Henry and Dorothy
Message from the |
In 2007, we provided $2,189,934 in direct grants to a wide range of effective non-profits. We are especially pleased with our role in sponsoring efforts to promote school readiness, capital improvements in pre-school facilities, private and public school leadership training, parent education, quality early education and care, pre-school tuition assistance, early education scholarships and early education curricular development. We are especially proud of our continuing commitment to pre-school directors' leadership training through our nearly 13-year old Castle Colleagues program. The Castle Colleagues program gives site directors a highly practical, hands-on array of management skills, tools, sources and information, while remaining respectful of their time. Participants meet in a series of three intensive retreats (usually 3-4 days) on weekdays and weekends. The program is organized to give reach group some peers and resource people they can contact, long after the official course ends. We believe the program is a unique contribution to the early education field and is consistent with our Foundation's emphasis on teacher training stretching back to the 19th century. The program is housed at Chaminade University, a Catholic liberal arts university in Honolulu. Session leaders include a wide variety cross-sector resource people from other Hawaii colleges, as well as respected practiotioners in accounting, communications, fund raising and the legal practice. Since the 19th century when our Foundation leveraged other charitable dollars to help develop key institutions like the University of Chicago's Lab School, Hull House, Columbia University's College of Education and Hawaii's kindergarten system, we have sought creative funding partnerships to effect systematic improvement in our state. These and other efforts are analyzed in Al Castle's revised edition of A Century of Philanthropy: A History of the Samuel N. and Mary Castle Foundation (University of Hawaii Press, 2004). We are also grateful for our partnership with such national funders as the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, the R.W. Johnson Foundation, the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, the Ford Foundation, the William G. Irwin Charitable Trust, and the Kamehameha Schools, among others, to improve conditions for our children. Through our executive director's efforts with such national groups as Grantmakers for Education, Grantmakers for Children, Youth and Families and the Council on Foundations, we have a visible and productive role in furthering professional development in the burgeoning field of philanthropy. We welcome collaboration with mainland foundations and professional associations seeking to make philanthropy as productive and as effective as possible. To that end, our executive director was the national chair of the Council on Foundations' annual Family Foundations Conference in 2006 and a conference planner for the 2007 Grantmakers for Education Conference in Santa Fe. Much remains to be done in the area of teacher training change. Working with our Community Advisory Committee, we are exploring opportunities to align instruction, outcomes, curriculum and assessment from kindergarten to grade 3. PK-3 connects pre-kindergarten and K-3 elementary education. Pk-3 schools integrate the academic subject matter emphasis of K-3 education with the child development emphasis of early education. This cohesive learning experience for young children appears to be a cost-effective solution to upgrading teacher training and student outcomes. In 2007 and 2008, we will be seeking educational and funding partners to further this innovation. Finally, we have supported the Act 259 Task Force which, in 2007, worked hard to define the elements needed for a voluntary universal pre-K system for all 4-year-olds. The Task Force's recommendations for system-wide innovation will be considered by the Hawaii Legislature in 2008. Such public advocacy for a strengthened high quality early education system is consistent with our Foundation's long advocacy for a universal kindergarten system in the first half of the 20th century. Our trustees welcome a public/ private partnerships that will better serve the needs of Hawaii's families for a high quality early education experience for their children. Lastly, I would like to thank my fellow trustees, all of whom are volunteers, our volunteer Community Advisory Committee for the Henry and Dorothy Castle Memorial Fund, and the many fine and productive non-profits who partner with us in serving the people of our state.
With best wishes, | |