WOMEN TRANSFORMING SONOMA COUNTY THROUGH COLLECTIVE PHILANTHROPY | AUGUST 2021 | ISSUE 47 |
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Request for Nominations for 2022 Executive Committee |
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The Nominating Committee is looking for your suggestions for leadership for 2022! Your voice is important. All members of Impact 100 Redwood Circle are eligible to nominate a member. And, please consider self-nominating! We would love to hear from you!
The Executive Committee positions to be considered are:
- Co-President
- Vice President Governance
- Vice President Nominating
- Secretary
- Treasurer
A separate form should be used for each nomination. (The link for this form may be used more than one time.)
Deadline for all nominations is 5:00 p.m. - Friday, September 3
Questions? Please contact:
Eloise Tweeten, Nominating Committee Chair
(707) 484-8818
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It has come to our attention that many of our newer members aren’t aware of the agencies we funded with our Impact Grants over the years. While this information is available on our website, we thought you may like to hear some current news about them.
Food for Thought, our 2016 recipient, implemented a Covid-19 Nutrition program for people who tested positive for the virus and are in isolation. They are currently promoting August as “National Make-a-Will month”. You can go to their website www.fftfoodbank.org and click on Write my free will, an online resource that guides you through the process of creating a legally valid will in 20 minutes or less.
Catholic Charities was the next winner. They are now under construction of Caritas Center, a 46,000 sq ft. building for the homeless population that will include multiple services for the residents of Caritas Village. This is a joint project with Burbank Housing and is scheduled to be completed summer of ’22. North Bay Business Journal has recognized Caritas Center as a major green building project with a minimal footprint on the environment. www.srcharities.org
Forget Me Not Farm is probably most familiar to our members since many had the opportunity to tour the Farm, meet the animals, and learn about their programs within the past few months. Buddy is the resident 35-year-old rescue horse who has Cushing’s disease. The goal is to raise $10,000 to help cover his medical expenses and feed.
Click here to see a video of Buddy and make a donation.
4CS, our 2020 recipient, provides and supports quality and affordable child care and pre-school programs for all Sonoma County families. Currently staff is distributing preschool enrollment packets in Windsor and North Santa Rosa. www.facebook.com/sonoma4cs/
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DEI (Diversity, Equity and Inclusion) |
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Busting Bias #4 - Come on in!
“I feel like I’m learning a new language. I can feel the gears in my brain turning.”
“I can’t look at anything the same way!”
“This has put many things into an historical perspective - what’s been going on for a long time. It’s really about power and economics, and I have a bigger picture as to how history figured into things.”
“This group is important because we can do all the reading we want, but the discussion is the power! That’s the different experience.”
These “Busting Bias” comments show that exploring discrimination with curiosity, inquiry, generous listening and reflection can result in transforming our awareness and actions – and it helps sharpen our thinking about the role of community philanthropy.
About an hour of articles and videos each week sparks free and respectful discussion to understand the shift from equality to equity, the consequence of implicit bias, and the urgency of demands for change. Click here to view is a sample prep piece.
This invigorating experience puts a new lens on civil rights, and can move us from compassionate observers to participants in creating more just and peaceful communities for all.
The new six-week BB group runs September 14th – October 19th from 4-5:50 PM Hope to see you! Click here to email Nancy Vogl to sign up.
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2021 Impact Grant Nominations
The Impact Grant Committee has invited seven applicants for the 2021 Impact Grant to submit Full Proposal Applications (FPA). The nonprofits selected to move ahead are:
· Conservation Corps North Bay
· Corazon Healdsburg
· Legal Aid of Sonoma County
· North Coast Builders Exchange Community Fund
· Santa Rosa Community Health
· Social Advocates for Youth
· The LIME Foundation
FPAs are due on August 20th. Our committee will review and score these and decide which applicants will be invited to the Q&A phase. Diverse criteria help us select projects that can potentially make a significant and lasting difference in the lives of those in our community. Our ultimate goal is to offer all of you, Impact 100 Redwood Circle’s 250-plus members, the choice of three truly great proposals for this year’s Impact Grant ballot.
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Sharing Her Story - Emily Thiessen |
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Just 30 years old and one of Impact 100 Redwood Circle’s youngest members, Emily Thiessen was raised in rural West Sonoma County. She’s travelled the world and studied international relations with an eye toward working at the United Nations. But when a job came up at Catholic Charities in Santa Rosa, “I was ready to come home,” she recalls.
Emily spent her junior year of high school as an exchange student in Ireland. “Looking back,” she says, “I really don’t know how my parents let me do that.” The culture and rules at her small town all girls’ Catholic school were quite a contrast to those she was used to at West County’s El Molino High School. “There were no girls’ sports and we all wore uniforms.” Still, she says, the experience was ‘life changing” as it ignited her passion for “travel,
history and confronting everyday injustice.” And it made her appreciate things about home she had taken for granted such as, “friends, nature, weather and girls sports,” she laughs. “And no uniforms!”
Emily’s Sonoma County roots are deep. Like her mother, grandparents and great grandmother, Emily attended Santa Rosa Junior College. She took a “gap year” in New Zealand where she worked as a Christmas tree seller and movie projectionist, not to enhance her resume but to have “another great experience” on the road to adulthood.
After a year at University of California at Santa Cruz studying European History, a new travel opportunity came her way thanks to a reciprocal arrangement UCSC maintains with the University of Copenhagen in Denmark. Emily lived in the Danish capital, attended classes in English and wound up with a joint B.A. from UCSC and the University of Copenhagen. It was her first experience in a non-English speaking country though “the Danes are great linguists; they start learning English at an early age and add a second language before they’re through with school.” She relished the cultural enrichment and expanded worldview the year gave her.
Back home, Emily found herself drawn to the nonprofit world and concerned that her history degree wasn’t the “most useful in terms of a career.” Living abroad had also given her an interest in international relations and refugee status. A Master’s program in international relations at the University of Aalborg enticed her back to her beloved Denmark. As part of that program, Emily served as an Intern on the Danish Refugee Council working with professionals from all over the globe. Still in Denmark after completing her Master’s Degree, Emily was contemplating applying for work at the United Nations High Commission for Refugees when she noticed an advertisement for a job as the Community Engagement Manager for Catholic Charities in Santa Rosa, an organization she admired for its advocacy on behalf of immigrants. She came home and got the job. Since much of her work at Catholic Charities involves face to face interaction with volunteers, immigrants and seniors, Covid has been challenging. “It was hard to stop seeing people,” she says. “We found we could do programs on ZOOM; the programs didn’t stop. They’re just different now.”
In the fall, Emily plans to pursue an idea she’s had in the back of her mind for years: law school.
And where does she want to practice law? “I’m not leaving Sonoma County; this is home.”
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July 19th ED TALK Recap: “Is Resilience More Than Just a Buzzword?”
“I’d never heard of the ACE study, so it was quite mind boggling!”
This response captures the July Ed Talk by local trauma expert, Elizabeth Vermiyea, Ph.D., on Resilient Communities and Adverse Childhood Experiences. The data she offered was truly compelling and can inspire solutions to the vexing issues that drain our national treasury and local agencies. Billions are spent on remediation for dysfunctional, alienated adults and disconnected families. Resilient Communities is an exciting reframe that has the potential to revolutionize health care, social service, education and with great effort, criminal justice.
She passionately spoke to a profound intervention with the greatest return, which is to end childhood trauma, whose consequences ripple throughout every community. “Trauma Informed Care”, with a foundation of compassion and understanding, can replace the punitive stigma of personal failure and invite healing.
In 1994, 17,400 predominantly white, middle-class Kaiser members exposed an irrefutable correlation between childhood trauma and adult diseases such as asthma, diabetes, heart disease, obesity and addiction. From continued research, we now know that individuals with 4 traumatic experiences are 6x more likely to attempt suicide, 7x more likely to be addicted to alcohol, 7x more likely to be sexually active by age 15 and… 46%x more likely to use injected drugs.
These stunning figures validate the need for more focus on prevention that incorporates a two-generation model: appropriate, simultaneous support for parents and children. Bolstering the mental and physical health in each family fosters lasting changes that continue to flourish in the generations to come.
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Did you know… Trauma hijacks and robs a child’s birthright of an imagination, making it harder to imagine the future, reach a goal or envision a life worth striving for?
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Did you know…64% of the original Kaiser ACE study experienced one traumatic event, 25% admitted substance abuse, and 25% physical abuse?
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Did you know…We DO know how to end child abuse, and initiatives like Triple P, 40 Developmental Assets and 5 Factors Family Model are proven to reduce rates of child mistreatment and hospitalizations, reduce foster care placements and decrease youth high risk behavior?
Click here for a link to her powerpoint presentation. Click here to hear a recording of the session.
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