nine months time, residents learn how to find jobs, maintain a budget, and plan for the future. Due to their hard work and the support they receive, a significant number of residents leave this program with the ability to purchase their own homes.

Eight years ago, Patricia Vasquez (the manager of the housing program) and her staff thought that a traditional Posada would bring the resident Hispanic families some comfort during the holiday season. A Latin American tradition, the Posada honors the birth of Christ by re-enacting the Joseph and Mary’s journey to find shelter in Bethlehem.

Excited residents willingly volunteered to coordinate the event, and an annual tradition was born. This year, community and staff members generously donated table, chairs, and some traditional food, and collected $1500 to pay for the traditional tamales and atole, a hot chocolate beverage. But this was the first year there were no funds to pay for the musicians.

Bread for the Journey of Santa Clara County was delighted to donate $450 for authentic Mariachi musicians to come to the shelter and bring a little bit of home to these very grateful residents who are working so hard to pull their lives together.

A couple of years ago, Julia and Katie Ransohoff — two amazing teenage sisters — came to us for help in writing a teaching module on bullying in schools for fifth-grade students. Katie and Julia have remained in close touch with us on the success of this project, and we have felt like proud parents to these wonderful teens. This summer, they wrote, "We now have a considerable amount of experience regarding grant application and dedication to service. We were recently appointed to Youth Venture's National Advisory Council."

They then invited us to participate in their next exciting venture. As they tell it:

"We are the book review editors. We have made contacts with major New York publishers of young adult literature, and have literally about 200 books in our living room waiting to be reviewed. We took over the position of book review editors two years ago when the teacher who started the site in 1999 was having trouble keeping that part of the site going. Our cousin in Colorado manages the forum, where we also comment on book reviews. We send books to young adults anywhere in the world for free once they have 25 posts on the forum and have committed to email us their review within one month of receiving the book. We have readers in the Middle East, Guam, England, and around the U.S., but we lack funds to pay for postage. It usually costs around $3 a book, media rate. In January, we contacted the principal at East Palo Alto Charter School to work with her eight graders and help build their library, asking for a book review in exchange for the books we donate. Since this school is local to us, we have been able to meet with her and Ms. Chacon, the eight-grade humanities teacher. Our request for a grant to keep this going would be for supplies to teach the eighth-graders in August (for handouts, bookmarks, a small cart in the library for Teenlit books, and postage of about $15 a month to send books for the next year). This would total about $200. The publishers (Random House, Penguin, Knopf, St. Martins, etc.) have made a good connection with us and are pleased that their books are promoted, and we are even more thrilled to be able to promote literacy. The teacher who owns the site and the webmaster are in Michigan. We meet monthly by web chat to coordinate ourselves and plan for site revisions. Do you think this is something that BFJ would support? It is local, national, international, and global …"

Bread for the Journey of Santa Clara County was thrilled to grant them the money they requested, and to participate in a project that encourages teens to read. We’re also excited to be supporting these sisters in building a life for themselves that’s based in philanthropy.

EHC LifeBuilders, a prominent non-profit in the San Francisco Bay Area, provides housing and services for the local homeless. One of the projects they sponsor is the Cold Weather Shelter Program. During the months of November through March of each year, EHC LifeBuilders contracts with the local armories to provide nightly shelter for people living on the streets. The housing is rudimentary at best, providing a thin sleeping mat on the floor, a blanket, a shower and a hot meal. Sometimes a beauty college will volunteer free haircuts and, on occasion, clean socks and underwear are donated. For many years, Julie Royball has been managing this project for EHC LifeBuilders.

One day, we dropped by for a visit. Rows and rows of mats lay on the floor, and people were lined up for their dinner. We asked Julia where all these people go when the armories shut down in March. She told us they live under bridges and down by the creek. "We bring them sandwiches and blankets, and bus passes so they can get to doctors' appointments. If they have a bus pass, they can ride the bus all day and stay dry if it’s raining." When asked who funds this project, she said, "Oh, we just do it. We make sandwiches in our kitchen, then go down to the creek to bring them the food and blankets. We know where they are."

The members of our chapter were so taken with Julia's matter-of-fact selflessness that Bread for the Journey of Santa Clara County was delighted to give her $400 to fund food, blankets, clean socks, and bus passes for the people she cares for so tenderly.

Southern New Mexico is known for its sparse rainfall, its blistering dry heat, and its world-famous chile peppers. But when severe flooding hit communities like Hatch and Sunland Park last summer, as many as 2,000 people were either evacuated or lost their homes. The flooding was referred to locally as "Little Katrina,” with hundred of homes and businesses either destroyed or damaged. Chile pickers who were already hard-pressed by falling wages, lost work because of flooded fields. Often when the rain stops, people forget about it, yet there remains a need to remedy the problem.

Kent Patterson, a journalist, wanted to make sure that the needs of flood victims would be adequately addressed. Many are ineligible for help through existing programs because of current government guidelines. The combined radio-print materials that Kent wanted to produce would help identify obstacles that confront low-income communities in the event of disasters such as these. Bread for the Journey of Santa Fe gave Kent $750 for expenses (gas mileage, lodging, food, and long-distance telephone expenses) in order to produce these programs and articles aimed at reaching an audience of 75,000 - 100,000 people.

When Maile Pickett was hired as the part-time librarian at the Embudo Valley Library, she thought that she would just check books in and out and help with the summer reading program for children. However, the Library Board had something else in mind. The school across the street needed an after-school program, and the Board wanted to offer an entertaining way to expose the children to their library. They decided to start with a small pilot program and, later, when they had accrued statistics regarding the students' progress, they could expand the enrollment and apply for a grant from a large foundation to help with expenses. Maile agreed to be in charge of the pilot program, starting with ten children.

On Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, the children are escorted from the school to the library, where they have a healthy snack and do their homework. They then develop library-related skills through group games and activities, such as information scavenger hunts and treasure hunts, becoming familiar with the different sections of the library in the process. They also learn the circulation functions of the library, how to use the catalog, manage the circulation desk, and become proficient in re-shelving books. Bread for the Journey of Santa Fe was happy to give Maile $1,000 to purchase supplies and refreshments for the children.

Tewa Women United is a group of Native American women in Pojoaque, New Mexico, who are committed to preserving both their heritage and the earth. They have an annual Gathering for Mother Earth, where they give thanks to water — an element whose importance cannot be understated to those who live in the high desert. They also take this time to honor their youth and elders.

The Gathering had a Children’s Peace Tent, and Tewa Women United needed additional funds to help with the cost of traditional art supplies and youth dances. Bread for the Journey of Santa Fe was happy to give them a grant of $265.

Since Roger Montoya started working with the Espanola Public School District in 2003, more than 3,000 students at twelve elementary schools have experienced a variety of learning projects from the four creative disciplines of dance, music, drama, and the visual arts. The results have included higher test scores, increased student attendance and retention, greater self-esteem and dramatic behavioral improvements. He is now starting a new program called “Arts for Children,” that will provide an opportunity for hundreds of students in the Espanola Valley to participate in movement arts such as Spanish Flamenco, Mexican Folklorico, and Hip Hop dance. After finding the right location, funds were needed for construction of a dance floor, portable mirrors and a sound system. Bread for the Journey of Santa Fe was happy to grant Roger $2,500 for this exciting new venture.

Artist of the Month

“Artist of the Month” is a free monthly art workshop at the new Teen Center just outside of Espanola. Joan Logghe came up with the idea for a different artist to present a workshop each month with offerings related to regional culture, such as making native alabaster carvings, retablos, books, acrylic self-portraits, and using micaceous clay, etc. Each participant produces something tangible that serves as a reward for his or her commitment. As project director, Joan requested money to fund the project for an entire year. Bread for the Journey of Santa Fe was happy to give her $1,200 to fund twelve workshops over the same number of months.

Lewis Torres is a wonderful gentleman in his 60s who is very much involved with his community in northern New Mexico, Lewis is reputed for the generous contribution of his time, knowledge and wisdom to many local projects. He is personally well known by two of Bread for the Journey’s board members and has, over the years, helped numerous groups and individuals access funding for new projects. About twenty years ago, he attended a course on applying for grants and felt that he was in need of a refresher course. He asked for and received $825 from Bread for the Journey of Santa Fe toward tuition to attend a workshop on grantsmanship. He assured the board that he would continue to meet with anyone needing help in applying for grants for non-profit projects.

con Bolivia

Suzanne Dulle is a former member of the board of directors of the Santa Fe chapter of Bread for the Journey. Numerous trips to her husband’s native Bolivia had familiarized her with the country’s issues of extreme poverty, the disenfranchisement of its women, and of its children being raised with inadequate nutrition and education.

Three years ago, she and her husband formed what they refer to as “A Network of Goodness” called “con Bolivia” (with means “with Bolivia”). They support a day care center that provides 60 children of Aymara descent with a safe, educationally rich environment. They also listened to the proud leaders of a community from Isla Del Sol, and responded by funding a school milk program for children who previously were arriving to school with only a weak tea in their stomachs for “breakfast.” They are also helping a group from the jungle region of Yungus by developing a nutrition program for their school-aged children that uses locally grown food. Bread for the Journey of Santa Fe wanted to honor Suzanne by giving her an unsolicited $1,000. She said that she was “overwhelmed with joy” and that the money would be used to start a day care center for indigenous children in Malasilla.

Ann Baumgarn and her husband live in the Middle Upper Rio Grande area of New Mexico. The area includes several Native American pueblos, some very small Hispanic villages and a community that’s primarily inhabited by Anglos. People from these communities have been working together to bring about positive change. Ann came to Bread for the Journey with suggestions for six small but significant ideas that residents wanted to see implemented.

They wanted to rewire a church to accommodate computers in Sile for an after-school program for the village’s seventeen children. A youth group wants to run a pizza place on Friday evenings with the proceeds going to the youth program. There is a cafe in an old fire station in another village with “Route 66” type furnishings, and funds were needed for pizza ovens and salad serving bowls, as well as for art supplies to decorate the walls. The tennis court at Cochiti Lake needed more money for resurfacing after a tree growing in the middle of the courts had been removed. Ann also needed money for blank CD’s to record and sell a CD as a fundraiser for youth programming. The final request was for materials for costumes and set design so a production could be staged by the youth in connection with the Cochiti Lake Library.

Bread for the Journey was happy to provide Ann with a total grant of $1,350 to help fund these worthy projects.

More than fifteen years ago, Bread for the Journey of Santa Fe gave start-up money toward the Crisis Center of Northern New Mexico. At that time, the center’s aim was to provide emergency shelter and services to victims of domestic violence.

Now, the center wants to provide services to the perpetrators as well. A program in Dallas has had good results with this approach, which is culturally sensitive and non-judgmental, allowing for differences in parenting styles. While the parents are in discussion in one room, the children are learning social skills in another. At the end of each session, the family will be reunited and given lessons to work on for the following week.

The center wants to offer this program free of charge to those who would benefit from it. Bread for the Journey of Santa Fe was happy to grant $1,300 toward the cost of workbooks and supplies.

Tiny Town Brews an International Project

A democratically run worker center opened late this summer in the one-block town of Graton in Sonoma County, created through the efforts of the non-profit Graton Day Labor Center (CLG). While the focus of this gathering place is on helping local workers, employers, businesses and residents, it does little to improve the situation that drove these Mexican workers to leave their homes in the first place to seek work in the United States. So CLG has created a coffee project to address these very needs.

Workers’ Brew, an organic, shade-grown, fair-trade coffee, is being purchased by CLG from a co-op of family farmers in Oaxaca, then roasted and packaged locally. The coffee bean purchase supports Oaxacan families staying on their land, encourages earth-enhancing farming practices, and puts profits into their grassroots economy. The local roaster, Taylor Maid Farms, is training day laborers in the coffee business so they may return home to their communities with a new set of skills. Bread for the Journey of Sebastopol’s $660 grant to CLG covered the cost of printing some beautiful labels for the cans. The coffee will soon be available in local grocery stores and at farmers’ markets.

Dr, K. K. Mugambi of Kenya came to Sonoma Academy in 2004 to educate the students about Microlending, and his visit drew more interest and action than he ever imagined! A group of students raised $17,000 through an art auction, then three students and one parent actually traveled to Chogoria, Kenya, to see the project in action and film a documentary about it. The documentary — Village HopeCore: Ending Poverty in Africa with Small Loans, Training and Trust — took a full year to edit, and is inspiring students and adults alike to become more active in the eradication of poverty through these kinds of projects.

The film has been shown to high school students on public access TV and also at a film festival. With a grant of $300 from Bread for the Journey of Sebastopol, 300 more DVDs can be produced for distribution to high schools. The film can be viewed at http://Muzility.com.

There are times when a person’s vision, and what is needed to make this vision manifest, do not always line up! This was the case with Elaine Neiswender’s vision of creating a “Love Your Neighbor” Emergency Services Office. Elaine has been tireless in her energy to create programs for Forestville, CA, such as a Farmers’ Market, a Day of Emergency Preparedness, and other community-building events. While she had the vision, the energy, and even the building for this project, she lacked the finances to take on the lease. On the very day she was despairing about how to proceed, a board member of Bread for the Journey of Sebastopol asked if she could use some seed money to energize whatever project she was working on at the time!

Elaine needed one month’s rent for the building where she plans to house a food bank, a community garden and a thrift store. Elaine had the Red Cross lined up to subsidize the rent — which, thanks to the landlord, was below fair market value — but bureaucratic complications caused this help to be slow in coming. With $1,000 from Bread for the Journey, Elaine was able to approach the landlord with this portion of the rent, to demonstrate good faith until the subsidy would come through. Many will benefit from Elaine’s vision and foresight in the years to come, especially in moments of hard times!

Louis Ekrem, Terry Popp and Kathy Rueve have developed a multi-faceted theater program called “Conversations” for teens in the Roseland district of Santa Rosa, CA. Bringing together their individual talents of film-making, storytelling and drama, they are working with Hispanic youth in a community where gang violence is a growing concern. Through “Conversations,” they intend to teach theater and filmmaking, as well as effective drama analysis through the review of relevant contemporary films. They will then guide the teens in writing and producing a one-act play. This entire process will also be videotaped to create a documentary film about the group's work together.Through this project, they hope to provide the teens with the following life tools: A sense of pride in their heritage and community; enhanced self-awareness and self-esteem; written and oral communication skills; theater and filmmaking experience; and marketable film-production skills. Bread for the Journey of Sebastopol’s grant of $800 will help them develop a bi-lingual brochure and other promotional materials for outreach to community leaders and organizations throughout the Roseland area.

Johnnie Berry is a Kalamazoo native with a long history in the music industry (hip-hop and R&B), who has his own recording studio and has opened for acts at VanAndel Arena in Grand Rapids, MI (capacity about 13,000). He lives with his wife and three daughters on the Kalamazoo Northside, and is absolutely dedicated to showing kids in this low-income neighborhood how they can make a life and a living through music.

Johnnie approached Bread for the Journey of Southwest Michigan requesting support for a free community concert he was organizing in the Northside’s LaCrone Park, to take place in August 2006. The concert plans included local acts, a DJ, and a hip-hop/R&B group from Minneapolis called “Family Entertainment.” The music had to be "radio edited," meaning it could show no disrespect for women, racial groups, cultures etc. Johnnie wanted the local groups to have a place to showcase their music and to interact with others who’ve experienced success in the music business.

Bread for the Journey of Southwest Michigan was very pleased to provide a grant of $1,640 to support Johnnie’s community concert. Unfortunately, due to escalating violence in Kalamazoo during the summer of 2006, the city required an extra, expensive permit at the last minute that John didn’t have funding for. Determined to still support the kids in the community, he instead hosted a 3-on-3 basketball tournament for the area youth in the same neighborhood park where the concert was to be held. The first two dates were rained out, but John was able to work with the neighborhood association to use their indoor facility for the tournament. That’s persistence!

Growing Matters has worked hard to create volunteer networks within the Kalamazoo community, and in 2006 they expanded their programs to include a teaching garden at the Woodward Elementary School for Technology and Research. This is a magnet school for Kalamazoo public schools with a large proportion of students from low-income families. Heather Crull requested funding to expand the program in the schools, to create lesson plans that relate to the garden through a variety of subject areas (math, history, language arts, social studies, science, nutrition and wellness, physical education and art), and to assist teachers with garden planning and seed starting during late winter/early spring of 2007. Bread for the Journey of Southwest Michigan was pleased to provide a grant of $1000 to support these efforts.

Megan Schuiteboer is a certified massage therapist. For the past year, she has been donating massage services one day each week to clients of Hannah’s House, a residential program for unexpectedly pregnant young women in Kalamazoo. During the time she has been volunteering at Hannah’s House, Megan has seen great physical and emotional benefits for the clients. Megan has been transporting her own massage table each week, which became problematic when she too became pregnant. She requested funding to purchase a special prenatal massage table that could be left at Hannah’s House. Bread for the Journey of Southwest Michigan was pleased to provide a grant of $876 for the purchase of this massage table.

David Juarez and Don Cooney have developed an after-school program for youth in Kalamazoo’s Edison neighborhood. The program was initially developed in response to the shooting of Don Cooney’s stepson in this neighborhood. The program is meant to keep youth off the streets, improve performance and retention in school, build self-esteem and confidence, teach coping skills and offer resources for self-improvement, as well as to reduce incidences of teen pregnancy, juvenile delinquency and youth violence in our community.

The main program focuses on 8- to 12-year-olds, providing a safe place for them to enjoy a free nutritious meal and engage in a variety of activities. They participate in arts and crafts, get coaching on how to avoid drugs, alcohol and gangs, and find opportunities to learn other important life skills. Another program serves 13- to 17-year-old males, providing them a safe place to play basketball and interact with positive role models.

An extremely important aspect of this after-school program is the way David and Don are building bridges to other organizations within our community. Bread for the Journey of Southwest Michigan believes that this type of social networking will provide great healing in our communities and was pleased to provide a grant of $2,000 to support the purchase and preparation of meals for the youth. We also committed to provide an additional $1,000 if the program also raises that amount through its own efforts.

Rajuir came to Bread for the Journey of Southwest Michigan as a high school senior in May 2006 with a simple request. She asked for $391 to support her travel to the PeaceJam Tenth Anniversary Youth Conference to be held in Colorado this September. PeaceJam (www.peacejam.org) is an international education program that teaches peacemaking by inviting 13 Nobel Peace Prize winners to work directly with youth, teaching them about peace and nonviolence. Rajuir and her family are from India, and have had to deal with much misunderstanding and fear from people in this country since 9/11. Rajuir’s father was beaten, resulting in a 16-day hospital stay, and a friend of her father’s was shot in the head.

Rajuir and her family are not permitted to return to India because of that country’s religious intolerance. With remarkable courage and resolve, Rajuir has determined that she will make the most of her situation, focusing on being an example of tolerance and accepting others without prejudice. Bread for the Journey of Southwest Michigan was extremely proud and honored to provide a grant of $391 to support Rajuir’s participation in the PeaceJam conference as a way to help her reach her goals.

Lucy Bland has been involved in Fair Foods of Kalamazoo for several years. She approached Bread for Journey of Southwest Michigan requesting support for Fair Foods’ Future Chefs summer program, which teaches cooking skills and nutrition concepts to teens. The program meets weekly for 6 weeks, with some additional field trips to local restaurants and other food institutions so students can learn more about food preparation as well as potential careers in the food industry. Bread for the Journey of Southwest Michigan provided a grant of $250 to support the 2006 Future Chefs program.

Kerry and Sharon Johnson own a music store in Battle Creek, Michigan. When they recently moved their business downtown, they realized they finally had enough space to create a youth facility. Their Southwest Michigan Youth Community Project’s objective is to create a safe, controlled environment for youth where they can have engaging, challenging and fun activities that they organize and lead themselves. The teens developed “rules of behavior,” and participate in and plan the center’s programs. Selected youth are also members of the “street team” that lets others in the community know about their events and requests donations from area businesses.

Youths from at least eleven school districts (plus home-schooled youth) attend band concerts on Friday nights (most bands are made up of local teens performing music they have written) and chaperoned dances on Saturdays (a teenager is the deejay). Security measures at these functions include metal detectors, mandatory coat checks, and a “once you’re in, you’re in” policy. These elements help ensure a safe and controlled environment. In addition to the teen events, Kerry and Sharon have created free karaoke nights geared to the whole family. These events also draw patrons from a wide geographic area.

The Johnson’s were recently visited by ASCAP, an organization that collects royalties for music played in public. Bread for the Journey of Southwest Michigan is pleased to provide a grant of $787 to pay for one year of ASCAP fees for music played at the teen dances and karaoke family nights.

Erik Benson and Angela Stephenson purchased a vacant lot on the Northside of Kalamazoo to create MoonBeam Garden. They plan to create a botanical garden of perennial flowers and herbs in a tranquil setting for the use and enjoyment of local residents. They also hope to provide education on gardening and have the garden be one that neighborhood residents will eventually take pride in caring for on their own. They have spent much time in the last year cleaning up the property, planting cover crops, creating compost piles, planting perennials and going door-to-door to invite residents to visit MoonBeam Garden. One problem they face is not having access to water at the garden. One neighbor has allowed them to hook up a hose to an outside faucet, but there is concern that this will not be a permanent arrangement.

Bread for the Journey of Southwest Michigan provided a grant of $600 to Erik and Angela toward the purchase of a tank to store collected rainwater. The grant will also provide funding for gardening workshops they plan to hold for neighborhood residents.

Dawn Wood and Gina Thomas have worked together at Pretty Lake Adventure Centre. In 2003, they created Girls in the Wild (www.adventurecentre.org/gitw), a rites-of-passage program that seeks to empower young women (10-18 years old) with the knowledge base, skills and personal power to make conscious, informed decisions about sexuality, relationships, body image and self-defense. The program includes both after-school activities during the school year and seven-day wilderness retreats for various age groups during summer break. Dawn and Gina are currently working on strengthening their marketing strategy in order to bring their program to a broader audience.Bread for the Journey of SW Michigan provided a grant of $2000 to support the preparation of marketing and fundraising videos.

Beth Yankee is the principal of Woodward School for Technology and Research in Kalamazoo. This is a magnet school in which 80% of the students qualify for free or reduced-cost meals. In recent years, the school has adopted a health-and-wellness science curriculum to teach students how to make choices that support a healthy lifestyle. In addition, the school’s nutrition committee has revamped the breakfast menu and created a healthy snack bar. Students also have the opportunity to work in a community garden, where they grow, maintain and harvest the crops, which they then prepare as food throughout the year. In order to even more effectively embed health and wellness into the culture of the school, Beth wants to have students participate in the creation of a mural with this theme at the school’s entrance.Bread for the Journey of SW Michigan provided a grant of $1000 to support this worthwhile project.

Amanda Horein is a stay-at-home mother raising two young children while her husband finishes college. Having used disposable diapers for her older child, she is now finding the benefits of using cloth diapers for her younger child. She has since decided to help other families, particularly those of low income, to see the economic and environmental benefits, among others, of using cloth diapers. She has joined Miracle Diapers, a non-profit, home-based organization that supplies cloth diapers to low-income families. Members make various “pocket” diapers (often from recycled materials such as jeans or t-shirts) with high absorbency liners in various designs, some of which can be adjusted to fit the child throughout the entire diaper-wearing period. Families sign an agreement to return the diapers when they are finished using them.Bread for the Journey of SW Michigan is pleased to provide a grant of $782 for Amanda to cover the cost of printing flyers, diaper-making materials, shipping costs for some donated diapers, and a booth at a local baby expo.

Stacie Vos majored in Women’s Studies and Political Science at Kalamazoo College. After graduation, she began martial arts training with Julie Workman. That led to an interest in developing a non-profit to promote anti-violence and to make holistic self-defense training more accessible to women. Since most crimes against women are committed by men that know them intimately, the program will emphasize verbal self-defense, boundary setting and emotional support, in addition to physical self-defense. Stacie and Julie will meet with others working in the area of self-defense for women as they develop their program, and will partner with local women’s organizations, service providers and schools to offer their comprehensive training to a wide audience.Bread for the Journey of SW Michigan is pleased to provide a grant of $1500 to support the creation of this non-profit organization, to purchase supplies and research materials, and to cover training expenses.

Veronica Morgan knows first-hand the pain and devastation associated with losing a child to suicide. Her son, Shawn, took his life at the age of 13. As a result of her ordeal, Veronica became aware of the prevalence of suicide among teenagers. She decided to use her experience as Manager of Pediatrics Administration in a local hospital to help prevent what happened to her from happening to other families. In October 2005, Veronica established the Save-A-Child Foundation in memory of Shawn.

The Save-A-Child Foundation is a non-profit organization dedicated to raising community awareness about Delaware’s high rate of adolescent suicide. Veronica found that these precious losses were, in part, due to ignorance about the many causes of these suicides, the lack of available and adequate treatment for teenage mental illness, as well as the stigma associated with the act. Many of these causes could be remedied with adequate mental health care, and if mental illness was to be given the same degree of attention by insurance companies as is given to physical illness.

Bread for the Journey of Wilmington gave the Save-A-Child Foundation a grant of $1,000 to help offset the costs associated with holding their annual fundraising event. The funds raised at this event support agencies that specialize in education about suicide prevention, as well as helping families deal with the aftermath of such deaths. In addition, funds are provided to initiate new programs and to support facilities to treat at-risk adolescents.

Rachel Douglas is a college student and former member of the Colonial Beat indoor drum line, a percussion group that competes on the high-school level with other drum lines based in the eastern United States. Because of her belief in the value of this endeavor, Rachel volunteers a significant amount of time as the ”percussion tech” for these drum lines, despite her busy schedule. Most of these students would not otherwise have the opportunity to learn a musical instrument, due to costs for both the instruments and for instruction. However, Colonial Beat accepts all students who are committed to learning and practicing their instruments, as well as sticking to rehearsal schedules. With more and more focus and money going to high school athletics, Colonial Beat provides an avenue for students whose interests and abilities lie outside the realm of sports. Instead, these students develop self-esteem and learn the skills and qualities necessary to be good competitors through music.

With a $1,500 grant from Bread for the Journey of Wilmington, Colonial Beat will be able to repair and replace old or damaged instruments and equipment, ensuring more competitive seasons for the committed students of Colonial Beat.

Rhonda Denny had a dream: To put an end to the harmful habit and the resulting damaging effects of bullying behaviors. As Deputy Attorney General of the Delaware Department of Justice, Ms. Denny has witnessed the effects of bullying on both perpetrators and victims. In the state of Delaware alone, approximately 30 criminal cases related to fighting are set for trial every week. The majority of these involve juveniles, and statistics show the close relationship between bullying and fighting. The harmful effects of bullying last a lifetime. Research has shown that bullies are much more likely to develop criminal records, and that victims are likely to suffer long-term adverse effects, including post-traumatic stress disorder.

To get at the heart of these issues, Ms. Denny developed the Delaware Bullying Prevention Association (DBPA) in collaboration with many of Delaware’s physical and mental health care providers, along with the American Association of Pediatrics, the Department of Education and the Department of Justice. DBPA’s long-range goals are to develop and implement prevention efforts, as well as intervention activities and educational programs that aim to reduce the occurrences of bullying among children and adolescents. A critical component of DBPA is to train personnel who work with youth to use comprehensive research-based curricula. The organization plans to create a website with comprehensive information on bullying; to influence legislation regarding children who are affected by bullying; to train and enlist older children and adolescents to help educate younger children on bullying prevention; to research the dynamics of bullying and methods of prevention; to incorporate the arts into their prevention efforts; and to develop brochures to distribute to the offices of pediatricians.

With a $625 grant from Bread for the Journey of Wilmington, the Delaware Bullying Prevention Association will be able to apply for its 501c(3) non-profit status, bringing Ms. Denney’s dream one step closer to reality.

Bread for the Journey of Wilmington provided a grant of $1,200 to “Interfaith Coalition: Building Blocks for Wilmington.” As rising crime rates in the City of Wilmington escalated, a group of women and men had a vision of making Wilmington “a safe place to live, a quality place to raise children, and a great place to work.” “The Coalition” is an alliance based on spiritual principles from various faith traditions that has come together because of deep concern about the level of violence in many parts of the city. Current methods of solving the problem are not working, and they believe that new initiatives are needed to take back the streets and improve the quality of life in these Wilmington communities. They have worked on creating relationships across faith, ethnic, social, economic and political boundaries that bring greater power and cohesiveness to solving inner-city problems.They have also brought in Dr. Eugene Rivers to evolve the potential of the IC initiative in Wilmington, based on his experience and wisdom from previously doing this work in Boston and nationally. The BFJ grant will pay the remaining costs to incorporate as a non-profit, for the design and layout of letterhead, brochures and printing, and for mailing and distribution.