Tag Archives: Intelligent Growth

Fox Theater Foundation Helps Connect Community with Performing Arts

by
(Includes excerpts from the April 5, 2013 story written by Jennifer Dean and Jose Marquezthe as published on PE.com)

The Fox Riverside Theater Foundation was established in late 2008 to support the work of the Fox Performing Arts Center, the landmark theater that was reopened in January 2010. The Fox Cultural Arts Fund was then established with The Community Foundation to provide financial backing to the theater foundation.

“The mission of the foundation is to support the Fox Performing Arts Center and enrich the community by inspiring participation in the life of the Fox through community-focused performances, community outreach and fundraising,” said Cynthia Wright, Fox Riverside Theater Foundation executive director.

The foundation’s mission is important to the region because it helps the entire community — even those with limited resources — have access to the theater.

“The Fox produces some shows that are very affordable, such as the Humphrey Bogart film series last summer and the holiday showing of ‘A Christmas Story,’ ” Wright said. “On the foundation side, we increase access through such programs as Students on Broadway, through which we provide tickets to high school students (primarily) to Broadway shows.”

Riverside high school students pose after watching a performance of Fiddler on the Roof in late March (photo source: Fox Foundation’s Students on Broadway Blog)

The theater foundation also partners with the downtown arts organization, First Sundays, through its Family Fun Days, in which free arts activities for families are available.

“My favorite recent example … was the March 14 presentation of ‘Beauty and the Beast,’ an American Theater Arts for Youth production for elementary schools,” Wright said. “Schools from around the region sent 1,200 elementary school students to the Fox that day and the foundation covered the cost of 500 of those tickets.

“It was a crazy, wonderful day and the teachers couldn’t say enough about what the experience meant for their students.”

By providing connections and exposure to the performing arts as well as to the Fox Theater, a repurposed historic structure, the Foundation enables the community to experience all that Riverside has to offer as a ‘Location of Choice‘ that provides an abundance of opportunities to be amazed, inspired and entertained.

Click here to read the full article as published on PE.com.

For more information on the Fox Foundation, click here.

Riverside’s Community Quality of Life Survey Now Underway

by

Over the next couple of weeks, those who work and/or live in Riverside will have the opportunity to provide opinions and feedback regarding the quality of life in our community. The purpose of this effort is to measure and set benchmarks aligned with the Seizing Our Destiny vision and spark community-wide engagement that promotes and continues to improve our quality of life.

Between now and March 24, 2013 some residents will receive calls to their home and/or mobile phone asking them to participate in a short random phone survey about their quality of life in Riverside. Participation in the survey will help to provide community groups and decision makers with important information concerning what residents think about living in our city. The caller ID for these calls will read CSUSB, as researchers from our regional California State University will be conducting the survey on Riverside’s behalf.

If you receive a phone call, don’t hang up! The researchers will NOT ask for your name, your social security number or your immigration status – just your opinions! Your identity and survey responses will remain confidential. Please share your thoughts to make Riverside a better place to live and work.

If you don’t receive a call, anyone who lives or works in Riverside is encouraged to share their thoughts through an online version of the survey which will be available at www.RiversideSurvey.com from April 1-30, 2013.

Phone, online and hard copy surveys will be available in English or Spanish.

All who live, work or both are encouraged to take the opportunity to participate in this process as it is all of us, and what we hope Riverside to be, that makes our city so unique and special.

For any questions or to request *paper versions of the online survey* email info@seizingourdestiny.com.

Ramona High School’s AVID Program Celebrates 25 Years of Preparing Students for College

by
Following the recent 25th Anniversary Celebration of Riverside’s AVID (Advancement Via Individual Determination) program, AVID founder, Mary Catherine Swanson published a blog that personalized and memorialized the determination, success and impact of the Riverside AVID program – a true example of Riverside being a place for lifelong learning for all and its commitment to intelligent growth.  Below is an excerpt from her article:

AVID founder Mary Catherine Swanson
(source: avidcollegeready.org)

“Riverside began AVID at Ramona High School in 1988 – one teacher, one class section.  That year the school graduated 325 students and schoolwide three percent went to college.  The school was 68 percent white; nine percent of the students qualified for aid to families with dependent children and five percent were English learners.  Ramona offered one Advanced Placement class. Beginning in 1988, each year Ramona added a class section of AVID and additional teachers.  They devoted a counselor to the program, and the district supported the costs of tutors and professional development.

Ramona High School AVID graduates that attended the school’s 25-year program anniversary event included, from left: Claudia Pacheco, Frank Lopez, and Michelle (Velasquez) Foley. They are with Sally Griffin, former Ramona AVID coordinator, second from right. (source: PE.com/contributed content)

Fast forward to 2012.  Ramona High School is composed of 84 percent underrepresented minorities and 79 percent of the students qualify for free or reduced lunches.  Fifty-three percent of the students are English learners.  Twenty-six percent of the student body is enrolled in AVID (more than 500 students), and the schoolwide college going rate is 28 percent.  There are 17 Advanced Placement classes whose enrollment is 85 percent AVID students.  Ninety-eight percent of the AVID students receive acceptances to four year colleges, and 99 percent enroll in college.  Ramona regularly sends AVID students to MIT.  More than 1,700 students have graduated from Ramona’s AVID program.  Ramona has more Dell and Gates scholars than any school in the nation.

In 2005 Newsweek Magazine named Ramona High School as one of the 800 best high schools in the nation and the AVID Center in 2010 named Ramona one of the five top superstar AVID schools in the nation.  Ramona has been an AVID Demonstration School for 19 consecutive years.

Over 25 years, Ramona High School has become filled with students who society and our school systems expect not to succeed, but each year Ramona has gotten stronger and stronger.  They have done it through the dedication of the school board, administration, teachers, and students – the school where everyone said it couldn’t be done.”

To read the full article as written by Swanson, including individual student success stories, click here.
To read the article recapping highlights of the event as published by the Press-Enterprise, click here.
Click here  for more information on the national AVID program.

Give Big Riverside Campaign Encourages Local Philanthropy

by

Give Big Riverside is a 24-hour online giving event engaging donors for the benefit of local nonprofits.

The Community Foundation Serving Riverside and San Bernardino Counties, in cooperation with a community task force is organizing the pilot Riverside Online Giving Day as an opportunity for Riverside nonprofits to collaborate under one gateway to inspire new and recurring donations from Riverside residents to local charities. Give BIG Riverside is modeled after similar ‘days of giving’ in Colorado, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and in California most recently Give Big San Diego, which raised nearly $2.4 million.

Efforts to spur local philanthropy have been hampered by several factors. While Riverside’s nonprofits are struggling to meet increasing demand for services, local, state and federal funding sources are also diminishing. In particular, educational, recreational, arts and cultural services have been severely impacted by the diversion of resources to meet basic needs. These art and cultural activities are personally enriching, and they also make Riverside a more unified city through significant contributions to economic and community vitality.

Festivals and events, performances, and visual and written art make a significant contribution to the local economy; they create jobs and provide important benefits to economic development, tourism, education, and community wellness, all key players in Riverside’s innovative economy. Each of these areas of vitality creates ripple effects that contribute to a stronger business environment, an increased tax base and an improved quality of life for residents.

To meet the economic challenges of today, nonprofits must seek innovative ways to connect donors (new and repeat) in order to sustain these “safety net” services and to continue providing quality and much needed services in our community.

The goals of Riverside’s first online giving day are:

  • Raise $500,000 dollars for at least 200 nonprofits.
  • Secure cumulative matching gifts of $87,000 from sponsors & private foundations
  • Train nonprofits in ongoing donor cultivation and online fundraising tactics, including effective use of social media

Give BIG Riverside asks local residents to understand that there is a crisis in their own community and that their help is essential. By donating to local nonprofits, Riversiders are directly contributing to efforts that improve our quality of life. The work of these nonprofits helps ensure that the community is one that serves as a catalyst for innovation and intelligent growth and one that continues to thrive as a unified city and a location of choice.

Through the Give Big Riverside online campaign, Riverside will enjoy long term benefits that help expand the philanthropic culture and increase civic engagement; promote long term fundraising capacity, maximize marketing potential and economic growth.

Visit giveBIGriverside.org to learn more about the campaign and how you can get involved!