Allegany Insider

April 2023

Inside this spring edition of Allegany Franciscan Ministries' newsletter, you will find information about The Common Good Initiative, operational updates, Climate Justice and Care for Creation strategic priority, grant programs, and resources for nonprofits.

The Common Good Initiative

Fellows participating in a community tour in Wimauma led by fellowship alum, Tonya Burney and community partner, Jackie Brown. Fellows are pictured at Beth-El Farmworker Ministry.

The Fellowship for the Common Good program is at its mid-year mark. The fellows have completed two in-person learning sessions in Lincoln Park and Wimauma. The next learning session will take place in New Orleans, Louisiana. This segment will focus on Movement Building in Community. Fellows will travel to New Orleans, to learn how others are shaping change within their communities, as well as derive inspiration and motivation for their next leadership chapter. Fellows will learn the nuts and bolts of building a movement: What does it mean to project a vision that others will want to corral around? How do you bring people together in meaningful ways and place a focus on sustainability from the very beginning?

Partner Spotlight, Wimauma Common Good Initiative

Much of the Common Good Initiative’s focus in Wimauma has been on developing economic opportunities for residents, and on building community capacity and infrastructure. A third priority, ensuring that Wimauma youth grow up in a safe, healthy, and nurturing environment, has received less attention through the Common Good Initiative. However, small grants can have outsized impact, and the results achieved by Bess the Book Bus are a prime example!

Bess the Book Bus is a mobile literacy outreach dedicated to narrowing the academic achievement gap. Bess travels the country supplying high quality books for free to children, making the joy of book ownership a reality. Last year, Bess the Book Bus celebrated its 20th birthday and gave away its one-millionth book!

While Bess travels to many states, a significant focus is on the Tampa Bay area, especially through schools in communities that are asset-limited to bridge the gap in book access and ownership. Through a partnership with Allegany Franciscan Ministries, the bus stops at the two elementary schools in Wimauma four times a year, hosting “Joy of Reading Pop-Up Book Fairs”. The Pop-Up Book Fairs provide access to new books and give children the power of choice. Research has shown that children who choose their own books are more likely to grow up to become adults who read books.

The Pop-Up Book Fairs in Wimauma build a culture of reading in the classroom and at home by providing free home and classroom libraries. They assist teachers in achieving an improvement in English Language Arts test scores by providing joyful reading materials for free. And they create a supportive and joyful community experience around reading by engaging volunteers to talk with the students about books and reading for pleasure. By returning to each school four times a year, Bess the Book Bus becomes a regular part of students’ lives; children approach Bess with smiles and laughter, a confidence in "shopping" for their book and a willingness to talk about books, themes, and different topics.

Beyond Wimuama, Bess the Book Bus has had a profound impact on children at schools in vulnerable communities throughout Tampa Bay. They celebrated by hosting "One Million Books, A Million Smiles" events, starting with a fun "A Road to A Million" kick off book fair and read alouds at Booker T Washington Elementary in Ybor City. And every Kindergartener and First Grader (a total of over 5,600 children) in the Hillsborough County Transformation Network schools received a free book.

For more information about Bess the Book Bus, visit www.bessthebookbus.org.

View recent investments for each Common Good Initiative community by clicking on the links below:

Lincoln Park / Overtown / Wimauma

Operations

Job Opening - Administrative &

Grant Services Coordinator

Are you looking for a position that connects work with a greater mission? Would you like to be a part of an organization that seeks to be a healing and transforming presence in the community? Do you love providing high level administrative support to a team? If so, Allegany Franciscan Ministries’ Administrative and Grant Services Coordinator may be the right fit for you. The Coordinator has a key role in maintaining Allegany’s operational capacity and managing bookkeeping functions for all grants and operations activities. The Coordinator must have comprehensive knowledge and experience with business office practices; attention to detail, organizational skills, and follow-through are critical to this position’s success. Ideal candidates will connect deeply with Allegany’s mission, vision, and values.

The expected starting pay range for this position is $55,000 to $60,000. While physically based at Allegany’s Palm Harbor, Florida office, the Coordinator may work remotely part of the time. View Candidate Information Packet.

ACH Administrative Update

After gathering feedback from our partners on their interest to receive grant funds electronically, Allegany Franciscan Ministries began offering ACH as an alternative payment method in April 2022. Our process is simple and streamlined and has allowed partners to receive funds in a more secure and convenient way with faster processing time:

Grant partner signs grant agreement or vendor/consultant signs contract agreement indicating preferred payment type: ACH or check
If ACH is selected, grant partner or vendor/consultant receives a request via DocuSign to submit banking information
DocuSign submission is received and banking information is reviewed for accuracy
Payment is processed and sent electronically on one of our scheduled ACH payment dates
Payment confirmation email is sent to grant partner or vendor/consultant

Have any questions on our ACH payments process? Contact Carla Batts, Grants Administration Manager at cbatts@afmfl.org or 727-507-9668.

Climate Justice and Care for Creation

At Volo Foundation's recent Climate Correction Conference in Orlando, Daniel Gibson, Regional Vice President for Miami-Dade participated in a panel discussion titled Climate Justice: A Moral Imperative. Daniel shared how climate justice and care for creation aligns with our mission and how important it is for all who are working in this space to include and uplift marginalized communities in their work. Listen to a podcast of the session, Climate Justice: A Moral Imperative by clicking on image above.

Grant Programs

Grant Partner Spotlights

Urban Health Partnerships (UHP), a Tau grant recipient, was awarded $10,000 to hire a consultant to provide in-depth organizational capacity-building and consultation related to differently-abled individuals. The organization focused on creating a Disability Inclusion Action Plan and auditing the organization's website to outline accessibility barriers. UHP is committed to promoting health and equity through policy, systems, and built and social environment changes through community-driven approaches. The website audit pointed out actionable improvements that UHP could make such as increasing the contrast between foreground and background colors to make the content more accessible for low-vision users. Miami-based organization also conducts mobility/walking audits and provides a host of other services.

To learn more about UHP, subscribe to their newsletter.

The Florida Timeline

by Daniel Gibson

I recently met with Florida Policy Institute's (FPI) leadership team to better understand their work in Florida. FPI is a long-time partner of Allegany's and is currently the recipient of a St. Clare grant .

One of my favorite discoveries of theirs is a new education tool called The Florida Timeline. Do yourself a favor and visit The Florida Timeline website and watch the brief 2-minute introductory video on the first page. If you enjoy the video, explore the website and maybe share it with others. I checked it out today, and somehow they make the history of FL’s tax laws relevant and fascinating.

The Florida Timeline identifies how intentional and systemic racism has permeated historical laws in Florida and continues to reverberate in modern-day policy. In other words, it provides brief historical milestones that explain how and why FL continues to experience episodes of blatant racism and social injustices.

In recent years, as I have become more vocal and comfortable raising up issues of race and homophobia, some people have asked, “How much longer do we have to talk about racism and white supremacy? Why do we have to continue to focus on painful pasts and the stupid acts of a small minority of people today?” My answer, “to overturn centuries of injustices and develop effective and equitable solutions, we must first understand how we got here.”

Racism has plagued our country for 500 years. Oppressed communities have only recently begun to experience the healing that comes from speaking one’s truth. I say, rather than silencing our past, why not study it to understand the foundational ideas and beliefs behind our broken systems so that maybe we won’t keep repeating history.

I find the timeline project thought-provoking. We benefit from hearing our history, ALL of our histories. People still aren’t aware (or choose not to believe) the truth that the United States has a long and painful precedence for the intentional development and promotion of racist and sexist systems that oppress certain groups while benefiting others.

I applaud FPI for developing an easy and accessible way to bypass the "wonky legalese" of most policy briefs by providing compelling historical backgrounds to some of our state’s and country’s most egregious and unhealthy social norms.

Franciscan Action Network (FAN) is a collective of Franciscan voices seeking to transform U.S. public policy related to peacemaking, care for creation, poverty and human rights. In May 2022, FAN was awarded a $10,000 ACOR grant for general operating support. FAN used these funds to pay for staffing and technology to grow Franciscan Justice Circles and support peacemaking programing.

Franciscan Justice Circles are local affinity groups inspired by the Franciscan charism, that unite and advocate for social and environmental justice. In the last year, two new youth circles were formed at universities. There are currently 20 active Franciscan Justice Circles throughout the country in which several Franciscan Sisters of Allegany and Associates are participating.

FAN organized activities to counter polarization and promote peaceful resolution of differences. On January 5th, FAN hosted a Faith in Democracy Interfaith Vigil in Washington, DC with 60 in-person and 800 online attendees in remembrance of the attack on the Capitol. A prayer event was also held on Election Eve in November 2022. There have also been peace building webinars with nearly 500 people participating.

Interested in learning more about FAN? Visit franciscanaction.org.

Grant Program Updates

ACOR

We are currently reviewing ACOR Grant applications. Sixteen applications with requests totaling $150,704 were received this cycle. The ACOR Grant program focuses on improving health, wellness and quality of life in marginalized communities. Eligibility requirements include having a direct affiliation with the Franciscan Sisters of Allegany, Allegany Franciscan Associates, or being a ministry of Trinity Health. The ACOR Grant Committee will meet in May to make final recommendations and grants will be announced in mid-May. Learn more about ACOR here.

Tau

This past cycle, 76 applications were received across our six-county footprint and 19 organizations were awarded grants to support their general operating needs and to assist with capacity building efforts. Allegany Franciscan Ministries prioritizes organizations that provide programs or services to the BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) and LGBTQ+ community, and persons with disabilities.

We anticipate Information on FY24 Tau Grant opportunities in June.