New Orleans, LA, January 5, 2012 – Baptist Community Ministries (BCM) is pleased to announce it has awarded 11 grants to local nonprofit organizations totaling $2.4 million. The following organizations and programs were funded subject to annual performance reviews:

New Orleans, LA, August 1, 2011 – Baptist Community Ministries (BCM) is pleased to announce it has awarded six grants to local nonprofit organizations totaling $1.4.million. The following organizations and programs were funded subject to annual performance reviews:

• New Orleans Baptist Ministries - Christ Community Health Services, New Orleans Primary Care Project receives funds on behalf of Christ Community Health Services, New Orleans, to develop a strategic plan and offset the startup operational costs and staffing as needed to provide primary health care to serve the residents of the 8th, 9th and Lower 9th Wards; grant totaling $250,000 for two years.

• Trinity Church - Strategic Direction Assessment for the Trinity Counseling and Training Center receives funds to conduct a Strategic Direction Assessment Report for the Trinity Counseling and Training Center to analyze and make recommendations on the Center's ability to provide quality mental health services to the predominantly low-income target population it serves within its fiscal limitations; grant totaling $300,000 for three years.

• Bard Early College in New Orleans - Early College for Students in Every High-Poverty New Orleans Public High School receives funds for Bard Courses for low-income 11th and 12th graders in every high-poverty New Orleans high school.  BECNO bridges high school and college for students with highly limited access to higher education:  students earn nationally-transferable college credits in courses taught by college professors, combined with intensive college admissions guidance; grant totaling $130,100 for two years.

• Kingsley House - Educare of New Orleans serving 150 children, birth to 5 years, will be a part of a national network of highly effective child development programs designed to meet the needs of today's families who are making the transition from welfare to work.  The Educare Center will focus on narrowing the achievement gap between young children in poverty and their more economically advantaged peers;  grant totaling $225,000 for three years.

• Liberty's Kitchen, Inc. – Liberty’s Kitchen Youth Development Program is serving New Orleans' youth by providing a path to self-sufficiency through its food service-based training, education and work readiness programs.  Our Youth Development Program provides young people ages 16-21 with both occupational and employability skills training and we address the social issues that have created barriers to their employment as productive citizens; grant totaling     $285,000 for three years.

• Reconcile New Orleans - Educating for Success:  Improving and Expanding Job Readiness and Retention Services seeks to increase program staff in order to accommodate program growth made possible by BCM's initial investment.  Adding a second case manager and a mental health specialist will enable us to provide more individualized job training, increase comprehensive, long term job supports, and more effectively address the array of mental health and medical care needs our students’ exhibit;  grant totaling $433,000 for three years.

BCM grants are awarded competitively. There were a total of 58 applications submitted during this funding cycle that were scored by BCM staff and outside experts. BCM funds eligible non-profit organizations in Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard, St. Tammany and Plaquemines in four zones of interest including health, education, public safety and governmental oversight.

According to Dr. Byron R. Harrell, President of BCM, “BCM will continue to support nonprofits that present their programs which will improve the wellbeing of the people living in the New Orleans region. It was the original mission of Baptist Community Ministries to provide a wholesome quality of life to our communities and emphasize family values, compassionate care, and unconditional acceptance of those that we serve with reverence for the dignity of each person and the cultural diversity of the community.  BCM will continue to look for those who share this desire to partner with in their endeavors.”
 

On April 2, 2011, 11 registered nurses completed the Church Nurse Education Program and 15 lay people completed the Lay Health Advocate Program. These 26 graduates represent 17 congregations, seven of which are new to the network, and two agencies. The course was held on the campus of the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary (NOBTS).

The course includes six days of content for church nurses and four and one-half days of content for lay health advocates. The curriculum for both programs is comprised of modules on spirituality, professionalism, holistic health, health promotion, community assessment, leadership, teambuilding, disaster preparedness, program implementation and evaluation.

A special luncheon was held to introduce area pastors to The McFarland Institute (McFarland) and the concept of wholistic health and wellness ministry. This concept could not have been better depicted than by Deacon Joyce Jackson of St. Anna’s Episcopal Church who delivered a conscious stirring soliloquy of the story of Jesus healing the woman, Azariah, who suffered with the issue of blood that concluded with the heartrending question: Are you Jesus? Upon hearing "Azariah’s" story and discussing its relevance today, the wellness ministry leaders, the pastors and McFarland staff entered into a covenant of cooperation to uphold the mission of Baptist Community Ministries (BCM) which is, in part, to follow the example of Jesus Christ by promoting spiritual, emotional and physical healing in the communities we serve. Nine pastors participated in the luncheon celebration.

A tradition of the course is to bless the hands of the wellness ministry leaders as they "go forth" into their churches and neighborhoods as wellness interventionists. Patricia Patterson, a Eucharistic Minister and employee of BCM conducted the "Blessing of the Hands" service along with Chaplain Joe Cull and Chaplain Faith Berthey from McFarland’s Chaplaincy Division. Local musicians Darrin Thomas and Teri Alsandor of local Stellar Award nominated gospel group, "Blessed," provided music that lifted the soul and surrendered the heart.

The graduation was held in the Martin Chapel on the NOBTS campus and was attended by over 100 pastors, family member and friends. Mr. Charles Beasley, Chief Operating Officer of BCM, brought all that the students had learned into perspective by focusing on BCM’s commitment to improving the health of the local community it serves. Dr. Ed Steele, Voice Professor at NOBTS, sang a beautiful hymn. Dwight Franklin provided music, and the invocation was offered by Rev. Melvin Jackson of the King Solomon Baptist Church. The keynote speaker was Elder Chris Sylvain, pastor of Faith Full Gospel Baptist Church and the Director of the Full Gospel Baptist Church International Health Ministry. Elder Sylvain, a pharmacist by trade, has been a vocal advocate for the empowerment of the poor, bound, and oppressed for many years. Elder Sylvain delivered a powerful message and charge to the graduates. He challenged them to seize this moment in their personal ministry to help free the disadvantaged and the disenfranchised in the same way that Esther of Old Testament lore has been memorialized for the significant role she played in freeing the Israelites from years of Babylonian bondage.

As the celebrants left the chapel many lauded the speech as provoking and seemed to embrace its’ powerful message as a personal edict to become a change agent in their own l wellness ministry.

• Louisiana Public Health Institute – Assessment of City of New Orleans Community Health Clinics; grant totaling $100,000 over 18 months.
• St. Tammany Parish Hospital Foundation – Nurse Family Partnership Mental Health Services; grant totaling $230,354 over 3 years.
• St. Thomas Community Health Center – Pediatric Healthcare Services in New Orleans, LA; grant totaling $150,000 over 3 years
• Algiers Charter School Association – Reaching High - Middle School Initiative; grant totaling $578,118 over 3 years.
• Junior Achievement of Greater New Orleans, Inc. – JA BizTown Capstone Challenge Campaign; grant totaling $236,031 over 3 years.
• School Leadership Center of Greater New Orleans – The SUNS Center (Serving the Unique Needs of Students); grant totaling $100,000 for 1 year.
• Innocence Project New Orleans – VOTE's Campaign to End Employment Discrimination (CEED); grant totaling $170,000 over 3 years.
• Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana – Juvenile Justice Project of Louisiana; grant totaling $50,000 for 1 year.
• Loyola University of New Orleans – Workplace Justice Project; grant totaling $67,736 for 1 year.
• New Orleans Police and Justice Foundation New Orleans CeaseFire Community Mobilization and Public Education Campaign; grant totaling $215,000 for 3 years.

BCM grants are awarded competitively. There were a total of 54 applications submitted during this funding cycle that were scored by BCM staff and outside experts. BCM funds eligible non-profit organizations in Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard, St. Tammany and Plaquemines in four zones of interest including health, education, public safety and governmental oversight.

I recently read a review in The Economist (May 22, 2010) of a new book written by Oren Harman titled "The Price of Altruism: George Price and the Search for the Origins of Kindness" in which the scientific explanation for altruism is discussed. Why should people be kind to strangers? It seems that George Price, an American economist, studied the question and developed a mathematical formula (now known as the "Price Equation") describing how characteristics of altruism can prove disadvantageous to the individual but also improve the state of the average group member. He noted that such characteristics are found in nature in bee and ant colonies wherein the sterile workers protect the queen and the colony at the expense of their individual survival. Another interesting example of altruism can be found in cellular slime moulds. This collection of cells live as individual amoebae until starved, at which point they aggregate and form a multi-cellular reproducing body in which some cells sacrifice themselves to promote the survival of other cells in the body.

Price was able to mathematically describe populations in which kindness was widespread and all members benefited from altruism. He calculated that this spirit of generosity could even be passed down through generations to the ultimate benefit of every member across time. Price compared his findings with similar but dying populations where charity was essentially nonexistent or abused.

At the time, researchers of altruistic behaviors among animals were ideologically opposed to the Darwinist concept of "survival of the fittest" and coined a new term known as "survival of the nicest". This new theory explaining altruistic behavior was needed to produce a conceptual framework compatible with theories of evolutionary origin. The Price Equation of Altruism is known today as a mathematically provable theorem which explains a motivation to help others without regard to reward or the benefits of recognition. In other words, "selflessness".

In the end, Price was so consumed by what he saw as the essential nature of altruism to society that he sought out and helped needy strangers at considerable personal sacrifice. In his later days, he had several homeless men staying in his apartment in London while he slept in his office. Price redoubled his efforts to help the poor as he observed the affects of cold weather on people without shelter. For all intents, he became a vagabond like those whom he sought to observe and describe. Eventually, despondent over his limited ability to help the homeless, Price committed suicide in the winter of 1975 by slashing his throat with a pair of nail scissors. His funeral was attended by five homeless men and a couple of his fellow scientists who recalled his days as a brilliant trained chemist. His legacy is the "Price Equation".

The Price Equation clearly helps us understand the positive and perhaps even essential nature of philanthropy to society and helps explain our impulse to give to others in light of what might otherwise be our Darwinian nature. George Price’s life is also instructive on the depths of our capacity for empathy. To me, however, the life of Dr. Price also underscores the old maxim taught on every commercial airliner before flying: in the event of a loss of power, "secure the oxygen mask for yourself before you can be of value to others".

"The Price of Altruism: George Price and the Search for the Origins of Kindness", by Oren Harman, WWNorton, 464 pages, Bodley Head.

Contact:  Cindy Markham
504.593.2316

New Orleans, LA, May 31, 2010 – Baptist Community Ministries (BCM) is pleased to announce it has awarded six grants to local nonprofit organizations totaling $745,446.00. The following organizations and programs were funded subject to annual performance reviews:

• Afterschool Partnership of GNO - Advancing Youth Development Training; grant totaling $125,000 for 1 year.
• Greater New Orleans STEM Initiative – Core Element Summer STEM Initiative; grant totaling $250,666 over 3 years
• Jefferson Chamber Foundation – Jefferson Chamber Foundation Academy; grant totaling $115,000 over 2 years
• Louisiana Partnership for Children and Families – Positive Parenting Program Triple P; grant totaling $59,780 for 1 year
• Resurrection After Exoneration – Beacon Industries, A Job Training Program for the Formerly Incarcerated; grant totaling $75,000 for 1 year
• Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans – Nine-A-Day the Head Start Way; grant totaling $120,000 over 2 years

BCM grants are awarded competitively. There were a total of 47 applications submitted during this funding cycle that were scored by BCM staff and outside experts. BCM funds eligible non-profit organizations in Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard, St. Tammany and Plaquemines in four zones of interest including health, education, public safety and governmental oversight. Applications are accepted twice a year, March 1-15 and September 1-15.

According to Dr. Byron R. Harrell, President of BCM, “BCM is proud to help the six nonprofits selected to move forward with their programs to improve the wellbeing of the people living in the New Orleans region. The overwhelming needs of the people living in our region and the high quality of the applications have made our funding decisions very difficult but we are pleased with the results. Baptist Community Ministries has been a provider of health care services and a leading advocate for a healthier community since 1924 and we are looking forward to working with our new partner organizations in the future.”

Power Corrupts; Absolutely
By Byron Harrell, Sc.D.

A recent article from The Economist (Jan 21st print edition) may be very instructive to philanthropists. Recent research explores the hypocritical sense of entitlement and the moral pliability that seems to follow people who exercise power. Researchers in the Netherlands and the United States designed several experiments to elicit states of power and powerlessness in the minds of volunteers and then they were tested for their moral flexibility in over-reporting travel expenses at work.

The results seem to confirm the ancient maxim that power corrupts and that it promotes a hypocritical tendency to hold other people to a higher standard than oneself. Powerful people are quick to condemn the transgressions of others before considering their own.

These findings are not particularly surprising. However, the research team went on to observe that powerful people who have been caught in their transgressions show few signs of contrition. It seems that powerful people not only abuse the system freely and hold others (less powerful) to a higher standard; they also feel entitled to abuse it. When the presence of power was viewed as justified by the powerful, they assumed it was even their right to take what they want.

This sense of entitlement explains why powerful people in high office misbehave. Powerful people do not break the rules simply because they can but because they genuinely believe they have a right to do so. The rules simply do not apply to the powerful. In the absence of this sense of entitlement, abuse is less likely.

Consider the imbalance of power in the relationship between philanthropists and grant recipients otherwise known as "the golden rule".  He who has the gold, rules. As an example, the hypocrisy of entitlement can be observed among funders who demand that their grantees collaborate to reduce costs while funders themselves rarely collaborate with other funders to boost their impact.

Do we hold others to a higher standard than ourselves? Do we in essence take advantage of our less powerful grantees because we feel entitled to do so?

Founding philanthropists who earned the original corpus of their endowments may feel most acutely justified in their power over grantees.  Perhaps they feel it is their right to dictate the myriad conditions they attach to their grants (even when those conditions are unproven).  Given the important findings of this recent research, it seems that the least we can do is to examine the things about which we feel entitled.

Chaplains placed by the Chaplaincy Services Division of The McFarland Institute serve in hospitals, the New Orleans Police Department and nursing homes. Below is the story of how one of our chaplains made a difference in her assigned setting:

I entered the 6^th floor ICU unit on a routine daily visit, checking in with staff, and visiting patients and their families.

Outside the door of Mr. E’s room, his nurse looked up at me. “It makes me so mad,” she said. “He” (she nodded toward Mr. E) “should just be able to go when it’s his time. He’s a ‘DNR’ (Do Not Resuscitate). Why the doctors won’t just let him have some peace, I don’t know!” I put my arm around her, heard her frustration, and supported her care. I checked my patient list and saw that Mr. E. was an 85-year old African-American Baptist man. Then, I gowned and gloved (required in that unit) and went in to his bedside. Mr. E.’s eyes were closed. Occasionally, they fluttered slightly.  He had an oxygen mask on his face, several IVs in his arms, and was hooked up to a portable dialysis machine. The monitor indicated a stable heart and breathing rate.

“Hello, Mr. E,” I said to him, “I’m Chaplain Jane. I’m the chaplain here, and I like to meet the patients and see how it’s going…” Mr. E. did not respond. I lifted the sheet near his hand, and slipped my hand into his. He gripped it with an amazingly strong grip. I just held it quietly for a minute, breathing and being peacefully with him. “Mr. E.,” I said, “I often offer a psalm or prayer for patients. Would it be alright with you if I offered prayer?” He did not respond, but kept holding my hand. I began to pray. I prayed a prayer of thanks for God’s presence, for His love which is with us now and eternally. I asked God’s blessing on Mr. E., and asked that God help Mr. E. feel His blessing, His comfort, and His peace, right now. I thanked God for His promise that in Him is life, now and forevermore. Following the prayer, I began to say the 23^rd Psalm. Near the end of the psalm, the monitor above Mr. E’s head began to ring and alarms began to sound. I looked up and saw that his heart rate was dropping quickly. I concluded the psalm, slowly and calmly. Mr. E’s eyes fluttered open for a moment, then closed.  (Because Mr. E. was a ‘DNR’, I knew that his nurse would not do any resuscitation, so rather than leave him to get his nurse I chose to remain with him, present and praying.)

As soon as I had finished the psalm, I began to sing hymns. Mr. E. did not let go of my hand; His nurse looked into the room; I did not lift my eyes from Mr. E., but kept singing – all four verses of “Amazing Grace,” slowly and deeply. The alarm on the monitor kept beeping loudly. I glanced up to see that his heart rate was dropping very quickly, and his breathing had almost stopped. After “Amazing Grace,” I offered “Steal Away to Jesus,” calmly and lovingly, then “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” tears running down my face (I chose songs about going “home” to God, to Jesus). By the end of these songs, his heart rate had almost completely stopped. I began “Amazing Grace,” again. By the end of the song, the lines on Mr.’s E’s monitor were all straight and flat. His breathing had stopped. Finally, I offered the blessing, “May the Lord bless you and keep you…,” a final prayer for the peace of God to be with Mr. E., now and forever. Then, I released his hand, and placed it back at his side, under the sheet.

When I stepped out of the room, his nurse came and hugged me. “That is how it should be,” she said. “That is how it should be!” I hugged her and thanked her for her love and care for Mr. E.; for steering me in his direction, for helping make his “going” a peaceful one. Other nurses came around, heard the story from Mr. E’s nurse, and nodded and smiled. His nurse said to me, “You know, it’s like he trusted you, and chose this time while you were there, to die.” I listened to a small group of ICU nurses describe the work that they do, and how sometimes that work means doing their best to help elders have a peaceful end. I heard their frustration and determination and encouraged the nurses to continue to call me, and to let me help them to help their patients.

Then, I went to the hospital chapel and prayed a prayer of thanks for the privilege of doing this work that I get to do, every day.

An hour later, I returned to the ICU to check on staff. Mr. E’s grown daughter had arrived, and I spent some time with her, went into Mr. E’s room with her, and offered prayer with her at her father’s bedside.

NEW ORLEANS, La (February 4, 2010) - The views of candidates for New Orleans Mayor and Council who attended a Criminal Justice Leadership Seminar are available on the website www.projectjusticenola.org as a tool to help voters measure candidates’ commitment to continuing reform efforts underway since 2007 to improve the city’s criminal justice system. In October 2007, all major stakeholders in the system signed a “Statement of Commitment” forming the Criminal Justice Leadership Alliance and agreeing to launch the initiatives   recommended by the Vera Institute of Justice in its “Proposals for New Orleans’s Criminal Justice System.”

New Orleans City Council Criminal Justice Committee Chair James Carter, Baptist Community Ministries, and Vera invited major candidates for Mayor and Council to a three-hour non-public learning session held January 28^th.   Candidates who attended or sent staff members to represent them answered questions about moving forward with initiatives to reinvent criminal justice in New Orleans.

Among findings presented to candidates attending the Criminal Justice Leadership Seminar:

• The arrest rate in New Orleans is more than 3 times the national average.
• The detention rate in New Orleans is more than 4 times the national average.
• The violent crime rate in New Orleans is more than twice the national average.
• Only 3 percent of arrests in New Orleans are for violent felonies. 51 percent   are for misdemeanor,   municipal, or traffic offenses.
• New Orleans spends $147 million, nearly one-third of its budget, on criminal justice.

Candidates learned of the progress of criminal justice initiatives begun in 2007 to:

• Refocus resources on addressing violent crime and less on minor offenses.
• Reduce arrest and jail detention rates.
• Expedite the processes from arrest to the prosecutorial charging decision and arraignment in court.
• Modernize practices in the Criminal District Court, including by establishing an allotment system that allows for vertical prosecution and continuity of defense representation.
• Refocus Municipal Court to address the underlying problems of persons who commit minor offenses and to rely less on jail and other punishment.
• Create a pretrial release/pretrial services system in the jurisdiction.

Candidates were asked to support these ongoing initiatives and to consider recommendations to:

• Change the City budget process by requiring uniform budget requests by criminal justice agencies receiving city funding and budgeting based on outcomes.
• Create a criminal justice agency to bring about real change and improve public safety.

City Council Criminal Justice Chair Carter said he is excited about the progress. “With Vera's technical assistance, the Criminal Justice Leadership Alliance has expedited the charging process and reduced the number of days between arrest and arraignment from 60 to 7.5,” Carter said.    “The data-driven approach used by Vera is an excellent example of how the City should use budgeting for outcomes.  The City's new leadership should ensure that taxpayer money is spent on those practices that yield this kind of return.”

Jon Wool, Director of Vera’s New Orleans office, said many of the candidates expressed enthusiasm to work on new initiatives to continue the improvement. “The candidates were hearteningly receptive to the idea that we, in fact, have the tools in place to respond to the present opportunity to reinvent criminal justice in New Orleans,” said Wool. “Although this is an area in which it is difficult to bring about change, the Criminal Justice Leadership Alliance, working with the leaders of the city’s key criminal justice agencies, has proven to be an effective platform from which to develop and implement reforms that promote public safety while bringing greater efficiency and justice to the system.”

Baptist Community Ministries introduced the website of Project Justice NOLA prior to the 2008 Orleans Parish District Attorney and Criminal Court Judge elections and has re-launched the site for the current election cycle.   After the 2010 citywide elections, Luceia LeDoux, BCM Program Director for Public Safety and Governmental Oversight plans to utilize the site to track the new leadership’s involvement in criminal justice change. “BCM has funded many projects intended to improve criminal justice outcomes. Looking back on those investments and today’s results we recognize the need to more closely track over time the impact of our resources. The site will be a tool to help us share our findings, new knowledge and ideas with community partners,” LeDoux stated.

News media outlets and community groups are encouraged to link www.projectjusticenola.org to their own websites. To arrange interviews with Councilman Carter, Mr. Wool, or Ms. LeDoux, or for more information on Project Justice NOLA, contact Paula Pendarvis or Marcia Kavanaugh at (985) 641-5960 or (901) 262-9144.

NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (November 2, 2009) - Two unique programs from the McFarland Institute aim to create better access to healthcare by educating church members as wellness ministry leaders in their congregations.

The Church Nurse Program and the Lay Health Advocate Program train volunteers to bring disease prevention services and health education to people, who often do not have regular access to health care.

The programs grew out of the congregational wellness division of the McFarland Institute, a New Orleans-based organization specializing in counseling and education for clergy and congregations.  In 1997, the institute began a pilot program that trained three registered nurses as health care advocates in their own churches.  By 2004, the lay program was established to assist churches without nurses in their congregation.  To date the institute has trained 250 church nurses and 120 lay health advocates, comprising 200 established wellness ministries.

All of the graduates are volunteers and all are members of the congregations they serve. The institute provides education in the philosophy of integrating healing and spirituality as well as practical matters such as documentation and legal issues.   To sustain the wellness ministries after training, ongoing support is provided through continuing education, congregational health assessments, quarterly meetings, networking and technical assistance.

The wellness ministers do not provide direct health care, like administering shots. Rather, they provide preventive services, education and counseling for their fellow church members.

There are resources out there. What the volunteers are good at is getting people in touch with them.  The church nurse and lay health ministers in collaboration with the pastor and leaders of the congregation guide the ongoing transformation of the faith community into a source of health and healing.

The institute recruits churches in Orleans, Jefferson, St. Tammany, St Bernard and Plaquemines parishes. Qualified churches may be eligible for grant funding upon completion of training.  The next training session for wellness ministry leaders starts in March, 2010.  For more information call Lisa Collins, Lay Health Coordinator, 504-593-2330 or Ruth Mack, Nurse Coordinator, 504-593-2339.  www.tmcfi.org

Contact:
Lisa Collins
lcollins@tmcfi.org
400 Poydras St, Suite 2525
New Orleans, Louisiana 70130
504-593-2330

By Byron Harrell, Sc.D.

Darwin didn't discover private foundations. If, instead of exploring the Galapagos Islands in the Beagle, he had landed amidst a community populated entirely by private foundations, he would most certainly not have concluded that the survival of a species depends on the speed, cunning, and determination of its strongest members. Rather, he might have observed that the members rarely adapt to external conditions and we may never have understood anything about the survival of a species except for our small distorted slice of perpetuity. Even the rare mortality was most frequently the result of self-inflicted "sunset" provisions.

William Schambra, writing in the July issue of the Chronicle of Philanthropy ("The Philanthropist) Rebuts Grant-Making Professionals") is critical of the growing sense of professionalism developing among those who labor in private foundations. Mr. Schambra devalues the contributions produced by skilled professional foundation staff in favor of more impulsive types of charity by "everyday Americans" (all the while appearing to confuse grant writers with grant makers). He goes on to suggest that professional staff do not feel the same sense of urgency that individual donors do when they see an unmet, desperate need. Thus, for the last forty years, according to Schambra, foundations have slid deeper and deeper into concrete.

In my view, the difference between original donors and  professional staff is not caused by a lack of urgency on the part of the staff as much as it is a difference of viewpoint. Many everyday American donors respond impulsively to a human need they can see and touch. Whereas, many professional staff have learned to ask the next question: "why is this happening"? Add to this, the closer proximity to and control of the money by the original donor and it becomes clear that donors can move quicker. But, they can also make quicker mistakes.

He may be right that the growth of professionalism among foundation staff is partly to blame for what many of us see as perpetual motion without observable impact in a few foundations.  However, if he is correct, he is only partially so. Lots of money and time has been wasted by individual impulsive donors too. The common denominator between ineffective professional staff and ineffective individual donors in my view is that they neither knew clearly what they wanted to get done. Small scale or large scale, complex or simple, short or long term, the single most clearly observable thread connecting money to poor results is a failing clarity of purpose.

Schambra is probably right that professional staff tend to confuse things with new terms (try "learning" as a noun) and complex solutions. But, the ineffectiveness of overly simplistic, penurious donors can be just as infuriating and equally harmful on the ground. My suggestion for professionals and "everyday" donors alike is that they spend a little more time defining what they intend to accomplish BEFORE they become just one more cog in the machinery of perpetual charitable motion.

Contact:  Cindy Markham
504.593.2316

New Orleans, LA, December 15, 2009 – Baptist Community Ministries (BCM) is pleased to announce the awarding of six grants during the fall transom grant cycle totaling $971,000. The following organizations and programs were funded for the terms as stated below subject to annual performance reviews:

• Bridge House – Bridge House Women's Program ($338,500/3 Years)
• Catholic Charities Archdiocese of New Orleans – Case Management Institute ($75,000/16 months)
• Common Ground Health Clinic – Common Ground Health Clinic Strategic Direction Assessment Project ($50,000/1 Year)
• Young Aspirations/Young Artists (YAYA), Inc. – Urban Heroes($180,000/3 Years)
• Families and Friends of Louisiana's Incarcerated Children – Parents in School Leadership Project ($255,000/3 Years)
• Innocence Project New Orleans – Voice of the Ex-offender ($72,600/1 Year)

There were a total of 43 applications submitted during this funding cycle. BCM funds eligible non-profit organizations in Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard, St. Tammany and Plaquemines in four zones of interest including health, education, public safety and governmental oversight. Applications are accepted twice a year, March 1-15 and September 1-15.

According to Dr. Byron R. Harrell, President of BCM, “Baptist Community Ministries is committed to promoting and fostering the growth of healthy communities throughout Greater New Orleans. With the award of these transom grants, the nonprofit groups can continue to build strong foundations within our communities and assist the wellbeing of our citizens.”

(This Article appeared in Health Affairs journal's GrantWatch section July/August 2009; Volume 28/Number 4.)

A health center in New Orleans’ Irish Channel neighborhoodrecently received federally qualified health center (FQHC) designation. Health Affairs asked Liz Scheer, health grants program directorat Baptist Community Ministries (BCM), to explain how this funderhelped make that happen.

"Well before Hurricane Katrina, the availability of neighborhood-based primary care" for low-income people and working families "was a concern throughout the region, and, in many instances, [was]nonexistent," she explained. After Katrina, developing geographicallyaccessible primary care in neighborhoods became a major goal among public and safety-net providers, especially because there had been few neighborhood clinics to begin with.

In early 2007, BCM, located in New Orleans and one of the largest private foundations in Louisiana, "commissioned a detailed environmental scan of primary medical care capacity in Orleans Parish" (county). The objective was to determine how much primary care access and availability there was so that BCM could "delineate strategic areas of opportunity" and target its resources for "restoring,strengthening, and expanding" access, Scheer explained. A "key consideration was the opportunity to secure" FQHC or FQHC look-alike designation, or both—and the funding those bring—forexisting or new primary care clinics, because the region, specifically, and Louisiana, in general, had not extensively used "this lucrative and long-term funding stream." The initial scan showed that New Orleans, as of 2007 and based on projected population statistics, could support two to three FQHC "core network providers" (separate and distinct organizations) encompassing some twenty-one to twenty-seven additional FQHC sites. Because "only one FQHC core network" existed then in all of Orleans Parish, "BCM determined that a unique opportunity" was there "to expand this federal funding stream," which was "essential to the sustainability of emerging neighborhood-based primary care" in Orleans Parish.

The St. Thomas Community Health Center (STTCHC) "was identified as a particularly good candidate to support in seeking FQHC provider designation since its client base was primarily a low-income,medically under-served, and vulnerable population" and was "already in place," Scheer noted. One of the first clinics to reopen after Katrina, STTCHC was a well-established entity founded to serve residents of the large St. Thomas public housing project (which was later "decommissioned and converted to a mixed-income community"). Securing FQHC designation is "technically challenging and requires the cooperation and support of any existing FQHC in the area," Scheer commented. Once those issues "were negotiatedand resolved," BCM’s consultants helped the health center file two applications with the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) in December 2007. The first was for FQHC look-alike provider designation, and the second was for full FQHC status. (Look-alike designation "primarily confers enhanced reimbursement" for services for Medicaid and Medicare patients" and other benefits but does not entail the operational support and additional funding of full FQHC status" via a Section 330 grant of the Public Health Service Act, she said.)

In June 2008 FQHC look-alike provider designation was obtained, and with continued BCM support and advocacy, STTCHC went onto secure full status and support, under a Section 330 grant, in February 2009, Scheer reported. Byron Harrell, presidentand chief executive officer (CEO) of BCM, stated that "ensuring that all residents have access to a medical home that is of high quality and sustainable is a key variable to rebuilding a healthier community." He added that "BCM is pleased to have played a role in securing FQHC funding for a well-regarded primarycare organization."

BCM awarded "approximately $50,000 for the environmental scan" done by the consultants, which "determined that the FQHC alternative...was a viable option" and "identified potential primary care providers who would benefit from this funding stream," Scheer said. BCM underwrote technical assistance by the consultants to STTCHC to ensure that its structure and capacity met FQHC requirements and were documented in the applications. She also said thatshe devoted 20 percent of her work hours to the project during 2007 and 2008—to ensure that "objectives and timelines were achieved."

For more information, send e-mail to escheer@bcm.org.