Page 29 - 2024 April report

GRANT PROGRAM COMMITTEE MINUTES (7)
However, the Committee agreed that this appears to be an excellent school and well managed. This
relatively small grant is an opportunity to get to know the organization better.
The Committee voted unanimously to approve as presented an application from The Bedford School for a 1:1 matching grant of $80,000 over 2 years for scholarships.
c. Eye to Eye
Bobby introduced David Flink, Chief Empowerment Officer for Eye to Eye, and Alicia Siegel, Managing Director of Development. A proposal requesting a 1:1 matching grant of $250,000 over 2 years in support of Eye to Eye’s Neurodiversity Alliance (NDA) had been circulated along with the following materials: a report from a Zoom meeting on January 22, 2024; an email from Marcus Soutra announcing his plan to step down as President on June 30, 2024; an informational document containing links to the NDA website and other digital content; and a JSF summary of applicant financial information.
Alicia has been with Eye to Eye for 6 years in various roles. Her son is dyslexic. David is well known to JSF. He began by reflecting on the way JSF supported the organization 25 years ago, when he was still a student at Brown University. Back then, the focus was on Near-Peer Mentoring, in which students with learning differences mentor younger students through art and other activities. While the mission hasn’t changed, the language around learning disabilities has. Before, Eye to Eye had to get schools to come on board, and sometimes transportation for the student participants was an issue. During the pandemic, many schools stopped their mentoring programs, and some haven’t brought them back.
Eye to Eye plans to take the secret sauce of the Near-Peer Mentoring program and replicate it on high school and college campuses in a low-barrier environment. Nationally, estimates suggest that 1 in 5 college-going students identifies as having a learning disability. Of those, the graduation rate is only 49.5%. Only 37% of college students report their disability to their institution, and of those, only 15-43% report receiving accommodations. NDA is a way to empower students to help themselves and each other through campus clubs. The goal is to establish 100 club chapters by the end of the 2025-2026 school year. Also, Eye to Eye’s Ambassadors (formerly Diplomats) help by volunteering to share their stories publicly. In addition, Eye to Eye has sought to follow in JSF’s footsteps by starting a Neurodiversity Scholarship, with the first recipients being announced soon. The organization also hopes to use part of the JSF funding to conduct an evaluation of student outcomes. The goal is for the evaluation to become long-range and ultimately help Eye to Eye’s fundraising efforts. David said he is seeing funders like the ECMC Foundation and the Ford Foundation becoming excited about funding neurodiversity issues.
A question was asked about how Eye to Eye arrived at its projections. There are many schools that have existing neurodiversity clubs that are inactive. The plan is to approach those schools first and ask them to join the alliance, which will help Eye to Eye reach its goal of 100 clubs. David also was asked whether the new structure risks losing the value of mentoring. He said mentoring will continue at the local level, and the real risk is of leaving out certain groups of young people by not broadening the scope. He said Eye to Eye can continue to exist under this larger umbrella. Asked whether this is a bigger and better version of Eye to Eye, David said yes. While they are no longer doing art-based clubs in a classroom, they are now giving young people the ability to conduct mentoring whenever and wherever they want. They are also inviting people who are not neurodiverse to be allies. David and Alicia left the meeting.
Education / A Powerful force for change Page 27