Tag Archives: Current Grantees

Current Grantees Should Be Hearing From Us Soon

MPF President Flip Rosenberry will be contacting the current grantees soon to begin looking for concrete possibilities for MPF members to volunteerpartner with your organizations. Our board has had some interesting conversations relating to what we think we might be able to offer, but now it’s time to get your input. Let’s get this ball rolling!

The CARE Center Receives National Honor

CARE White House

(CARE Center Executive Director Anne Teschner, Student Tashia Davis, and First Lady Michelle Obama)

MPF grantee The CARE Center was a recent recipient of a National Arts and Humanities Youth Program Award. Big congratulations to all at THE CARE Center for receiving this award presented by Michelle Obama at the White House last week.

You can read more about The CARE Center’s receiving the award here. You can read more about the other programs that received awards here. Finally, you can see a video of the entire presentation here. As you’ll see, there’s some pretty inspiring work being done not only at The CARE Center but all around the country as well.

FY11 Partners Selected!

After a typically long and difficult process, the Mt. Pleasant Fund’s Board of Directors recently made its funding decisions for the upcoming fiscal year. The following organizations will be receiving (or have already received) checks from the Fund:

Bridgeway of Lakewood, Colorado is receiving a grant for the sixth consecutive year. Bridgeway is a group home providing support for teen mothers and their children.

Canones Early Childhood Center in Canones, New Mexico received a grant from the Fund in 2007, but as the Fund’s guidelines changed, the Center no longer fit within our specific funding criteria. This year with the shift to considering only those agencies recommended to the board by the membership, Canones was once again eligible (given that one of our members asked that we invite a Letter of Intent). Canones Early Childhood Center provides services to pre-elementary school aged kids in rural northern New Mexico.

The CARE Center of Holyoke, Massachusetts is a school dedicated to supporting teen mothers and their children. This is our 7th year of supporting The CARE Center (our 6th consecutive year).

This is our third consecutive year of supporting Hope House of Arvada, Colorado. Hope House of Colorado is a group home and resource center for teen-aged moms and their children.

STEPPS

STEPPS Sponsors
Mt. Pleasant Fund Board members Jimmy Curley and Flip Rosenberry attended the first STEPPS (Summit for Teen Empowerment, Progress, and Parenting Success) at the end of last month and we both came away impressed with the success of this inaugural effort. The Mt. Pleasant Fund had provided funding to be one of the sponsoring organizations, and it’s fair to say that our financial support was well worth it.

We both came away impressed by the number of participants (both teens and representatives of the agencies that support them).

One of the more notable aspects from our perspective was the number of young fathers that attended. They were active participants in the workshops that we attended.

We certainly hope that this conference becomes an annual event as those we spoke with seemed to be quite pleased to see that there was so much support for them both as individuals and as parents.

You can see more from the conference by clicking here. You can also see many more pictures on Facebook.

Hope House Goes to Uganda

Suubi House Girls
(Teen Moms and Their Children at Suubi House in Uganda)

We first met Miriam in 2007, when she visited from Uganda, Africa. Miriam is the YFC Director of a maternity home and crisis pregnancy center for teen moms called Mirembe House. It was immediately clear that God had placed a passion for teen moms in the hearts of the staff in Uganda, just as He had placed it in ours! When Miriam visited in 2009, she shared the vision for a home for parenting teen moms, as so many of the girls from Mirembe had no family to go to following their babies birth. In 2010, Suubi House opened – Suubi means “Hope” in Lugandan!

 In May of this year, three Hope House staff members traveled to Uganda with Youth for Christ and How101 – a Denver ministry that offers scholarships to teen moms in Uganda so they can go to school.  We are so incredibly grateful that God gave us the chance to meet and serve over 80 teen mothers and their children in Uganda! Our goal was to find out what it takes for a teen mom in Uganda to be able to be self sufficient, and how God might lead us to partner with YFC & How101 to make that happen. We also desired to start a “pen pal” or e-mail communication program between our Hope House girls and the Suubi House girls, offering them an opportunity to share how much they have in common, even half a world apart!

 God has given us such a huge vision –  to see the lives of teen moms all over the world transformed by learning how much God loves them, and through access to the tools they need to be self sufficient and loving parents. In our five year strategic plan, we have set a goal for partnering nationally and internationally with organizations who share our vision and values, and our deep passion for teen mothers and their children. We are SO excited to see how God will use our partnership with How101 and YFC to transform the lives of our girls in Uganda! – Lisa Steven, Executive Director at Hope House