Grants stimulate nonprofit activity

Central Florida nonprofit organizations will continue to see improvements thanks to federal grants that allow UCF's Department of Public Administration to hold workshops for nonprofit leaders.

According to Maria-Elena Augustin, the coordinator for UCF's  Center for Public and Nonprofit Management, there will be nine consecutive months of workshops that will expand on five major topics necessary for leadership and organization in nonprofit organizations from Orange, Lake and Sumter counties. One workshop will be held each month.

Two speakers are presented in the training sessions, Augustin said. One will present a theoretic and academic style to leadership and another will show them how to implement the training. Topics are chosen by skills that nonprofits need to have, such as strategic planning, Augustin said.

She also said the curriculum for each session is created by the speakers, who have expertise in the area and are from Central Florida. Organizations are meant to be introduced to practices and walk away with resources, she said.

"It's amazing. It's a benefit and it works," Williams said.

Because it worked really well the first time, most of the workshops in the second round will be repeated, Augustin said.

A survey will be administered to see if the workshops are addressing the right needs or if slight adjustments are necessary.

For instance, a workshop on how nonprofit employees can handle emotional stress was so well received, according to Augustin, that they plan to implement in the second rounds.

Initially, UCF received a million dollars and Public and Nonprofit Management is giving $600,000 to the community for non-profits in Central Florida to better themselves.

"It helped tremendously. It literally revived my agency. If we hadn't gotten funding in 2010 we would have had to shut down," said Larry Williams, executive director of Simeon Resource and Development Center for Men, Inc.

Simeon, which served 500 low-income individuals in 2010 in Orange County, offers GED prep classes, makes medical referrals and teaches financial literacy.

It was one of ten organizations awarded a sub-grant in the first round of workshops in early December. Simeon plans to attend some of the training sessions for the second round of workshops, which began Jan. 7, according to Augustin.

As a result of the grant, Simeon is currently able to partner with another agency to provide job training and now has servers that help with job searches, a service that was unavailable before.

"It was very exciting for us to win this award," Augustin said. "Out of 7,080 grant applicants, we were the only ones from Florida to be granted funds created by the Department of Non-profit Services."

UCF serves 11 local counties but signed an agreement with three in order to narrow down participation to 30 organizations for training sessions and 10 for technical, or one-on-one help from a graduate assistant every week along with sub-awards for additional resources and training, according to Augustin.

She also said none of the non-profits are paying for the training or the technical service.

The program has just confirmed the 10 nonprofits that will receive a sub-award of $30,000 each for additional capacity building in 2011. Organizations include Community Outreach for Restoration and Empowerment, Farm worker Association of Florida, The Refuge at Jumper Creek, Harbor House, The Connection Helpline.

"We got the capacity building grant and it did exactly what it said it would. There are allowable expenses for the grant. It gave cause for self-reflecting on the foundation," Haki Nkrumah, founder and president of Young Fathers of Central Florida said.

"There was certain criteria that had us stay on course with what we should have been doing, processes that everyone should have been doing. A lot of the times you rush to get someone because you need to, but it's a bidding process and you should be getting the best person for the job."

Young Fathers of Central Florida provides various programs such as support groups, mentoring and teen father parent training modules for fathers under 24 years old.

The Teen Father Academy modules include parent training, child health and character building.

Nkrumah also said the money was good, but having the grad assistant helping every week was extremely important and extremely beneficial. The partnership and collaborations with other small organizations allowed his organization to take its development up a notch.