David Tyree Spends Afternoon with Children of the City

As you know, I serve on the Board of a Brooklyn-based charity, Children of the City and often write about this charity, education and our youth in my website, www.roccobasile.net, and this blog. The New York Giants' football star David Tyree is also on the Board, and he recently visited the kids during one of the Create Success program classes, which is an after school and/or summer program for kids. It's the only multi-service educational program of its kind and is fast becoming a model sought after by other agencies for their own after school program sites.

The program places priority on each student’s academic success with intense tutoring and help with their homework, which ends up being a connection with the student allows us the open door to provide them with other services such as counseling, or advocacy within the social systems like court. Some of the skills that the program achieves include:
Our goals are:

- Closing the academic skills gap;

- Displacing the poverty mentality;

- Providing the support and resources needed to help each child and youth complete their education so they can enter the workforce;

- Addressing social issues that discourage a child from focusing on their education.

The Create Success program also evaluates student performance using NYC Department of Education assessment tools which sowed that over the past three years 95 percent of the students tested improved several DRA levels; 20 percent increased an entire grade level; and all of the students expressed they felt more comfortable reading, more confident in their math skills.

In general this program helped the Children of the City kids develop positive outlooks for the success of their education and lives.

-- Rocco Basile







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Children of the City's Mission

The mission for Sunset Park-based Children of the City, located in Brooklyn New York has remained the same since 1981. They try to reach at-risk inner-city youth and their families. Children of the City's goal is to connect families to resources to address their current crises in an effort to change the culture of poverty.

One of their programs, Strong Minds and Strong Homes, is a volunteer-based outreach effort that meets children and families where they live. Strong Minds - Strong Homes (SMASH) is a volunteer-based effort that meets children and families in Sunset Park and connects them with services they might not otherwise seek out on their own.

The goals of this program include:

1) Building a healthy community - by increasing connections between community members and service providers.
2) Empowering parents to meet basic physical needs of their children - by connecting them to food pantries, employment services, clothing providers, and other social service groups.
3) Equipping parents to raise healthy children - by helping to train and support them to use healthy developmental strategies to raise their children. This helps reduce neglect and child abuse.
4) Increasing educational opportunities for children - by advocating at local schools and connecting them with supplemental academic programs.

I also have other information about this and other programs that Children of the City sponsors on my educational website www.roccobasile.net.

Children of the City also believes in the importance of mobilizing its community members to work together for the good of everyone in the neighborhood. Each year the organization trains 50 volunteers from the Sunset Park community. Each person commits to giving 10 hours every month conducting outreach for children and families, over 12 consecutive months.

I do it and it is the best feeling in the world to give back to a community.

-- Rocco Basile

Survey Says Nonprofit Giving Has Declined 10% due to Economy

In order to keep an eye on my chairites from time to time I review research and statistical informatio n to post on my website http://www.roccobasile.net/. According to survey findings released by the Foundation Center, giving will likely decline by more than 10 percent since 2008. The survey is the result of interviewing and obtaining the responses of 600 foundations. What’s more, continued reductions are expected throughout 2010.

The year has suffered declines in overall consumer demand and our country’s highest unemployment figures in a quarter century, so it is no surprise that the future outlook for the nonprofit community has been impacted by the recession. The field of philanthropy will become more strategic as a result of the economic crisis.

The majority of experts believe that the nonprofit sector will emerge stronger but agree that ultimately there will be fewer organizations. U.S. foundation giving suffered an estimated 22 percent drop in foundation assets in 2008. Earlier this year, the Foundation Center estimated that 2009 giving by the nation’s more than 75,000 grant making foundations would “decrease by around eight to 13 percent, and at this time, it seems as if it is likely the decline will be even more.

The economic crisis has forced nonprofits to adjust their operating costs. More than two-thirds of respondents to the September 2009 said they have in some way reduced operating expenses since the beginning of the economic crisis, even those that still have endowments. It seems that some nonprofits are trying to preserve the value of their endowments, so that they will not permanently diminish grant making capacity, while others have determined they will be smaller institutions going forward and are making necessary staffing and expense adjustments.

How are they cutting back? Many have reduced operating expenses since the onset of the economic crisis, by reducing staff travel and salaries. Two-thirds of the respondents that cut expenses reported reducing staff travel budgets and/or limiting staff to attend conferences. A little over one-third indicated that they had also reduced staff training and professional development opportunities.

A larger share of respondents expect that their giving will be lower in 2010 (26 percent) than higher (17 percent). Larger foundations, those giving over $10 million, are more likely than smaller foundations to reduce their giving further next year. While asset averaging generally limits the impact of modest economic fluctuations on annual giving, the extreme 2008 asset losses will not be balanced out by 2007 asset growth and the 2009 turnaround in the market.

Finally, the impact of the economic crisis on foundations has been twofold. 1) There is a clear expectation among grant makers that the field of philanthropy will become more strategic as a result of having weathered the economic crisis. 2) The long-term impact of the crisis on their own foundations are forcing engaging in “more robust strategic planning,” “more focused use of the foundation’s capabilities,” and being “more focused and disciplined in executing our strategy.” The focus of other types of long-term changes cited by survey respondents ranged from governance to grantee relations to investments.

The Foundation Center’s next Foundation Giving Forecast Survey will be conducted in January 2010, with results released in the March 2010 edition of Foundation Growth and Giving Estimates.

The annual Foundation Giving Forecast Survey and made it available to approximately 5,000 large and mid-size U.S. community, independent, and corporate foundations.

-- Rocco Basile
Source: Foundation Center, 2009 http://www.foundationcenter.org/gainknowledge/research/pdf/researchadvisory_economy_200911.pdf

Fundraising in Economically Challenging Times

Industry experts say that shock ads are becomming worse than ever. Are they working when it comes to shocking people into contributing to the latest charity cause? Possibly...

But rather than shock ads for charities focused on drinking and driving or drugs, why not focus on charities with a more positive outcome? Like children's education, students and parents in need?

I work with several charities include Children of the City in Brooklyn, and the Joe Dimmagio committee, and my educational website (http://www.roccobasile.net/) details the latest trends in these charities.

We are making such amazing strides in these organizations, and all that is needed at this point is recogition. Once people heard that Gweneth Paltrow was part of our "Champions of Hope" annual fundraiser this last year, the doors open.

If you are interested in learning more so you can help us, go to my website at http://www.roccobasile.net/

Race to the top for Education Reform - Competition Opens

If you haven't heard about the "Race to the Top Fund" and competition that is being organized by the U.S. Department of Education, then stay tuned. It is all part of the way our government can improve our country's educational accessment and improve math and reading skills, provide teachers with more useful instructional information, and then measure their effectiveness and how well the students are performing.

The Department has officially applied, as of today, for more than $4.35 billion from the Race to the Top program, which was established under the American Recovery and reinvestment Act. This will reward those states that have rasied student performance in the past and have the capacity to accelerate achievement by using innovative reforms. Every state is different of course.

Of the funds, $350 million will be reserved to help states create assessments that are alligned to a common set of standards, and the remaining $4 billion will be awarded in a natioanl competition. Ergo the name Race to the Top.

The final application also requires multiple measures to evaluate teachers with a huge emphasis on the growth in achievement of their students. It also reinforces that successful applicants will need strict teacher/principal evaluation programs, to inform what happens in the schools.

I enjoy my charity work for both Children of the City and the Joe DiMaggio Committee, which raises money to provide a good education for children of financially challenged families. Our fund raising event, the Joe DiMaggio Award Gala, benefits Xaverian High School, my alma mater. You can read more about it on my website at http://www.roccobasile.net/

It seems that Xaverian has already figured out a great system, that could serve as an example for the rest of teh country's "Race to the Top" program. This school offers the best secondary education for students with learning disabilities. Its Ryken Program serves as the model for the New York State Regents for all such endeavors. Xaverian has a tradition of serving young men from disadvantaged backgrounds, boys with learning disabilities and students that are in financial need.

In the meantime, let the race begin. Our country's youth deserve Race to the Top.

--Rocco Basile

Has the Economy Affected Top Twelve Educational Trends?

Every generation has sets of educational trends that are constantly evolving right along with the times. By taking a look at these trends, higher-education institutions are better able to prepare for the future students to become productive members of society and world leaders.

As you know I am fascinated with how our children develop and learn, as evidenced from the topics on website at http://www.roccobasile.net/ - especially the underpriviledged kids in the charities where I serve as a Board member such as Children of the City. (Kaylen on right)

Let's take a look at five of these predictions (there are twelve in all) to see if the economy has affected them in any way this last year.

1. Evergreen students - It is the 18 year olds who are bringing the new technologies to college campuses, but due to this fact they expect the infastructure to be in place to support their new evergreen ideas. But this last year the biggest trends included social media like YouTube, Twitter and Facebook, interactive mobile smart phones, and places like SecondLife.com are a great tools to train students virtually. Universities continue to explore new ways to integrate these tools into a productive learning environment and the slow economy only slows down the process of implementation.

2 Globalization - The demand for higher education worldwide is increasing and will continue to grow. There a re 100 million college students globally, and the growth areas have been India, China and the Middle East. Today students must prepare for a global workforce.

3. Techninal and informational literacy. Technical literacy among teachers in increasing, and more are using computers and ew technology in teaching. Students may be device savvy but they need to improve on being information savvy, therefore using technology for academic purposes is the new goal. a wave of faculty retirement is bringing new teachers to the forefront who are younger and more technologically savvy.

4. Enrollment, retention, and branding. Schools are hip to using the Internet to market academic programs, and e-learning online is well under way (e.g. Zinch.com is to help students in the college application process). Colleges have built attractive brands, and are using new methods to enroll and keep students in school - such as call centers to contact students and leave voicemails if they miss classes.

5. Mobility. Colleges are compelled to capitolize on feature rich mobile phones to reach students new ways such as texting, instant messaging, video, etc. Now colleges are exploring ways to use PDAs to deliver coursework, field data, training modules, schedules, and much more.

Just as colleges and universities are experiementing with technology tools to improve learning, our younger students are less fortunate in some communities where public schools simply do not have the government support for funds to provide the technology - especially during bad economic times.

Life is a learning experience ... This is why programs like ChildrenoftheCity are so critical to communities like Brooklyn.

-- Rocco Basile

Private Lender Involvement for Students Loans to End

A hat tip to Wall Street Journal writers Corey Boles and Robert Tomsho for their news coverage on my favorite topic: education in the United States. As you know, my website http://www.roccobasile.net/ covers education and charity.

So just out of Washington today, the House of Representatives approved legislation that would end private-lender involvement in the student-loan market. This establishes the federal government as the sole provider of college loans, and means there will be much change within the federal government's higher-education policies.

What this basically means is that all lenders would be cut out of the market for originating loans, although there would still be a role for private banks and lenders to bid for a limited number of contracts to service the loans after they are made by the government.

What is known as the Federal Family Education Loan Program - this is when the government guarantees loans made by private lenders - remains the single largest source of college loans. Loan volume totalled $74 billion, up 13% from a year earlier.

Obama's administration has said they will use the anticipated savings from this measure to increase grants for low-income students, and also boost funding for minority student groups. This would mean they culd also provide money for school construction. All in all this could save taxpayers $87 billion over the next ten years.