Members of The Community Foundation’s Montgomery County Advisory Board, staff, and donors recently visited with local leaders in Montgomery County’s East-County region to discuss how philanthropy can help communities forge pathways to prosperity.
“Effective philanthropy requires us to step outside and really connect,” Anna Hargrave, Executive Director for The Community Foundation in Montgomery County, shared. “That is why we are excited to be here in East-County to spend time with some of our incredible nonprofit and school leaders.”
The group met in the library of Jackson Road Elementary School, located in the White Oak neighborhood of Silver Spring, Maryland. Visitors first heard from the Principal, Rosario Velasquez.
“At Jackson Road, we recognize the need to address the whole child – in and out of the classroom,” Principal Velasquez shared. “The only way we can do that is by taking a community-centered approach and wrapping our arms around this community.”
Situated in a highly diverse area, Jackson Road’s student body is predominantly Black (47%) and Latino (39%)– including a sizeable immigrant population. At the same time, more than 75 percent of students qualify for Free and Reduced Priced Meals– a humbling statistic that underlines how poverty often becomes highly concentrated in neighborhoods throughout our region.
Jackson Road’s Community School Liaison, Chris Callisto, explained how federal Title I funding supports additional reading and math focus teachers, reduced class sizes (18:1 student teacher ratio), summer enrichment, and other academic resources. Coupled with Community School dollars from the State of Maryland, the school also offers health, mental health, and social supports for children and their families, including a food pantry sustained by Capital Area Food Bank and the Manna Food Center.
To gain a deeper understanding of the work outside of the school’s walls, guests then heard from a panel of nonprofit leaders working to help people meet their basic needs, pursue opportunities for economic mobility, and build the assets needed to thrive: Identity, Inc, Career Catchers, IMPACT Silver Spring, and Achieving College Excellence & Success (ACES), a collaboration led by Montgomery College, MCPS, and the Universities at Shady Grove.
As the panelists introduced themselves and their organizations, they illuminated the myriad ways they had to reinvent their work in response to the influx of people seeking help in recent years. Panelists also reflected—in some cases on their own lived experience—on the challenges which can hinder people from achieving stability, such as rising rent, food insecurity, barriers to mental health support, and hurdles in finding affordable childcare.
“We must protect those who might otherwise have fallen through the cracks,” Andres Maldonado, Deputy Director at ACES shared. “This is not a one-organization job. It requires us to collaborate – to really think outside the box and our organizations to find the innovative solutions that this community deserves.”
While the four organizations’ missions are quite different, guests were impressed by how they all share a commitment to fostering collaborations anchored in the community -- creating spaces where residents are empowered to not to merely benefit from, but also to participate in and lead efforts to address their community’s needs.
“No one knows better what it is this community needs then the community members themselves,” shared Carolyn Camacho, Program Director at Identity. “The more we can work to empower community members and strengthen our framework of community relationships, the more successful our work will be in the long run.”
Anna Hargrave concluded the program with words of thanks, “to our Board and Sharing Montgomery donors whose generosity enables us to strategically invest in our community. And to our incredible school and nonprofit partners for the work you do every day! We are grateful for your inspiring vision, leadership, and steadfast commitment which convert our donations into relief, helping people create greater stability and shared prosperity.”
This event was part of The Community Foundation’s Sharing Montgomery initiative – connecting philanthropically-minded individuals with visionary nonprofits working on the frontlines of our community’s most pressing needs.
For more information on how to get involved with Sharing Montgomery, contact Anna Hargrave at ahargrave@thecommunityfoundation.org