Recent Mott Foundation News -- All Programs

Programs nurture economic growth in Flint area

Tue, 22 May 2012 12:00:00 GMT

By DUANE M. ELLING

Partnership-based initiatives are helping to strengthen the economy of Mott’s home community.
One program is helping local employers reduce operating costs; add “green” products and services; and create new jobs.
Another will capitalize on the area’s unique position as an international transportation hub to attract new businesses.

Efforts are underway to build the economic strength of Mott’s home community.

When it comes to the economic health of Mott’s home community of Genesee County, Michigan, Janice Karcher is keeping an eye on the bottom line.

“The county’s future depends on helping local businesses succeed; bringing new entrepreneurs and employers to the area; growing available jobs; and supporting investments in critical sectors, like education, health care and retail,” says Karcher, vice president of economic development at the Genesee Regional Chamber of Commerce.

“Ultimately, it’s about creating good, sustainable economic results for the entire Flint community.”

Nurturing those results is part of Karcher’s charge at the chamber, where she helps to coordinate several Mott-funded initiatives focused on strengthening the area’s economy. The Foundation’s support for such chamber programs has totaled more than $7.8-million since 1987, with current grants made to the Genesee Area Focus Fund, the chamber’s nonprofit fundraising arm.

Genesee County’s economy has struggled for years, sparked largely by the loss of local jobs from the automotive sector. As with many communities around the country, the Flint area’s financial situation was further battered by the nation’s recent recession.

One of the chamber’s current efforts to get Genesee County back on the right economic track is the Energy, Environment and Economy Innovation Network.

Formally launched in 2011, the network includes more than 100 member businesses and organizations from Genesee and neighboring Lapeer and Shiawassee counties. Its goal: help employers reduce operating costs while incorporating environmentally friendly — or “green” — products and services into their business models and connecting local workers with green job opportunities.

That work began informally in 2009 when the chamber helped a group of area leaders explore possible sustainable energy initiatives for the community. Karcher said they soon began recognizing other opportunities to work together on environment-related issues while linking to broader economic and workforce efforts.

One partnership that emerged pairs Mid-Michigan Solar, a Flint-based company that installs commercial and residential solar-powered energy systems, with the Genesee-Shiawassee Michigan Works Career Alliance, a state-funded agency devoted to workforce development.

The two are co-developing job training programs that will help underemployed workers in Flint prepare for careers in the solar energy industry.

Howard Croft, president and CEO of Mid-Michigan Solar, says the program will provide his company and others with access to a growing pool of skilled workers; help connect the participating trainees to the labor market; and offer positive environmental and economic impacts.

“It also gives small businesses some marketing and networking tools that might otherwise be out of our reach,” he said. “That’s opening doors and leveraging resources, which will help us — meaning both businesses and the community — to grow.”

Karcher agrees, pointing to the partnership between Mid-Michigan Solar and Career Alliance as an example of how the network “is helping organizations and businesses connect more organically. They see their shared interests and needs, and then take the conversation to the next level.”

Another chamber effort is expected to grow the region’s economic strength by capitalizing on its unique position as a transportation hub.

In 2010, lawmakers enacted legislation providing for the creation of five Next Michigan Development Corporations (NMDC) in areas with major transport facilities, such as airports and freeways. These regional entities, equipped with state and federal support, can offer tax incentives as a way to attract new businesses that ship freight in Michigan and beyond.

In February 2011, chamber staff began working with officials from Genesee and nearby Lapeer, Shiawassee and St. Clair counties to seek designation as a NMDC. The area’s transportation resources include the state’s third busiest airport; several interstate freeways, railway systems and water ports; and bridges that connect the U.S. to Canada.

“To qualify as a NMDC, a region needs to offer businesses immediate access to at least one major mode for shipping freight,” Karcher says. “We’re lucky enough to offer them all.”

State officials approved the local application in February, making it one of four to be launched in Michigan. Three others are focused in the regions around metro Detroit, Lansing and Traverse City.

Karcher notes that, in addition to existing shipping resources, the local application’s success hinged on support from the public and private sectors.

“We initially hoped to engage about 20 area municipalities in the project,” she says. “Thirty-five have signed on, making this the largest community-driven economic partnership ever undertaken in Michigan. It’s very exciting.”

Next steps include working across the region to identify economic priorities and opportunities; formalize the tax incentive qualifications and guidelines; and develop a platform for marketing the NMDC to businesses.

David Hollister, senior vice president of strategic initiatives at the Prima Civitas Foundation, is among those working on the local NMDC project. Launched in 2006 with Mott support, the East Lansing-based Prima Civitas helps Michigan residents and leaders explore, understand and realize a new economic vision for the state.

Hollister says initiatives like those undertaken by the Genesee Regional Chamber are central to sparking new growth and vitality in the Flint community and beyond.

“In order for communities to thrive, the regions in which they exist have to be successful,” he said. “The chamber’s projects take that approach and, by helping to build the economic strength of mid-Michigan, they will help to ensure Flint’s own future. That is very exciting to see.”

Joe Davis: Building better learning through afterschool

Tue, 08 May 2012 09:38:26 GMT

By ANN RICHARDS

Good afterschool programs extend classroom learning
Afterschool offers alternative paths to learning
New Web site: Expanding Learning a resource for schools and educators

When Joe Davis was a young teacher in Tallahassee, Florida, he often stayed after school to grade papers or finish lesson plans — and his classroom quickly became a hangout for students with no place to go. Searching for ways to keep them entertained, Davis resorted to using suggestions for extracurricular work that appeared in the margins of his teacher’s textbooks. “I never had the time to use those ideas during the school day,” he said. “But the kids really responded to those activities.” Now Chief Operating Officer for the Florida Afterschool Network, the former Chief of the Bureau of Family and Community Outreach at the Florida Department of Education has assumed the role of national spokesperson for the Expanded Learning and Afterschool Project, a new Mott-funded initiative designed to help spread the use of high-quality afterschool programming to districts across the country.

High quality after school programs accelerate student achievement. Click to expand (PDF).

Mott: You’ve been involved with the afterschool movement since you were a classroom teacher. What prompted you to build a career in this area of education?

Davis: My career evolved quite by accident. I was planning to go to law school, but I took a year off after college and started substitute teaching to earn some money. I ended up as a long-term substitute, teaching English at middle school — and it was a blast. I was offered a permanent teaching position and spent five years as an EH (emotional handicapped classroom) teacher for 22 sixth, seventh and eighth-grade students. During my ten years of teaching middle-school kids — I also taught history in a regular classroom — I realized how afterschool programs fueled my creativity as a teacher and how that kind of learning connected with the kids.

In too many districts, we let our middle-school students out at three o’clock with no place to go. It’s a travesty, really. Good afterschool programs make a teacher’s day easier. Not only can they extend classroom learning — without the pressure of tests — but they help the school make positive connections with students. When I took a job at the Florida Department of Education, I was fortunate enough to be introduced to the 21st Century Community Learning Centers Program. I soon realized the significance of the impact of that program on over 65,000 Florida students every year. I was also able to apply what I learned through my own afterschool activities to shape what was being done at the state level. Leaving the Department of Education to become the COO of the Florida Afterschool Network has only intensified my commitment.

Mott: Why do you believe quality afterschool programs extend and expand learning?

Davis: I have to go back to my days of teaching, when I saw how differently students responded to academic subjects in the afterschool environment. My social studies class was reading a historical fiction novel about the American Civil War. Borrowing from a suggestion in a teacher’s textbook to assign a student a character from a novel and write additional lines and scenes for them, I decided to use that afterschool. My students loved it. The book came alive for them. From writing the new scenes we went to acting the scenes — and none of those activities cost me anything more than time and imagination.

I think fun and enjoyment is a critical part of high-quality afterschool programming. Nothing is more discouraging than visiting an afterschool program that is just used as a holding pen for kids.

Mott: In this era of tight budgets, why should districts consider afterschool programs an essential part of the academic day?

Davis: Good programming after school makes teaching easier and learning easier. And now we have research confirming what most teachers know intuitively — high-quality afterschool programming has a positive impact on the academic performance, attendance and behavior of students.

Funding for afterschool is a tough problem for a lot of districts. But if you can provide a safe space for kids after school, a place where they have opportunities to grow socially and emotionally, there’s no reason why you can’t take that next step and make it educationally relevant. Even with tight budgets, schools can tap community resources, recruit volunteers from local colleges or service organizations and experiment with flexible teaching schedules. It’s always a surprise to see how well kids will respond to classroom material when it’s presented in a different light, with a little less formality than during the school day.

There’s a lot to be gained through an investment in afterschool. It’s tough, but superintendents and principals have to ask themselves how existing budgets can be leveraged so that afterschool space can be made available and learning can be incorporated into even the most simple, low-cost activities.

Mott: You’ve agreed to serve as a spokesperson for the new Expanded Learning and Afterschool Project, funded by the Mott, Noyce and Packard foundations. Tell us a little more about the purpose of this initiative.

Davis: Right now, we’re trying to leverage technology to get research and information about effective afterschool programs into the hands of interested parties — any organization, school district, educator or administrator interested in starting a program or improving an existing program.

Our Web site, www.expandinglearning.org, hosts some great new research by Joseph Durlak (Loyola University Chicago) and Roger Weissberg (University of Illinois at Chicago) that underscores the link between high-quality programs and student achievement.

Expandinglearning.org is the starting point. How people use the site will help determine the type of information and technical assistance we offer and how it will be delivered. We are hopeful that the contacts made through the Web site will help grow local programs and build our base of best practices in afterschool.

Students protect local watersheds through Project GREEN

Tue, 01 May 2012 11:46:35 GMT

By ANN RICHARDS

More than 1,200 students from two Michigan counties field test water quality
Out-of-school time program emphasizes science, technology, engineering and math (STEM)
Service learning a key component of GREEN program

Video By DUANE M. ELLING

Picking through a pan of cold, wet river debris in search of leeches, water fleas and threadworms might not excite every student. But for Don Hammond’s environmental science class at Beecher High School, near Flint, Michigan, the chance to be directly involved in a water quality monitoring experience that helps to improve the condition of their community’s watershed is an event to look forward to.

Each April for the past three years, Hammond’s junior and senior high school students have returned to a site on Brent Run, a medium-size creek that feeds into the Flint River, to conduct water quality tests as part of the Flint River GREEN (Global Rivers Environmental Education Network) program.

“The results of every test the students run today will go into a countywide data base for use by the Genesee County Drain Commission, Project GREEN and the Flint River Watershed Coalition (FRWC),” said Hammond, one of 57 teachers in Michigan’s Genesee, Lapeer and Oakland counties who take part in the event.

“More than 1,200 students spend a day conducting nine different tests at the sampling sites,” said Rebecca Fedewa, executive director of the FRWC, the Mott Foundation grantee that administers the program.

The data collected gives a snapshot of the health of the river. As more information is added each year, comparisons can be made about the quality of the water running through the watershed over time.

“The students always expect to find gross stuff in the river and streams,” Fedewa said. “And every year, we see their opinions change. It’s rewarding to see how the experience has a positive impact on their ideas about making a difference in their community.”

GREEN was developed in 1984 by University of Michigan professor William Stapp and Mark Mitchell, his academic assistant, in response to the concerns of a group of students at a high school located along the polluted Huron River in Ann Arbor. In collaboration with Earth Force, a Denver-based nonprofit youth organization, GREEN has developed a nationally recognized curricula, training and resource base for teachers implementing the program, which now operates in 20 states and engages more than 100,000 students each year. Flint River GREEN is one of the largest of these programs.

GREEN pairs each participating classroom with a volunteer mentor with a background in science, engineering or chemistry. In addition to providing technical support for the classroom teacher, the mentor visits the class prior to testing day to get to know the students, walk them through the field testing and help them understand how a science background can lead to a variety of interesting career options.

“We’re fortunate to have really great mentors for our program,” said Fedewa. “They work for General Motors and the county drain commission — which both provide financial support — the city of Flint’s Water Pollution Control Division, local universities and the local county extension office. They give a lot of their time to make this an interesting experience for the kids.”

Post-testing, mentors return to the class to discuss the results and how the data stacks up to the previous year. If the site’s score is significantly different from the previous year, mentors help students develop a theory as to why this may have occurred.

Mentors also accompany their class to an annual summit in May, where students present the results of their testing on the campus of one of Flint’s colleges or universities.

For Don Hammond, who received a national Green Teacher award for his contributions to GREEN’s Watershed STEM Initiative, the summit — like the testing day on Brent Run — offers an alternative, academically stimulating way of teaching.

“This type of activity makes my students excited about learning. It makes me a more effective teacher. And best of all, it helps build communication and respect — a positive relationship — between me and my students.”

Rails and roads: the impacts of mass transit on economic equity

Thu, 19 Apr 2012 11:15:28 GMT

Study: Metropolitan mass transit systems often don’t reach areas where workers find jobs

Improving access to jobs has a direct economic impact on families and regions

Equitable investments — including in mass transit — are key to the sustainability of metro areas

Since 2007, the Mott Foundation has been funding efforts by the Metropolitan Policy Program — an initiative of the Washington DC-based Brookings Institution — to explore ways that government, education and business communities in the Great Lakes states can work together to develop a winning economic vision for the region.

Robert Puentes

Those activities continued today as Robert Puentes, senior fellow at the program, and leaders from throughout Michigan met in Mott’s hometown of Flint to discuss the economic implications, including for low-income families, of the state’s metropolitan mass transportation systems. The meeting was sponsored by the Foundation and included findings from Brookings’s 2011 report, “Missed Opportunity: Transit and Jobs in Metropolitan America,” which documented inequities in 100 mass transit systems across the country.

Mott Communications Officer Duane Elling spoke with Puentes about the report and the relationships between mass transit systems and jobs, neighborhoods and the economic strength of metropolitan communities.

Mott: What have been some “ah-ha” moments for audiences since the publication of “Missed Opportunity”?

Puentes: Perhaps the biggest is the moment of clarity when they understand the difference between mobility and accessibility.

Over the last few decades, mass transit in the U.S. has largely focused on reducing the number of cars on the streets in large metropolitan areas, with the goals of minimizing traffic congestion and moving people faster and more efficiently from point A to point B. For obvious reasons, this emphasis on mobility seems to make a lot of sense.

The problem is that today’s transit systems often don’t stop in — or sometimes even travel to — the areas where their riders are most likely to find employment. This is especially problematic for low-income workers, for whom mass transit is often the only available form of mobile transport.

The result is that, even allowing for 90 minutes of travel time, today’s typical mass transit commuter can access only about 30 percent of all jobs in the surrounding metro area. For workers in low- and middle-skill industries, that number falls to about one-quarter of all jobs.

We now know that the high level of mobility made possible by mass transit systems is frequently offset by the lack of access to available job and career opportunities, which has a direct impact on workers, their families and neighborhoods, and the community’s overall economic strength.

Mott: How is this shaping public conversations about transit?

Click to play "This is a Transit Moment" video.

Puentes: I think we’re going through a transportation renaissance. We’re getting past the debates about cars versus mass transit, and as I described above, folks are starting to realize that transportation isn’t just about the means by which people travel back and forth. It’s about helping people to access job opportunities and open doors to economic stability.

I think these conversations are helping metro areas put transit in its proper perspective, to better understand its connections to employment and sustainability, both of which Mott has certainly been plugged into for a number of years. It’s helping communities to understand the direct relation that those factors have in the area’s overall economic strength and stability.

Mott: How are those insights helping to inform or shape debates about the overall economic future of metropolitan areas?

Puentes: The big take away is that that transit providers can lay down the train rails and put together the bus routes, but they can only do so much to address the problems of economic access and equity.

Creating real change in those issues requires that metro areas take a close, critical look at how their use and allocation of local resources, including mass transit, is supporting — or hindering — their communities’ ability to engage people in the local economy. They have to look at what improvements to the local infrastructure are needed and available, and how those fit within a picture of future growth and development.

Creating such change also requires that local, state and federal leaders make informed, balanced and equitable decisions when it comes to investments in communities, and that they recognize that the economic seeds they plant today will impact our metro areas for many years to come.

Kimberly Roberson: Mott’s approach to hometown grantmaking

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 12:00:00 GMT

By DUANE M. ELLING

Since 1926, Mott has helped its hometown of Flint, Michigan, respond to challenges and opportunities.

The Foundation’s local grantmaking is helping Flint reinvent itself in such key areas as workforce and economic development, children and youth, and arts and culture.

When Charles Stewart Mott created his foundation in Flint, Michigan in 1926, it was with a keen interest in the well-being of his adopted hometown. That commitment to Flint continues today, as highlighted in these videos on the Foundation's Hometown Grantmaking

Children and Youth

Workforce Development

Arts and Culture

Festivals and Events

That local work helps inform — and is informed by — the Foundation’s national and international grantmaking.

When Charles Stewart Mott created his foundation in Flint, Michigan in 1926, it was with a keen interest in the overall well-being of his adopted hometown. Over the years, as the city’s fortunes waxed and waned, the Mott Foundation continued to support the organizations, programs and initiatives that offered hope for moving the Flint community forward.

That effort continues, with grants from the Foundation’s Flint Area Program totaling nearly $24 million in 2011.

Kimberly S. Roberson, director of the Flint Area Program since October 2011, recently sat down with Mott Communications Officer Duane M. Elling to reflect on how the Foundation is supporting efforts to craft a new future for Flint.

Mott: What are some of the key challenges facing Flint?

Roberson: The challenges in Flint are similar to those faced by many post-industrial cities around the country and even the world. They include rebuilding the local economy, which in Flint was devastated over time by the loss of tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs. The resulting erosion in the local tax base is tied to an aging, deteriorating infrastructure that was originally designed to serve a city much larger than what we have now.

Those economic challenges have affected area schools and public services, such as police and fire departments, and strained the community’s nonprofit sector. And the situation has been made even more difficult over the last several years by economic struggles at the state and national levels.

Ultimately, Flint is challenged with reinventing itself. I think the community will always be proud of its place in history as the birthplace of General Motors, but I also believe that most people recognize that the city’s future will look very different from its past. The best hope for Flint is turning that challenge into an opportunity, and I believe we are seeing that happen.

Kimberly Roberson
Mott: What is Mott’s approach to helping the community face those challenges?

Roberson: Rather than having a prescriptive “blueprint” for our local grantmaking, the Foundation seeks to be responsive to the community’s challenges, as well as its opportunities. For example, we’ve long believed in the importance of education, which is why we fund various afterschool and educational programs targeting area children and youth, including initiatives that seek to help the community’s most vulnerable kids stay connected to education.

We also know that a trained and skilled workforce is key to meeting the needs of local employers and to attracting new business and jobs to Flint. To that end, we support job training initiatives in a number of promising sectors, including health care, advanced manufacturing and the environmental or “green” economy.

The responsiveness of Mott’s local grantmaking to emerging opportunities is reflected in our support of various downtown and economic revitalization efforts. This includes the ongoing redevelopment of vacant properties and storefronts in the city’s downtown corridor, which is home to a growing number of restaurants, office and retail spaces, loft apartments, and housing for local college students. Those developments are helping to create a more vibrant urban core that can help breathe new life into the entire Genesee County community.

Mott: Could you tell us more about the Mott approach?

Roberson: As in most communities, Flint’s nonprofit sector plays a critical role in helping residents weather hard times and address local needs. The Foundation has long supported the nonprofit sector and, with the tremendous need facing the community during the nation’s recession, Mott has helped fund various emergency services that keep the local “safety net” in place for area families.

We also seek to support what we call “centers of strength,” those local institutions and programs that have historically helped to hold the Flint area together during good and difficult times, and that offer a solid footing for future work. These include several area colleges and universities; the local health care system; community and economic development programs; and arts and cultural organizations, including the Flint Cultural Center.

We recognize that the Foundation’s economic resources are dwarfed by those of the government and private sectors, and by the overall need in the Genesee County community. Ultimately, our goal is to leverage the available resources — financial, as well as human capital — that will help Flint to create a new, sustainable future.

Mott: How does the Foundation’s grantmaking in Flint intersect with its global programmatic interests?

Roberson: As I noted earlier, the challenges and opportunities facing Flint are shared to varying degrees with many other communities around the globe. The Foundation’s national and international grantmaking provide access to ideas, strategies and expertise that can help our hometown address its own unique needs.

At the same time, Flint is providing models and approaches that other communities are learning from and, in some cases, replicating. The Genesee County Land Bank and Center for Community Progress; Mott Middle and Early College; and the BEST program are a few examples of local initiatives, funded by the Foundation, that are helping to inform and frame broader conversations about community revitalization.

Hometown Grantmaking in Flint: Children and Youth

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 10:45:27 GMT

The Summer Tot Lot program is an initiative of Flint Community Schools.

More information about YouthQuest and the Summer Youth Initiative is available from the Genessee Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Hometown Grantmaking in Flint: Festivals and Events

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 10:45:05 GMT

The video included clips from several Flint festivals and events that are supported by Mott, including:

Back to the Bricks
Bikes on the Bricks
Crim Festival of Races
Flint Parade of Festivals (a service of the Greater Flint Arts Council)

Hometown Grantmaking in Flint: Flint Cultural Center

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 10:16:44 GMT

To learn about the Institutions on the Flint Cultural Center campus visit www.flintcultural.org.

Hometown Grantmaking in Flint: Workforce Development

Wed, 18 Apr 2012 10:12:15 GMT

Visit Flint STRIVE for more information about this program.

The Teen CEO program is one of several workforce development program offered by Mott Community College.

“Big Sales Night” transforms elementary students into entrepreneurs

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 10:05:09 GMT

By ANN RICHARDS

YouthQuest afterschool program uses real life experiences to reinforce learning
“Big Sales Night” fosters entrepreneurial skills in young students
Expanded Learning and Afterschool Web site links communities with resources

Video By: DUANE M. ELLING

It’s not every day that a third-grade class has the opportunity to produce and market its own music CD. But at Freeman Elementary School in Flint, Michigan, Jef Johnson, a learning guide for the YouthQuest afterschool program, used his skills as a music producer to introduce an enthusiastic class of 9-year-old singers to the recording industry.

The end result, The Blue Dragons Mix Tape, was one of eight different products and services showcased at the school’s “Big Sales Night,” held in early April. The culminating event of an eight-week afterschool unit using entrepreneurship to sharpen academic and personal skills, the “Big Sales Night,” raised $606.50 for two local charities. About 70 to 80 people — mostly Freeman school parents, family members and friends — attended the event.

“It was a lot of work, but it was so much fun,” said Kate Potts, the school’s YouthQuest site team leader. “The kids learned how difficult it can be to run a successful business, and as a plus, we were able to work in the idea of charity and how hard people work to help other people.”

Each of YouthQuest’s seven, multi-week sessions during the school year is designed around a theme, which gives the afterschool staff the opportunity to exercise creativity around an established lesson plan, Potts said.

“We’re able to learn what works and what doesn’t from the experiences of other afterschool teams and try some different approaches. The theme helps guide our planning and keeps us from getting into a rut,” she said, noting that Freeman’s final eight-week session will be devoted to the planets and space travel.

“We try to work with our classroom teachers to weave afterschool activities with classroom activities,” Potts continued. “This session was particularly useful for our younger students, who are learning about coinage and currency. Before we brought each class together to outline their business plans, we spent some time learning how to count money, how to make change. Our older students learned about profit, and why businesses need to be profitable.”

Although they considered creating “play money” that students could use to start businesses and purchase products and services, Potts and her eight-member team of learning guides ultimately decided that the rigor of creating and marketing actual products and services would encourage teamwork and challenge students’ creative and decisionmaking skills.

“We ended up with some interesting businesses — a waffle restaurant and art gallery, jewelry, photography and school supply stores, a lemonade stand and CD and DVD sales.”

Freeman is one of 15 elementary and middle schools in Flint and Genesee County offering free YouthQuest afterschool programming. Supported with an annual grant of $3 million from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, YouthQuest is managed by the Genesee Regional Chamber of Commerce. Taking a whole-child approach to learning — using engaging and experiential activities to connect with and expand lessons learned during the regular school day — the program serves approximately 2,800 children each year, according to Rhetta Hunyady, the chamber’s vice president.

A graduate of the University of Michigan-Flint’s School of Education, Potts began working for YouthQuest while doing her student teaching. After graduating, she stayed with the program because of the inventive teaching opportunities offered through afterschool.

“So much learning comes from exploration, from working through problems and making mistakes — afterschool offers that kind of creative time for teachers and more importantly, for students,” she said.