Day 306: Harlem RBI

Today is my official birthday and I’ve been overwhelmed by all the birthday messages and donations to my LiveSTRONG fundraiser on Crowdrise. You have truly made my birthday great! Thank you!  Mashable even did an article about Living Philanthropic today, so touched by that, thank you for helping spread the word. I’ve been thinking a lot about the past 305 days and what I want to do to continue the mission, more on that later. In the meantime, today’s give goes to Harlem RBI. The most fun I had as a kid was playing little league. I learned the importance of responsibility and contributing to a team, not to mention all the exercise. Baseball is still my favorite sport and I always look forward to the new season. It’s a new beginning, a new year.

Harlem RBI is a dynamic youth-development organization located in East Harlem. Now in their 19th year of service in the East Harlem community, they have developed a unique, year-round sports, education and enrichment program. They also opened the DREAM Charter School in September 2008 where they have expanded their services for the community.

Today, more than 1,000 East Harlem boys and girls, ages 6 to 21, play on a baseball or softball team in the spring and summer. More than 400 of these young people also participate in one or more of our year-round, off the field, youth-development programs. More than 200 volunteers come to East Harlem from all five boroughs to devote more than 24,000 hours a year to coach and mentor the girls and boys of the East Harlem community through Harlem RBI. The mission is to provide inner-city youth with opportunities to play, learn and grow. They use the power of teams to coach, teach and inspire youth to recognize their potential and realize their dreams.

Amount Donated: $10

To support Harlem RBI, please visit: http://www.harlemrbi.org

Day 228: Fresh Prep / Urban Arts Partnership

AND TUMBLR is BAAAAAAACK… Happy Birthday, Mom! Today’s my mother’s birthday, she has always been a supportive and inspirational figure in my life. She has worked for the Chicago Public School system for over 20 years and she made sure we got a good education and pushed us to succeed. Today’s give, goes to Urban Arts Partnership’s Fresh Prep program, an awesome program that helps students pass the NY state exams though innovative learning processes with an 80% success rate, which is amazing! Fresh Prep is just one of many great programs that the Urban Arts Partnership organization maintains.

Fresh Prep, created and designed by two of the teaching artists at UAP, is an innovative arts and education curriculum that helps struggling students pass the New York State Regents exam, through original hip-hop songs, flash cards and video. Think of a modern day “School House Rock”, but much more in depth and relevant. They have an eighty percent success rate! 

It’s a new and innovative approach to raising student achievement on the Regents Exams that fuses hip-hop music with the New York State core curriculum. Drawing from current research and best practices in student engagement, verbal memory, and test preparation, the curriculum features vocabulary-building, multiple-choice, test taking strategies, and essay writing songs and activities in a format that makes studying fresh.

Roughly 40% of NYC public school students don’t graduate high school. Five New York State Regents exams are required for students to graduate and be able to attend college. These exams continue to be an obstacle for students throughout New York.

Urban Arts Partnership advances the intellectual, social and artistic development of underserved public school students through arts-integrated education programs to close the achievement gap.

They are a leading non-profit organization dedicated to providing arts-integrated education programs that advance student development in Title I public schools across New York City. Since 1992, the organization has applied a unique academic approach with innovative teaching practices to make the arts a vital part of education by integrating it directly into the core curriculum. UAP’s teaching artists currently work with more than 60 schools and 12,000 students to implement a variety programs that include in-school classroom integration, after-school initiatives, master classes, professional development, summer activities, arts festivals and special projects.

Amount Donated: $50

To support Urban Arts Partnership, please visit: http://www.urbanarts.org or visit Rosie Perez’s Fresh Prep Holiday Project on Crowdrise. 

Day 207: Children’s Aid Society

In a ideal world, every child would be nurtured and provided for by their parents. In our real world, there are circumstances and difficulties that make this impossible. It makes it ever more important that social services are in place to help these families grow healthy together. The Children’s Aid Society in New York has been doing just that for the past 150 years!

The Children’s Aid Society fills the gaps between what children have and what they need to thrive. CAS has been serving children for more than 150 years, a longevity that is a testament to their ability to adapt to the ever-changing needs of today’s youth.

Today Children’s Aid serves New York’s neediest children and their families at more than 45 locations in the five boroughs and Westchester County. Their caring begins even before birth, through prenatal counseling and assistance, and continues through the high school years with college and job preparatory training programs. All aspects of a child’s development are addressed as he or she grows, from health care to academics to sports and the arts. And because stable children live in stable families, a host of services are available to parents, including housing assistance, domestic violence counseling and health care access.

Throughout Children’s Aid’s history, programming has been driven by the needs of the children we serve. This proactive approach started in 1853, when Children’s Aid founder Charles Loring Brace established the Orphan Train Movement in response to an epidemic of homeless children. This approach, which moved children from New York City streets to the homes of farm families out West, has been deemed the beginning of the modern foster care system.

Amount Donated: $5

To support Children’s Aid Society, please visit: http://www.childrensaidsociety.org

Day 142: Robin Hood Foundation

In New York, there are currently 1.9million people living in poverty, that is a population larger than Boston, Atlanta, and San Francisco combined. That is an unacceptable number, and the Robin Hood Foundation is targeting that number and working with like minded organizations and programs to end the poverty in New York. With today being 9/11, I wanted to support an group in New York that was working to better the lives of those affected by the tragedy of 9/11. The Robin Hood Foundation set up a 9/11 relief fund to help low-income victims of the attacks, and that really spoke to me.

Robin Hood Foundation is changing the fates and saving the lives of NYC neighbors in need by applying investment principles to charitable giving. They find, fund and create the most effective programs and schools serving families in New York City’s poorest neighborhoods. To ensure that every dollar is invested wisely, they rigorously assess each program using independent, third-party evaluators to hold each program accountable. Because Robin Hood’s board of directors pays all administrative, fundraising and evaluation costs, 100% of donations goes directly to organizations helping impoverished New Yorkers build better lives.

Robin Hood’s work comes in many forms. They partner with more than 240 of the best poverty-fighting nonprofit organizations in New York City. They initiate and run projects when they see unmet community needs. And they created and operate a 9/11 Relief Fund. While there is great diversity among these programs, they all have one thing in common: They work.         

Core Fund: The four grant recipient portfolios represent the essence of Robin Hood’s mission. 

  • Early Childhood
  • Education
  • Jobs & Economic Security
  • Survival   

Relief Fund: Established to ensure that the needs of low income victims of the attacks of 9/11 were met in both the immediate and long term. 

  • Employment
  • Lower Income Victims’ Services and Relief
  • Mental Health Services
  • Other Grants

Amount Donated: $10 *(Robin Hood’s board and a donor are making a two-year matching grant that will double the impact of donations up to $100 million. The match is contingent on your donation.)

To support the Robin Hood Foundation, please visit: http://www.robinhood.org