Next Friday, we're interviewing the candidates for next year's Heads Up! fellow. It's amazing how quickly the time has gone, but I guess that's what happens when you love what you do.
At Heads Up!, we've recently been able to secure $10,000 to fund the book program at Lincoln Hospital for this year. This is GREAT news; Heads Up! has experienced difficulty funding that location (which in my opinion is the neediest of the 11 we serve) for many years.
Lincoln is a hospital in the South Bronx. A recent report sent to me some months ago described the surrounding community in numeric form, mentioning that about 60% of the nearby residents utilize some form of public assistance. It's an incredibly busy place, with a flurry of languages spoken in the halls and exam rooms. Money is tight--for the hospital and its patients.
Educational attainment and overall health outcomes are linked, and given the poverty experienced by Lincoln's community, I can't imagine a place in greater need of a program that supports early literacy. Ages 0-5 is the time to learn how to hold a books, and that letters have meaning. Statistically, if children do not learn certain pre-literacy skills before entering school, they begin behind and do not catch up. Reading aloud with young children is the best way to impart these needed skills, and I see the importance of Heads Up! (a program in which doctors give books at literacy guidance at well child checks from age 0-5) so clearly at Lincoln. Many parents appreciate the literary guidance we are able to offer, but the ones who I remember best are parents who cannot read themselves (I encourage them to talk about the pictures with their child, which is helpful as well), and parents thankful to have books from us. Often they are the only ones a child owns.
PP55 fellows share their experience working in the public interest and being a part of the Princeton AlumniCorps community.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Generating Business, Generating Impact
One of the most intellectually rewarding aspects of working for IIC is the opportunity to alternate my mentality between activist and businesswoman. One day I'm focused on the role of philanthropy, civil society, citizen engagement, and corporate social responsibility - the next I'm focused on creating stakeholder value , remaining competitive, selling the concept, and building a brand.
Having successfully completed the development and launch of a monthly series targeting our Chicago-based NGO Partners, I've shifted my perspective from that of "overwhelmed, underfunded nonprofit seeking resources" to "business professional in hard-hit economy seeking value and RIO." Effective communication with for-profit Members is essential as IIC seeks to scale its philanthropic impact.
Thus, this week's post for the IIC blog focuses on the "enterprise" component of IIC - the engine that drives our social mission. Take a look here, and share your thoughts! We value constructive feedback from all voices.
Having successfully completed the development and launch of a monthly series targeting our Chicago-based NGO Partners, I've shifted my perspective from that of "overwhelmed, underfunded nonprofit seeking resources" to "business professional in hard-hit economy seeking value and RIO." Effective communication with for-profit Members is essential as IIC seeks to scale its philanthropic impact.
Thus, this week's post for the IIC blog focuses on the "enterprise" component of IIC - the engine that drives our social mission. Take a look here, and share your thoughts! We value constructive feedback from all voices.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
"Rethinking Masculinity" Seminar follow-up: A call to action
Tuesday night, I had the pleasure of attending the pp55 New York community seminar entitled "Rethinking Masculinity". The seminar was a panel discussion with Feminist Activist and writer, Gloria Steinem, and the co-Authors of "Why We Need to Reimagine Masculinity", Tony Dokoupil, and Andrew Romano '04. The topics of discussion ranged from the significance of a parental leave act to why programs like Princeton AlumniCorps attract more women than men. In light of our discussion on Tuesday, I feel it would be remiss not to follow-up and speak out against the recent attacks on women's health and federal family planning funding we briefly discussed during the our seminar. However, I not only want to alert readers to the problems, but also offer concrete actions we can all take to help women across the country.
Over the past several weeks the newly elected leaders in the House of Representatives have launched the most devastating legislative assault on women’s health care in American history. This past Friday, as part of its budget proposal, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to completely eliminate the national family planning program, also known as Title X. Since 1970 when President Richard Nixon signed it into law, Title X has provided millions of women with preventive health care regardless of their ability to pay. Eliminating the Title X program would mean NO federal funding for family planning services such as: birth control, emergency contraceptives, breast and cervical cancer screening, sexually transmitted infection testing and treatment, and access to basic health care for millions of low-income women, men, and teens. Title X is the program that allows teenagers across the country to access free and confidential reproductive health care and supports evidence-based and scientifically accurate sexual education.
In addition to cutting the entire national family planning budget, the House of Representatives also voted Friday to bar Planned Parenthood from receiving any federal funding. Lets be clear, this has nothing to do with ensuring that tax-payer dollars are not spent on abortions- legislation has prohibited federal dollars from funding abortion since before I was even born. Title X services do not fund abortions and neither do any of the federal funds provided to Planned Parenthood. These services do REDUCE the need for abortion and lower the incidence of sexually transmitted infections such as HIV. Nationally, abortion accounts for 3% (yes, 3%) of Planned Parenthood's services.
For all you fiscal conservatives, family planning programs also save millions in state and federal dollars each year. For every $1 spent on family planning services, $4 in Medicaid costs are saved. The importance of investing in family planning is blatant when you consider the cost of providing a low income woman with a year supply of birth control as compared to the cost of providing the same woman with nine months of prenatal care and continued food, shelter, etc. for her and her newborn.
This legislation has nothing to do with preventing tax-payer dollars from being spent on abortion, or reducing the federal deficit; it has everything to do with restricting women’s access to birth control and the right to exercise our reproductive freedoms. This legislation was created by people who claim to be opposed to abortion yet at the same time are putting massive effort into undermining the delivery of vital education, supplies and health care that prevent the need for it.
So what happens next?
This budget package, including the funding ban on Planned Parenthood, has already been passed by the House. It is unlikely that this package will pass in the Senate on an up-or-down vote- but that's not how this works. The real action on the budget is the conference negotiation that takes place behind closed doors, where the fate of Title X, Planned Parenthood, and the millions of women, men and teens who rely on them will be on the table for political bargaining.
I cannot overemphasize how important it is that you take action. We have to make sure that the voices of the millions of human beings who benefit from these programs are heard in Washington. I would not be emailing if I didn’t think your help was absolutely necessary. Below I have detailed some ways you can take action.
Call Your State’s Senators
When constituents call, elected officials take note, serious note. This is true regardless of whether you are calling to say thank you or offer criticism.
Please take two minutes to call your senators and let them know that you “strongly urge them to fight against any legislation that seeks to eliminate the Title X Family Planning Program and any attempt to ban Planned Parenthood from receiving federal funding.”
Call Your State’s Representatives
You can find information on each of your state’s representatives at this website: http://clerk.house.gov/member_
Sign Planned Parenthood’s Open Letter to Congress
This one is easy, just click the link below and enter your information. https://secure.ppaction.org/
Attend Planned Parenthood's Rally for Women's Health
On Saturday, February 26th, Planned Parenthood will be holding a Rally for Women's Health. They aim to to bring together thousands supporters in Foley Square to stand up for women’s health.
Details of the Rally:
February 26th, 1-3pm
Foley Square, Across from the Courthouse in Lower Manhattan
RSVP link: http://www.ppaction.org/site/
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Biological Destinies
The countenance is distorted beneath the shimmering light as I rise to the surface to see a woman suddenly there, cooing at the piercing cries that fill the bathroom before covering my eyes with cotton darkness.
There he is with a hoe in the middle of summer, scraping the tufts of grass that bear down the fence. There he is with a spatula burning the eggs as I wince at acrid smell that fills the room. More and more, I hear his voice over the line cracking before a sob, before the confession that he misses me and prays for me every night.
I sink into a chair and explain to the scrawny owl-eyed lady in glasses how I want to be completely different from them, how I hate the machismo. “Tell me something you do admire about your brother and father,” her finger pushing up her wire-rimmed glasses. “…I think my dad is diligent…dedicated and honorable-” but the slight hesitation reveals the distrust, perhaps apprehension.
“I’ve been working on it for a while,” he tells me in his jean jacket, expansive because of his broad shoulders, and slowly he unveils the small batch of golden dough. “See the yeast; it smells so good when it starts fizzing. Just makes me want to drink!” I can hear the drunken hollers of an early Thursday night through the open window, but here I am baking brioche as if I owned a boulangerie on a Paris corner that the residents depended on, not necessarily for baguettes but rather for the whiff of bread they relish on their way to work. I can barely hear the clinking bottles so close through the window; I only feel the warmth of the oven flushing my face.
There he is with a hoe in the middle of summer, scraping the tufts of grass that bear down the fence. There he is with a spatula burning the eggs as I wince at acrid smell that fills the room. More and more, I hear his voice over the line cracking before a sob, before the confession that he misses me and prays for me every night.
I sink into a chair and explain to the scrawny owl-eyed lady in glasses how I want to be completely different from them, how I hate the machismo. “Tell me something you do admire about your brother and father,” her finger pushing up her wire-rimmed glasses. “…I think my dad is diligent…dedicated and honorable-” but the slight hesitation reveals the distrust, perhaps apprehension.
“I’ve been working on it for a while,” he tells me in his jean jacket, expansive because of his broad shoulders, and slowly he unveils the small batch of golden dough. “See the yeast; it smells so good when it starts fizzing. Just makes me want to drink!” I can hear the drunken hollers of an early Thursday night through the open window, but here I am baking brioche as if I owned a boulangerie on a Paris corner that the residents depended on, not necessarily for baguettes but rather for the whiff of bread they relish on their way to work. I can barely hear the clinking bottles so close through the window; I only feel the warmth of the oven flushing my face.
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Precept in the real world
True life, I was "that kid" in precept. I did the reading, and I really liked talking about it. My post-graduation life is full of exciting challenges, but I've found that the thinking I do on a regular basis is of a different type. I'm using my brain in more practical and less theoretical ways. That said, I miss being intellectually stimulated, which is why I get excited about any opportunity to think in that way.
The Foundation Center has a monthly series called "Conversations on Philanthropy" where all staff members are invited to read a given article and come to a board room to discuss it. It feels like real life precept! Unlike in precept, though, I'm getting to learn from the wisdom of colleagues who have been working on nonprofit sector issues for decades!
I'm also very grateful for the p55 seminar series, and I'm very much looking forward to tonight's panel on "Rethinking Masculinity". It's being held at the Foundation Center (talk about convenient for fellow-p-55-er Allison and me!), and a number of my colleagues have commented about how interesting the event sounds. I hope it is!
The Foundation Center has a monthly series called "Conversations on Philanthropy" where all staff members are invited to read a given article and come to a board room to discuss it. It feels like real life precept! Unlike in precept, though, I'm getting to learn from the wisdom of colleagues who have been working on nonprofit sector issues for decades!
I'm also very grateful for the p55 seminar series, and I'm very much looking forward to tonight's panel on "Rethinking Masculinity". It's being held at the Foundation Center (talk about convenient for fellow-p-55-er Allison and me!), and a number of my colleagues have commented about how interesting the event sounds. I hope it is!
Friday, February 18, 2011
Recommended reading
For those of you who are at all interested in medicine, public health, or health economics, Atul Gawande wrote a really interesting and (I think) inspiring article in the New Yorker last month about caring for socially and medically complex patients. (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/01/24/110124fa_fact_gawande?currentPage=all)
His article does a great job of describing the rationale behind much of the work we do at my fellowship organization, the Primary Care Coalition of Montgomery County (PCC). One of the biggest weaknesses of the American health care system today is that it often fails to adequately address the needs of “medically complex patients” – patients with multiple chronic illnesses, for example – particularly when they are uninsured or publicly insured. PCC aims to fill in the gaps for low-income uninsured patients in Montgomery County, Maryland by connecting them to comprehensive primary care services at safety-net clinics and subsidizing their access to medications and specialty care services as needed.
Working here has definitely changed my perspective on health care. I’ve recognized that when patients come to the emergency room with uncontrolled hypertension or diabetes, it indicates not only that their bodies have failed to appropriately regulate their blood pressure or insulin levels, but also that our health care system has failed to provide them with the treatment, guidance, and support that they need to appropriately manage their disease. My fellowship experience has helped me decide that I’d like to eventually work at the intersection of medicine and public health so that I can both treat patients directly and work to address larger systemic factors affecting their health.
In addition to my work at PCC, I’ve also been enjoying the unseasonably warm weather here in DC. Hope those of you on the east coast are also enjoying this early taste of spring, and hope everyone has a great long weekend!
Monday, February 14, 2011
6 month mark/ student achievement
Friday (the 11th) was my 6 month appraisal at work. (I've been at Umoja for 6 months already?!) I was super nervous about what my supervisor would have to say about my performance to date. Not that I thought I was doing horrible work, but I had a good idea of the areas where I could still improve. A week or so before the appraisal, my supervisor discussed what I should expect. Something that I like about Umoja's approach is that there should not be any surprises; we meet weekly with our supervisors and the appraisal should be a reflection of the work you have done, things you have discussed in supervision, and areas in which you have grown or can grow further. My supervisor filled out the necessary documents and I was asked to fill them out as well as a sort of self-reflection and to compare it to my supervisor's comments. I need to stop being so hard on myself. My supervisor gave me "consistently exceeds" in areas where I said "meets standards." In one area, I was given "consistently exceeds" in an area that I said "needs improvement." It was nice to see that my hard work has been noticed. I am looking forward to my next 6 months since my supervisor and I have begun discussing areas for increased professional development. My fellowship has made me think, lead, and challenge myself in ways that I never would have thought I was capable of before my fellowship year.
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Now that I have been at Umoja for 6 months, I feel more comfortable at the organization, at the highschool where Umoja is located, and I have built many strong relationships with students and staff members.
Example: One of my freshman students in the Writers Workshop that I run brought me his report card- straight A's! He was so excited about his grades and he wanted me to keep a copy of his transcript. I put the copy up next to my computer. He looked so full of pride as he saw me tape it up. Little moments like that make me so happy to work with young adults and share in their successes.
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Now that I have been at Umoja for 6 months, I feel more comfortable at the organization, at the highschool where Umoja is located, and I have built many strong relationships with students and staff members.
Example: One of my freshman students in the Writers Workshop that I run brought me his report card- straight A's! He was so excited about his grades and he wanted me to keep a copy of his transcript. I put the copy up next to my computer. He looked so full of pride as he saw me tape it up. Little moments like that make me so happy to work with young adults and share in their successes.
Show the World Some Love
Today, IIC joins the movement to re-think Valentine's Day. Let's look beyond the chocolate and the flowers to invest February 14th with true meaning and true Generosity...http://getgiving.wordpress.com/
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
CEP in 2011
So I wrote and attempted to post this Monday, but our phones and Internet have been down so I'm just getting to it today!
I’ve been out of town for the past few weeks so today was my first day back at CEP. I missed everyone! My coworkers and supervisor have been so supportive and I so appreciate them all--- I’m happy to be back in the office.
I’m basically just getting back into the swing of things right now. We had our usual Monday morning staff meeting today, and following that we were able to watch DVDs submitted by four of our 2010 National Schools of Character. We had asked the winning schools to create videos addressing how character has impacted the students, teachers, and community at their school, and it was really neat to watch them! So often we just think of the schools, students, and teachers as numbers and statistics, so it was cool to have the opportunity to actually see the real impact of character ed. on the students.
During lunch, my co-fellow Cam and I headed over to the White House (only about 2 blocks from our office!) to see if there were more protests happening for Egypt. I had run down there yesterday and there was a HUGE crowd of people holding signs and chanting things, but I guess the cold weather and the workday deterred people today because no one was there. Still, it’s always exciting to live in DC!
And to echo other Fellows' posts, please reach out to us if you have any questions. Leif, Cam, and I are happy to help!
I’ve been out of town for the past few weeks so today was my first day back at CEP. I missed everyone! My coworkers and supervisor have been so supportive and I so appreciate them all--- I’m happy to be back in the office.
I’m basically just getting back into the swing of things right now. We had our usual Monday morning staff meeting today, and following that we were able to watch DVDs submitted by four of our 2010 National Schools of Character. We had asked the winning schools to create videos addressing how character has impacted the students, teachers, and community at their school, and it was really neat to watch them! So often we just think of the schools, students, and teachers as numbers and statistics, so it was cool to have the opportunity to actually see the real impact of character ed. on the students.
During lunch, my co-fellow Cam and I headed over to the White House (only about 2 blocks from our office!) to see if there were more protests happening for Egypt. I had run down there yesterday and there was a HUGE crowd of people holding signs and chanting things, but I guess the cold weather and the workday deterred people today because no one was there. Still, it’s always exciting to live in DC!
And to echo other Fellows' posts, please reach out to us if you have any questions. Leif, Cam, and I are happy to help!
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