Lodge Leadership yearns for a worthy entity to partner with for a 2025 Impact Grant. Please consider the following and contact Tim Luby ( [email protected]) if you have ideas.
Requirements:
Elk involvement and leadership are key requirements in an Impact Grant
project—these grants are designed to set a standard of excellence in community engagement through volunteerism, mentoring and service. Elks must be the driving force in the planning and implementation of the project. Impact Grants require Lodges to take action.
Impact Grant projects must…
– Be charitable and address a local need.
– Have significant Elk involvement, meaning that a substantial number of Elks must
actively participate by giving their time to the project.
– Be ongoing projects, not one-time or once-a-year events.
– Improve the lives of a population, not simply one individual or family.
– Be practical and results oriented.
– Have visible Elk identification and leadership
2024 – An Impact Grant was pursued by denied by the Grand Lodge
2023 – An Impact Grant wasn’t pursued
2022
We continued to host career fairs in November and December to introduce students to careers in social services and in automotive fields. We hosted a field trip in to a hands on career day in October and a second field trip in December to Davlan Engineering and Shillington Box. Both of thesse fields trips allowed the students see the trades that had been highlighted in career in actual working situations. The Elk volunteers helped organize the career fairs and the field trips.
What were the project’s goals? Did the project accomplish these goals? Why or why not?
The three goals of this grant were 1. introducing trades to students, 2. having the students experience these trades through field trips, and 3. mentoring the students as they transition from high school to the work force.We were able to actually get students to experience what it would be like to work is the construction or engineering/manufacturing trades. The students were very engaged in these field trips and this engagement by the students had not been experienced previously. This is the second part of the goals of the grant and now the Lodge hopes to continue building on this momentum to have more field trips and to develop the final aspect of the grant mentoring these students as they transition from high school to the work force. This has taken a entire year as we gained the confidence of the students that we were serious about helping them. As students from the inner city, the students have a reluctance to trust people will actually continue with their promises and we have finally turned that corner.
What part of the project has the lodge been most proud of this year?
The part of the project that has been most rewarding is gaining the confidence of the school and the students that St. Louis #9 Elks were interested in them and wanted them to succeed. This was the biggest obsticle to being successful. The number of organizations who have participated in the career fairs was also rewarding. Please see the uploaded letter of appreciation from Lift for Life Academy and their reaction to the program.
Tell us an anecdote about the project this quarter. This could be a story about someone who was helped, a story about a volunteer, or another story of impact.
To support our success, we would relate two stories. During the field trip to the construction trades event, one student really felt he had an interest in the construction laborors union and has already applied and been accepted into a training program to start after graduation. He proudly wears the shirt provided by the Elks promoting the construction trades to school to tell everyone he has found his passion.The second story happened as the result of the field trip in December to Shillington Box. Two students after touring the the facility on the field trip immediately asked for applications to apply for jobs after graduation.
These events show the grant is having an impact on the students at Lift for Life Academy.
How much in funds will the Lodge have leftover as of December 31?
$8843.53 is remaining at the end of December 2022. The application for extension has been prepared and submitted to Meaghan Morris.
Q3 Report submitted by Jane Schnettler on Sep 29, 2022 1:10 PM.
2022
2021
The SOAR Program: Lifting At-Risk High Schoolers to New Heights
Identify the local community need your project will address. Lift for Life Academy is a K-12 Charter school in the City of St. Louis and its curriculum is designed to provide students most at risk for academic difficulties with a solid foundation to be successful in their chosen pursuits. Here’s the problems: • Most of the kids only know what life is like in a 5-10 block area (their neighborhood) so a big 1st step is getting them into this school which starts to broaden their geographic horizons. • The average ACT score at the high school is barely above 18. In fact, they celebrate the kids who achieve a 21 or higher. So, most of the kids won’t get into or be able to afford a 4-year college. • To be eligible to enter the school, the family household income must be below $20,449. • The average expense per student at the academy is $13,701. In short, these kids don’t have much of a bright future ahead.
Describe your Lodge’s project. How will the Elks address this community need? If the Lodge has a partner in this project, we want to know exactly what the Elks will do, and not what the partner organization will do. The school’s “SOAR (Student Ownership, Autonomy and Relevance) Program” is currently only an “exposure” program wherein professionals in various skilled trades come in and talk with students about careers in that profession. This is all funded by the school, and they have no other partners in the program. Our project will extend the impact for students by creating a much broader program that would include 3 legs of the stool to teach the students things like leadership, character, entrepreneurship, and diversity (getting them out of that 5-10 block neighborhood) The program would consist of three stages and would focus on specific types of career trades: • Phase I – Introduction to various trades which would include: o Individual Construction Trades (Carpentry, Electrician, Heavy Equipment Operator, etc) o Healthcare Trades which only require an associate degree (Radiology technician, Ultrasound Tech, etc.) o Airline Pilot o Media & Design (AV Tech, Graphic Design, Photography/Videography, etc) o Barber & Styling o Military • Phase II – Internship/Apprenticeship Phase – Once students have identified areas of career interest, we would then get the students in the field with professionals based on those interests to shadow professionals in that industry. o Phase III – Mentorship Phase. Our lodge would partner on a monthly basis to mentor these kids in those fields and work to find scholarships/grants for these specific trades. As part of the mentorship and life skills programs we would also concentrate on important things like leadership development, entrepreneurship, character, money management, etc.
How did the Lodge come up with this project idea? What kind of research did the Lodge conduct? Has the Lodge had any experience addressing this problem in the past?Our lodge looked at our membership growth, membership strengths and involvement in our community. We know there is a need to help at-risk youth through members who are currently involvement with Lift for Life Academy on a volunteer basis. Those members recommended our grant committee reach out and explore opportunities for St. Louis Lodge #9 as a whole. It was quickly determined the SOAR Program is missing key components that our lodge can add. We conducted face-to-face meetings with Lodge #9 members who grew up in the urban environment as the students who gave us further insight into the challenges at-risk urban high schoolers face. Our lodge has not had any experience addressing this problem in the past.
Proposed Goals & Objectives
Goal #1 – Expose high school students at Lift for Life Academy who are at-risk for academic difficulties to potential career fields not requiring a 4-year degree.i. Phase I – Introduction to various skilled trades ii. Phase II – Internship/Apprenticeship Phase. Experiential Learning iii. Phase III – Mentorship Phase where our lodge would partner on a monthly basis to mentor these kids in those fields and find scholarships for these specific trades.
Goal #2 – Create an atmosphere of inspiration, community involvement, and growth for students. Allow students to be exposed to other lifestyles other than the 5-10 block area they know and live in. ii. Allow professionals to get to know these kids as real people with real talent iii. Have a waiting list of students wanting to get into the program.
Goal #3 – Provide Leadership, Character Development, Life Skills, Personal Money Management through an additional mentorship program.i. In addition to skilled trade mentorship this program should offering St. Louis high risk students the support, structure, and exposure they need to envision a promising future after high school graduation. ii. This program should provide intangible skills mentioned above. iii. This program should develop the next generation of mentors for their community.
At the end of the year, how will you know the project has helped the problem identified in your project description? We will have access to data collected by the school, local skilled trades and Lodge #9 members as to the number of graduating seniors placed in internships/apprenticeships. We will also have data as to the number of juniors and sophomores who are signed up for the program for the following years.
What data will you collect to show how the project has helped? (CIP Tip: provide examples beyond number of people served and beyond smiles on faces.)- Student attendance (comparing SOAR vs. non SOAR students) – Student engagement (based on observational data in SOAR vs. non SOAR classes) – Student responsibility (percent of students turning work on time, meeting deadlines etc) – Student grades (comparing SOAR vs. non SOAR students).
This is an opportunity to raise your Lodge’s profile and inspire new members to join. How do you plan to promote this as an Elks-led project? Individual members will be the mentors o Several members own Public Relations and Digital Marketing firms who have established relationships with local media. o School social media, lodge social media, district social media, state social media o Other social media – Next Door app.
Application submitted by Jane Schnettler October 21, 2021 3:39 PM.