GHR Foundation is pleased to welcome new members, Jen Ford Reedy and Peter Mahoney, to our Board of Directors.

The GHR Board of Directors charts the strategic direction of the foundation, carrying out stewardship responsibilities and overseeing its grant making. Jen and Pete each bring invaluable experience and expertise from the public, private and nonprofit sectors and we are excited to add their unique perspectives to the exceptional group of leaders that make up our Board.

“We couldn’t be more pleased by the addition of Jen and Pete to our Board and will benefit from the valuable insights these exceptional leaders will bring during this exciting time at GHR,” said Amy Goldman, GHR’s CEO and Chair. Founded in 1965 by Gerald and Henrietta Rauenhorst, GHR is an independent foundation committed to building bridges across ideas, sectors and people; elevating powerful movements of faith and inter-faith communities for sustainable development; implementing systems change strategies across public, private and faith sectors to keep children in families globally; establishing a new school model to eliminate the education gap locally; and unlocking funding from industry and government to prevent Alzheimer’s Disease.

About our new Board members:

Jen Ford Reedy
President, Bush Foundation
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Jennifer Ford Reedy has been president of the Bush Foundation since September 2012. The Bush Foundation invests in great ideas and the people who power them in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota and 23 Native nations that share the same geography. Reedy's current community service includes board and committee work with Region’s Hospital, the Truman Foundation and Independent Sector. She is also a participant in the Itasca Project and the Minnesota Women's Economic Roundtable.

“They Returned My Daughter, But She Never Truly Came Home” is one of Nairobi-based BRIGHT magazine’s many efforts to magnify stories that do not receive adequate attention in the global media landscape. An award-winning digital publication, BRIGHT covers fresh, relevant stories related to health, education, and social impact. Bringing marginalized narratives to the forefront, and offering human faces to the broader, more sensational stories that circulate widely in the news cycle, BRIGHT continues to push the boundaries of conventional journalism.

In October 2018, Univision produced a written story and video about the journey of Adayanci Pérez, a 6-year-old girl from Guatemala who came to the United States with her father and was immediately separated from him. They were among hundreds of families affected by the U.S Administration’s “zero tolerance” policy, which has since been suspended. Authorities told Adayanci that her father had gone to the doctor’s and would return the next day; in reality, he was deported home and she was placed with a foster family in Michigan. BRIGHT Magazine commissioned graphic novelist German Andino to retell the true story of Adayanci Pérez and her father, in comic form.

Focusing on “solutions-oriented stories” about social change, BRIGHT brings a rich, creative lens on social good to people who crave more nuanced perspectives on these topics. Editor-in-chief Sarika Bansal notes, “we're working to become the go-to source for stories on social change, and in the process, set the standard for this type of storytelling.”
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In partnership with GHR, BRIGHT has brought special focus to the pressing issue of family separation at the U.S. border, publishing a collection of stories, told through media, that shed light on the lived experiences of migrants and the traumatic effects of child separation. In keeping with their self-reflective work, BRIGHT has also explored how journalism as a field can be more responsible in telling migration stories, avoiding exploitative techniques and aiming, instead, to forward narratives that are well contextualized, empathetic, and dignified.

​A 2017 BridgeBuilder Top Idea, language learning startup NaTakallam has forged a unique way to build bridges in a bordered world. Leveraging technology and their native tongue, NaTakallam connects refugees to remote work opportunities in the language sector, providing them economic empowerment, honing their marketable skills, and fostering global friendships.
NaTakallam began, first and foremost, with addressing the problem of being a displaced person without a job and/or a sense of purpose. Whether being barred from legal access to the local workforce, unable to find work due to a dearth of opportunities, or struggling because of cultural or language barriers, refugees and displaced individuals are at great risk of falling into depression, poverty, and desperation.

While the organization began by focusing on Arabic speaking refugees, over the past three years NaTakallam has expanded its offerings to include  Spanish, Persian, Arabic and French. NaTakallam recruits, trains and hires refugees as Conversation Partners (CPs), and then connects them with students around the world for language practice. They offer a range of learning options, including one-on-one tutoring, guest speaker sessions, integrated K-12 curricula, university programs and translation services in 9+ languages. Providing students the chance to learn a new language while building a relationship with someone whose life is very different than their own, NaTakallam expands much more than just their user’s linguistic repertoire.

As NaTakallam continues to evolve and develop new programs, expanding its ability to provide displaced persons with access to income and a sense of purpose, they play a key role in fostering empathy, dialogue and intercultural understanding worldwide. With the introduction of their new community session programs, NaTakallam is now expanding its reach to include workplaces and community spaces.

GHR Foundation was fortunate enough to host a lunchtime community session event with NaTakallam at the close of their grantmaking, where staff and special guests got to hear from two CPs, who shared their stories and described their experiences working with NaTakallam. Both CPs expressed a profound sense of gratitude for the chance to share their language skills while connecting with a diverse range of people, allowing for friendships to form even across great distance. 

Top Idea team TIMBY works with a community representative at the GHR workshop.

​In 2018, the second iteration of GHR’s BridgeBuilder Challenge focused on transparency and accessibility, translating the Challenge criteria and materials into seven languages. Interest and engagement grew, with more than 675 ideas and 6,000 comments on the platform. From these, GHR selected five promising, creative, and game-changing ideas to each receive a share of $1 million.
 
In early November in Rome, GHR hosted a workshop with OpenIDEO to enhance tangible and intangible skills that will accelerate their work and learning. For three days, our five Top Idea organizations worked alongside GHR, OpenIDEO and each other to find opportunities to learn, share and amplify their potential.
 
The workshop was designed to allow the cohort to learn about each other’s work and “build bridges” across projects; provide tools and knowledge that will help carry impact further; dig into the learning they hope to achieve through the projects; and foster a community of allies who will challenge and support each others' work. Drawing on the shared BridgeBuilder guiding principles which GHR developed with the help of the 2017 cohort, the group refined their ideas and forged meaningful new relationships based on values, ambition and collaboration. This year’s teams will learn alongside GHR – and each other – using principles-based evaluation over the duration of their 12-36 month projects.
 
Later, at a dinner with 40 funders, the Top Ideas cohort had the opportunity to pitch their ideas and engage in critical conversations around their areas of work. In the spirit of BridgeBuilder, attendees made new connections as they explored intersections in their collective work to address urgent challenges in communities around the world.
 
Each of our Top Idea organizations has devoted time, creativity and effort into building bridges and making the world a better place.
 
GHR looks forward to growing its partnership with the 2018 cohort and learning more about the power and impact of principles-based bridge building in meeting complex global challenges.
 

The second iteration of the BridgeBuilder Challenge used a principles-based approach to evaluation, using input collected from the 2017 cohort of Top Ideas. These Guiding Principles serve to drive and align GHR and the Top Idea grantees as they develop and grow their projects.

This year’s teams will learn alongside GHR – and each other – using principles-based evaluation over the duration of their 12-36 month projects.
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GHR looks forward to growing its partnership with the 2018 cohort and learning more about the power and impact of principles-based bridge building in meeting complex global challenges.

GHR Foundation's Children in Families funding supports child protection interventions that strengthen families, respond to children without family care and drive further evidence of innovative approaches. GHR envisions a world where all children, especially those at risk of losing or without parental care, are living in a stable, positive, long-term family. Global research demonstrates that children raised in families or family-like settings have better cognitive, emotional and social outcomes than those living outside family care.

Given this evidence, the primary aims of GHR’s partnerships is to prevent child separation from families by supporting effective programs that link families to support systems, and to pursue systemic change through stronger, pro-family child protection alliances, systems and policies. GHR partner This Life Cambodia is an example of such work.
With a focus on community-level development initiatives, TLC aims to create sustainable, long lasting systems that allow children to be protected and supported to remain within or return to their families and communities. Operating out of a strongly held belief that local communities are the experts when it comes to identifying practical ways to achieve improvements in their daily lives, TLC sees its role as facilitating this process, offering technical advice and direction to empower communities in developing the solutions to pressing problems.
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‘We see great potential in reinvigorating the current system to get the structure working,” explains Se Chinn, on a recent visit to the GHR office. “Our goal, ultimately, is to empower the community to do the implementation on its own, requiring only technical and financial assistance from us.”
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TLC’s children and family program involves reintegrating formerly incarcerated young adults back into their communities, supporting vulnerable families at risk of separation, and enlisting community support for vulnerable children and families. The inspiring work underway at TLC perfectly embodies GHR’s mission to strengthen and empower families while promoting family-based care for all children.
 
 
 

From Reuters:

"Kenya’s Sengwer people will have hi-tech help fighting forced evictions in their forested homeland - an app that will share a $1 million prize announced on Monday by a U.S. philanthropic organization.

Dubbed “This Is My Backyard” (TIMBY), the app was created in Kenya and is being customized with the Sengwer in mind, although it is being used in 25 more countries and works in 11 languages, the developers said.

TIMBY was among five winners of a global competition that awards ideas that address urgent community challenges, according to the Minneapolis-based GHR Foundation, which runs the yearly contest. The winners will share the cash prize."
Read more...

BridgeBuilder Challenge 2018 Top Ideas are working on solutions that span harnessing technology to help preserve ancestral land from illegal use; employ low-income bilingual women as medical interpreters while improving healthcare outcomes; address future global food demands while supporting youth leadership in agriculture; develop market-based opportunities for youth in fragile economies; and empower women to prevent domestic abuse and connect victims with services.

The five 2018 BridgeBuilder Top Ideas will receive a share of US$1 million and ongoing collaboration with GHR Foundation. The Challenge seeks ideas addressing urgent global concerns at the intersections of peace, prosperity and planet in radically new ways. Participants from 185 countries responded with more than 675 ideas.

The 2018 Top Ideas cohort announced today include:

1. Equipping indigenous peoples with mobile technology to protect land rights. TIMBY (This Is My Backyard) is an app being deployed in Kenya for the Sengwer people to protect their ancestral lands with geostamped and evidence-based reporting, including uploading encrypted videos and photos of land use issues. The Sengwer community will own a growing database about their lands—maps, evictions and court rulings—which can be shared with stakeholders to increase transparency and effective dialogue.
2. Empowering low-income bilingual women as medical interpreters to fight healthcare disparities. An organization founded by an immigrant, Found in Translation is helping other immigrants and bilingual speakers in the Boston area by training them as medical interpreters to bridge the gap between immigrant communities and the health care system. The expanded program will train and employ more low-income women as medical interpreters, who in turn help families navigate the healthcare system, meet hospitals’ needs for medical interpreters, and improve medical outcomes.
3. Unleashing the potential of rural youth to drive sustainable small-scale agriculture. Producers Direct will support youth careers in farming by providing access to financing, youth exchanges and training in digital tools while offering reciprocal mentoring relationships with older smallholder farmers in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Helping youth to see agriculture as a viable economic path will help address future employment shortages in countries with young populations, while also promoting sustainable food systems.
4. Investing in young peace-building entrepreneurs in South Sudan via cash transfers and start-up grants. War Child Canada aims to promote peace and collaboration among small groups of multi-ethnic youth in South Sudan. Youth from diverse backgrounds will work together to assess local market opportunities and initiate group businesses and community savings groups. Their learning and entrepreneurial efforts will be supported by direct cash transfers to assist in meeting basic household needs and small business start-up grants.
5. Mobilizing women-led community transformation for families facing domestic violence. My Choices Foundation is training local women in a neighborhood near Hyderabad, India that faces acute domestic and child abuse to serve as PeaceMakers, providing free counseling, rights education and legal aid to women and families. The program is empowering local women to help other women and children in a culturally-focused way.

“It’s humbling to support this group of innovators who are local in their work, but global in their ideas and ambitions to shift the development paradigm,” said Amy Goldman, chief executive officer and chair of GHR Foundation. “The BridgeBuilder Challenge seeks out and elevates promising ideas, providing them with seed funding to test new approaches and prove out solutions to some of the world’s most urgent needs.”

The 2018 BridgeBuilder Challenge was developed in partnership by GHR and OpenIDEO, the open innovation practice from global design firm IDEO. OpenIDEO enables people worldwide to come together and create solutions for societal problems that are too big to solve alone.

“We believe there’s incredible value in how open innovation enables anyone, anywhere to join efforts to address critical problems,” said Jason Rissman, OpenIDEO's managing director. “Through BridgeBuilder, GHR and OpenIDEO are deeply engaging the global community, learning and iterating to help the social sector become more open and innovative.”

What Happens Next for 2018 Top Ideas: Convening and Collaboration 
The 2018 Top Idea winners will participate in their first cohort convening in Rome in November to meet each other, share ideas, and continue the open collaboration and cross learning approach of the BridgeBuilder Challenge. In addition to sharing learnings as a group throughout the duration of their projects, the winners will be supported by GHR and its network of experts and partners to continue to refine and build out their individual ideas.

Learn more about what's new in the 2018 Challenge and watch the video to learn more about this year's BridgeBuilders.

As the 2018 BridgeBuilder Challenge comes to a close, we reflect on how the Challenge—like the ideas it funds—has continued to evolve based on community input, benefitting from its open innovation approach.
 
What was new about the Challenge this year:
 
Principles-based evaluation. For the 2018 Challenge, GHR Foundation deployed a principles-based evaluation of idea submissions that increased transparency. To improve and evolve the Challenge, GHR worked with the 2017 Top Ideas to identify and develop principles that would inform the evaluation they used in the 2018 cycle. Rather than focus on metrics and outcomes, a principles-based approach focuses on how an innovation addresses a problem.
 
“Using principles-based evaluation allowed us to focus on the question of ‘How do you work?’ more than the question of ‘What do you do?’ said Mark Guy, GHR Foundation senior program officer. “It’s the difference between cooking with a ‘season-to-taste’ approach and following a recipe. It allows for adaptability, which is important for projects that are operating in complex, dynamic environments.”
 
Increased global engagement. Building on its first year, the 2018 Challenge saw more than 675 ideas and participants from 195 countries and territories engage in the open innovation process, with a total of more than 6,000 comments on the platform, increased from 2,500 in 2017.
 
Translated materials and diverse experts. In 2018, the BridgeBuilder Challenge enhanced inclusion and accessibility by translating materials into seven languages and adding diverse experts to the process—nine volunteer OpenIDEO coaches from around the world were assigned to work with the group of 55 Shortlisted ideas as they advanced to the Refinement phase, helping them improve their concepts.
 
“The broad response to BridgeBuilder in just its first year was truly inspiring, but we recognize a need for resources to reach even deeper into communities around the world,” said Chris Berger, GHR Foundation director of communications. “Guided by the engagement principles we developed with the BridgeBuilder community, we’re striving to ‘meet people where they are,’ so that every individual feels included and supported. That’s why we translated our social posts, brief and criteria into seven languages and expanded our global support team.”
 
Not winning doesn’t mean losing. While one 2018 Top Idea is a returning challenge participant, teams who weren’t selected describe value in the process itself. Several participants who ultimately did not win the Challenge said the open innovation process attracted them to BridgeBuilder, where they’ve made new connections, received feedback from experts and beneficiaries and improved their idea for consideration by other funders.

The 2018 BridgeBuilder Challenge Top Ideas will be announced on Oct. 1, 2018. Learn more about the Challenge here.

GHR Foundation's Children in Families funding supports child protection interventions that strengthen families, respond to children without family care and drive further evidence of innovative approaches. ​An important part of this effort is supporting institutions making the transition from institutional care to family-based care, and a new partnership with the Christian Alliance for Orphans (CAFO) is widening the scope of this support.
 
CAFO, an organization composed of more than 190 organizations and more than 650 church members, recently launched the ‘Expanding Family Solutions Grant Challenge,’ which aims to support creative programs enabling more children to grow up within nurturing families. Through $50,000 in grants ranging from $5,000 to $10,000, the challenge will help organizations implement family care in innovative ways.
 
Potential projects will:

• Develop more robust gatekeeping and family tracing services
• Initiate an important element of an effective foster care program—from recruitment to certification to support
• Implement an advocacy campaign that helps donors understand and embrace family-based care
• Create a kinship care training program and support network
• Re-purpose current resources–such as medical care, psycho-social support, or schooling–in ways that help enable local children to remain with their biological families
• Create a daytime schooling or care program that permits parents to work, while still allowing them to raise their children
• Implement a critical element of a domestic adoption recruitment, placement and/or support program

 
Research shows children are healthiest when raised in families and family-like environments. By offering support for organizations beginning the transition to family care, CAFO and GHR are helping move the needle toward a world where all children are living in a stable, positive, long-term family or family-like environment. The deadline to apply for the Expanding Family Solutions Grant Challenge is September 30—if you are a CAFO member with a project that fits this challenge, we encourage you to apply! To learn more about how GHR is working with CAFO and other organizations to support child protection interventions​, contact us.