Globe Miami Times Connecting you to the Pulse of Globe Miami
United Fund of Globe-Miami held their annual meeting on January 14th at Bullion Plaza Cultural Center and Museum. The event included a luncheon and a special presentation for the winners of the 2020 YEAR of YES! projects. Three projects received a $10,000 grant to carry out their vision: Shelter Buddies,Helping Families Help Themselves, and Where The Child Things Are.
According to Maryn Belling, the Executive Director of United Fund, the idea behind the special grant stemmed from a 2019 annual meeting, in which guest speaker Jon Ford from Vitalyst Health Group encouraged all United Fund guests to plan for a big project in the future. From that, the YEAR of YES! projects was launched.
It encouraged United Fund agencies to collaborate to come up with projects which would combine resources and address community needs.
This year’s winners were as follows:
1Helping Families Help Themselves – Description by Gail Lenox and Charlene Becker
Presented by: Arizona Youth Partnership, G.I.L.A. House, G.I.L.A. House Alderman Domestic Violence Safe Home , and Starting Out Right
Gila House/Alderman Safe House and SOR Starting out Right/Active Parenting have partnered to provide services for families that are staying at the Gila House or Aldermen Safe House. Services available at Gila House now include Active Parenting classes or Child birthing classes depending on the need. SOR will also provide resources for families such as job searches, schooling, counseling, and support. As well as provide car seats, pack and plays for safe sleep, diapers and wipes and clothes as needed for families. Charlene Becker is a certified CAPPA Child Birth Educator, Certified Lactation Educator, and Car Seat Technician that would be providing the Child Birthing classes and is a certified trainer for Active Parenting and Triple P accredited and along with Liz Mata would be able to provide the parenting classes. Part of the grant would also help to benefit the clients who are in the SOR program and Active Parenting program. SOR clients are sometimes homeless and experience domestic violence and are in need of the Gila House or Alderman shelter. There are times when baby formula is needed or diapers and we are unable to provide this to SOR clients. This partnership will provide much-needed support within our community. Housing families are important but families need more than just housing they need to be pointed in the right direction and guided. This project will help to guide these families and give them the support they need to go out on their own.
2Shelter Buddies Reading Program
Presented by: Cobre Valley Youth Club, Friends of the Globe Public Library, and High Desert Humane Society
The Shelter Buddies Reading Program (SBRP) is a 6-months-long pilot program where Cobre Valley Youth Club kids read to High Desert Humane Society animals using Friends of the Globe Public Library books. This program advances the program priorities of each of these three partnering agencies, all of whom are based in Southern Gila County and uniquely qualified to carry out their roles in the SBRP. The partner agencies have met twice in person and shared multiple emails to discuss and plan the program, and all three report being ready and able to carry out this program. These three partners are 2020 United Fund recipients with known capacity and history of successful stewardship of United Fund grant funding. Additionally, this project addresses 3 of the 4 identified priorities for United Fund, specifically Basic Human/Animal Needs (shelter and safety), Youth Programs, and Education.
Specific Community Needs We’re Addressing:
Cobre Valley Youth Club is committed to serving kids and preparing them for successful futures, and they report challenges with the reading level and acquisition of literacy tools for many of their club participants. The High Desert Humane Society is committed to finding homes for unwanted and abandoned pets, and they report having too many dogs and cats in their shelters and needing to get animals adopted as soon as possible to open up more spaces. The Friends of the Globe Public Library is committed to promoting literacy and supporting programming for all patrons of the library, and they would love to connect with youth who struggle with reading and may not currently be accessing library resources.
Benefits (Solutions to Community Needs):
All three agencies will honor their mission statements, advance their primary agency priorities, and create sustainable and significant gains with this proposal. The children reading to the dogs and cats will benefit by improving their literacy skills, overcoming reading anxiety by performing in front of a non-judgmental listener, improving their empathy and gentleness through interaction with animals, and gaining self-esteem by knowing they are helping animals in need get adopted. The animals grow calmer when read to, gain exposure to novel people (particularly children), gain socialization skills, are less lonely, and learn people can be safe and nurturing which will give them traits that make them more adoptable. The FGPL will connect with kids and families to support and help these young readers gain a positive literacy experience, as well as awareness of library resources.
3Where the Child Things Are
Presented by: SYMTP Classroom Outreach, Globe Unified School District, and Midnight Cicadas Robotics Program
Theater and art space in Globe-Miami is limited to school auditoriums and the Center for the Arts. An outdoor theater and common learning space would provide students at Globe High School, actors within SYMTP and the community an outdoor theater and learning space. Outdoor theater performances will allow students in increase learning and repertoire in acting, stage design, lighting and creativity. Further, it offers our community an additional entertainment option such as outdoor dinner theater and evening performances. It will allow youth actors to stretch their abilities and perform in another unique environment. Shakespeare once said that ‘one touch of nature makes the whole world kin’. This is true in open-air theater and why we see things like parking lot concerts so successful. The theater/stage space can be utilized throughout the community.
The outdoor theater and common learning area will also be utilized as a common outdoor space for student’s at Globe High School. GHS does not currently have outdoor space which can be utilized for outdoor classes, club meetings, sports play, etc. Student’s are often seen in the road behind the high school hitting a volleyball around at lunch. The creation of the theater/stage and learning space will provide students a safe place to expel energy and learn.
The proposed space is across the street from Globe High School and is currently owned by GUSD. The space is directly across the street from the GHS cafeteria allowing GUSD’s new food services supervisor and staff opportunities to increase sales of healthy food and to provide additional catering for SYMTP and other community events held in the area.
Further, this common educational learning/theater area is a space that can be utilized by many other groups in the area that want to create a safe space for children/teens to hang out. The area will have power abilities and will be perfect for many fun activities beyond school usage and theater plays such us outdoor movie nights, stay sober nigh challenges, community club/group meetings, etc.
The creation of the common learning and theater space will help meet United Fund identified priorities of: Education, Arts & Culture and Youth programs.
Last year’s recipients were:
1 Project ACE – All Children Eat –
- Partners: Globe Lions, Gila Community Food Bank, St. Paul’s Backpack Program, Gila County, Freeport-McMoRan
- Recipients: All Globe Schools, All Miami Schools, and Liberty High School.
2 Gila Safe Haven Alderman House
- Partners: Freeport-McMoRan, City of Globe, Gila County, White Mountain Apache Tribe, Horizon Human Services
3 CCYS – Copper Cities Youth Sports –
- Combines funding from nearly 40 local businesses and independent donors
- Participating Sports Leagues: Copper Cities Basketball League, Pre-T-ball, WOD Squad, Flag Football, Piranhas Swim Team, Punchers Tackle Football & Cheer.
Writer, photographer. Passionate foodie, lover of good books and storytelling. Lives in Globe. Plays in the historic district. Travels when possible.
