Page 28 - 2020 October Report

October Report 2022
Grant Program Committee minutes (draft) (5)
9. Disadvantaged programing a. Boys Hope Girls Hope
Malcolm welcomed Kristin Ostby de Barillas, President and CEO of Boys Hope Girls Hope, and Nicole Frazier, a graduate of the BHGH New Orleans program. An application had been circulated, along with notes from a videoconference held on March 15, 2022, and a site visit held on June 21- 22, 2022. BHGH’s request was for a 1:1 matching grant of $255,000 over 3 years to fund college scholarships. The organization was founded in St. Louis and serves 1,200 students over 15 cities in 3 countries. In addition to scholarships, the program offers wraparound services including mentoring, tutoring and residential programs. The national organization currently provides $500,000 annually to match scholarship dollars raised at its satellite campuses.
Nicole is a senior studying political science at the University of San Francisco. She said she came into the program because her mother had cancer. After becoming essentially homeless, she lived in the BHGH group home for a year. She spoke of the support of her fellow scholars and staff, particularly her house parents. She said she would not have been able to attend college without BHGH and its scholarship. After graduation, she hopes to do data analysis for a company like the San Francisco-based cloud software company Salesforce.
Kristin spoke about several success stories of BHGH graduates. She said often what the students value most are the lessons about life skills that the program teaches them. BHGH is in 13 U.S. cities, as well as Guatemala and Mexico. The organization and its affiliates serve more than 1,200 youth, including 335 in the residential program, 462 in academies and 465 in college. The program works to reduce student debt, emphasizes frequent check-ins with college students and assists with placement in paid internships for collegians. Throughout the pandemic, BHGH has worked on strategic planning and has a clear plan to reach 3,600 young people, or triple the number currently served. The scholarship piece is the biggest challenge for them. Students can receive up to $5,000 in scholarships annually based on need and eligibility criteria. BHGH awards more than $500,000 in scholarships per year, and that amount is projected to increase to $1.6 million by 2023. After their presentation, Kristin and Nicole left the meeting.
During the discussion, Committee members expressed support for the proposal. Their only concern was that the budget submitted with the application was somewhat unclear on how JSF funds would be used. BHGH representatives had previously assured JSF staff that the grant funds would be disbursed as scholarships.
The Committee approved the application as presented from BHGH requesting a 1:1 matching grant of $255,000 over 3 years to fund college scholarships.
b. December convening
David reported the topic of the December Convening will be Resilience. At this time he has 4 potential presenters and possibly will invite 1 more. Among the possible presenters is Konrad Glogowski, formerly of Pathways to Education Canada, and a speaker who is considered the world academic leader on resilience.
10. Communications and social media
A Social Media Report had been circulated. Lady explained that for the Facebook numbers, she and Angie calculated averages for engaged users, daily reach, and post reach rather than reporting the figures from the prior 28 days. They believe this will result in painting a more accurate picture of results over time. Angie explained that selected Facebook posts are now being boosted geographically. This strategy seems to have been successful based on the strong uptick in user engagement. A question was asked about whether JSF should have a presence on the video-oriented social media platform TikTok,
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