Sprouting Spring Newsflash 2014 2014

Board of Directors

President Ray Schneider

Vice President Farhad Motiwalla

Treasurer Susan Tall

Secretary Jeff Taylor

Executive Director Clemens Pietzner

Officers

Thomas Campbell

Tessa Henry

Johanna Gilbert

Dave Silber

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The snow and ice of this past winter have finally receded, and all around us, signs of spring are everywhere: in the “greening” of lawns, fields and trees, in the flowering of plants and shrubs, in the longer hours of sunlight, and in the re-emergence of T-shirts and sandals! Triskeles’ work also expands during this time, as raised bed gardens are ready for installation and planting, as we reach out to youth, partners, and placements for our spring and especially summer programs, and as the pressure on fundraising and hiring summer staff increases. The substance of our youth programs ebbs and flows over the whole year. In 2013, we provided over 15,500 hours of youth programming, grew and donated over 15,000 pounds of healthy produce to food pantries/people in need, touched over 800 youth in our programs with 90% of the participants completing our programs. Over 335 volunteers contributed close to 8000 hours of service in connection to our work and, all of this was made possible by over 300 donors. As we forge ahead in 2014, we anticipate further “blossoming” of our work! Of course, none of this happens by itself, and the Triskeles team is vital to these outcomes. We are delighted to welcome the following new staff people: Hannah Davis has taken on our critical Administrative Assistant role; Bethany Asplundh is volunteering in a staff role to help with the development of our Philadelphia programmatic expansion; Lekha Rao continues to volunteer countless hours of essential service in relationship to our website management and grant research process; and Johanna Gilbert (from Vanguard) has joined our Board. We are very grateful for our donors/funders, youth and family participants, Board members, and staff. All of these people, and many more, play a central role in Triskeles’ cycle of life and service. Thank you! Clemens Pietzner Executive Director

New Beginnings __________________________________________________________

1David Zamarin, Tempus Presenter

Tempus Conference 2014 Highlights Mark Birdsall, Program Director

Our second Tempus Conference for young social entrepreneurs at the Kimberton Waldorf School was highlighted by a group of exciting and enthusiastic presenters who ranged in age from seasoned professionals in their 50’s with several businesses behind them to young entrepreneurs in their 20’s and teens still in the throes of their first business venture. It was a diverse group with one thing in common—the desire to share their entrepreneurial know-how with the conference participants. The younger generation was well represented by talent such as Kyle Schutter, founder of Takomoto Biogas in Kenya and Rashaun Williams of the Impact Hub in Philadelphia. David Zamarin, founder of Detra Pel while still a high school student, was inspiring to young, would-be entrepreneurs. Chris Conway, a serial entrepreneur whose latest venture is Your Health Solution and Don Shaffer, CEO of RSF Social Finance, showed that age and experience have a lot to offer as well. We were especially glad to have Melinda Emerson, the SmallBiz Lady with 250,000 Twitter followers lead us off with the Saturday morning keynote. 115 young adults from all over the area participated, representing over a dozen high schools, several college, Junior Achievement and other youth groups. In their evaluations, 98% rated the speakers ‘inspiring,’ and nearly 90% stated that they would like to return to Tempus again next year. All-in-all, it was a wonderful conference which brought together under one roof some of the great social entrepreneurs of our time—and of the future!

Spotlight on Food For Thought

Bob Steininger, Assistant Director of Youth Programs

Warm weather, spring blossoms, birds singing, and longer daylight hours. All this can mean only one thing: Food For Thought (FFT) will soon be here! Just like the coming of spring this year, which has been slow in arriving, Food For Thought does not just happen overnight. There is a lot that must be done in preparation for the five week program.

To get ready for the summer, we must make agreements with local farms, where the teens will spend about half of each day working and learning about agriculture. Space at the Kimberton Waldorf School must be rented, as this is the “home base’ of FFT East, where breakfast, lunch, cooking and business skills classes, and team building all take place. Should we receive sufficient funding, FFT West will be held at Vollmecke Farm for all activities. Summer staff must be hired: several team leaders, a business skills instructor, an instructor for the cooking and nutrition classes, a farm educator and bus drivers to transport youth. Finally, community service projects and visits to businesses related to food production, services or education must be planned and coordinated.

The most important part of FFT preparation is also underway: recruiting the youth who will participate in the program. Meeting all the prospective teenagers who hope to secure a place in FFT is probably the best part of getting ready for the summer. While there is a great deal involved in recruiting-- meeting each candidate, along with their parents, doing group presentations at schools and youth groups, and interviewing all the candidates-- these wonderful young people are the final piece of the program that makes all the months of planning and hard work worth every ounce of effort. And, just like spring is a time for planting vegetable gardens with the anticipation of the summer harvest, spring planning for Food For Thought anticipates all the pieces coming together for five, fun-filled weeks and a bunch of wonderful youth!

Food For All Continues to Flourish Lauren Blood, Program Coordinator

Triskeles is entering the third year for the Food For All program. In 2013, Triskeles and our 22 partners harvested over seven tons of healthy produce for people in need. For the 2014 planting season, Triskeles will have five new partners and be stewarding a total of 329 garden beds.

The social benefit of the Food For All program continues to be important. Last year, Triskeles’ partnership with the Chester County Youth Center created an opportunity for them to receive a County award for their garden. The Youth Center shares a property with the Chester County Prison, where this year, 12 raised beds have been installed in the prison yard, allowing inmates to give back to the community, be physically active and learn about gardening.

Interest in the program continues to grow. As a result of last year’s success at the Phoenixville branch, two additional branches of the Philadelphia Freedom Valley YMCA will have gardens installed. In fact, in 2013, the Health and Wellness Director at the Phoenixville YMCA received an award for her role in the garden project and its ongoing benefit to members.

With its unique combination of health promoting activities and the opportunity to fulfill the community engagement mission of corporate, education, and religious organizations, Triskeles’ Food For All program continues to receive media attention and community acclaim.

SAP Garden

Immaculata University Garden

Vanguard Garden

QVC Garden

NYC Sustainable Directions Internship is Gearing Up for Summer Learning Holly Slater, Program Coordinator

The NYC Sustainable Directions Internship Program is kicking into high gear for this summer. Applications went out to schools in February, and teenagers have been invited to apply from Urban Assembly schools, Cristo Rey schools, Millennium High School, Stuyvesant High School, and NEST+M (New Explorations in Science, Technology and Math). We anticipate receiving close to 80 applications for what will be a much smaller number of spaces available, creating a healthy competition and challenging screening of candidates. Our mentors will play a part in deciding on placements; on June 11th, they will have the opportunity to meet and interview candidates at our annual job fair. We will welcome many of our host sites and mentors from last year who are returning to mentor one or two of our interns, and it is also an exciting time to bring new mentors and host sites on board. We are always inspired by the organizations that donate time and energy to providing this fabulous opportunity to these teenagers. Our curriculum for the 10 training seminars will once again bring in speakers who volunteer their time to speak about their lives, their businesses, and why they believe they should pass on the message of social entrepreneurship to these youngsters. We will teach youth philanthropy, social entrepreneurship, interview and presentation skills, technology and resume writing, career advice, as well as provide general guidance on the final project, their “Triple Bottom Line” business plan. During these seminars, the interns learn from each other, learn about each other, and learn how to work cooperatively with each other. This year we are hosting our seminars and job fairs at various new locations. The majority of our seminars will be held at the Urban Assembly School for Green Careers on 84th Street. Our job fair will be in the usual location at the Trinity Wall Street Offices on Trinity Place downtown, and our final event will either be held at the Urban Assembly School for Green Careers or at Stuyvesant High School. We are grateful to these schools for providing us with space for such events. As we head into spring, I look forward to meeting this year’s group of incoming interns; I look forward to introducing and matching them to their mentors at their host sites and I look forward to seeing them every Wednesday at seminars, when I can become a part of their lives if even for a short time. Thanks, Holly Slater Triskeles NYC Program Director Please do like the new SDI Facebook page, which can be found under “Triskeles Sustainable Directions Internship Program”, to keep up to date on SDI events during the next few months!

Over the years, Triskeles has done small amounts of programming in Philadelphia: a few internships for teens, our early Food for Thought partnership with Temple’s Youth Voices programs, and some community service work with Montgomery Townhouses. In the past year, the pace has started to pick up. Triskeles’ Food for All program provided gardens and gardening expertise for the Kroc Center (Salvation Army) and Drexel’s Dornsife Center for Neighborhood Partnerships, taking our staff members into the city quite frequently. This dovetailed nicely with an expression of interest by a regional foundation in Triskeles’ developing programming for urban youth.

With a good bit of time donated by a skilled volunteer, Beth Asplundh, and a lot of leg work by staff investigating possible partnerships, we have planned several program offerings and are seeking full funding for these:

Workshop series in whole foods cooking and nutrition, urban agriculture, eco literacy and sustainability

Internships for older teens at green businesses and entrepreneurial training

Advanced green job skills training for older teens and young adults

Healthy activities at Philadelphia elementary schools in a new partnership with the Philadelphia Green Schools Alliance and The Big Sandbox, whose goal is to duplicate their success in Denver and other cities and create sustainable ‘learning landscapes’ at all the schools.

These are exciting new avenues for us to expand our programs in partnership with some of the many great organizations already doing things of note in the City of Brotherly Love. Stand by for more news!

Triskeles’ Budding Philadelphia Partnership: An Update from Mark Birdsall

Triskeles’ programming would not be possible without the support of generous individuals, foundations, corporations, and organizations throughout the extended community. They enable us to serve ever more youth and communities. Space does not permit me to name all of our funding partners, but every contribution we receive is meaningful, and are very grateful to all of our supporters.

Many of our funders have supported Triskeles for several years, and it is often the confidence that their continued support demonstrates that enables us to attract the interest of new contributors. This year, for the first time, The Leo and Peggy Pierce Family Foundation has become a funding partner and generously provided a grant in support of our Food For All program. The Leo and Peggy Pierce Family Foundation “seeks to end hunger and food insecurity in the five-county Philadelphia area,” and we are proud to report that in 2013, Food For All provided access to more than seven tons of healthy fresh food to residents in Chester, Montgomery and Philadelphia Counties. We could not have done so without the generosity of those who supported us, old and new. Thank you!

Blooming with Gratitude Lisa Faranda, Grants Manager

707 Eagleview Blvd.

Suite 105 Exton, PA 19341

PHONE:

(610) 321-9876

E-MAIL: info@triskeles.org

We’re on the Web!

See us at:

www.triskelesprograms.org

TRISKELES 707 Eagleview Blvd.

Suite 105 Exton, PA 19341

Calendar of Events

April-November Food For All Program June 11th NYC SDI Interview Day June 26th Food For Thought Begins June 30th @ 5pm NYC SDI Closing Ceremony July Camp Jumpstart July 31st Food For Thought Closing Ceremony October 10th & 11th Triskeles Board Meeting October 10th @ 6pm Triskeles’ 6th Annual Wine Event