A recent conference hosted by Johns Hopkins University and the Dana Foundation — and highlighted in The Answer Sheet column of the Washington Post – provided evidence for what many educators have long argued — that arts provide a practical and positive impact on how children learn.

The column quoted several practical reasons provided by conference keynote speaker Jerry Kagan, a researcher in developmental psychology, why the arts matter in school today:
– They provide a place for children to fit in and avoid giving up on school.
– They give children a sense of creating and doing things that have an impact on their world
– They give children a unique way to communicate that goes beyond words.
– They lift up the importance of creating an object of beauty, simply to give pleasure to others.
– They provide a chance for children to work together on a shared goal, developing a sense of morality and concern for others.
– They allow children to express their feelings, connecting to the kinds of self-expression that are shown to reduce illness and increase a sense of well-being.

With the Artists as Educators program which began in October, supported by the Community Foundation and coordinated by the Cultural Alliance of Greater Birmingham, we are seeing evidence of all these benefits for children in our Birmingham City Schools. It is good news when scientific studies provide support for what teachers tell us — incorporating the arts into the curriculum does make a positive difference in how our children learn and in how successful they can be.

We love the fact that Birmingham ranks so high in generosity on a variety of different surveys. The next generation is doing a great job of demonstrating their own support for our community, but we can do more to encourage those efforts.

This holiday season, try at least one of these five tips and let us know what happens:

Bring up the subject of giving. The Ask your children, your siblings, your parents to share stories of what they care about and what would happen if these special charities were not providing these services and benefits.

Make a will – and involve your family in the discussion. No matter how much or how little you have to give, the decisions you make in your estate plan are vital, especially when you take time to tell those you love about your wishes, hopes and dreams.

Volunteer. Your time can make a difference and what you experience as you help out will tell you a lot about the organizations you support. For younger people, volunteering provides great training and potential job experience.

Make giving decisions as a family. It’s a great idea to use a Family Advised Fund at the Community Foundation to engage the next generation in choosing which nonprofit organizations to benefit. Or you can try the do-it-yourself version as you set your own charitable budget, making sure that philanthropy is a priority.

Practice creative gift giving, especially for the loved one who seems to “have it all.” A gift to charity in honor of someone will last long after the last tie has been unwrapped. Involve your children in deciding what charity would be the perfect fit, and in addressing the acknowledgment card that you include with your holiday greeting.

Read the full story, along with all our other “50 Ways” features. And enjoy your time together and maybe you will have some additional ideas to share after the weekend. We are listening!

The statistics are gathering as we near the end of the year and the traditional heavy season for charitable giving. Between now and December 31 many nonprofits typically receive a large portion of their annual gifts, and some signs are worrying.

Associated Press reported recently that a Harris Interactive Poll shows 38 percent of Americans saying they are more likely to give a charitable gift as a holiday present this year. That figure last year was 49 percent. The same number of people seem to be giving, pollsters said, but they are giving less.

A survey reported by the Chronicle of Philanthropy shows that many fundraising organizations are expecting lower income, approximately 9 percent for 2009. At the same time, a survey commissioned by World Vision found that 74 percent of Americans plan to increase their charitable giving once the economy improves.

More cheerful news came from the Red Cross, which said people who plan to cut back on holiday gifts and parties still want to do what they can for charity. Only 20 percent of those surveyed planned to cut their donations between now and the end of the year, 17 percent expected to give more and 62 percent the same amount.

Your Community Foundation is one of those already planning to do more, with many grants in 2009 focused on nonprofit operations. It’s important to keep our nonprofit partners healthy, especially in a time when needs are great.

As you visit with friends and family this season, think about how you can stretch your own gift-giving to make a difference through the charity of your choice. Even in a recession, we have so many blessings compared to others, and your gift definitely counts!

We have had a wonderful time celebrating our 50th anniversary, starting in May 2009. So it’s great to read about the 10th anniversary of our sister community foundation headquartered in Anniston, the Community Foundation of Northeast Alabama.

Take a look at the detailed history of this organization, which began with the conversion of a hospital foundation. Today, CFNA is an important partner, along with the other community foundations throughout Alabama. We work together whenever we can, sharing the important responsibility of meeting needs throughout our communities.

There are about 700 community foundations across the United States. We’re proud to salute our near-neighbor and remind everyone to find the community foundation in their community. For donor-advised funds, for planned giving, for so many flexible ways to give and for extensive community knowledge that makes giving more effective, community foundations provide a great resource.

Are you one of the 350,000 visitors who strolled, sat, sniffed, listened or gazed last year at the amazing collection at Alabama’s most popular living museum? Then you know what draws so many to the Birmingham Botanical Gardens, located just off U.S. 280 at the southern edge of Birmingham.

One recent Sunday, a group of old-time music fans played their way through fiddle, banjo and guitar favorites, stopping only to let wedding-goers enjoy a magical moment in the nearby rose garden. On another occasion, visitors streamed into the main building to review the latest collection of crafts from talented Alabama weavers, potters and painters, while two young girls dressed in bright green jumpers had their photographs taken for a holiday card.

Other youngsters, 10,000 of them every year, enjoy the chance to explore the natural word up close and personal, thanks to one of The Gardens’ educational programs. A recent national honor also recognized the horticultural therapy program that benefits so many children and adults with special needs.

With the long holiday weekend just around the corner, this could be the perfect time to explore The Gardens on your own or with visiting friends and family. Don’t worry about checking to see if the place is open — it always is, sunup to sundown, 365 days a year.

Click here to appreciate the full story of The Gardens, one of our 50 Ways to Love Our Community. Enjoy your visit.

Here’s something to imagine — 1,000 people giving $1,000. Or 10,000 people giving $100. Or 100,000 people giving $10.

Or, as we prepare to celebrate National Philanthropy Day on November 12, imagine the impact of a single $1 million gift, like the one that Jane Stephens Comer made as the first woman in Alabama to join the national Women Moving Millions Campaign. Comer, chosen as the William M. and Virginia B. Spencer Outstanding Philanthropist in 2009, made her $1 million gift because she recognized the importance of women supporting the needs of other women. Just a few months ago, she made a $5 million gift to UAB, to be used in partnership with the Alys Stephens Center for a cultural arts education program for Birmingham-area children in pre-school through high school.

In both cases, she sets a standard for philanthropy we can all aspire to. Maybe we can’t give $5 million or even $1 million. But whatever we can give, joined with the gifts of others, can be just as significant in transforming our community forever.

We also can give of our time, as she and the other National Philanthropy Day honorees do. When we honor these top winners and other Volunteers in Philanthropy at the annual luncheon, organized by the Alabama Chapter of the Association of Fundraising Professionals, we are honoring the generous heart of our whole community and the power of that generosity to change the world.

In addition to Jane Comer, the annual awards honor Mike Warren, Outstanding Civic Leader; Hannah Franklin, Outstanding Youth in Philanthropy; Tom Armstrong, Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham Outstanding Professional Advisor; Coca Cola Bottling Company United. Outstanding Corporate Citizen; Habitat for Humanity of Greater Birmingham, Outstanding Charitable Organization, and Monty Hogewood, William S. Roth Outstanding Fundraising Executive.

For more about how you can be part of National Philanthropy Day, contact the AFP office or check the organization’s website. And, in the meantime, remember that we are all part of what makes our generous community so special. Find out more about that as part of this week’s 50 Ways to Love Our Community.

Jay LeCroy is a science teacher in a county outside of the Community Foundation’s geographic area. But he still has an Imagine idea well worth sharing.

At Isabella High School in Maplesville, AL, he explains, he is “struggling to teach and inspire a generation of students in a small country school that lacks a lab and supplies. Yes, that’s right, I teach middle and high school science in all areas without a lab. My goal is to give each student a chance to experience a rewarding career in science and engineering, but I’m afraid that many students are slipping through the cracks of a poorly funded system.”

Despite these challenges, LeCroy has a dream:
I have a “shovel-ready project” to build a lab and science classrooms at my school. We need a lab large enough to house as many as 35 students. It would be used for all areas of science and is desperately needed. I teach science in a small school in rural Alabama. I teach all areas in science from 7th to 12th grades. Since Isabella is located in the country—meaning we don’t even have a traffic light, and the nearest town with a post office or bank is nearly 10 miles away–it is a high-need school in a poor community. We are a Title I school.

I am attempting to build a strong science program. I do not have access to gas or water in my classroom. When I arrived two years ago, I did not have microscopes, beakers, flasks etc…I still don’t have enough. Our needs are great. I work out of a room that was never meant to be used for science.

What I do have access to is smart, well-behaved students often from impoverished homes who are eager to learn but have never been given the opportunity to love science in its “hands-on” state. They are so excited to have been introduced to some science labs that a university nearly 30 miles away has been willing to conduct (through a partnership with the Alabama Math and Science Technology Initiative, which the Community Foundation has supported).

Just these experiments have really sparked an interest in things we might do someday. Our dream is to host lively science classes in our own laboratory—furnished with all the essentials—and awaken the minds of some future scientists or engineers. Never more would people be able to look with disdain on the science shortcomings of Alabama students.

Having introduced science labs to the 8th-12th graders has had the coolest effect here: younger students, including fourth graders and second graders with older siblings in my class, have visited to let me know that they can’t wait to take science here. Imagine the inspiration when all of our students (we’re K-12) walk into to a science laboratory and begin to work.

We have students that can go into the science fields such as engineering or medicine if they are properly trained in high school. These kids are sharp, and in spite of our lack of funding, some have the ability to flourish even now on the college preparatory tests. We are letting a generation slip through the cracks.

It is a shame not to maximize their learning potential for the over-tired excuse, “lack of funding.” Whatever happened to, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way”? My science colleague and I are enthusiastic and determined. With your help, we can provide the proper science education to propel our students into a lifetime of curiosity and love of learning about science.

If you help my school, I pledge to use your program to create a curriculum that promotes technological literacy, that requires the students to think on their feet, and that develops tomorrow’s work force today. History has shown that the few alumni that has gone on to engineering or medicine has relocated to Birmingham and Shelby County. Along with Alabama Science in Motion, BEST Robotics, and with your help, I am building a project-based learning program at a small, poor county in central Alabama.

If you will take care of the science funding, I will gladly take care of the science instruction. Never before has it been so important for students to see our country’s investment in their education.

Interested? Find out more from Jay LeCroy at Isabella High School in Maplesville, Alabama.

Amanda Wilson, 15, is another Fresh Air Family participant who has been doing some thinking about the future. Consider her idea idea about what her community might look like in 50 years — “a world where more people are into activities.”

Instead of families sitting in front of electronics all day (says Amanda), they should spend that valuable time together.

I want improvements in technology, but for good uses, not bad. For example, lazy games and TV where you just sit and play or watch are bad. Games that bring the family closer together, while exercising and using energy, are good.

I would like a clean and safe environment! Good health comes from a clean environment. With a safe environment you don’t have to worry all the time about your children and their safety. I would like to see a stronger community with fun, faith-filled activities for the family bonding.

A main improvement I want to see is peace in the world. A world that no longer needs more troops, Marines, Navy, Air Force, and all the other organizations that fight to free our world. I want to see families together because the men don’t have to go to war. I don’t want to see rooms with pictures of the loved ones who died in the war. I want to see happy families, safe and sound in their own homes.

I would also like to see more opportunities for boys and girls to play sports without needing money or not thinking they are not good enough. It would be great to have fun and enjoy their success! That is what I want my community to look like in 50 years!

What do YOU imagine? We’re still looking for ideas as we support our new Community Catalyst Funds.

The Fresh Air Family organization challenges its participants to experience the natural world and learn new things, including how to imagine a future 50 years from now. For 13-year-old Brennan Fitzgerald, a look into the future starts with a walk outdoors.

Here’s what Brennan imagines:
Trees line a path with several people walking down it. A dog does a trick and a child laughs. That is what I want our world to look like in 50 years. One major thing I want to see is alternate energy sources. Solar powered cars would be a great way of conserving energy. Converting the water power would also save energy.

Another thing that we need is less obesity. Today one of the main causes of obesity is lack of exercise. Our community needs more gardens and paths to be walked on. More biking trails would be nice too. Volunteer work that involves getting outside would help people’s fitness and our community’s poverty.

One more thing I want to see in 50 years is a healthier planet. If trucks that pick up recycling as well as garbage were everywhere, it would encourage more people to recycle. If more people used cloth grocery bags, it would greatly reduce waste. Our world today needs a lot of improvement. But a lot can be done in 50 years.

Stay tuned for more from other thoughtful teens.

If you ever checked out the lists of meetings, sector champions and other documents on the old Yes We Can! Birmingham website, you should bookmark a new place to turn for information about the next phase of this grassroots initiative of the Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham. From now on, when you want to know more about Yes We Can! Birmingham and the new Birmingham Education Foundation, go to www.bhameducationfoundation.org.

Don’t get confused, because there definitely are other Birmingham Education Foundations, serving places named Birmingham that are located in Michigan and even England. So you can’t easily find it by Googling.

You can also find out more by reading this week’s “50 Ways to Love Your Community,” which explains how the voices of 2,000 people became a Community Agreement now guiding the work of this new local education foundation. Be a part of what happens next by attending the update and celebration at 5:30 p.m. Nov. 3 at the downtown Birmingham Public Library or e-mail Karen Rolen to find out more.