DECEMBER 2017 | SARASOTA SCENE 49
Jerde is quite reasonably proud of the Community
Foundation’s steadfast focus on creating impactful
results for donors and community-focused initiatives.
The annual Season of Sharing community-wide
effort, which keeps families on the verge of homelessness
in their homes. The Giving Challenge, which
in our community; the results of the Campaign for
Grade Level reading that helps more and more 3rd
graders in our most challenged schools to grade
level reading; and the Two-Generation Approach,
where children and parents together are moving to
That last idea—the Two-Generation Approach—
has profoundly changed the way their organization thinks about
what they do. Inspired by the Ascend program at the Aspen Institute,
legacy funds at the Community Foundation: Mrs. Jo Bowen Nobbe
cared about children and education and Mr. Edward K. Roberts was
committed to moving single moms out of poverty. When you put the
two intentions together, you have the essence of the Two-Generation
Approach. This strategy also resonates with many donors in our
community who have generously supported the effort over the years to
bolster the impact.
“In the past, the Community Foundation has funded lots of things
that were good for kids,” says John Annis, former Senior Vice President
of Community Investment. “And we’ve funded lots of things that were
good for families. But Two-Gen brought a new way of looking at it that’s
fundamentally about intentionality. It’s asking the question: What are we
doing to measure outcomes for children AND their parents together?”
One example of the Two-Generation Approach in action is Habitat
for Humanity housing, an organization that the Community Foun-
Habitat model, which is building a house, allowing a needy family to
move in and pay the mortgage, and then offer crucial
mentoring to support self-reliance as they become
homeowners. So when two of the Community Foundation’s
donors—Bill and Jane Knapp—wanted to support
Habitat, they requested that the Knapps look at
this opportunity a different way. The goal wasn’t to ask
Habitat to change the rules or modify their program
Foundation was already doing with the families at
Alta Vista Elementary, a place where the Community
Foundation invests a lot of time, energy, and money to
support education.
A teacher’s aide assigned to watch the children in
the back of the room during the Habitat information
session for Alta Vista parents and families heard the
entire presentation and, at the suggestion of principal
Dr. Barbara Shirley, applied to be a candidate to
receive a home. As a single mom whose daughter had
already graduated from Alta Vista, this was a chance to