All the things that truly matter: love, kindness, creativity, beauty, joy.
We Proudly Present Our 2015 Grant Recipients!
Vashon Island Growers Association
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“We are on the cusp of an enormous effort to reclaim our food system, community by community, as we invest in locally grown, sustainably produced food.” --Merrilee Runyan The Vashon Island Growers Association (VIGA) began with a simple idea: create farming jobs on the island. In the 1980s, a few like-minded people started a Farmers Market and by 1990 had built a small structure to house the market. VIGA became an official Tilth chapter and a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization with the mission “to promote farming, access to healthy food, and a sustainable agricultural economy on Vashon Island through education, advocacy, and a vibrant farmers market.” Read more about Vashon Island Growers Association. |
Women's Ordination Worldwide 2015: "Gender, Gospel & Global Justice"
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“I believe that the most serious violation of human rights on earth is the abuse of women and girls.” --President Jimmy Carter Kelly Ann Brown Foundation was invited to attend the Women’s Ordination Worldwide (WOW) weekend conference in Philadelphia that took place September 18-20, 2015, and was scheduled just prior to the U.S. visit by Pope Francis. WOW is a “global advocacy network that works to affirm women as fully human.” The Catholic Church participates in the continued discrimination of women around the world by denying their full equality in the Church. Katherine Hannula Hill and I attended on behalf of KABF. This was WOW’s third conference in fifteen years. Five hundred women and men from around the globe met to discuss issues of gender equality and the rights of all including, the LGBTI community. Read more about WOW. |
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Pathstar
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"During the (Pathstar) application process," said Ms. Martinez, "each tribal member signs up to be a health ambassador to their communities, committing to make healthy choices for themselves and promoting healthy lifestyles. It's not just for yourself. It’s for friends and family, doing what you can to prevent diabetes in Indian Country."
--Shelly Martinez, member of The Confederated Tribes Of The Colville Reservation |
October 19, 2015 marked Pathstar’s 13th annual Alcatraz swim for Native Americans from tribes throughout the US and Canada. Thirteen swimmers spent the week prior to the swim busily preparing through healthy eating, physical training and togetherness. After the challenging swim from Alcatraz, they returned to their communities to share and serve as catalysts for improved health and well-being for all.
Read the full write-up here. |
Louisiana-Mississippi Hospice and Palliative Care Organization (LMHPCO)
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“Proximity has taught me some basic and humbling truths, including this vital lesson: Each of us is more than the worst thing we’ve ever done. My work with the poor and the incarcerated has persuaded me that the opposite of poverty is not wealth; the opposite of poverty is justice…The true measure of our character is how we treat the poor, the disfavored, the accused, the incarcerated, and the condemned.” --Bryan Stevenson, Attorney at Law, Just Mercy: A Story of Justice and Redemption There are 4,575 prisons operating in the United States at last count with approximately 2.2 million people incarcerated. As countries go, Russia comes in second place with 1,209 prisons. According to California Prison Focus, “no other society in human history has imprisoned so many of its own citizens.” |
With mandatory sentences and a “throw the book at ‘em” mentality, many people will grow old and die behind bars. We at the Kelly Ann Brown Foundation are grateful for people like Jamey Boudreaux who daily provide compassion and care to the least among us.
Read more about LMHPCO. |
Vashon Wilderness Program
“Nature-rooted seasonal celebrations have brought community together for millennia.” --Stacey Hinden, Executive & Program Director, Vashon Wilderness Program
The Vashon Wilderness Program (VWP) began in 2007 with the desire to cultivate relationships between self, community and the natural world. Scholarships were immediately offered to all interested youth, ages 4-17, so that no child would be excluded. VWP’s programs highlight nature as our teacher. Their research shows that teaching children in nature about nature is crucial to developing the whole child. Children grow inwardly, recognizing their own value as they learn to appreciate and study the great outdoors.
Click here to see how Kelly Ann Brown Foundation supported VWP's important work in 2015.
The Vashon Wilderness Program (VWP) began in 2007 with the desire to cultivate relationships between self, community and the natural world. Scholarships were immediately offered to all interested youth, ages 4-17, so that no child would be excluded. VWP’s programs highlight nature as our teacher. Their research shows that teaching children in nature about nature is crucial to developing the whole child. Children grow inwardly, recognizing their own value as they learn to appreciate and study the great outdoors.
Click here to see how Kelly Ann Brown Foundation supported VWP's important work in 2015.
CIS: Centro de Intercambio y Solidaridad (Center of Exchange and Solidarity)
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"There is no limit to what we, as women, can accomplish." --Michelle Obama In 2013 Kelly Ann Brown Foundation gave a grant to CIS, a nonprofit in El Salvador, to help purchase a building on Isla Tasajera to be used as a women’s sewing cooperative. KABF gave money for school scholarships for women and children on the island as well. The women there are often the sole bread-winners for themselves and their children. Read more about CIS here. |
UMO Ensemble: Unidentified Moving Objects
"Put yourself in the way of beauty."
--Bobbi Lambrecht (mother of writer Cheryl Strayed)
UMO Ensemble is a performance company based on Vashon Island in the Pacific Northwest. UMO’s mission is “to stir the human spirit and incite the imagination by providing awe, challenge and inspiration through the original and compelling art that is UMO. We are a theater of connection—to our audience, to the ensemble, to our bodies, to the imagination. We seek the ancient alchemy of live performance, through which thoughts and images under the surface of culture are given voice and form.”
Read more about UMO Ensemble.
BookMentors
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“Most teachers must help out their own classrooms by donating books, and that is what I've done today! I am in dire need of lower-level books that interest my struggling readers. Hopefully this will inspire others to give, too.” --Public school teacher Mrs. Flowers after donating a book through BookMentors The non-profit BookMentors has a simple mission statement: Connecting donors directly with students and teachers in need of books. Behind this simplicity belies a disgraceful truth: Children in our public schools are in dire need of books. BookMentors’ website connects public school teachers seeking new books for their students with people who want to donate those books. “Donors don’t actually buy and mail the books. Instead, they pay for a book online, and the book is shipped directly to the school from the book vendor. If a teacher requests 20 copies of a book for a class, a donor can pay for one or all of them, or for any number in between.” --Harvard Ed. Magazine Read and access more information about BookMentors. |
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Backbone Campaign
"Power's not given to you. You have to take it." --Beyonce
Backbone Campaign is a not-for-profit located on Vashon Island, a short ferry ride south of Seattle. It grew out of the need to assist any and all activists in how to be their most effective, with a goal as gigantic as the huge corporations that Backbone often helps target:
“Our purpose is to accelerate the growth of a social movement powerful enough to manifest a world where life, community, nature and our obligations to future generations are NOT for sale, but honored as sacred.”
Read the full Backbone Campaign write-up here.
The Nuns, the Priests, and the Bombs
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"I believe strongly in my heart in the power of God and the power of creation and the Resurrection. They are much stronger than the powers of death." --Father Bill “Bix” Bichsel Helen Young is a documentary filmmaker currently at work on a new film entitled The Nuns, the Priests, and the Bombs. The film follows five peace activists, including 2 Catholic nuns in their eighties and Father Bill Bichsel or “Bix” as he is known by his friends, as they wage their own war on nuclear weapons. Click here to read more about The Nuns, the Priests, and the Bombs. |
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Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (CGRS)
"The Center for Gender & Refugee Studies protects the fundamental human rights of refugee women, children, LGBT individuals, and others who flee persecution in their home countries through legal expertise and training, impact litigation, policy development, research, and in-country fact-finding." --CGRS Mission Statement
The Center for Gender & Refugee Studies (CGRS) was the brainchild of San Francisco law professor Karen Musalo. CGRS works to protect women and children seeking protection and asylum from gender-based harms in their countries of origin. The work CGRS does includes mentoring and training pro bono counsel for people accepted as clients of CGRS. This expertise and assistance has led to many successful protections that often include securing asylum in the United States.
Read more about CGRS.
Read more about CGRS.
Annie Wright Schools
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“I hope your dreams take you to the corners of your smiles, to the highest of your hopes, to the windows of your opportunities, and to the most special places your heart has ever known.” --Anonymous In 2012, KABF gifted the Kelly Ann Brown Foundation Endowment Fund at Annie Wright Schools to allow funding in perpetuity for the Kelly Ann Brown scholarships. Our first Kelly Ann Brown scholar was Elly. Elly just graduated from Annie Wright Schools June 5, 2015 and is looking forward to entering college at Willamette University. Congratulations Elly! Read more about Elly, and KABF's commitment to AWS. |
El Centro de la Raza
“It is for the children that we work at El Centro de la Raza because they are the ones that know how to love. They are the hope of the world.” --Roberto Maestas
El Centro de la Raza is a nonprofit organization whose mission includes building unity “across all racial and economic sectors, to organize, empower, and defend our most vulnerable and marginalized populations and to bring justice, dignity, equality, and freedom to all the peoples of the world.” Among all their other work, El Centro has operated a free food bank, run a preschool named after poet and activist José Martí, prepared hot meals for neighborhood seniors, and offered a poetry writing class for teens.
Read more about El Centro de la Raza and learn why it's become one of our favorite nonprofits!