UMCS Board of Directors Report

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United Methodist City Society Board of Directors Report
Friday, June 18, 2010
Prepared by Ms. April Callender, Associate Executive Director

Olmsted Center

Retreat Program

The retreat program at Olmsted Center served 356 people representing 15 groups during the period of March through June 2010. Retreat participants included 7 Methodist Church groups (170 participants), 3 groups from other denominations (37 participants), 1 not for profit group (20 participants) and 4 family groups (129 participants).  In addition there were two school groups with 266 participants. Although our usage for the year is down overall, these figures represent a significant increase over this period from last year (232 participants).

As you know in 2008, Five Points Mission partnered with the volunteer group the NOMADS (which stands for Nomads on a Mission in Divine Service) and began the renovation of the kitchen in the Dining Hall.  Through their volunteer efforts and with the generous support of the Park Avenue United Methodist Church Trust Fund we have doubled the size of the kitchen and purchased upgraded appliances. The result is a more spacious and energy efficient work space that will better serve our clients and cut down on our long term costs. The NOMADS completed their work on this project earlier this month and the kitchen should be fully operational when the first campers arrive at Olmsted on June 28^th.

You are all invited to Managers Day at Olmsted which will take place on Saturday, July 24^th from 12noon – 3pm. During this annual event you will be given the opportunity to tour our facilities and enjoy a hearty lunch with campers and staff. If you are interested in attending please contact me or Carla Maisonet.

Summer Camp Program

At this writing there are 102 children registered for summer camp, which is comparable to where we were in terms of registration this time last year. Once again, many of these children are registered for more than one session so out of the 240 camper slots available we have campers in 130 of the slots.

We have filled almost all of the positions at camp.  There are still openings for two female counselors. On Monday our staff will be starting their one week mandatory orientation session prior to the start of camp.  This orientation includes sessions on meal planning, first aid, child development, child abuse and appropriate discipline.

This year over 70% of the families registering for camp are applying for scholarships so raising funds to assist families with the camp fees has been a priority. Once again we have received funding from the American Camp Association and the Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies for camper scholarships. In addition to these scholarships, the President of the Five Points Mission Board, Mr. Spencer Disher, helped to secure an additional 6 camper scholarships from the Jack and Jill of America Foundation (Westchester Chapter) and the Beta Zeta Foundation.

You will also see in your board package a special appeal for scholarship funds in memory of Janet Hayes.  She was a former President of Five Points Mission and Camp Olmsted had a special place in her heart.

Lastly, on April 8^th we held our sixth annual Camp Scholarship Benefit at Park Avenue United Methodist Church. As you know this event helps us raise funds for camper scholarships. This year the honorees were James W. Perkins, Esq. and the Tremont United Methodist Church After-school Program in the Bronx.  We raised $6,000 for the camp program. Thank you to our honorees and all the Board members that supported this event.

Children’s Program

As we have highlighted in previous meetings, UMCS has contracted with ActKnowledge; a research and evaluation agency based at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. Through this relationship we hope to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the centers in the UMCS Children’s program.

In May program staff persons at our centers were asked to have the parents of their students complete surveys to help us assess their satisfaction with the program. The completed surveys will be sent to Actknowledge for analysis. In addition Actknowledge staff will be conducting both in person and telephone interviews with the directors of each of the programs receiving funding for the City Society to find out if they are satisfied with the level and quality of technical assistance being offered by UMCS staff.

Staff continues to make site visits to programs and this is the time of year for closing programs and special events. While this was a good year overall for the Children’s Program in terms of the level of program assistance we were able to provide and the type of information we were able to share with the directors, many of our centers continue to struggle with financial issues and leadership challenges.  There are at least four centers that are about to have transitions in leadership and we are concerned about how these transitions will affect program operation and management in the fall.

Summer Task Force

The funding for the Summer Task Force for 2010 is $30,000.  We received applications from 20 churches.  UMCS staff and members of the Child Care Committee reviewed the applications in May and made funding awards at our meeting in June.

The final award amounts are as follows:

• Asbury United Methodist Church $1,100
• Brooks Memorial United Methodist Church $1,200
• Butler Memorial United Methodist Church $1,500
• Chinese Methodist Center $1,700
• 82^nd street Academy/Community UMC $1,600
• Embury United Methodist Church $1,000
• Epworth United Methodist Church $1,900
• Faith United Methodist Church (Staten island) $1,000
• Fourth Avenue United Methodist Church $   900
• Freeport United Methodist Church $1,400
• John Wesley United Methodist Church $1,200
• Jubilee Cluster United Methodist Church $1,100
• Kings Highway United Methodist Church $1,000
• Salem United Methodist Church $1,900
• St. Johns United Methodist Church $1,200
• St. Mark’s United Methodist Church $1,200
• St. Paul’s United Methodist Church $1,100
• Summerfield United Methodist Church $1,000
• Tremont United Methodist Church $1,700
• Wakefield Grace United Methodist Church  $1,100

In addition to the grant awards listed above the City Society will also be providing tickets to a New York Liberty Summer Camp event in July and purchasing copies of a vacation bible school curriculum from Scripture Union.   We would like to thank the Budget and Evaluation Committee for their continued support of this program.

Head Start

Both of our centers are fully enrolled and are meeting the daily attendance requirement set by the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS).

In late March ACS released a concept paper “Early Learn NYC” on the proposed reconfiguration of Child Care services (Head Start, Day Care, and Family Day Care) in New York City.  This paper outlines best practices for child care in New York City and requires that all centers operate programs that are consistent with those practices. Among those practices outlined in the proposal – full day service for children, minimum training levels for teachers and enhanced screening of children.

To ensure that all programs will follow these practices ACS is going to require that all existing child care centers which receive funding through that agency re-apply for the contracts to operate their centers (essentially voiding existing contracts).

We are directly affected by this “Early Learn” concept because:

1)    we will need to submit a new proposal and application for the operation of our centers (even though we are in the midst of a new contract);

2)    currently both of our centers operate half day sessions and would now have to move towards full day service (which would have an impact on our staffing plan and staff hours); and

3)    these new practices do not allow for the existence of centers comprised of less than three classrooms(which would lead to the closure of our center in Long Island City).

Initially the RFP for the Early Learn Initiative was to be released in June with an early August due date.  The latest information is that the RFP will be released in July with a late September/early October due date.

Our director, Mamie Anguiano, and I have been attending information sessions and workshops on the implementation of Early learn NYC. She is working on revised program and staffing plans which would meet the guidelines of Early learn NYC.  I have reached out to Federation for help in securing a consultant who can assist us with the proposal.

On May 7^th staff and parents met to work on the DASAT (Delegate Agency Self Assessment Tool).  During this meeting staff and parents break up into teams to discuss our program operations in different categories such as program design, governance, facilities, parent involvement, etc. Parents and staff outlined the strengths and weaknesses of the program and came together as a group to discuss them.

Annual Dinner a Huge Success

Support Camp Olmstead

Dear Friend of the City Society,

The Easter lilies will soon adorn many church altars.    The flowers of Easter represent new life and new beginnings for us, illustrating the Easter message – as the dark night of the soul ends and new life begins with the dawn of resurrection light.

Every year, I love to sing this beautiful song that reminds me of the seeds of love and hope that we plant in the hearts and lives of the children who come to Camp Olmsted for the summer program run by Five Points Mission:

In the bulb there is a flower, in the seed an apple tree, in cocoons, a hidden promise: Butterflies will soon be free! In the cold and snow of winter, there’s a spring that waits to be, unrevealed until its season, something God alone can see.

Together, through the work of the City Society, we are planting seeds.

Our young campers come from many different backgrounds and many different regions of our New York urban area. About 40% have never been to a sleep away camp, and some have never been outside New York City. Camp Olmsted can be a transformative life experience for all the children, as they learn about the beauty and power of nature at the base of Storm King Mountain, in Cornwall-on-Hudson. Summer camp is a place for kids to explore new things and showcase their talents.

For first-timers, camp also opens their minds to a completely different world outside of their everyday life. For 6 year-old James*, a first-time camper from Queens, a summer at Camp Olmsted would broaden his horizons beyond what he was used to at home. His mother had attended Camp Olmsted when she was a child and now she wanted to give her son the opportunity to have the same joyful time and growth experience that she had.

Like many 6 year-olds, James had a very colorful imagination and was eager to participate in all of the activities. Most of all, he enjoyed searching for new insects and frog hunting at camp. And with his newly discovered love of nature, James was always excited to go hiking on the nature trails.

Hiking up Storm King Mountain was a highlight of James’ camp experience. Younger campers usually don’t get the opportunity to hike to the top of the mountain because it is a difficult climb. But James would have it no other way — he was determined to make it to the top.

James and his 3 other group mates were the youngest campers in recent memory to make it all the way to the top of Storm King Mountain and they received certificates for their accomplishment. The climb gave James the confidence to try new things – you might even say that reaching the top of the mountain gave him a whole new view of life.

It was through this new found confidence that James began to excel in many things. He discovered that he was an excellent soccer player and he achieved a record time as he climbed the rock wall at the ropes course. James discovered swimming and found out that he loves art and music too.

According to recent studies children are playing outside less. Children in the USA average just 30 minutes a week of unregulated time outdoors, says Oliver Pergams, a conservation scientist at the University of Illinois at Chicago. At the same time, he says, the amount of media time for all ages has surged from 1,539 hours spent on TV, movies, video games and the Internet in 1988 to 2,226 last year. That’s six hours a day. Studies have shown that this over-exposure of electronic media has negative physical and psychological effects, including obesity, depression and attention problems.

Outdoor activities reduce attention deficit and hyperactivity symptoms in children, according to a 2004 study by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. And our camp helps to plant the seeds of creativity, play, and love for the outdoors for the nearly 300 campers who come each summer.

Please become a “planting partner” once again, so that we can offer more scholarships for children to learn to love the fields and the mountains of Camp Olmsted. Your donation will transform the lives of children and plant the seeds of love, creativity, and hope in them.

I thank you for your past support of this wonderful program and ask that you send your most generous contribution to the City Society today.

Sincerely,

William S. Shillady Executive Director

*We’ve changed the child’s name to protect his privacy.

United Methodist City Society and Five Points Mission Funding, Scholarships, and Camp Olmsted

The United Methodist City Society has been a partner in mission and support for over 170 years to the churches of the New York Annual conference.   We provide a variety of ministries to those people who live in our New York metropolitan area.

Each year we provide almost $500,000 in support to local churches and programs throughout the New York Annual conference New York City regions that include helpful and creative programs for children, responding with resources to congregations in need and helping to be a supportive partner with pastors who lead our congregations.   Our financial support of many churches can be found in capital repairs, programmatic and operational support.

Two of the City Society programs we want to highlight are the Scholarships for Urban Ministry and the Summer Day Camp Program Task Force.   We want you to be aware of these programs so that you can find fitting candidates for ministry who might apply for the scholarships and our summer camp program might benefit your local congregation.

The City Society provides scholarships to those persons preparing to enter urban ministry.  Eligible applicants include those persons who are attending or entering seminary and/or those persons seeking advanced training in a particular area of service.  Every year between 8 and 12 scholarships ranging from $500-$2,500 each are awarded. Applications will be available starting in February and will be due in May. For more information or to receive an application package please visit our website at www.umcitysociety.org or contact Reverend William Shillady at bshillady@umcitysociety.org or (212) 870-3084 ext 2.  You will soon be able to download the application from our website.

The City Society also provides grants for local churches that operate summer day camp and vacation bible school programs.  These funds are awarded through an application process and grants range from $250.00 – $1,500.00 and are based on program length and number of children/youth served. Applications are available starting in February and are due in early May. For further information or to receive an application package please visit our website at www.umcitysociety.org or contact Ms. Aisha Campbell at acampbell@umcitysociety.org or (212) 870-3084 ext.6

Also, do you know a child who would benefit from two weeks at camp?

The City Society, through its subsidiary Five Points Mission, operates Camp Olmsted a sleep away camp located in Cornwall on Hudson, NY.

The Olmsted sleep-away camp program serves boys and girls between the ages of 6 and 13 years over four twelve day sessions which start at the end of June and end in late August. During our two week program sessions campers enjoy swimming, hiking, art, dance, drama, reading, science classes, sports and ropes challenge course activities. They learn how to cook in kiddie’s kitchen, they put on dramatic performances and most importantly they make friends that last a lifetime. For more information on the Camp Olmsted program please visit the Five Points Mission website at www.campolmsted.org or contact Ms. April Callender at acallender@umcitysociety.org or (212)870-3084 ext.3.

The City Society has a unique history in caring for children and women.  Our earliest predecessor mission program was formed by Methodist women of lower Manhattan who wanted to care for the newly arrived immigrants to our shores in 1838.  They provided Sunday Schools and a variety of training programs for children and their mothers.   We today continue this historic tradition through our camp and our summer program.  We hope you will support us with your prayers and financial support so that we can continue to care for all of God’s children.

New Executive Director Announced

We are pleased to announce that the Reverend Dr. William Shillady has joined the United Methodist City Society as Executive Director.

Dr. Shillady previously served as pastor of Park Avenue United Church and brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the organization.

Read more about Dr. Shillady

You are invited to a reception to benefit Camp Olmsted

Honoring Reverend Dr. John E. Carrington
& Christ Church United Methodist (Manhattan)

The UMCS is conducting a search for a new Executive Director/CEO

Seminar Part II – The Church in the Market Place

The Interchurch Center
475 Riverside Drive
New York, NY 10115

Annual Meeting

Keynote Speaker:
Rev. A.R. Bernard
Founder and CEO of the Christian Cultural Center (CCC)
Brooklyn, NY

Dedication of Anchor House Women’s Program

976 – 978 Park Place, Brooklyn
For information call (718) 771-0760