The Way We See: Collaborative Works by Miriam B. Shafer and Students from The CARE Center
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Author Archives: Flip Rosenberry
A Message From Carole Haas, the Executive Director at Bridgeway
As we celebrate our 25th year at Bridgeway I appreciate and am excited at the prospect of a national partnership for those of us whose mission is to work with the teen pregnant and parenting population. Re-occurring national conferences could afford tremendous opportunities for sharing our unique expertise and experiences, as well as lending support to one another.
We really enjoyed the conference in September and thank Mt. Pleasant for making it possible. There were so many wonderful ideas presented and we loved the tour of The Care Center. It was really nice to be able to connect with everyone.
The focus of our weekly life skills classes at Bridgeway continues to address the diverse needs of our parenting teens during this challenging time in their lives. So many of the girls have not been afforded positive role modeling nor caring intervention during their earlier years, and life skills are an integral part of our program.
We are presently assessing the need for more concentrated preparation which will assist our teen moms as they near their transition time from Bridgeway to the larger community. These challenges often seem overwhelming to a young mom.
Our parenting teens who are participating in our Youth Transition Program, living in their own apartments, have made tremendous progress with improving their independent living skills. Initially some of the girls struggled with the additional responsibilities and independence, and in time have grown in their ability to become both successful parents and self sufficient.
A Note From Hope House of Colorado Executive Director Lisa Steven
Hi all! Anne and Ana, it makes me miss you just to look at the pictures of your girls on your web site! Hope House is almost done writing our five year Strategic Plan, and The Care Center was a topic of much discussion during our planning process. Our visit in September 2010 to MA and The Care Center solidified for us that one of our five year Strategic Goals is to create national, and even international, partnerships with those who serve parenting teens, and who have the same basic values that we do. Our desire is to create relationships that sharpen us all, and allow us to serve our teen moms even more efficiently. A second objective for Hope House is to build a Resource Center near our current Residential Home for teen moms. This would allow us to provide GED, life skills, Parenting and healthy relationship classes. We want a daycare center and a large kitchen. Thanks to The Care Center we know we need an art room and a “school nurse”! I can’t wait to keep in touch as we start our Resource Center process, and learn from all of you! A huge thank you to the Mt Pleasant Fund for inspiring us through that trip!
Teen Moms and Dads Lobby at the Massachusetts State House
Teen parents from all over Massachusetts spent a recent day meeting with legislators at the Massachusetts State House. You can read one of the articles on the subject here.
MPF Introduction For Prospective Members
The Mt. Pleasant Fund officially incorporated in October of 2002. The idea at that time was to create a foundation wherein our friends and family members could collaborate to find nonprofit organizations that we were collectively enthusiastic about and to then pool some of our resources (both financial and otherwise) to support those nonprofits. Since October of 2002, the Fund has made contributions totaling more than $100,000 to twelve different nonprofit organizations around the country.
When the fund first started out, we identified minorities living in poverty as our funding priority. We then refined our guidelines by identifying children living in poverty as our priority. Most recently we have been focusing on supporting those organizations that work to support teen parents and their children. We have also recently restricted our giving to programs either in Colorado or Massachusetts.
Since its inception, the Fund has had the same four directors. Flip and Liz Rosenberry, Flip’s mother Peggy Rosenberry, and Liz’s brother-in-law Jimmy Curley were the founding directors and have continued to serve in that capacity since then. While there have been contributions from people besides those founding directors (a financial contribution to the Fund entitles the donor to membership for one year from the receipt of that contribution), Flip, Liz, Peggy, and Jimmy have been the only members to serve as directors.
At the October, 2010 Annual Meeting the Directors voted unanimously to focus on two things over the course of the next year. The first priority will involve increasing our role with the nonprofits to whom we make grants. We will do this by exploring opportunities for our membership base to not only provide financial support to our funding partners but to provide volunteer support as well. There will be no restrictions in terms of the type of agencies we will consider funding other than that the agencies must be recommended to us by at least one of our members.
Our second priority will involve increasing our membership base.
We believe that these two priorities can and will work hand-in-hand.
Flip and Liz continue to hold as a priority of the Fund, collaborating with their family and friends in a way that enriches each other as well as our broader world community. It has never been solely about impacting our world in a positive way. Rather it has been about doing it in a way that involves those we care most about and have such great respect for (our family and our friends).
Please, if this sounds like something you’d like to be a part of, make a contribution to the Mt. Pleasant Fund, and let’s make a difference together.
FY 2009-2010 MPF Annual Report
2009-2010 Annual Report
(Fiscal Year 10/1/2009-9/30/2010)
The Mt. Pleasant Fund is an IRS recognized 501 ( c ) (3) private nonoperating foundation. It was formally incorporated in Massachusetts in November of 2002.
The original founders of the Fund were Liz and Flip Rosenberry, a husband and wife, who wanted to create a foundation that would serve to bring their friends and family together in a communal effort related to making gifts to organizations and individuals in need. They asked Flip’s mother Peggy Rosenberry and Liz’s brother-in-law Jimmy Curley to serve with them as incorporating directors. Currently, those same four individuals serve as the Directors of the Fund.
As stated in the organization’s bylaws, any individual who makes a contribution to the Fund is entitled to be a member for one full year from the date on which their contribution is formally acknowledged by an officer of the Foundation. Members also are entitled to become Directors of the Foundation (subject to a vote by the rest of the members).
An annual meeting for the purpose of ratifying the actions of the Board and electing the Board for the upcoming year is held every October.
During the last fiscal year, the Fund made four contributions. One went to The CARE Center of Holyoke, Massachusetts. The CARE Center works to educate and empower pregnant and parenting teens in Holyoke.
The second contribution went to Bridgeway of Lakewood, Colorado. Bridgeway provides a residential setting for pregnant and parenting teen mothers.
The third contribution went to Hope House of Arvada, Colorado. Hope House, like Bridgeway, provides a residential setting for pregnant and parenting teen mothers.
The fourth contribution went to the Florence Crittenton School of Denver, Colorado. The school provides education and support to teen parents and their children.
The four grants made were within the guidelines set by the board at the beginning of the fiscal year. These guidelines indicated that the Fund would focus its funding priorities on programs that support teenaged parents and their children. The Fund only makes contributions in the states of Massachusetts and Colorado.
Additionally, the Fund sponsored a conference attended by representatives from The CARE Center, Bridgeway, and Hope House and held in Northampton, Massachusetts
The Fund’s 990PF form is available upon request.
2011 MPF Guidelines
The following guidelines apply to those applications to be submitted during calendar year 2011:
The Mt. Pleasant Fund is a relatively small private non-operating foundation in its ninth year of existence.
Last year the fund made four contributions totaling $20,000.
This year we anticipate paying out a similar amount.
For the Fund’s current fiscal year (October 1, 2010-September, 30, 2011) we are planning to only solicit requests from organizations that our membership recommends. Letters of Intent are accepted by invitation only.
Letters of intent may be sent to the fund at any time but should be in our office no later than April 15, 2011. You may feel free to email or send your letter via the postal service.
Our preference is to receive written communications rather than phone calls.
Further questions may be directed to the president of the foundation Flip Rosenberry at the address or email listed above.
Organizations sending letters of intent can expect to hear back from the foundation by mid-May, 2011. At that time, assuming we still have an interest in providing funding, applicants may be asked to provide us with additional information.
Our final funding decisions will be made no later than October of 2011.
Homepage Links For Our 2010-2011 Grantees
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