Instruction does much,
but encouragement everything.
— Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
2020 Grant recipients of the Stockel Family Foundation
24th Street Theater Company
For over 20 years, 24th Street Theater has been an award-winning theater and leading provider of arts education in Los Angeles. Its mission is to engage, educate and provoke a diverse community with a wide and ‘eclectic’ array of high-quality artistic programming. In particular, the organization introduces over 13,000 children from traditionally underserved communities to the dramatic arts every year, and is also considered a national pioneer in theater for young audiences. With our 2020 grant, we support the theater’s video content creation as they transition programs to online delivery. Recent SFF grants: 2019 Teaching Artist Program, 2018 for general operations, 2017 to development and production of a world premiere play ICE, 2016
24THSTREET.ORG →
Acaté Amazon Conservation
Acaté is a conservation organization based in the United States and Perú that operates in close partnership with the Matsés indigenous people, a tribe living along remote tributaries in the frontier divide of northeastern Perú and Brazil. The Matsés safeguard 1.5 million hectares of primary rainforest and shield some of the last remaining uncontacted tribes in isolation from unwanted encroachment from the outside world. Acaté works to protect their forests and way of life through on-the-ground initiatives that are developed with, led, and implemented by the Matsés indigenous people. The Foundation’s 2020 grant funding will be used to provide the Matsés indigenous people with communication equipment, monitoring tools, and training courses so that they can detect illegal incursions from timber cutters, illegal settlers, and bushmeat hunters. Through this grant, Acaté will support the Matsés people with technology and training as they continue to protect this globally important rainforest area of over a million hectares in Peru.
ACATEAMAZON.ORG →
Atlanta Children's Shelter
The Atlanta Children’s Shelter strives to break the cycle of poverty for families facing homelessness by building pathways to long-term self-sufficiency, and providing quality early childhood education. Since 1986, the shelter has served over 5,000 families and more than 8,000 children. Their primary goals are to transition families from the streets or shelters and into permanent homes while preparing homeless children for a bright future. Our grant supports their Early Childhood Education Program to ensure homeless children reach developmental milestones through curriculum learning, daily nutritional meals, healthcare, and child therapy. Recent SFF grant: 2019
Atlanta Humane Society
The Atlanta Humane Society is a no-kill shelter providing sheltering and adoption, veterinary care, and community outreach. The organization operates out of three locations in metro Atlanta and helps to find nearly 10,000 animals loving homes each year. As one of the oldest non-profits in Atlanta, they have been caring for the Atlanta community and animals for more than 147 years. In support of the deep and significant relationship between humans and animals in this community, Atlanta Humane Society was chosen for funding again in 2020 by our youngest family member. Recent SFF funding: 2019
Beyond Pesticides
Beyond Pesticides works with communities and advocates in protecting public health and the environment to lead the transition to a world free of toxic pesticides. With a combination of on-the-ground practices and local policies, Beyond Pesticides aims to replace fossil fuel based, toxic, synthetic pesticides and fertilizers with organic management strategies. The Junior board chose to support the Community Pesticide and Alternatives Information Program, assisting community leaders to transform their community’s approach to land management with organic practices, advocate for similar state policies and practices, and hold public officials accountable to standards of health and environmental protection.
Blue Ventures conservation
Blue Ventures is a marine conservation organization that exists to protect the life in our ocean, but they recognize that it cannot be done at scale without first engaging and mobilizing the communities that live alongside − and depend upon − marine biodiversity. Blue Ventures believes that fixing overfishing is the single most powerful thing they can do to reverse marine extinction, and they believe that humanity’s overwhelming dependence on our ocean is the solution that has been hiding in plain sight. They develop locally led approaches to marine conservation that benefit people and nature alike. Our grant provides a 12-month training program on locally-led monitoring of target fisheries and critical ecosystems to support and guide community led marine conservation for community conservationists in Madagascar.
Chattahoochee Riverkeeper
Chattahoochee Riverkeeper (CRK) is an environmental advocacy and education organization that advocates and secures the protection and stewardship of the Chattahoochee River’s lakes, tributaries, and watershed, and restores and preserves their ecological health for the people and animals that depend on the river system. In addition to water monitoring and reporting, advocacy, and clean ups, CRK has hosted over 80,000 students since 2000 for their Floating Classroom program. Their focus on the lake environment, the importance of clean water, and the complexity of the area’s water supply is of continued importance. In 2020, our grant underwrites the costs for CRK to move their curriculum to a virtual platform, ensuring that 4th and 5th graders continue to get quality programing while distance learning.
Cheerful Helpers Child and Family Study Center
The Cheerful Helpers Child and Family Study Center provides aid to families with young children (ages 2 to 7) who are experiencing difficulty in social and emotional development, including those with high-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders and developmental delays. The Center remains the only organization in Los Angeles that helps children with special needs by treating the entire family, with the goal of empowering them to achieve their potential for life-long growth. Cheerful Helpers does not turn away families who are unable to pay, and maintains a staff ratio of 1:2 to ensure the highest quality of care is always provided. Our grant this year provides unrestricted funds, intended to support the agency’s early intervention programs: Social Skills, BEIG (Brief Early Intervention Group), Family Counseling, and therapeutic preschool/kindergarten/first grade, with additional funds to expand the program with a new teacher. Recent SFF grants: 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016
CHEERFULHELPERS.ORG→
Child Development Institute
For over 25 years, the Child Development Institute has served as one of the principle providers of relationship-based early intervention and therapeutic services to children and their families. CDI focuses on the development of the whole child, including his or her early relationships, environments, and communities. CDI’s intervention services include professional therapists who ensure children reach their developmental potential and are ready for success in school by supporting social-emotional, language, cognitive and motor development. Our 2020 grant continues our support of the Developmental Screening Program, with the goal of improving and increasing early identification of mental health and developmental disturbance for young children and their families. Recent SFF grants: 2019, 2018
Children's Bureau of Southern California
Children’s Bureau has been saving children’s lives with innovative and cutting-edge child welfare programs for over 116 years. They aim to promote child, family, and community wellbeing to break the cycle of abuse and ultimately change the life trajectory of vulnerable children. Children’s Bureau is dedicated to protecting vulnerable children through prevention, treatment, and advocacy. Early childhood experiences and family life form the foundation for success, or struggle, later in life. Experts have determined that caring relationships stimulate babies’ brain growth during the most critical years of their development, while significant adversity during this same time impairs development. The Family Enrichment Program addresses the needs of low-income children at their most vulnerable ages and does so by engaging, educating, and empowering their parents. Our support is for the developmental screenings which identify developmental gaps to enable early intervention and support. These screenings are a critical part of the Family Enrichment Program. Recent grant: 2019
Citizens for Los Angeles Wildlife
Citizens for Los Angeles Wildlife advocates for the protection of wildlife in Los Angeles, educates citizens about its fundamental importance and promotes the establishment of wildlife habitats and wildlife corridors in L.A. County and beyond. Their mission is to promote, educate and protect the fundamental important of wildlife, wildlife habitats and wildlife corridors everywhere. Our Junior Board has chosen to support CLAW’s goal to protect wildlife and habitat within the city and county boundaries of Los Angeles; with a special emphasis on the local mountain lion population.
Recent SFF grant: 2019
Drake House
The Drake House is the only agency to provide short term crisis housing, education and empowerment programs for homeless single mothers and their children in North Metro Atlanta. The program is designed to provide stability for the children and assist the family in working toward self-sufficiency. Their program offers private housing, food, laundry facilities, after-school care, career services along with weekly case management, life skills classes, and career coaching. Our most recent grant underwrites facility updates for distance learning and supports the After-School Program, which provides K-8th grade childcare each weekday. During school breaks and teacher workdays, they offer a full day, and the summer session partners with local YMCA camps. Staff members, with the aid of volunteers, offer tutoring, recreation, and a curriculum of enrichment activities. Recent SFF grants: 2019 for the After-School Program, 2018 and 2017 for Drake Village development
Food Forward
Food Forward creates a sustainable solution to the problems of food insecurity and food waste. Their dedicated team members and volunteers recover fruits and vegetables that would have been wasted from backyard fruit trees, public orchards, farmers markets, and the downtown Los Angeles Wholesale Produce Market. Food Forward then connects this abundance of fresh, nutritious food to people experiencing food insecurity, donating 100% of the produce they recover to hunger relief agencies across Southern California. In light of the Covid-19 crisis, the Board issued an emergency grant to Food Forward in May, 2020 to help sustain its efforts to supply hungry Angelenos with fresh produce.
grand canyon trust
Our Junior Board selected the Grand Canyon Trust to receive its 2018 grant in recognition of the important work it does preserving the grandeur and beauty of the Grand Canyon and the broader Colorado Plateau, while supporting the rights of its Native peoples. Focusing on law and policy, science and effective solutions arrived at via collaboration with all interested parties, the Trust’s successes include banning uranium mining around the Grand Canyon and coordinating forest restoration work in Utah.
Health In Harmony
Health In Harmony’s (HIH) mission is to reverse tropical rainforest deforestation through a model of planetary health. HIH’s innovative solution is straightforward: listen to rainforest communities to remedy the root causes of deforestation and invest precisely in following their intervention design. Radical Listening is trusting community members to be the best experts of their problems. It means facilitating community consensus about root causes and implementing their solutions. Rainforest communities have intricate knowledge of deforestation and are best situated to determine the solutions for local ecosystem degradation. Our 2020 funding supports the following programs in the rainforests of Indonesia Borneo: the program coordinator position for the Goats for Widows program, and a training program designed to teach community members to produce biodegradeable bamboo polybags for seedlings the community collects, cares for and then re-plants as a key part of reforestation efforts.
HorizonS Atlanta
Horizon’s programs break the cycle of educational and economic disadvantage by effectively addressing the achievement and opportunity gaps, and by engaging scholars throughout their primary and secondary school years. Horizons students attend a tuition free, six-week summer program led by professional teachers, and receive additional support throughout the year at their traditional school. Children join Horizons the summer after Kindergarten and return to the program each year through 8th grade, creating a cumulative learning impact and lasting relationships with their teachers and peers. Additionally, Horizons provides swimming lessons to save lives and to boost self-confidence. Our 2020 grant focuses on providing Horizons Atlanta’s 1,000+ students with a nutritious breakfast, lunch, and snack for six weeks during the summer, giving students the balanced nutrition that they need to grow, learn, and thrive all year long. Recent SFF grant: 2019
MOngabay
In support of their environmental journalism and reporting, both the Senior and Junior Boards have selected Mongabay for a grant. They create educational materials in several languages and provide opportunities for science journalists to report on environmental issues through well-established on-line platforms. Their readership includes officials in development agencies, natural resources management ministries, scientists, business leaders, and civil society, among others. Mongabay can now count on more than 250 correspondents in 50 countries around the world, contributing to the breaking news, science communication, objective analysis, and deep investigations that they are now known for. Their articles are syndicated by dozens of local, national, regional, and international outlets ranging from National Geographic Indonesia to The Guardian, extending their reach beyond their 2.5 million monthly website visitors. Recent SFF grant: 2019
Nature and Culture International
Nature and Culture works at the local level with communities and government using technical and legal mechanisms to protect the remaining tropical forests of Latin America. In the 23 years since their founding, Nature and Culture has helped create 21 million acres of protected areas that store an estimated 3 billion tons of carbon and are home to some of the most important biological diversity on the planet. Nature and Culture’s entrepreneurial approach allows the organization to be strategic yet nimble and pursue a diversity of strategies to create and protect local, regional, and national parks in partnership with communities and governments. This year’s grant will be used to support the creation of a 3,750 acre Private Conservation Area on land next to the recently created 125,000-acre Carpish Regional Conservation Area, both part of the National System of Protected areas in Peru.
North Fulton County Community Charities
North Fulton County Community Charities (NFCC) formed in 1983 through a collaboration of concerned local neighbors, businesses, civic, and faith communities who recognized the lack of resources available to low-income residents in north Fulton. NFCC builds self-sufficiency and prevents homelessness and hunger in Atlanta by providing emergency assistance money for rent, food, and utilities. In 2010, NFCC expanded programming and services, opening the Family Enrichment Program, which shifted the focus from a direct aid approach to a more transformational one that builds self-sufficiency through life-skills education. Our 2020 grant provides emergency financial assistance (rent, mortgage, utilities) to individuals and families who are in danger of being evicted or having utilities disconnected because of their inability to pay, as eviction moratoriums expire. Recent SFF grant: 2019
Rainforest Foundation US
Rainforest Foundation US (RFUS) is tackling the major challenges of our day: deforestation, the climate crisis, and human rights violations. Founded in 1989, their mission is to support indigenous and traditional peoples of the world’s rainforests in their efforts to protect their environment and fulfill their rights. RFUS assists them in securing and controlling the natural resources necessary for their long-term wellbeing and managing these resources in ways that do not harm their environment, violate their culture, or compromise their future. RFUS helps them to develop the means to protect their individual and collective rights and to obtain, shape and control basic services from the state. The Foundation’s 2020 grant focuses on providing resources to monitor, report, and reduce illegal mining and logging in Guyana.
St John's Family Development Center
The Child & Family Development Center (CFDC) at Providence Saint John’s serves at-risk and overburdened families with children ages birth to 24 years of age. The Center’s mission is to provide child-centered, family-focused mental health services that are culturally sensitive and linguistically responsive. Operating as a “clinic without walls,” CFDC services are delivered at the Center and at community sites including schools, homeless shelters, parks, and homes. The Center’s multidisciplinary staff includes clinical social workers, marriage and family therapists, psychologists, psychiatrists, and occupational and speech therapists. Our funding supports the Perinatal Wellness Program at Providence Saint John’s CFDC, providing free in-home mental health counseling to low-income pregnant women and new parents struggling with mental health challenges.
Recent SFF grant: 2019
The Phoenix Conservancy
The Phoenix Conservancy (TPC), works to restore endangered ecosystems globally, for the communities that depend on them and the conservation of biodiversity. Their goal is to permanently restore 200,000 acres of endangered ecosystems globally by 2040. Collaborating with local communities is central to what they do and guides their restoration decisions and project focus. They believe that solving community problems with conservation solutions ensures the sustainability of their programs. Their restoration approach combines science-backed and innovative ecosystem restoration practices with development of community centered economic opportunities tied directly to stewardship and restoration of endangered ecosystems. Our 2020 grant provided funding towards an interim executive director and staffing.
VENICE FAMILY CLINIC
Venice Family Clinic's mission is to provide quality primary health care to people in need. It provides more than 114,633 primary care, specialty care, mental health, dental, and health education visits annually. Services include diagnosis, treatment, medications, follow-up care, and laboratory tests. Emphasis is placed on the needs of women, children, the homeless, and those with chronic diseases. Our prior year grants have funded the Virtual Dental Home program for children 3-5 years old. The 2020 grant supports their Comprehensive Early Pediatric Care Program, with a focus on developing new, innovative approaches to providing crucial services in the era of COVID-19.
Recent SFF grants: 2019, 2018
PREVIOUS GRANT RECIPIENTS OF THE STOCKEL FAMILY FOUNDATION
Blind Children’s Center
A school committed to the support of blind or visually-impaired children (ages 0 to 7), the Blind Children’s Center has adopted a distinctively progressive approach to its mission. The Center teaches visually-impaired children alongside their sighted peers (often siblings or children from the local community), providing them all with an enhanced education in the process. In 2018, we chose to support its Zero to Three Program, which serves infants and toddlers, from birth to age three, who are blind or severely visually impaired and their families. The program provides early intervention,
training and a variety of services to help the infants and toddlers and their families maximize their development. Education, training and support are also provided to parents and family members, including in-home assistance, to optimize the child’s success. Services are provided in an inclusive setting which provides a natural environment and encourages the development of socialization and language skills for all the students. Each year the Center serves approximately 35 children and their families through this program. Recent SFF grants: 2017 and 2016, Social Skills Program
BLINDCHILDRENSCENTER.ORG →
Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Foundation
An award-winning collection of pediatric hospitals, the Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Foundation recently celebrated 100 years of being ‘100 percent dedicated to kids’. The Foundation is Georgia’s largest healthcare provider for children, with over 60 pediatric specialties, and provides care irrespective of a family’s financial circumstances. Our grant continues to support the expansion of the Music Therapy Program—currently operating in the rehabilitative and cancer units—into the intensive care units. This wonderful program uses music and art to rehabilitate, soothe and empower young patients. The activities available include music improvisation, song writing and performance, while the program’s numerous benefits range from mood elevation to pain relief. Recent SFF grants: 2017, 2016
CHOA.ORG→
FOOTHILL FAMILY SERVICE
Founded in 1926, the Foothill Family Service seeks to empower at-risk children and their families through community-based services, such as play therapy and parenting education. Foothill Family helps more than 22,000 people every year. The Healthy Families America program is a home visiting program model designed to work with overburdened families who are at-risk for adverse childhood experiences, including child maltreatment. It is the primary home visiting model best equipped to work with families who may have histories of trauma, intimate partner violence, mental health, and/or substance abuse issues. HFA services begin prenatally or right after the birth of a baby and are offered voluntarily, intensively, and over the long-term (three to five years after the birth of the baby). Recent SFF grants: 2017, Healthy Families America Program; 2016, Early Start Head Start Program
FOOTHILLFAMIL.ORG →
Hope Street Family Center
The Hope Street Family Center is a program run by the California Hospital Medical Center, currently providing assistance to 2,500 families in Central and South Los Angeles. The program runs multiple initiatives that comprehensively and holistically address child and family welfare. Their work has received national recognition from groups such as the After school Alliance for successfully incorporating health care into the fabric of its communities. Of these initiatives, we supported the School Readiness program, which delivers full-day, center-based schooling to children (ages 0 to 5), helping them build the best possible foundation for their future education. It primarily provides academic support, encourages positive relations with both peers and adults and, more broadly, promotes family stability and establishes open communication between parents and schools.
HOPESTREETFAMILYCENTER.ORG →
Atlanta Community Food Bank
Every year, Atlanta Community Food Bank tirelessly distributes 50 million meals across Georgia to those afflicted by food insecurity, including 52,000 children (ages 0 to 5). While food distribution is the organization’s primary undertaking, their mission to fight hunger and poverty has given rise to seven additional projects. These projects work in a variety of ways to engage, educate and empower both those in need and those with a desire to help, and are backed by over 600 non-profit partner-organizations statewide. Of these programs, we offered support to ‘Kids In Need’, which ensures that children threatened by poverty are equipped with the school supplies needed for their academic success, supplies which might otherwise be unaffordable.
ACFB.ORG →
Lost-N-Found Youth
Lost-N-Found Youth (LNFY) exists to end homelessness for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ+) and all sexual minority youth. LGBTQ youth are often rendered homeless because of family conflict, unemployment, aging out of foster care, and/or escaping sexual exploitation, among a variety of reasons. LNFY was born 8 years ago out of the need for services tailored to this vulnerable community, and in that time LNFY has distinguished itself as a leader in the area of homelessness and housing services for LGBTQ youth. LNFY strives to provide stability and safety to young adults through a 24/7 hotline, daily drop-In center, transitional and emergency housing, street outreach, and partnerships with other providers in the area. Our grant supported the opening of a transitional house for homeless LGBTQ youth in Atlanta. LNFY's Transitional House program is designed to bridge the gap between homelessness and self-sufficiency by providing homeless youth with a place to live for up to 6 months while they build their capacity to meet the goal of independent living in permanent and stable housing.
National Parks Conservation Association
Selected for a grant by a member of our Junior Board, the National Parks Conservation Association is the nation’s only independent nonpartisan organization devoting itself exclusively to the protection of the National Parks System. Working from 27 locations nationwide and with the help of over a million members, the Association most recently proved victorious in its vigorous efforts to protect the Badger Two-Medicine area in Montana’s Rocky Mountains from oil and gas development, having mediated negotiations between energy companies and the Federal Department of the Interior.
NPCA.ORG→
Defenders of Wildlife
Chosen as a contribution recipient by the Foundation’s Junior Board, Defenders of Wildlife has endeavored to protect the native animals and plants of North America since 1947, driven by its belief that the natural world possesses inherent value. Defenders makes use of all available avenues, including lobbying decision makers and, when necessary, bringing them to court, all in an effort to preserve biodiversity, facilitate robust wildlife populations, and foster the conditions necessary for the continuing health of the continent’s environment.
DEFENDERS.ORG→
Open Paths Counseling Center
Open Paths Counseling Center’s mission, since 1975 strives to meet the evolving mental health needs of the community through quality counseling for individuals and families at affordable fees; free therapy programs for at-risk children and youth in local schools; and a highly-respected therapist training program. Psychotherapy at Open Paths is steeped in a culturally sensitive lens. Clinicians take into consideration the cultural nuances of the diverse clientele and communities they serve. Most services are provided in English and Spanish by a team of approximately 45 pre-licensed clinicians, many of whom are culturally similar to their clientele in terms of ethnicity, generation, economic status, sexual orientation, and gender. Our funding was to launch a pilot for pregnant African American women, aimed at mitigating the disproportionate stress levels and lack of mental health support experienced by pregnant and postpartum African American Women.
Santa Monica Mountains Fund
Selected for an unrestricted grant by a member of our Junior Board who treasures the Santa Monica Mountains, the Santa Monica Mountains Fund works to protect and encourage appreciation and understanding of the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area. The Fund achieves this by supporting National Park Service efforts in education, science, research, improved facilities, citizen engagement, stewardship and philanthropy. In addition, the Fund sponsors research projects, internships and provides stipends to augment the staffing resources available to successfully complete these projects.
TreePeople
TreePeople was born from the efforts of a teenager over 40 years ago. It seems fitting that the organization was chosen as a grant recipient by the Foundation’s youngest trustee. TreePeople inspires and supports the people of LA to come together to plant and care for trees, harvest the rain, and renew depleted landscapes. They unite with communities to grow a greener, shadier and more water-secure city at homes, neighborhoods, schools and in the local mountains. They work with volunteer leaders using a unique Citizen Forester model, and influence government agencies for a healthy, thriving Los Angeles.
Westside Children’s Center
The Westside Children’s Center is committed to ending inter-generational poverty, abuse and neglect within families, ultimately aiming to cultivate a stimulating, healthy and sustainable environment in which children feel capable of expressing both their creativity and their intelligence. The Center’s programs are specifically designed to develop and strengthen in at-risk children certain key skills and qualities, such as optimism and resilience, which can be applied throughout their lives to achieve success. Our donation was made to maintain the comprehensive assistance provided to families with children aged 0 to 5. The WCC understands that support networks act as a protective factor against child maltreatment and so tries to provide this network for families. The assistance includes an array of services, such as access to the Center’s two full-time public health nurses, mental health consultations and nutrition education.
WESTSIDECHILDREN.ORG →