Sonoma Valley Education Foundation receives $100,000 grant from Catalyst Fund

The Catalyst Fund provided Sonoma Valley Education Foundation with a $100,000 grant that will be used to kick off a collaborative effort designed to address equity and other issues for public school students.|

DANIEL JOHNSON

INDEX-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER

November 11, 2023

Sonoma Valley Catalyst Fund Reimagine Grants

Sonoma Valley Catalyst Fund’s Reimagine Grants are available on a rolling basis and are awarded up to $100,000. The fund’s website provides the following information about the grants.

Focus of the grants

• Efforts that involve critical cooperation and collaboration among key actors who must work together for a solution

• Efforts that involve leveraging government resources, or utilizing them better; public-private partnerships

• Ideas for new solutions that need to be tested, piloted and designed further (including building an organization’s capabilities to execute the new solution)

• Research and convenings to define an emerging or chronic problem and seek solutions that no single organization can address alone

Examples of possible outcomes

• Increasing the adoption of evidence-based measurement tools, data collection and tracking

• Improving access to government funding sources

• Enhancing shared client outcomes

• Testing a new idea or seizing a new opportunity to create a more united, just and resilient Sonoma Valley

Sonoma Valley Education Foundation has been awarded $100,000 from a new grant program that aims to help nonprofit organizations that want to innovate, take risks and find new solutions to help build a more united and equitable community.

The foundation received a Reimagine Grant from Sonoma Valley Catalyst Fund, a Community Foundation Sonoma County fund. The grant program, announced this summer, will provide local nonprofit recipients with up to $100,000 in funding to develop ambitious goals for creating thoughtful and innovative solutions to regional issues.

All phases of innovation will be covered by the funding, from capacity building and program development to pilot programs and expanded partnerships.

Sonoma Valley Education Foundation plans to use the grant to kick off the Sonoma Valley Ready to Learn Collaborative.

“The nature of this grant profoundly aligns with the inspiration behind the Ready to Learn Collaborative, which is to innovate and find creative and impactful solutions to create a more equitable and unified Sonoma Valley for public school students,” said Angela Ryan, executive director of Sonoma Valley Education Foundation.

Ready to Learn Collaborative was conceived from a Catalyst Fund grant in 2021 that enabled Sonoma Valley Education Foundation and La Luz Center to conduct a community survey, Suenos de Sonoma, that identified opportunities for growth.

“Suenos de Sonoma was designed to give community members a voice in shaping our organizations’ post-COVID response programs and efforts,” Ryan said. “We asked community members to share their desired vision of the future.

“Their vision was of a centralized resource hub providing access to culture, care, community and creativity. Withing that ambitious vision, the Sonoma Valley Education Foundation and our partners have recognized the Ready to Learn Collaborative as the first step toward aligning and coordinating services.”

The collaborative is comprised of seven youth-serving organizations that will combine and leverage their assets and expertise to support students socially, emotionally and academically: Sonoma Valley Education Foundation, Sonoma Valley Unified School District, Boys & Girls Clubs of Sonoma Valley, Sonoma Valley Mentoring Alliance, Sonoma Valley Community Health Center, La Luz Center and The Community Mental Health Hub at Hanna Center.

“Collectively, our seven organizations have defined our shared goals, identified priorities and mapped our assets, and are in the early stages of identifying gaps and opportunities for targeted programming, starting with the After School Empowerment program kicking off at Sonoma Valley High School in 2024,” Ryan said.

She said that the Ready to Learn Collaborative is based on a rigorous analysis of available data, which allowed Sonoma Valley Education Foundation to identify strengths and gaps.

After School Empowerment Academy is one of the two programs that served as case studies and a north star for Ready to Learn’s ambitions. The academy is a combined effort of Sonoma Valley Education Foundation, Sonoma Valley Mentoring Alliance and the Boys & Girls Clubs of Sonoma Valley’s Teen services team.

The collaboration is designed to expand Sonoma Valley High School students’ access to in-person and after-school educational and social-emotional learning opportunities.

The other program that was used as a case study, Creative Campus, is a partnership between Sonoma Valley Education Foundation, Kimzin Creative and local organizations that champions student wellness through the arts.

“Creative Campus and the After School Empowerment are helpful case studies because they model the efficacy and powerful impact we can achieve when leveraging and combining the individual expertise and resources of each organization,” Ryan said. “These first two pilot programs have demonstrated, through survey performance and metrics, that they are moving the needle for students.”

Funding from the Catalyst Reimagine grant will be used to develop greater capacity within each of the seven organizations to collect and analyze data to determine effectiveness. Ryan said that she also envisions the creation of a public-facing dashboard to share progress with the community.

Sonoma Valley Catalyst Fund has provided one additional Reimagine Grant: a $13,000 grant to Groupo Ballet Folklorico to pilot two bilingual, cross-cultural, introductory ballet series in collaboration with Sonoma Conservatory of Dance and El Verano Elementary School.

“The Reimagine Grants program … exemplifies Catalyst’s work style of listen first, solve for the whole community, respond and initiate, and stay flexible,” said Diana Sanson, grants chair for Sonoma Valley Catalyst Fund, adding that the grants are intended to fill a gap in funding for nonprofit organizations.

Sanson said Sonoma Valley Catalyst Fund is in conversation with about half a dozen organizations about possible future Reimagine Grants.

“The funding for these grants come from the funds raised by Catalyst’s supporters who understand the need to innovate, collaborate and try new approaches to solving Sonoma Valley’s complex problems,” she said.

Ryan said that going forward, Sonoma Valley Education Foundation will always “throw its hat in the ring” for Reimagine Grant funding.

“We are honored and energized by the recognition from the Sonoma Valley Catalyst Fund,” she said. “We know we’re just beginning to scratch the surface of what we can accomplish on behalf of our local students as a collaborative.

“That said, our primary goal is to engage our local community and long-standing donors in supporting the Ready to Learn Collaborative so we can continue to achieve our goal: ensuring every student is safe, healthy and engaged so they can show up to school ready to learn.”

Sonoma Valley Education Foundation was established in 1993 and has provided more that $20 million to Sonoma Valley public schools through grants to teachers and district administrators, sponsored community initiatives, partnerships with youth-serving organizations and flagship programming, such as Preschool for All. For more information, visit svgreatschools.org.

Sonoma Valley Catalyst Fund’s mission is to mobilize philanthropic support and innovative approaches to address urgent, emergent and chronic challenges that no Sonoma Valley donor or organization can solve alone. Additional information about the fund can be found at sonomavalleycatalystfund.org.

Reach the reporter, Dan Johnson, at daniel.johnson@sonomanews.com