Looking forward to a great 2012.

That said, we’re very excited to announce that in 2012 our nonprofit partner will be Minnesota Computers for Schools. It was a pretty natural fit because not only does it meet our two requirements, but they also help create change in the world of recycling and prisoner rehabilitation – two issues that are also close to our hearts.

Since 1997, MCFS has placed nearly 60,000 computers in schools and nonprofits in Minnesota. This amazing organization trains Stillwater Correctional Facility inmates to refurbish computers donated by local businesses. The computers are then shipped to K-12 schools and nonprofits across the state for a nominal fee.

We’ll be giving you more information on this amazing organization and how your purchases go to helping them provide technology to those in need. You can get updates on our blog, Facebook, Twitter and in our e-newsletter.

Tired of hearing from us? Each month Executive Director, Tammy Gillard, will be writing guest posts on our blog to fill you in on what’s happening at MCFS. In the mean time, learn more about our new friends here.

From Katie, me and all the people at Growing Home, we’d like to say thanks. If you are interested in volunteering yourselves they have a number of openings you can apply to. Or if you’d rather donate to the cause, check out their donation page on their website for more information.

That’s just one of the reasons we love working with Growing Home so much. The organization not only provides a holistic job training program for people who are changing their lives, but they work at the policy level to ensure that fresh, organic food is available to underserved communities. The organization touches so many causes that are important to use – job creation, eco-friendly, local agriculture and community development.

As we begin to think about our possible 2012 nonprofit partners we want to know – what causes are important to you?

If you are interested in learning more about Growing Home, sign up for their e-newsletter. An added bonus: everyone who signs up for Growing Home’s e-news mailing list between now and April 15th is entered into a drawing to receive a FREE summer CSA share.

Community Supported Agriculture, or CSA, is a farming model that directly links consumers and producers. Our members support the farm by making an up-front payment at the beginning of the growing season that contributes to the farm’s operating budget. In return, members receive a weekly share of the farm’s produce, and are invited to participate in farm events including our monthly potlucks, our harvest celebration, and are welcome to come visit the farm to u-pick berries or volunteer.

Growing Home’s summer CSA shares are 18 weeks long, and can reasonably feed a family of 3-4 who eat a medium amount of vegetables.

You can find out more about the Giveaway here, or sign up for a spring, fall, or even summer CSA share here.

When we started donating to local non-profits we gave 10% of each shirt sale to a different nonprofit. After three months we realized that this strategy wasn’t working the way we planned and the donations were being spread too thin. And, we weren’t able to get as involved with these nonprofits as we would have liked. Starting with the fourth quarter of 2010, we made the decision to move all donations for the rest of the year to Esperanza Community Services. Esperanza was the first nonprofit we partnered with when we made out debut shirt, Tamale! Tamale! It is an awesome organization and we are proud to have been able to work with them over the past year.

But just because we are taking on a new partner doesn’t mean that our relationship with Esperanza has to end, and neither does yours. If you bought a t-shirt in the last quarter of 2010 then you made a direct impact on the organization and both us and Esperanza thank you for that. If you would like to continue to donate or work with Esperanza in the future check out their website, you can donate online or sign up as a volunteer.

Clint and I were both impressed with the work Growing Home does – from it’s job training program, to the impact the organization has on economic development and its social enterprise business. We’re very excited to kick off this partnership and get to know them better. Want to know more about this organization? Check out this interview I did earlier this month with Director of Resource Development, Rebekah Silverman.

As our official nonprofit partner, Growing Home will receive 10% of the profit from every sale in 2011 and, because we want to do more than give money, Clint and I will personally get involved with the organization to volunteer on a regular basis. We know how much you, our friends and customers, care about your community so for those of you in Chicago we’ll be putting together quarterly volunteer events so you can get involved with this wonderful organization as well.

Congratulations, Growing Home and welcome to the Scared Panda family.

Today’s post is about Growing Home,  a Chicago-based non-profit that provides job training through an organic agriculture business. I asked Director of Resource Development, Rebekah Silverman, a few questions to about the organization, its mission and the impact it’s had on the city. Read what she had to say, head over to our voting headquarters and cast your vote!

Explain your role with the organization.

I’m Growing Home’s Director of Resource Development, which means I’m responsible for most of our fundraising. I deal with grants from foundations and the City and federal  government, as well as individual donations. I also do our graphic design. I work in our office in Lincoln Park, but I get out to our farms about once every week and a half or so. Next training season I’ll be teaching a workshop to our interns called “Perspectives” about putting their experiences at Growing Home into context.

Tell us why Growing Home was created.

Growing Home was started initially as an outgrowth of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless. At first, we were just working with homeless people. Our founder, Les Brown, believed that homelessness could be combated (in part) by giving people a sense of being “rooted” in their communities, and the idea was that urban agriculture would be able to tackle that issue both literally (giving people something to do that was constructive) and metaphorically (with people in the program “growing” along with the plants).

What, exactly, does Growing Home do? Who benefits from its services/programs?

If you boil it down, Growing Home works under a single premise: growing things and putting one’s hands in the dirt and eating well makes people more whole and healed. We get to that issue in a number of different ways: we have a social enterprise business growing and selling USDA certified organic produce; we run a training program for needy Chicagoans with previous incarcerations, homelessness and education gaps that teaches job skills and helps people get back on their feet; and we work in communities where our farms are located to focus efforts on economic development. Our farms – in LaSalle County outside Chicago, and in Englewood on the South Side – grow produce that we sell through a CSA and at farmers markets, and 100% of that income funds our training program.

Why would a partnership with Scared Panda benefit Growing Home?

We’re looking for ways to reach groups of people who are interested and engaged in economic and environmental and food-security issues, but not necessarily our traditional audience. That’s you!

Tell us about one of your greatest success stories.

I’ll let people tell their own stories! Here are some links to videos of people in the training program in the last couple years:

Portraits: Jasmine Easter
Chicago Non-Profit Helps Grow Jobs and Organic Produce
Latoya From Growing Home

Where do you envision Growing Home one year from now?

We’re working on developing a plan for a new farm extension in Englewood which would double our growing space. In a year, I’d like to see that project underway.

What is your favorite spot in Chicago?

Personally? Probably Garfield Park Conservatory.

Throughout the next couple of weeks we’ll be featuring posts about each of the nonprofits who are in the running to be our official 2011 nonprofit partner to help you cast your vote.

First up, Open Books. I asked Executive Director, Stacy Ratner a few questions to about the organization, its mission and the impact it’s had on the city, here’s what she had to say.

Tell me about your role with Open Books.

I’m the founder and Executive Director here, which means I get to do a little of everything: work with books, plan programs, write grant applications, help at events, and more. Currently, my main project is working on our strategic plan for the next 5 years.

Tell us why Open Books was created.

Open Books was created to promote literacy. It’s one of the most crucial life skills you can have – it affects your ability to feed yourself, get around your city, find and hold a job, raise a family, and more – and yet more than half the adults in Chicago have low or limited literacy capabilities. Open Books exists to help change that situation, and we do it by spreading the love of reading and writing through our programs and raising awareness of the issue through our bookstore and events.

What, exactly, does Open Books do? Who benefits from its services/programs?

Open Books collects used books, sells them in our bookstore and online, and uses the proceeds to help fund our signature literacy programs for more than 2,000 students each year. Our programs range from one-on-one weekly reading sessions with elementary school students through creative writing field trips for 4^th-12^th graders, college/career mentoring for high school juniors, book discussion/journaling groups for teenagers, and writing workshops for all ages.  Many of the students we serve attend some of the city’s most challenged schools, but our programs are open to everyone.

In addition to our core literacy programs, we run a full-service bookstore in River North to raise awareness about literacy and spread the love of reading. The store holds more than 50,000 donated books, all of which are inventoried so you can find just what you’re looking for and priced at amazing discounts. It’s also our flagship venue for monthly author events, poetry readings, novel-writing sessions, children’s storytime/craft hour, and more – and, of course, it’s the friendliest place in town to donate your used books! We’re open 7 days a week and would love to see you there.

Finally, we’re proud to partner with more than 25 other literacy organizations and nonprofit groups around the city to share volunteer opportunities, program resources, and books. We donate 10% of our adult book inventory to shelters, clinics, and other community centers, and we’re always happy to make new friends and work together for the cause of literacy in Chicago.

Why would a partnership with Scared Panda benefit Open Books?

We love working with local partners like Scared Panda, and we have some amazing programs scheduled to launch and expand in 2011. This partnership would help us support that work and spread the word about literacy to stylish shirt-wearers across the city.

Tell us about one of your greatest success stories.

This is always the most impossible question to answer. Great things happen every week at Open Books, so how about if I cheat a little and share one of my favorite stories from each of our programs over the last month?

When Chicago Parent came to one of our Buddies sites to talk to the students about the program, they had trouble getting one little Buddy in particular to participate…because he was so transfixed by his book that he didn’t want to stop reading in order to be interviewed.

A student who’d visited us for a creative writing field trip came to the bookstore, a few weekends later, to show her big sister “her book” – the booklet we make for each class that contains everything they wrote during the trip.

Our VWrite students and mentors came to Open Books to celebrate the end of the session, and students got a chance to take the lead and interview their mentors about why they chose to volunteer, who their mentors are/were, and what challenges they faced while working with students. One pair became so engrossed in their discussion that they skipped the food and socializing and found a quiet place to keep talking, and we know they’ll keep in touch as the student goes on to the next stage in his life.

One of the girls in our teenage book discussion group, who doesn’t own any books because she’s never been interested in reading them, chose a few to take with her at the end of the session and said that the discussion had inspired her to start reading at home.

Moments like these remind us why we do what we do, and we love sharing them on our blog and in our newsletters. Inspired? Join us!

Where do you envision Open Books one year from now?

Our focus for the next year is, as always, on strengthening and expanding our programming and the bookstore that helps make it possible.  In 2011 we’ll help more than 5,000 students find their voices at our Adventures In Creative Writing field trips, expand our Buddies program to twice weekly at some schools, match more than 100 high school juniors with writing mentors, through VWrite and share an immersive reading, writing and publishing experience with 50 teenage authors through our newest program, ReadThenWrite. Physically, we’ll be in the same place – our beloved bookstore and literacy center at 213 W. Institute in River North – and we look forward to making many new book-loving friends there.

What is your favorite spot in Chicago?

It’s not cheating if I say the Open Books store, right? It really is my favorite place in the city: 50,000 books (!!!), rainbow-colored shelves, purple velvet chairs, comfy couches, amazing oddities (check out the boxes of old pamphlets in the Dragonfly Lounge, for example), board games, free WiFi, good music, awesome events, and a fantastically friendly book-loving staff.  Come visit!

Over the past few weeks we’ve been searching for the perfect 2011 nonprofit partner – an organization that makes positive change in Chicago. The nonprofit that is chosen will not only receive 10% of every sale, but will become a part of our little Scared Panda family. Clint and I will volunteer with them on a regular basis and we’ll have Scared Panda Volunteer Days a few times throughout the year when we open it up to you to come out, meet the inspiring people behind the organization and help make a difference.

After hours of research and meetings with amazing nonprofits throughout the city, we have narrowed it down to three incredible organizations. This is where you come in. From now until Christmas day, we want you to cast your vote. Tell us which nonprofit you think would make the best partner for Scared Panda.

Over the next couple of weeks we’ll do feature posts on each of these nonprofits to help you get a better idea about what exactly they do. But for now, check out their websites and the information below, cast your votes and tell your friends.

Open Books: Operates an extraordinary bookstore, provides community programs, and mobilizes passionate volunteers to promote literacy in Chicago and beyond. Open Books offers signature literacy programs for more than 2,000 students from across Chicago each year.

Growing Home: Provides a transitional job program that lets previously-incarcerated and previously-homeless individuals prepare to re-enter the workforce not only by teaching job skills, but also by providing the chance to engage in what is for many a transformational experience.

The Night Ministry: Connects with Chicago’s vulnerable youth and adults, providing basic supplies, self-care supplies, free healthcare, housing and supportive services. The organization offers services at the moment of need on the street with its mobile health bus and provides shelters for homeless youth.

Happy Thanksgiving.

- Kate

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