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Annie. E Casey Foundation Pledges Additional $ 25 Million for Socially Responsible Investment Practices

Loan Modification Scam Alert

A Clear Message Regarding Colorectal Cancer: Prevention is Key

Communities Work Together Towards Colorectal Cancer Prevention

The Homeless World Cup

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Annie. E Casey Foundation Pledges Additional $ 25 Million for Socially Responsible Investment Practices

April 20, 2010 by joel.cerda  
Filed under Network News

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(Baltimore, MD) – The Annie E. Casey Foundation announced an additional $25 million allocation for social investments – a set of strategies that would use endowment dollars to generate financial returns as well as social returns that advance the Foundation’s mission to improve the lives of vulnerable children and families.

By unanimous vote last month, the Casey Foundation Board of Trustees approved expanding these investments to a total of $125 million, or 5 percent of the philanthropy’s $2.5 billion endowment. This increased allocation from the Foundation’s endowment would not be included in the annual grant payout rate of almost 8 percent – a level that is three percentage points higher than the federally mandated rate of 5 percent.

“Social investing is an important tool for aligning non-grantmaking dollars with programmatic priorities”

- Christa Velasquez

 The Foundation plans to target a portion of the additional funding to its program strategies in Baltimore, Atlanta and New Haven, Conn.
“Social investing is an important tool for aligning non-grantmaking dollars with programmatic priorities,” says Christa Velasquez, director of social investments at the Casey Foundation and co-chair of the PRI Makers Network, an association of over 90 grantmakers that use program-related and other investments to accomplish their philanthropic goals. “For example, applying this approach might result in a foundation with a commitment to home ownership investing in low-income housing or to entrepreneurship in venture capital, or commitment to underserved communities making deposits in community development banks and credit unions. A foundation with an environmentally focused mission might invest in clean technology, green collar jobs or sustainable real estate projects.”

An increasing number of foundations are seeking opportunities to align investments with the mission of the organization. In 2007, the Annie E. Casey Foundation partnered with the F.B. Heron Foundation and the Meyer Memorial Trust to launch the More for Mission Campaign – a call to foundations to increase mission investments by at least 2 percent of total foundation assets – some $10 billion over the next five years. To date, 64 foundation CEOs who represent close to $32 billion in assets have signed on to develop a robust and dynamic mission-investing field with foundation endowments as leaders.

For more information on social investing, including successful strategies, best practice in mission investing and tools for investors with links to research on the field and measurement systems for mission impact, visit www.moreformission.org or www.primakers.net.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation is a private charitable organization, whose primary mission is to foster public policies, human-service reforms, and community supports that more effectively meet the needs of today’s vulnerable children and families.

To read the complete article and for more information click here

Source: www.aecf.org

Loan Modification Scam Alert

December 4, 2009 by Jennifer Brandt  
Filed under Violence Reduction

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Scams aren’t always easy to spot – but it helps if you know the warning signs to look for. Here are six red flags to indicate that you may be dealing with a loan modification scammer:

A Clear Message Regarding Colorectal Cancer: Prevention is Key

November 24, 2009 by Roberto Arjona  
Filed under Health, Issues

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Denver, Colorado. (ConCienciaNews) - It is not a coincidence that most health conditions that disproportionately affect the Latino community in the United States are the result of the lack of prevention, including language barriers, lack of health insurance and access to basic information, there are many reasons why Hispanics do not undergo screening testing in time.

In the case of colorectal cancer, the situation becomes especially critical. Screening tests are aimed at senior populations, where there is a particular resistance among male Hispanics.
“Many times [the lack of prevention] is due to cultural factors, especially in men,” said Rodolfo Cardenas, journalist and spokesperson of the campaign Cancer affects all us, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). “They often say ‘I do not need such things’.”

Such ‘things’ refer in particular to the three different types of screening tests for colorectal cancer, from which the most popular is perhaps the colonoscopy, which consists in the exploration of the intestines.

However, Cardenas believes that his credibility as a journalist in Denver community and personal experience may have a positive impact on Hispanic men. Born in Tachira, in Western Venezuela, Cardenas has lived the same experiences of many immigrants who come with temporary plans, but eventually decide to stay.

“I would love to change their minds and teach them that prevention is very important,” Cardenas said. “I am also a man, I am a Latino, I live in the U.S. and I am at that age in which we all must undergo testing and take care of ourselves. If I do this, why others cannot do it as well?
Although he has been very lucky since no one in his family has suffered from the disease, Cardenas has closely seen the effects of cancer on very of his closest friends.

“All these situations really touched me, ‘if I can do something, I will do it,’ and here is the opportunity, fortunately,” he said.

He is not trying to overcome the taboos in Latino community regarding cancer and colonoscopy, a test he underwent, Cardenas’s message goes beyond and covers future generations.

“We must do it for ourselves and our family’s well-being. I want to take care of myself because of my children. My father did it for me - although I was already a grown-up and independent man when my father died-; I still miss him every day.

This is a gift he wants to pass on to future generations.

“Although my two sons are grown up now, I feel they need me more every day,” Cardenas said. “I take care of myself for my family, so take care for yours,” he concluded.
To access information and resources of the campaign El Cancer nos Afecta a Todos, call the Acceso Hispano help line at 1-800-473-3003

Source: ConCienciaNews

Communities Work Together Towards Colorectal Cancer Prevention

November 12, 2009 by Roberto Arjona  
Filed under Featured Articles, Health

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Denver, Colorado. (ConCienciaNews) – For Luis Barrera, communications director at Avanza supermarkets in Denver, to offer good products to Hispanic families is as important as providing them with tools that contribute to their well-being and that of their communities.

That’s why, this month, Barrera is lending space at the Denver supermarket for three volunteers to set up a table with computers and internet access. The goal? To inform and educate Avanza’s consumers in Denver about colorectal cancer risks and how to prevent them.

This initiative is part of El Cancer nos Afecta a Todos, a campaign funded by the CDC, which has the goal to prevent colorectal cancer, the third most commonly diagnosed type of cancer among Hispanics.

From teaching them how to use the internet to accessing cancer-related information and where to go to obtain health resources and get a colonoscopy, health Promotoras are working directly with adults 50 and older throughout Denver Latino communities.

“People have been excited about this because the information is first-hand,” Barrera said. “The response has been great because people are always worried about their health.”

This is a concern that, according to Barrera, businesses should neither ignore, nor underestimate. As a Mexican immigrant committed to social causes, Barrera understands that making business should also go hand-to-hand with social responsibility.

“It’s not just about setting up a store and that’s it,” he said. “It’s also about interacting with the consumers and being part of their community.”

Barrera has been part of such initiatives even before his arrival in the United States seven years ago. In his native Mexico, he helped create projects that contributed to higher accessibility of cancer medications, the construction of a hospital and general assistance for kids with leukemia.

Once in the United States, Latino immigrants develop risk factors that make them more vulnerable to certain diseases, such as cancer. According to the CDC, 41 percent of Mexican American adults between 50 and 83 years old admitted in a 2003 study to never having any sort of colorectal cancer detection test; just a few of them admitted having some sort of accurate knowledge of the disease; and 41 percent said they had had discussed detection with their doctors at some point.

Although general barriers that lead to the abovementioned situation include lack of information, lack of health insurance and language barriers, Latinos are also underrepresented among the medical communities through clinical trials; regardless of being the fastest-growing segment of the US population.

The medical community suggests over and over that a change in eating habits and a sedentary lifestyle may play a detrimental role in Hispanics’ propensity to cancer.  For this reason, besides adopting a healthy diet and exercising regularly, the CDC urges adults 50 and older –or those with a family medical history of colorectal cancer—to get tested for colorectal cancer.

Doing so can save many lives.

For information and resources regarding the El Cancer nos Afecta a Todos campaign, call our helpline at 1-800-473-3003

The Homeless World Cup

September 2, 2009 by Jennifer Brandt  
Filed under Arts & Culture, Violence Reduction

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There are one billion homeless people living in our world today.

The Homeless World Cup exists to end this, so we all have a home, a basic human need.

The Homeless World Cup is an annual, international football tournament, uniting teams of people who are homeless and excluded to take a once in a lifetime opportunity to represent their country and change their lives forever. It has triggered and supports grass roots football projects in over 60 nations working with over 25,000 homeless and excluded people throughout the year.

The first tournament took place in Graz 2003 uniting 18 national teams. 6 years on 56 nations were united for Melbourne 2008, which included the first Women’s Cup. We are on the road to Milan 2009 from 6-13 September.
The impact is consistently significant year on year with 73% of players changing their lives for the better by coming off drugs and alcohol, moving into jobs, education, homes, training, reuniting with families and even going on to become players and coaches for pro or semi-pro football teams.

The Homeless World Cup supporters include UEFA, Nike, UN, Manchester United, Real Madrid, Ambassador Eric Cantona and international footballers Didier Drogba and Rio Ferdinand.

Visit the Homeless World Cup website for more information.