A couple of years ago, some of the Community Foundation's friends came to us with an idea to set up a fund that would support local artists.  The result was a fund known as the "Support Performing Artists" (or "SPA") fund.  Last year, we made a grant from that fund to support local playwright Christina Masciotti while she finalized a play called "Vision Disturbance."

"Vision Disturbance" is currently being performed off-Broadway at the Abrons Art Center in New York.   Yesterday, the New York Times did a review of the play.  You can read it here.

Tags:

Since we've moved into our new offices at 3rd and Court Street, there's been a lot of work in the neighborhood to make it look nicer.   We were fortunate to be able to work with the nice folks who own the bus terminal across the street to spruce the place up just a little more.  

They were kind enough to allow GoggleWorks to put a mural on the side of the building depicting the history of transportation in Berks County.  Even better, the project provided summer jobs to teenagers from Reading who are working under the supervision of an artist to design, produce and install the mural.  

The first panel went up today and, assuming the weather holds, there should be activity there for the next several days.

So stop by and check it out!

Tags:

We’re selling a house!

From time to time one of our generous donors makes a gift of real estate to the Community Foundation.   While many nonprofit organizations shy away from gifts of real estate, we know that they often have tax benefits to the donors that make them an attractive asset tto donate.   In fact, we often handle these gifts for other charities so that they and their donors can rely on their expertise.

We’ve just listed a beautiful small home at 1211 Fox Run in Exeter Township.   It’s a nice home in a nice neighborhood and at $112,000….a. great deal.

For more information, click here.

Tags:

If you're in the neighborhood, stop in and visit an amazing piece of art by local photographer Darren Modricker of Willow Street Pictures. Darren, who's a great friend of the Community Foundation captured Rocky, one of the Reading Police Department's canine officers at the grave of Scott Wertz.  Officer Wertz was killed in the line of duty in 2006.   Rocky is one of the dogs whose purchase, training and care is fully funded by Berks County Community Foundation as part of our relationship with the Friends of the Reading Police K9 Corps and as part of our ongoing commitment to supporting public safety in the City of Reading.

We're lucky to have the image on loan and on display in our lobby so drop by and visit it.  It tells a truly amazing story of the bond between the men and women who protect us every day and the animals who support them in that mission.

Tags:

Some time ago, the City of Reading established a commission to study the issue of poverty in the city.  That group, which has involved about 100 residents of our community would like to invite you to attend a public meeting to learn about their work and provide your input.

There are two upcoming meetings, one in English with Spanish translation, and one in Spanish, with English translation.

Tuesday, July 27, 4-9pm

IN ENGLISH, with Spanish translation Schmidt Center @ RACC North 2nd Street, behind the IMAX

Wednesday, July 28, 4-9pm

IN SPANISH, with English translation St. Luke’s Lutheran Church 9th & Green Streets

Tags:

As the Reading Eagle noted in yesterday's editorial, Berks County ranked very highly (second only to Erie County) in making effective use of economic subsidies to encourage sustainable development.  The news came from a Keystone Research Center report comparing Pennsylvania's communities by how much of the economic subsidy they invested in already developed areas as opposed to undevelped areas.

A few years ago, The Brookings Institution slammed Pennsylvania in report for disproportionately making economic development investments in areas that required new, expensive infrastructure.  Those investments accelerated the decline of Pennsylvania's communities and threatened, rather than enhanced, our economic competitiveness.

Berks County has taken a leadership role in promoting smarter investments.  Through efforts like our Farmland Preservation Program and Albright College's Center for Excellence in Local Government the community has sought to have its government help encourage the redevelopment of existing areas while preserving our important farmland and natural areas.

The Keystone Research Center report is important affirmation that we're on the right track.   It's clear that Berks Countians want a vibrant urban core, healthy suburbs and to preserve our history of farming.  And it's equally clear that they don't want to subsidize the destruction of that vision.

This report should be a source of pride to all Berks Countians.

Tags:

For the second time (the first was in 2000) Berks County Community Foundation funded a special project to encourage county residents to participate in the U.S. Census.  The Berks County Complete Count Committee did a fantastic job encouraging Berks Countians to participate in the census.   

That participation is measured by what is called the "voluntary participation rate."  That's the percentage of forms that are turned in.  If a form isn't turned in, then a census enumerator goes to the household to ask the questions on the form.  If they can't get the information, they may check with neighbors and end up with an "informed guess."

So, getting a high voluntary compliance rate is really key to getting a good count of our community's residents.  And the accuracy of that count is important in everything from making sure we get our share of federal and state funding to making sure we get the right number of state representatives and senators.

The U.S. voluntary participation rate is 72%.   Pennsylvania does a little better with a rate of 76%.  But Berks County--you rock.   Our voluntary participation rate was 80%!!!    

Congratulations and thanks.  You helped make sure that Berks County counts!

Tags:

The Berks County Community suffered a loss today when Jeanette Finkel died.  Jeanette was a part of the fabric of this community in too many ways to count.  As a vice president of Reading Hospital, Jeanette was in the forefront of efforts to improve community health.  In the mid 1990s Jeanette helped organize the "Coalition for a Healthy Community,"  a massive effort to create a collective community vision that is still much talked about.

More than a community leader, Jeanette was a friend and mentor to many.   She had endless time to spend with teenagers considering careers in health.  Those of us who simply needed sound advice kept Jeanette's number on speed dial.   She even had time to teach my kids to make to make her famous chicken when my wife was ill.   And that was Jeanette, ever considerate, ever thinking about others in the community and ever dedicated to the community good.

While our thoughts are with her husband Steve and their children, our thoughts also go to the loss all of us feel.

Tags:

Yesterday's Reading Eagle story on the Tulpehocken Tractor Day shows just how much some parts of our community have changed.   

My family lives in the Tulpehocken School District.  The rolling farmland and wooded areas provide some of the most beautiful vistas in Berks County.  When we first moved here, it was almost exclusively a farming community.  The school district pretty deliberately undervalued educational attainment as most of the residents viewed having students go off to college as a threat to the agricultural heritage of the area.

Today, the area is increasingly influenced by people who have "moved in"--many from the New York metro region.  Assumptions about what kind of educational attainment are needed (even for agriculture) have changed, causing tensions in the community.  

Tractor day is just one example of a community thinking hard about its heritage and its future.  Students from farm families use Tractor Day to assert the importance of our regions agricultural heritage even while the district is among the few in the nation to teach Mandarin Chinese.

The dynamics of communities are endlessly fascinating.

Tags:

Communities are made up of lots of different things.  Church picnics, PTO meetings, informal walks in the park and charity events all give us opportunities to meet neighbors, "pitch in" and enjoy the things that a community has to offer. 

This weekend, one of our local nonprofit organizations will put on a huge example of the kind of event that makes a community special.  The Mid-Atlantic Air Museum will sponsor it's annual World War II weekend, which I understand is the largest of its kind in the nation.   You can learn more about it here.

It's really quite an event.  The "flying stock" (WWII airplanes) are really spectacular and many of them are available for tours.

The event brings tourists from around the country, just one of the many ways that the local nonprofit sector contributes to the vitality of our community!

Tags:

For nearly a decade, the Community Foundation has managed two funds – The Private School Tuition Assistance Fund and the Berks County Scholarship Tax Credit Fund – which provide scholarships for Berks County students who pay tuition to attend kindergarten through grade 12.

This is the time of year when we normally reach out to schools and families and invite them to apply for scholarships for the next school year. This year, however, for the first time since we began managing these funds, we do not have enough money to run a competitive scholarship application process for these families.

The two funds that feed this program operate differently from one another, although the amount available from each fund is pooled annually to be used as scholarships. The Private School Tuition Assistance Fund is an endowed fund that distributes approximately $1,500 each year. The Berks County Scholarship Tax Credit Fund is a pass-through fund made up of contributions from Pennsylvania businesses that receive a significant state tax credit for donating to the fund. In past years, the Tax Credit Fund has topped $50,000 in corporate donations, and therefore, distributions.

This year, as a result of the late passage of the state budget and the economic downturn, the Tax Credit Fund received a total of $3,000 in contributions. This is a blow to the dozens of extraordinarily low-income students who benefited from scholarships each year to attend special-needs and faith-based schools.

The $4,500 available for tuition assistance this year will be distributed to students at the John Paul II Center for the 2010-2011 school year. We are hopeful that corporate funding will once again be available to support this program in the 2011-2012 school year.

Tags:

In February, Jane Meeks from the Berks County Solid Waste Authority became a frequent visitor in our building.   Her visits were marked by a useful, if odd-looking process:   Jane was weighing our trash.

Like any building in Reading, we are required to recycle as much of our trash as possible.  We separate cardboard and paper; glass and plastic and send them off to the recycling stream.   But we asked Jane to see if we could take it one step further and answer the question:  Were we recycling everything we could?

So Jane emptied out our trash bags, analyzed everything and came up with some recommendations.

First, we're adding an electric composter to the building.  We have enough left over organic waste (mostly food) that we'll be able to generate small amounts of compost to feed the plants, while avoiding putting about 25 lbs. of trash into the landfills each year.

Secondly, just to show how serious we are, Jane has sent the small "one cup" coffee makers that we use off to be analyzed.   We think that if we take them apart the filter and the coffee grounds can be composted.  While the small plastic cups aren't marked, we've sent them off to be analyzed to see if they can be recycled.

Our goal is to keep searching for ways to limit the waste coming out of our building.  It's good business and it's good for our environment.

Tags:

Community Leaders come in all types.   Some do big things, grab the headlines and become legends.   Others work quietly, patiently and often don’t get enough recognition.

One of those quiet leaders passed away on Tuesday.   Bill Pendelton was a friend of Berks County Community Foundation in many ways and a great asset to our community.

I first met Bill through his work with Carpenter Technology where more than one CEO confided in me about how much they depended on Bill’s expertise in complex trade negotiations in Washington. 

But it was his work in the community that those of us at the Community Foundation will most remember.  Bill was an active, hard working board member at Community General Hospital and Community General Hospital Foundation.   He helped guide Community General through a sale to St. Joseph Hospital and guided the assets from the sale to create the June Roedel Memorial/ Community General Hospital Scholarship Fund and the Community General Hospital Healthcare Fund at the Community Foundation.   As best I can recall, he never missed a meeting of either of the committees that guide those funds.

I know Bill took particular delight in meeting the Roedel scholars.  To him, that was a continuation of a core value of Community General Hospital.  Leta Doganes, who runs our scholarship programs, knew that when she started scheduling a scholarship meeting, she better start with Bill's schedule, because when it came to picking scholarship recipients, Bill was going to move mountains to be there.

Bill also served as chairman of the Berks County committee of the Pennsylvania Economy League.  He served in that role for decades and is responsible for the fact that Berks County has the state’s most active involvement with the Economy League.   He also served on the state board of the Economy League and helped them rebuild their membership during some difficult time

In Bill’s final years, he was able to pursue his love of skiing full time during the winter months in Vail.   But when my family visited with him there, Kim and I (and our kids) were peppered with questions about the place he really loved:  Berks County.

Bill Pendelton was one of those solid community leaders who never grabbed the headlines, but always got the job done.   All of us at the Community Foundation will miss him.  Our thoughts are with Carolyn, his daughter, Dolores his fiancee and dancing partner, and their families.

Tags:

Any day now, if you haven't already gotten it, your household should receive a U.S. Census form.  It's important that you fill that form out and send it back in.   If it takes you more than about five minutes, I'd be surprised.  The short form has been greatly simplified. It's easy to fill out and the law requires you to do so.

It's also critically important to the future of our community.  Everything from how many Starbucks restaurants we have (not so important to me---I don't drink coffee) to how much money our local communities get from the Federal government (very important) is decided by data generated by the U.S. Census.

That's why Berks County Community Foundation has funded (both this year and in 2000) specific, local efforts to promote participation in the census.   It's critical that all of our residents be counted.

Last time the census was conducted, Berks Countians filled out the census form at a rate that was 5-7% higher than the national average.   It's not even possible to estimate the impact of a more accurate count on our community over the past decade, but it easily runs into hundreds of millions of dollars of money flowing into our community that wouldn't have otherwise.

I know that many of our residents are concerned about sharing this data (even though it's not much more).   I personally asked the U.S. Census director the following question:  In the history of the U.S. Census, has anyone ever been arrested or deported because of information on the census form they filled out?   His answer:  "Unequivocally and absolutely no."

Census data is kept confidential.  The IRS is not permitted access to it.  Neither is the CIA, the FBI, INS or any other agency.  Every census worker takes an oath to not disclose the information in the census and violation of that oath is a serious Federal offense.

So let's do something together.   Let's fill out the forms like never before.  Let's make sure Berks County gets counted----and gets its fair share of our nation's riches!

For more information, go to www.census.gov

Tags:

I just hate it when people call us “neutral.”    I know they mean well.  In fact, they usually mean it as a compliment.  But at the Community Foundation, we aim to be anything but neutral.

Now,  I should acknowledge that some of my testiness about this term is incited by my friend and colleague Emmett Carson, the president of the Silicon Valley Community Foundation.  But he’s just the one that gave voice to it.

Community Foundations don’t seek to be neutral.   We seek, in fact, to be relentless advocates for progress in our communities.  We intend to ask tough questions—which immediately moves us out of “neutral.”  The mere fact that we’ve asked the question “how could our public schools be  better?”  has irritated some school administrators--and thrilled others.   It’s safe to say that neither group views us as “neutral.”

Throughout the  development of the City of Reading’s financial crisis, the Community Foundation has positioned itself as the “teller of truth.”  There are probably a whole lot of people who wish we had stayed “neutral,” because very few of the players involved seem to feel that telling the truth is in their best interests, but we’ve chosen a position that’s not exactly “neutral.”

The problem with “neutral” is that  a car in  “neutral” never moves anywhere.    We view our job as helping to move the community forward in—as best we can tell—the way the community wants to go.  We can be pretty tireless in that effort. 

But if the Community Foundation had remained “neutral,”  Berks County wouldn’t  lead the nation in farmland preservation.   Berks County wouldn’t have the only County Agriculture Coordinator in the Commonwealth.  The City of Reading’s financial condition might still be a bit of a mystery (and subject to a lot of denial).   Berks County wouldn’t have lead the Commonwealth in being counted in the 2000 census. 

All of these accomplishments and more are the result of the Community Foundation moving “out of neutral.”

What we do want to be is evenhanded.  We want to hear everyone’s ideas and—as much as possible—incorporate them into our thinking.   We’ve found that community issues are seldom decided as  “either/or” propositions.  Usually, when we all get together we can find solutions that benefit the community and work for everyone.  But sometimes, not.  And that’s when we’re not neutral.

So call us “even-handed,”  but please don’t call us “neutral.”

Tags:

The United States Tennis Association has recognized the Community Foundation-sponsored tennis program with one of its "Chapter of the Year" Awards. We are very proud of our association with this program which provides tennis instruction to hundreds of students in the county. This project is overseen by our Tennis Committee, which is an amazingly dedicated group of volunteers.   

Congratulations to them and the City of Reading Parks Department for some well deserved national recognition!

Tags:

A couple of weeks ago, I had a visit from Shashank Bengali who is a reporter for McClatchy newspapers.  He was working on a story on the connection between the deteriorating economic outlook in cities like Reading and the decline of President Obama's popularity in those areas.   You can access the story and an accompanying video here.

This article could have been written about any of the many older industrial cities in America, or about town in Pennsylvania's former coal or steel regions. Changing this image will require a change in the way we think about ourselves and our approach to economic development.  Cities like Reading, Johnstown, Bethlehem and Scranton (just to name a few) have to begin to imagine a future that isn't a "return to the past."   

At Berks County Community Foundation, we're trying to help the community imagine a future where a highly educated talent pool attracts great jobs.   It's a future where we capitalize on our incredible location and amazing quality of life.  Many of our future blog posts will focus on those efforts, but the McClatchy story provides a sobering reminder of how big the challenge is.

Tags:

Every Friday, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it our finance assistant circulates a list of the upcoming meetings that will be held in the Lawrence R. Pugh/VF Corporation Conference Center.   The list always includes a few events or meetings that the Community Foundation is hosting, but the majority of the events are meetings being held by community organizations like the Circle of Life Coalition featured in the Reading Eagle yesterday.

Next week's list contained an amazing fourteen events!  Everyone in the office was surprised by the number and thrilled that the rooms are getting such heavy use.  That's what we want.

The rooms in the building represent a significant investment in better community decision making.   We know that having access to comfortable, well-equipped space can make it just that much easier to make important decisions, conduct meetings or provide training.  

That's why we committed to making this space available at no charge to community groups during the first year of operations (during regular business hours....we do charge a small fee after hours).   We want people to use the space.

We've not decided how to manage the space after the first year (though it will certainly be available to the community).   We may institute a modest charge, we may decide that this is part of our mission in the community.  

So in the meantime, come and join the groups that have found the conference center to be a great place for meetings and gatherings.  Rooms can even be booked online.

Tags:

The recent cuts in the police force of the City of Reading have been a cause for a great deal of community concern.

First, the impact that it  has on the officers and their families is a terrible one in a time of economic crisis.  Over fifteen years working downtown and working closely with the Reading Police Department, I've come to know many of these men and women as incredibly dedicated to their work and willing to risk their lives every day to deal with situations that would scare the heck out of most of us.

Perhaps just as importantly, the impact on the community is enormous.  By any estimate that we've ever been able to generate at the Community Foundation, the police force in Reading should have around 250 officers, not the 175 or so that are on the force in the 2010 budget cuts.  The implications of that to the City of Reading are enormous.   But the challenges that originate in the city inevitably spread to surrounding communities throughout the county as well.   

The City of Reading may have had no choice but to cut its force to meet the requirement that it balances its budget.  In fact, it is entirely possible that additional cuts are in the offing if the City's revenue projections don't hold up.

Today's Wall Street Journal has an article about this trend across the country. It appears that police and fire departments are suffering cuts all around the nation.   I imagine that much of this is due to the economic downturn.  But it would be a mistake in our case to imagine that a turnaround in the economy will lead to  a reversal of this course in the City of Reading.   

Reading's acceptance into Pennsylvania's Act 47 program is an admission that the problems here, and in other Pennsylvania cities are structural, not temporary.

The General Assembly needs to use the current budget process to craft solutions for Pennsylvania's cities or it is only a matter of time until they cannot afford any police or fire protection.   And that will cost all of us.  Dearly.

Tags:

Governor Rendell will, for the final time tomorrow, present his budget address to the General Assembly.   When I worked in Harrisburg, I came to learn that this was easily any governor's most important speech.   This speech begins the annual process of establishing the state's budget, which, as we learned last year, affects communities like ours in many ways.  

Now we all know that last year didn't go too well.  In truth, the final parts of the budget weren't completed until early January, well past the June 30 deadline.   And as we enter this year's budget process, the picture isn't pretty.   The state will reportedly begin the process with a significant deficit, which surely won't make the process easier.

But somehow we need our legislators to deal with the serious issues facing Pennsylvania cities.  Reading's Act 47 status is only one of the many symptoms of a badly broken system of state laws governing our cities.   As we dive deeper into the situation facing the City of Reading, it becomes clearer that no set of choices available to cities like Reading.  Along with other community foundations and the Department of Community and Economic Development, we funded a study that compared the fiscal health of five Pennsylvania cities. In short, it showed them all in terrible financial shape and without many obvious alternatives.

The legislature hasn't been too warm to a suggestion from city advocates that it authorize a local option sales tax to help benefit struggling municipalities.   And they didn't like meaningful pension reforms that would have lowered costs.  But they're going to have to do something.

So here's hoping that the Governor will have an idea or two that the legislature can agree to.   Time is running out for Pennsylvania's cities.

Tags: