SDSVP Holiday Party 2009 - Video

SDSVP's annual holiday party was located at Investee, A Reason to Survive's (ARTS) beautiful facility in Liberty Station. Partners and friends enjoyed a delicious fare. Guests toured the ARTS space including a gallery and rooms for music, pottery/painting, dance and digital arts where ARTS provides a creative outlet for at-risk youth. Social Chair, Leigh Johnson, gave a warm welcome and then ARTS Lead Partner, Scott Tritt and ARTS Founder & Executive Director, Matt D'Arrigo gave updates on the SDSVP/ARTS partnership. ARTS created a mural for SDSVP which allowed for party goers to add their own creative expressions. See video below for party highlights.

Holiday Basket 2009 - Videos

SDSVP Partners joined forces with Investee, Community Resource Center to help families in need this holiday season. Take a look...



Partners pack food boxes



Community Resource Center's Executive Director, Laurin Pause explains what families will receive through the Holiday Basket Program

Dallas Social Venture Patners Sparking Social Innovation

Dallas SVP is proud to participate in bringing social innovation ideas to North Texas in a collaborative way with OneStar Foundation and Root Cause.

Please tune in to this blog space on December 9th from 10:30am-11:15am to watch a virutal new media press conference! Dallas SVP and friends will talk about the work they are doing together, how social innovation is changing the way nonprofits do business, and announce social innovations that have been selected to help kick off this initiative. Even with a regional focus, this work is indicative of a bigger trend to collaborate at the national, state and local levels to stimulate socially innovative activities in communities.

North Texas Social Innovation New Media Press Conference

December 9, 2009 - 8:30 AM PST

Advocacy & Policy Committee Update - Dec 2009

Objective: Determine Short-Term Action Items to Support our Two Investees

Simonne Ruff, CSH

• 8,000 homeless per night county-wide, most transitional/episodic
  - Up to 2,000 chronically homeless, often with disabilities – disproportionate use of
  expensive resources to support this segment, as opposed to supportive housing which is
  more cost effective
• CSH’s goal is to be a catalyst for high-quality supportive housing
  - Sense is there is a lot of money for supportive housing that is not being used
  - CSH works with project sponsors like Father Joe’s, Catholic Charities to help keep
  projects healthy, including funding (which usually comes from CRA funds through banks
• Don’t expect any new money on the table for 2-3 years, so current strategy is to use Section 8 Voucher system
  - S8 administered through Housing Commissions, current waiting list is 5-8 years, 12,000
  limit in SD City given to specific individuals, 10,000 in SD County
  - Solution is to repurpose from Tenant-Based to Project-Based; Housing Commissions can
  move 25% of the 12,000 to be special purposed
  o Currently SD City only has 250 special-purposed, about 200 are Project-Based
  o County not doing much repurposing at all, not likely, resistance all around
  - Housing commission agreed to release an RFP for 200 Project-Based units, but they
  haven’t done so yet
• What SDSVP can do and who the players are:
  - Break that log-jam for the first 200
  - Keep the cycle going for more
  - Richard Gentry, CEO of City Housing Commission
  http://www.sdhc.org/giaboutus1a.shtml
  http://www.linkedin.com/pub/rick-gentry/11/60b/30a
  - Carrol Vaughan, EVP of City Housing Commission
  http://www.sdhc.org/giaboutus1b.shtml
  http://www.linkedin.com/pub/carrol-vaughan/7/44/444
  - County Director of Housing and Community Development: David R. Estrella
  http://www.co.san-diego.ca.us/sdhcd/aboutus/about_us.html
  - City Council or Council influencers: Kevin Faulconer
  o City Council doesn’t vote on this item, it’s all under the City Housing Commission, but
  they can exert pressure
  
  Action Items
  - Meeting with Rick Gentry (David & Leigh J)
  o Simonne to make introduction
  - Write Talking Points / Briefing Book (TBD – David L / Sherri N to find)
  - Consider rename to “Advocacy and Policy Committee”
  o Ask Board for approval and to announce at party (David L)
  - Develop SDSVP Advocacy Infrastructure (Kathy F)

SDSVP Partner, Aaron Contorer Wins 10News Leadership Award

From OurCity San Diego

October 27, 2009

10News and OurCity: San Diego honors Aaron Contorer for establishing the Equinox Center – a non-profit organization with the mission of navigating San Diego on its best course for a prosperous future. The Equinox Center conducts objective research, shares insightful data, makes strategic policy recommendations, and assists community leaders, policy makers, the media, and individuals to comprehend the complex issues surrounding San Diego’s sustainable future.

Aaron Contorer serves as the Board Chairman of the Equinox Center and is involved with all details of the organization as an active volunteer, marketer, capacity builder, strategic advisor, fundraiser, and a number of other different aspects. He has contributed personal funds and dedicated all of his spare time for the success of this organization.

The Equinox Center was founded in 2008 and its mission is to be a catalyst for advancement and provide reliable and thought-provoking ideas for San Diego’s future. Their mission and core values are centered on ensuring thriving communities, a strong economy, and a quality environment. Inspired by such values, the Equinox Center conducts research and strategically plans for the projected increased strain on the water and energy supplies, natural areas, transportation systems, housing infrastructure in order to ensure San Diego’s ongoing prosperity.

Aaron Contorer will receive the 10News Leadership Award on Wednesday Oct. 28 in the category of Environmental Stewardship. Watch 10News, Live @ 6 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 29 for the presentation of the award. For more information, visit http://www.equinoxcenter.org/.

Meet Partner, Linda Bernstein!

By Lori Thiel

San Diego Social Venture Partner’s new board member Linda Bernstein spent 20 years accumulating knowledge about how to successfully run a business, knowledge that in retirement she wants to share with area nonprofits through her work with SDSVP and other philanthropic organizations.

Despite her demonstrable business savvy, Linda — who ran a start-up from her home and sold it 20 years later after growing it to 50 employees and 500 customers worldwide — was an unlikely manager. With an education degree from UCLA and work experience as an elementary school teacher, she took the plunge into the world of business in 1982 when her husband Robert started SeaSpace Corporation in their San Diego home.

SeaSpace provides satellite ground stations and processing software to sense meteorological, oceanographic and environmental data from space. So it was a natural next step for Robert, who earned his Ph.D. in physical oceanography from Columbia University and founded Scripps Satellite-Oceanography Facility.

Within a short while of starting the business it became apparent that someone needed to manage it. So Linda gave up her teaching job to run the company.

“SeaSpace,” Linda remembers fondly, “was like a science fair project for my husband” who is a renowned oceanographer and an expert in satellite data acquisition. But for a novice businessperson, Linda had to learn on the go. She went from the classroom where she taught elementary school to the boardroom, where she learned the hard way how a business operates.

During her time with SeaSpace she learned to draw on resources and look to other credible sources for help. In the last five years of her tenure at SeaSpace she participated in Vistage, a CEO leadership organization that hosts monthly workshops and networking opportunities for professionals to share insight, strategies and support. There she met like-minded entrepreneurs and made long-term friends. One in particular had a commitment to philanthropy and led her to SDSVP.

As she learned more about SDSVP she says she appreciated the meaningful work the organization does partnering with nonprofits to help them solve problems. “It’s a smart way to invest time and money,” she says.

Given her background in childhood education, it’s not surprising that she particularly enjoys SDSVP’s focus on those areas. “One of the major ways to improve the world and raise people out of poverty is through education,” she says.

And Linda has done her share of raising and educating children: Her son Aaron, 36, is a business developer at Qualcomm locally, and her daughter Sarah, 33, is a physical therapist in Oregon. Each has two children, making Linda a grandmother four times over.