 Sharing stories brings us together, helps us understand one another, and alleviates fear of the unknown. A story of hope can bring light to darkness and encouragement when there seems to be none. A story of hope can mean everything to someone who has just received a medical diagnosis. helloHope offers that hope to individuals and families trying to understand and cope with a scary diagnosis. When their own daughter was diagnosed with eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) shortly after her first birthday, Mary Beth and Andrew Thomas experienced first-hand the fear and uncertainty that can come with a medical diagnosis. With a heightened sense of compassion for other families that face often more difficult circumstances, helloHope emerged. They continue to be inspired by words or support from website visitors that say, “Reading this article and the comments, I feel like I’m reading my own story. It breaks my heart because I feel no one understands what I am feeling and how lost I feel, but on here it’s different.” With the $1000 See Beautiful Milestone Grant, more stories can be told and shared. The funding will support professional writers to craft stories, enhancing the sustainable impact of helloHope’s mission. With more stories being told, more connections can be made. And since 14 million children in the US face special healthcare needs, this has the potential to impact a lot of people. Beyond the stories of hope, helloHope also offers Free Parking Days, provides free popsicles, and delivers meals to families at a local children’s hospital. We, at See Beautiful, can only imagine the look on one’s face, when after a long day caring for a loved one, parking is paid, or a meal is shared. We can only imagine it is beautiful indeed. AuthorJannan Poppen, Giving Coordinator
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At the Hope Shines summer camp, campers complete arts and crafts activities, practice dance routines, and play games. They get to know the other campers and camp mentors and laugh and build community with one another. They share meals, encourage each other, and gain confidence. All of this sounds like a typical summer camp, but the Hope Shines summer camp is so much more. Every summer, 36 Rwandan kids come together for a special fun-filled week where “imagination meets education.” In addition to the standard camp fare of games and crafts, the kids learn through an ever-changing curriculum that includes everything from Engineering to Global Geography to English speaking. And it always includes a strong focus on health and hygiene. Dan Gladden, Hope Shines’ Executive Director, explains what the health and hygiene curriculum entails, “This year’s curriculum includes oral hygiene, fluoride treatments, annual health checks by a doctor, a science and engineering curriculum, first-aid, a self-esteem workshop, malaria prevention, and HIV/AIDS prevention.” The children also receive nutritionally-fortified meals and clean water to drink throughout the camp. For the camp participants, whose families live on an average of $17 per month, access to healthy food and clean water is paramount. It helps relieve the financial burden on their families and of course, improves their health.  One way Hope Shines provides healthy meals is through their sustainable greenhouse project. Once crops are harvested from the greenhouse, they not only go toward the camps’ meals, but they are also sold to provide sustainable revenue. The See Beautiful Milestone Grant funding will help sustain the greenhouse project and will also offset the major cost of running the camp - transportation to and from the camp. Although the grant funding will support the summer camp operations, Hope Shines stays busy year round with their various programs. They provide basic needs for education, such as uniforms and school supplies and run an after-school program to keep students engaged and learning when they are not in school. And the focus on healthy children serves as a tenant of Hope Shines, empowering young people to understand and respect their bodies.  With values like healthy living, integrity, sustainability, commitment to children, and expanding impact, it’s safe to say that Hope Shines creates beautiful in the lives of the children and families they serve. And See Beautiful stands behind them every step of the way. AuthorJannan Poppen, Giving Coordinator With community at its core, Beloved Atlanta supports women on their path to overcome commercial sexual exploitation. Women complete three phases over the two-year commitment to the residential program. Through an individualized plan, which includes restoration, education, and employment, women are supported in healing past trauma in order to ultimately graduate from the program with a full-time job and three months of living expenses saved. Seeing the transformation in the lives of the women they serve inspires the BeLoved Atlanta staff. Amelia Quinn, the Founder of BeLoved, shares, “Last Monday we celebrated the college graduation of a BeLoved resident. When she came into the BeLoved Program, she had lost custody of her daughter and had been in and out of addiction for years. I sat in the school auditorium with her daughter, the BeLoved staff and volunteers as we watched her walk across the stage and all yelled and celebrated as loud as we could. The next day she went to her full time job and found out the company was giving her a car.” This kind of success begins with allowing the women to heal from past traumatic experiences. As BeLoved has supported more women, they have witnessed first-hand just how important this foundation of healing can be in each woman’s overall journey. The See Beautiful Milestone Grant funding will help to provide individual counseling to the women of BeLoved Atlanta. Big victories begin with small victories, and counseling helps women to begin building confidence in those small victories.  BeLoved Atlanta seeks to change the perception that women in prostitution are criminals. Rather, they are survivors and leaders. They are “gifted, strong, and trustworthy.” They are beautiful and capable of seeing and creating so much beautiful in themselves and their communities. See Beautiful is honored to support an organization so committed to community and empowering women. Thanks for letting us help celebrate those small victories. AuthorJannan Poppen, Giving Coordinator “I learned that your beauty is powerful & priceless... Each and every word is going to benefit me in life”. –Precious, age 14, former student of Realize Your Beauty  Powerful and priceless. That is the impact of promoting positive body image, self esteem, and kindness through the arts, and that’s exactly what Realize Your Beauty does. Through plays, workshops, and camps, Realize Your Beauty helps young people recognize their own unique gifts and the inner beauty they possess. As Stacey Merkl, Realize Your Beauty’s Founder and Executive Director, shares, students are taught to “put their energy into kindness, integrity, and respect toward themselves and others.” Realize Your Beauty’s lessons encourage self-confidence and an understanding that being oneself is the best way to be, and they do so in a fun, engaging, and memorable way. Kids may be told that it’s important to respect themselves and one another, but the way they learn through Realize Your Beauty is more likely to stick with them because they get to experience it for themselves and see it come to life through theatre arts. Currently, there are two different high school programs as well as a late elementary show. Realize Your Beauty carefully makes sure everything meets the level of the students the programs are designed for. Workshops for older students, for example, address issues such as eating disorders, always in an age-appropriate way. With the See Beautiful Milestone Grant, Stacey and the folks at Realize Your Beauty will finally get to create and implement a program for the lower elementary school age group. They often get asked to provide a show for this age, but haven’t had the resources to do so until now. With the $1000 grant funding, they will be able to realize their vision to develop a play and production full of magical realism, classic clowning techniques, and puppetry, suitable for the younger audience. Several hundred children each year have the potential to be reached once the program is developed. That’s several hundred children each year who will have the opportunity to hear that they are beautifully unique, from the inside out. This kind of creating beautiful with a sustainable impact and is exactly what See Beautiful was hoping to support when we dreamed up the Milestone Grant. AuthorJannan Poppen, Giving Coordinator There is so much beauty in the simple act of reading a book to a child. A book ignites imagination, encourages literacy, and creates a connection between the child and the reader. A book on its own cultivates beautiful. But, add meaningful lessons of friendship and unity while also funding causes for kids, and the beautiful multiplies. That’s what happens at The Joy Market. The Joy Market’s first published book, Animals of the Nativity, provided food for children in the West African country of Benin. Through their partnership with the non-profit Aide La Vie, special life-saving food was distributed to malnourished kids, such as Liana, who was unable to walk. Once she received the special food, Liana was walking again. Luckily, the Joy Market’s idea and impact have grown from that first book. They’ve since published two more books, with another on the way. Last year, the book, The Bear Hug, helped to fund a school of 150 refugee children in Syria. The book addresses the “us versus them” mentality, and kids in the US wrote cards to the Syrian children, who then in turn wrote cards back. As founder Erin Burchik wrote in her grant application, “It was so beautiful to hear them talk about their new, cross-cultural friends and to see this grassroots peacemaking shape the hearts of these precious children.”  The Joy Market is well on its way to fulfilling its mission of bringing joy to children through cultivating “compassion, creativity, and curiosity through a crazy love for books.” With the See Beautiful Milestone Grant funding, the Joy Market plans to expand programs in schools, introducing more children to the joyful and beautiful acts of reading and giving. AuthorJannan Poppen, Giving Coordinator “If we give girls and women the chance to change their lives, they can change the world.” -Frida Giannini  A wise and trusted teacher or counselor. A guide, adviser, influential supporter. Someone who helps a less experienced person. A mentor can be all of this and more. And for high school girls who are underserved in their communities, a mentor relationship can mean everything. The right mentor can help build confidence, skills, and self-worth and help open the space for girls to see and create more beautiful. Girls Grow Inc supports college women to serve as mentors to high school girls through weekly meetings. Through the Girls Grow curriculum, mentors lead activities and small group discussions “to help foster a sense of Growth, Openness, Respect, and Worth.” College women guide the high schoolers through defining their values, coping with negative emotions, and developing positive self-esteem. The curriculum also covers how to prepare for the future, create and maintain healthy relationships, and even how to develop mindfulness.  In addition to the amazing individual growth that occurs as a result of the mentorship, the group aspect of Girls Grow demonstrates something else transformational to the mentees: the realization that they are not alone. This core element of Girls Grow inspires Natalie, the founder, to keep building and growing the organization. In the two years since its inception, Girls Grow has supported 77 mentors who have empowered more than 230 high school girls. And the impact of Girls Grow is certainly not stopping there.  The $1000 See Beautiful Milestone Grant will allow Girls Grow to develop more training for the mentors. The skill-building that occurs through increased training not only strengthens the impact for the high schoolers, but the mentors carry with them lessons in leadership and relationship-building as well. Relationships and the deep connections formed through Girls Grow are beautiful, indeed, and we are honored be a small part of this uplifting community. AuthorJannan Poppen, Giving Coordinator Anyone who thinks that they are too small to make a difference has never tried to fall asleep with a mosquito in the room. Just because kids are small does not mean they are not able to make a difference and create beautiful in the world. In fact, children see beautiful in their own unique way. By giving kids the chance to follow their own ideas about how to create beautiful, Kids Boost helps build confidence in kids and invests in their creative ideas to positively impact a cause they are passionate about. It works like this: A donation is made to Kids Boost (that’s where you come in!), and a child chooses a cause that is meaningful to him or her. With coaching provided by Kids Boost’s awesome coaches and some start up funds for the kids, the child is able to carry out their idea. The start-up funds are the launching point for the idea, which then earns more money and awareness for the charity or cause the child has chosen to support. Eighty percent of the child’s earnings go directly to the charity, while the remaining twenty percent go back to Kids Boost to help pay forward the good work they are doing.  In the words of Kristen Stock, Kids Boost founder, “I’ve learned that kids of all ages have the innate need and desire to do something great in the world. I’ve also learned that adults don’t always give kids enough credit. Kids are capable of so much; they just need the opportunity and the support.” With Kristen’s dedication and passionate spirit, Kids Boost has grown from supporting three kids to fifty, and has helped kids earn more than $50,000 for a host of deserving charities. Nudging forward with a big dream to encourage kindness, self-confidence, and generosity in kids, Kids Boost has already had a huge, multi-layered impact to those lucky enough to enjoy its successes.  With a waiting list of 75, the demand and interest from kids to create beautiful exceeds the current resources. As a See Beautiful Milestone Grant recipient, even more kids will be able to sign on with Kids Boost. We are thrilled to support Kids Boost and the wonderful kids who aren’t afraid to not only dream big, but to also take the action to help make others’ dreams come true, too. AuthorJannan Poppen, Giving Coordinator  In 2016 Terence Lester, co-founder of Love Beyond Walls, walked 648 miles from Atlanta, Georgia to Washington D.C. to be a voice for people living in poverty. Beyond a voice, the goal was to lift them above the status of poverty and bring together a community of you and I to become part of the story of empowerment, light and love.
This year, Love Beyond Walls Documentary, Voiceless, will be released and we are honored that the $1000 See Beautiful Milestone Grant will be used to create a workbook used alongside the film to deepen conversation, move to action, and create more beautiful in the lives of those experiencing poverty. People experiencing poverty are often some of the most vulnerable, yet most worthy of love and kindness - two things that we are ever-free to give and cost nothing. Together we can use our voices and we are honored walk alongside you, Love Beyond Walls. Reflections from your Giving Coordinator... As Giving Coordinator, my role is to support our incredible Giving Initiative recipients. I help them every step of the way to create a successful online Giving Initiative campaign and ultimately get funded (the best part!). It’s so fulfilling and inspiring to work with folks doing the heavy lifting in their organizations every day. The truth is they do most of the work, and I am there to keep them moving forward and help lift that weight just a bit. But, recently, I had the unique opportunity to witness a Giving Initiative from the organization's perspective. Through my connection with the Junior League of Greenville (SC), I helped to launch a See Beautiful Giving Initiative to fundraise for the Greenville Cancer Survivors Park. It was rewarding to see these two areas of my life come together for good.  I learned a lot about what makes a successful Giving Initiative. Here are three keys to a victory: Buy-in from your organization Since I work intimately with the Giving Initiatives, obviously I understand how it works. But, a See Beautiful Giving Initiative is a bit of an out-of-the-box fundraising idea. So, it’s important that your organizational leaders understand what the Giving Initiative is, how it works, and what the organization’s role is in the process. As the Giving Coordinator, I can help with this! In fact, we created a Giving Guide to help further explain and demonstrate exactly this. This is a great tool to share with your team. This may be most relevant to larger organizations, but it’s also important that leadership is on board with promoting the Giving Initiative through social media channels, newsletters, etc. Although See Beautiful helps to promote for you, it also takes promotion on the organizational side to be successful. Which brings me to my next point... A plan to promote the initiative The key here is to utilize your existing communication or fundraising channels. Do you have a large newsletter list? Let’s send out a newsletter highlighting the Giving Initiative. Is Instagram your thing? That’s where you want to promote it. We’ve even helped to create a Youtube video for an organization that has an engaged and active Youtube following. In-person events can work well, too. Formulate a plan ahead of time or early in the process, and go for it! Of course, you’re not alone in this. As your Giving Coordinator, I’m here to support you.  Persistence and follow-through There’s great momentum with the launch of a Giving Initiative, but as time moves on, that momentum may begin to fade. Don’t worry! I’ll be here to keep you moving and motivated, but it also takes follow-through on your part. I know it can feel like one more thing, but if you commit to taking one action per week, you will see funding results quickly, which will, in turn, keep you more motivated to see it through to the end! Then comes the best moment of all. That moment when See Beautiful gets to tell an organization they are FUNDED! And you get to see the hard work pay off through beautiful projects in action. For our funded Giving Initiative friends, do you have any other tips? AuthorJannan Poppen, Giving Coordinator Many years ago I asked my young children what two things they needed from their parents. They said ‘food and money.’ I told them ‘roots and wings.’ My goal in pledging 99% of my assets to philanthropy is to help others with roots—food, warmth, shelter, healthcare, education—so they too can have wings. You may remember this quote from the blog post about the Giving Pledge, but the concept of roots and wings is one worth exploring and discussing more deeply. Although roots and wings may not be the first words that come to mind when we think about how to meet the needs of others, upon reflection, it makes perfect sense. Without a solid foundation on which to stand, it’s difficult for an individual to take flight, to be able to care for himself, and ultimately to find her own gifts to share with the world. It is for this idea of building firm roots to allow others to find their wings that See Beautiful emphasizes sustainability in our Giving Initiatives. What does this mean exactly? It means that the impact of the Giving Initiative is felt beyond the sum of the funding. It means that the community and individuals in it grow in their capacity to meet their own needs. And it means that See Beautiful becomes a small part of a path toward empowerment. There are so many examples of sustainable projects, and here are just a few. As was shared in a recent blogpost, Mavuno providing technical training to peer-selected individuals exemplifies a sustainable solution. Funds are used in a way that will continue to positively impact the community.  Mavuno See Beautiful’s partnership with How Global helped Kenyan families purchase goats to start small businesses.  How Global With the support of See Beautiful and Kula Project, an entire community of women were able to purchase land and coffee trees to create a lasting business and income for their families.  Kula Project This short list only scratches the surface. Read more fantastic success stories to see the range of sustainable organizations and projects See Beautiful has helped to support. And get a dose of inspiration while you’re at it. AuthorJannan Poppen, Giving Coordinator |
See beautiful in yourself.
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