A local nonprofit that invests in the social fabric of the community is seeking public support in an effort to secure a $2 million challenge grant designed to impact multiple generations of Tucsonans.
Social Venture Partners (SVP) Tucson has raised half of the $2 million needed to attain a $1 million match from the Connie Hillman Foundation in support of the 2Gen Collaboration (2Gen). The match depends on new and increased donations.
“I think the 2Gen Collaboration will be good for Tucson. I have seen unintended positive consequences happen when the table is set for nonprofits to come together. Just setting the table enables them to come together and explore different opportunities for working together,” said Helaine Levy, founder of SVP Tucson. A veteran of the local nonprofit sector, Levy is also executive director of the Diamond Foundation, which provided 2Gen with a $250,000 lead grant toward the Hillman Foundation match.
The $250,000 grant is among the largest designated by the Diamond Foundation to local nonprofit programmatic support, according to Levy. She credits SVP leadership and the demonstrated positive outcomes in SVP’s past work for its ability to attain the grant funding.
“The Diamond Foundation providing this funding will help 2Gen achieve more positive outcomes and I think the Connie Hillman foundation recognized that as well: SVP is poised to do great things at a much bigger capacity by focusing on 2Gen,” said Levy.
The 2Gen initiative is the result of a series of listening sessions over a nine-month period in 2019 between the public and community leaders in education, philanthropy, nonprofits and businesses.
“These leaders found a significant gap in coordination of service between nonprofits serving children and nonprofits serving parents. The 2Gen Collaboration is designed to bring services together so the entire family unit — whatever that looks like — receives access to all the support services needed to truly help them move from poverty to a place of opportunity,” said Ciara Garcia, Chief Executive Officer of SVP Tucson.
The listening sessions resulted in a clear and consistent message about the myriad complex challenges faced by low-income families, including issues such as education, workforce development, mental and physical health, and the ability to attain assets, Garcia said.
“The research is clear that you can’t solve these challenges and provide opportunities with a single intervention. We need interventions to come together so we can really wrap a family with support,” said Garcia.
The collaboration currently harnesses support through five local nonprofits: Make Way for Books, Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona, Boys to Men, JobPath, and Interfaith Community Services. The initiative will welcome two more local nonprofits in April, with a goal of 12 nonprofits by 2025.
“The message is clear that the community and nonprofits are receptive to becoming involved in a more holistic, community-based solution to move people out of poverty,” said Garcia.
Ultimately, the intent is to minimize challenges by streamlining access, referral and admission processes so that when a family connects with any nonprofit in the collaboration, the door is opened to a continuum of interventional services with other member nonprofits.
“Essentially, we are creating a network of resources. This is significant as far as serving the community and those who need it the most,” said Karina Valle, interim executive director of Boys to Men.
One of the most recent nonprofits to join the collaboration, Boys to Men provides mentorship about healthy masculinity and supports the healing and growth of boys and masculine-identified youth through intergenerational connections.
It serves about 400 boys weekly through site-based talking circles in local schools and other facilities including the Pima County Juvenile Detention System, Goodwill of Southern Arizona Youth Re-engagement Center; and the District Alternative Education Program through the Tucson Unified School District.
Valle said that membership in the 2Gen Collaboration is a huge benefit to young men and their families currently served by Boys to Men and to prospective clients in need of reliable role models.
“Now, we also have relationships with larger nonprofits that can provide resources that are readily available. If someone we are working with needs something, it can be hard for them to ask for help in general, but we can say, ‘We know this person at ICS or another nonprofit that can take care of you.’ It makes it easier for folks who may not know how to reach out,” Valle said.
Additionally, 2Gen has provided Boys to Men with a grant for unrestricted funding along with access to capacity-building and assistance with professional development. Valle said this type of support is invaluable to the small nonprofit and other collaboration members.
“SVP has many partners and they are all A Team — or Advisory Team. As an organization, we can rely on them and reach out with any needs. They have financial experts to guide us and other partners to offer coaching, professional development and one-on-one mentorship for our employees. There are so many other tools that come along with the grants they provide,” said Valle.
For more information about the 2Gen Collaboration or to support the cause with a donation, visit svptucson.org. Volunteerism to support the initiative is also available.
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