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January 2000: Theme - Global Impact Environmental | Global Impact The Community Food Security Coalition
The target audience for these seminars will be community groups working in low income urban and rural communities developing food-related businesses, such as market gardens, family farms, and food processors. These workshops are an effective - and cost-efficient method of building the capacity of grassroots organizations to create successful food-related economic development projects. The workshops will cover basic principles of community economic development to give participants a theoretical grounding in the field, and then move to more "nuts-and-bolts" type components of business planning, such as market analysis and strategy, preparing financials, credit access, and management principles. CFSC will incorporate case study presentations from local examples of successful inner-city food-related businesses, taking a field trip to each site in the late afternoon after each workshop. Family Service Agency of San Francisco
eBay's grant assists the Family Service Agency's 5 to 9 Workplace Mentoring Program is a 12-week, on-site, career advancement program which provides "soft" skills training, volunteer mentoring, skills enhancement, job placement, career advancement services and family support to working low-skilled, low-income individuals. The program takes place between 5 PM and 9, beginning February 2000. Volunteers recruited from the business community and FSA/SF vocational staff train program participants in computer literacy, word-processing, and other computer software as well as on the use of modern office equipment. In addition, volunteers provide one-to-one mentoring to facilitate the participants' advancement in the job market. FSA/SF's Employment Specialist offers weekly job readiness, career advancement, and job placement assistance to participants until they are placed at a better or higher paying job. To ensure that transportation and childcare problems do not create obstacles for program participation, FSA/SF provides developmental child care during program hours and transportation between the program site and the participants' homes. Of the participants who complete the program, 80%will be placed in better unsubsidized employment within 60 days of graduation. Job retention and job placement services will be provided for all program participants up to 90 days after they have been placed in jobs. The Friendship Community Center
Friendship Community Center, as a reply to Suttons Bay's local community will open a computer center for elderly residents, which will be taught by local high school youth. These classes will be affordable, and geared at fostering enriching relationship between different generations. This center will also be open to people of low-income and others who do not otherwise have an opportunity to gain computer skills. The Fremont Public Association
The program funded through the eBay Foundation is The Martin Luther King VISTA Volunteer Corps. This Corps places full-time national service volunteers in community agencies providing frontline human services including: employment counseling; emergency shelter; violence prevention; family support; emergency food and more. By recruiting, training and coordinating nearly 30 full-time volunteers who commit to a year of service, the MLK VISTA Corps is able to make a tremendous impact on poverty-related problems including unemployment, homelessness, hunger, family violence and more.
The grant also enabled FPA to create five additional VISTA Volunteer assignments addressing unemployment and other related problems. Lighthouse of Broward County
The lab will make available advanced computer technology including text to speech translators, optical scanning, screen reading and other specialized technology for blind or visually impaired persons. Creation of a self study lab will enable students who don't have a computer at home to do their "homework" and proceed through their rehabilitation program more quickly. They will learn more effectively and be ready for job placement at an earlier date Students will also be able to use the Internet to access job banks and other employment information. Lighthouse of Broward County has found the Internet to be a wonderful resource for blind people, opening access to information that is otherwise unavailable or difficult to access. The self-study lab will also house the children's computer program which runs during our summer camp and during our after school program. Specially designed computer games will make learning fun and exciting. With early training and positive role models, these blind children will grow up ready to meet the challenges of the sighted world. Technology truly does help blind and visually impaired children and adults optimize their potential for success and independence. LionHeart Productions
In the past, through their productions, LionHeart has given 344 books to the Reading is Fundamental program in their area, glasses to the Lion's Club, canned goods to the county food bank and $521 to L.O.V.E. Inc. Resources for Independent Living
Through the grant from the eBay Foundation, Resources for Independent Living will be able to purchase important equipment to allow for disabled persons to experience freedom through technology. They will arm their center with things such as special software which can "speak" to visually impaired persons, and Madenta head mounted pointers and software to assist persons with spinal cord injuries or cerebral palsy to use a computer without manual dexterity. Their programs include training, education, and peer participation, resulting in a stronger community and greater economic development. November 1999: Theme - Adults Education | Job Retraining | Volunteerism Bay Area Video Coalition
Bay Area Video Coalition is working to bridge the gap between industry's requirements for skilled labor and the needs of the unemployed and working poor for hard skills training. Through the grant from the eBay Foundation, BAVC will be able to continue developing satellite programs, online curriculum and a pool of trained instructors. BACV strives to make a material contribution to reverse the "digital divide" and ensure the participation of undeserved communities in the information age. Murfreesboro City Schools
The eBay grant will fund computers and software for an adult literacy program, GED preparation, beginning and advanced computer skills, and job skills enhancement. In addition, the grant will fund two childcare workers who will care for young toddlers and babies while parents attend class. Parenting skills education, adult mentoring, integrated health, nutrition, and social service programs, job fairs, and a "Dress for Success" program will be offered by the City and its community partners. The Oakland Public Library Foundation
The grant from the eBay Foundation is supporting the library's "Second Start Adult Literacy Program", which provides free, tutoring to more than 350 Oakland adults each year. This program is so popular that there has been a backlog of adults waiting to enter. Our grant will allow for significantly more people to be served through the Second Start Adult Literacy Program. It will also help volunteers get trained to serve and strengthen the program in their community Redwood City Project READ
The grant from the eBay Foundation will help support Project READ's Kids in Partnership (KIP) program, which involves cross-age tutoring and monthly library activities involving families of tutors and students. This small group family literacy program is targeted at low-income families where fewer than 18% of parents have earned a high school diploma and many of their children are "at-risk" students. At risk teens volunteer their time, tutoring elementary students in conjunction with their parents. KIP encourages families to grow and learn together while volunteers strengthen their own literacy. Teen volunteers are provided with a safe, productive project in a geographic area where there is limited access to supportive environments in which to spend their after school hours. Washington Literacy
Through the grant from the eBay Foundation, Washington Literacy will be able to provide fifteen training
workshops for the volunteer literacy tutors, adult learners and literacy program workers throughout Washington
State. These workshops will empower volunteers with the teaching tools they need to enable adult students
to become active in their learning process. This will in tern transfer to the students' children, who
historically have low literacy rates. The tutors will also learn how to design student-centered lessons and
work with their students to map out strategies for achieving their goals. The workshops encourage the use of
real life materials such as deciphering the teacher's notes of a student's children and then writing a note in
response to the teacher's comments.
July 1999: Theme- Kids Education | Mentoring | Esteem Epicentre- Harmonium
Through the grant by the eBay Foundation, Epicentre will become a Community Technology Center in which teens will be hired to make Epicentre's computers available to the public. The teens will offer training in information technology and manage their own entrepreneurial technology business. Health Education and Training Center/Public Health Institute
HETC was created by a high school student as a response to the escalating rates of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases as well as unintended pregnancies among adolescents. This program focus' on peer education to create positive group norms of behaviors in order to reduce these social problems. The grant from the eBay Foundation will enable HETC to recruit, train and support peer health care educators. This student-planned and student-conducted peer health education program will be a model which they plan to propose to other schools in undeserved and culturally diverse communities. Redlands Christian Migrant Association
The Redlands Christian Migrant Association provides child development and family support in communities where migrant children are often taken to work in the fields or wait in the car while their parents worked. This organization has allowed children to be equipped with language and computer skills as well as self-esteem as they learn their potential to succeed in school and beyond. The Center for AIDS Education and Training (CAET)
The grant from the eBay Foundation will help fund SOS-Today Pilot Project which provides youth leadership training and mentoring to 80 at-risk high school students. These peer educators will then conduct interactive educational sessions to 1,090 at-risk youth ages 12 to 17. The peer educators will directly address the realities facing young people, empowering them with the practical skills to protect their health and the health of others. The Odyssey: World Trek for Service and Education
This organization was founded by a group of public school teachers to leverage the educational strengths of the World Wide Web to take 1,000,000 students on an unprecedented educational two-year virtual trip around the world through the Internet, via the Odyssey website. In this program, five volunteers visit ten major non-western countries to document the lives of the people and places of significant cultural value. Interactions are also established between the students, the local community via email, bulletin boards, and live events.
April 1999: Theme- General CHAMPS- San Jose State University, San Jose, California
College Kids
The College Kids model brings resources into the community (mentors, college students) and strives to enable community members to become service providers and not just service recipients. This organization appeals to three levels of education, in preparation for elementary school, middle school, high school and university. College Kids has sites on universities in various locations within California and is gaining attention in other universities across the United States. Home Care Companions
Clients learn practical skills that will help them to build and organize a support network, manage medications, control common symptoms as side effects, recognize a medical emergency, communicate with medical professionals, access other community resources, provide bed care, put legal affairs in order, etc. They also train medical care professionals from throughout the United States, as well as Africa, Asia, Australia and Europe. Inn Dwelling
Inn Dwelling believes in sustaining the dignity, independence and well-being of each individual served through a holistic method providing people with the skills to help them get out of poverty. Parents Helping Parents, Inc.
Programs include mentor parenting, education planning classes, learning disability and attention deficit disorder classes, as well as children's neighborhood projects. Project H.E.L.P.
Students Run LA
Friends of Farm Drive
Friends of Farm Drive is spearheaded by a member of a neighborhood church. The organization has partnered with agencies such as the California Youth Authority, San Jose Police Department, San Jose State University, and numerous medical staff, in helping to create a safe haven for the community. Friends of Farm Drive currently rents two apartments in the neighborhood, which are used as community centers. Volunteers assist with homework, teach English as a Second Language (ESL), arrange monthly food donations, staff injection clinics, and administer tuberculosis testing and treatment. The eBay Foundation grant helped the Friends of Farm Drive fund a summer program by providing salaries for members of the Youth Outreach Program, who administered a recreation program targeted at "high-risk" youth, ages 14 through 20. The grant also assisted Friends of Farm Drive in establishing a computer learning center. Volunteers offered technical instruction to adults and youth, enabling them to develop computer skills. The program is currently run entirely by volunteers. University Research Expedition Program (UREP)
The eBay Foundation grant provided scholarships to send California elementary and high school teachers on UREP trips, where they learned by working side-by-side with university scientists and local residents in countries around the world. The teachers had the opportunity to work with the local people in the countries they visited (for example, teaching the value of preserving local rainforests). Teachers returned from these research projects energized and excited to teach what they learned to their students. These programs increase awareness of current events and foster understanding of different cultures among both students and teachers. Additionally, the volunteer efforts make valuable research possible, which benefits everyone. |