PSVP

Greetings, PSVP Partners & Friends, This morning, as on all cold winter dawns, I turned our car on 10 minutes prior to departure. Cranked up the temperature, activated the heated seats, and poured myself a hot cup of coffee for our daily commute to the city. Cassondra and I both shivered from the cold during the 30 second walk from our front door to the parking lot of the condominium complex where we live. To be sure, single digit temperatures typically don’t make for an enjoyable start to any day, but the warmth of our homes, vehicles, and places of work make the short periods of time exposed to the elements much more bearable.  During the drive from Moon Township, our conversation turned to the homeless vigil we attended last night with fellow members of PSVP. On the longest night of the year, the sharp winds cut though us like a knife as Dr. Jim Withers, Operation Safety Net founder, read the names of the ten homeless individuals who passed away in 2008. We both found the experience to be thought-provoking and humbling. We were saddened by the plight of the homeless community but also found ourselves inspired by the efforts of organizations like Operation Safety Net and the Homeless Children’s Education Fund headed by Dr. Joseph Lagana, the group’s founder.This is a very real problem our society faces each and every day. I truly believe that with organizations such as PSVP continuing to collaborate with the OSNs and HCEFs of our community, we can discover and implement innovative solutions when taking on this crisis. As we neared our destination this morning we realized that many people living on the streets would like nothing more than to have experienced with us our brief time “out in the cold”. They would have thought nothing of the 40 minutes spent under the bridge last night. Neither of us could begin to fathom spending night after night exposed to such harsh conditions. As Dr. Withers spoke of those who passed away this year, at least one died of overexposure. Can you imagine? I know this was a sobering thought that went though the minds and entered the conversations of many of us in attendance last night. I know for Cassondra and I it truly made us appreciate all the blessing we have. I think this event will become an annual one for our family.  Best regards, Dan Koett

PSVP Partner, Co-Chair of Education Committee

I’ve meant to post this sometime ago, but things slipped by (like and election).  This is a great piece by Michael Seltzer a contributor to PhilanTopic.

Happy Reading

A to Z Survival Guide for Uncertain Times

John Denny

Chair

Kathleen Enright, Executive Director of Grantmakers for Effective Organizations offers 5 great things funders should do during tough times.  Her list was posted on PhilanTopic.

Read Here!

John Denny

Last evening, PSVP held an energetid discussion with Dr. Barbara Baumann of UMPC - Western Psych.  Barbara shared with partners and our guests a lot of information to provide each of us with a basic understanding of the world of treatment of child abuse and neglect in the Pittsburgh region.  Barbara and her colleagues are working under the auspices of David Kolko working on a pilot to develop additional evidence on their approach to the treatment of children and their parents.  It is a cognitive behavioral approach and is fully manualized.  Direct care workers who are working for several nonprofits in the region have been trained in this methodology and have agreed to participate in this trial.  Apparently the mental health field is 7-10 years behind the physical health field in documenting evidence-based treatment approaches. 

It was clearly hard for most of us listening to understand the issues, but with Barbara’s help, we are now better able to get a picture of how parent/child interactions might escalate.  And, considering that many young moms didn’t receive positive reinforcement as a child, that’s all they know. 

Barbara was wonderfully clear on her examples, providing us insights to the stressful situations that many direct care givers face:  underpaid, undergraduate degree not in a related field, in a violent-proned home, 24/7 on call, high staff turnover rates, etc.  And in an environment that often doesn’t provide for meaninful time spend on coaching and supervision.  Kudo’s to Barbara and her colleagues as they try to develop the evidence that their approach does work. 

We need to hear more about their work and progress being made, and if there’s a role for PSVP to play in bringing together other funders in this field to enlarge the discussion.

The Grant Review Commitee has been hard at work over the last 7 months and we are coming to a close next month.  Thank you to the Grant Review Committee and to everyone who has helped during the process including the site visit teams!!!  Great Job Everyone!!  Our final three organizations are  Strong Woman Strong Girls,  Womansplace and Action Housing.  Good luck to all!!  Thank you!!  Tricia Levander, Chair Grant Review Committee

• Arizona Social Venture Partner’s E.D., made a strong argument for NOT cutting back on your giving in this time of recession and lists 4 ways to maximize your impact.  Good reading!
• http://www.azstarnet.com/sn/mailstory-clickthru/264062.php

What an amazing group of people our PSVP partners are who served on this year’s Grant Review Committee! Last night, under the incredible leadership of partner Trish Lavander, the grant review committee completed six months of work and selected our new investee (but I’m not telling who it is yet!)

Over the last six months our team held:

1. Get Smart Sessionsto learn about grant-making and needs in the foster care system. Kudos to Pittsburgh Foundation Program Officer Kevin Jenkins and Allegheny County Director of Human Services Marc Cherna for leading these session.
2.  Community Launch program to clearly explain our process to the partners and applicants.
3. Elevator Pitch Programfor our investees lead by two outstanding partners Tom Canfield and Tom Kubilis
4. Partner lead Site Visits to our three finalists
5. Decision Time — which we just completed

PSVP’s venture capital style of grant-making focuses on capacity building.  Two of our three finalists sought help with program design and evaluation and the other sought fund development support — both of which are part of the capacity building definition.

But I was most impressed by how our partners with the superb help from our E.D. Terry Beggy understood and thought through the grant process. But enough from me — see for yourself.

Check this out now — this is the best marketing message I’ve seen.

http://www.girleffect.org/#/splash/

Hi all,

Here are some interesting posts that I thought you might find worth reading:

1. Questions about Social Enterprise

2. The Stock Market and Charitable Giving

3.Philanthropy Today

Happy Reading