Please join us for 4^th Annual Trek to Taste—a celebration of local food and local trails—Saturday, June 2, 2012 from 10:00–3:00PM at the Marsh-Billings-Rockefeller National Historical Park in Woodstock.
Follow this link for more information:
http://www.trektotaste.info

“Sherry stood out among other qualified candidates with her energy and passion for health care issues,” says Mark Melendy, President of the Foundation Board and Chair of the Search Committee. “We were also impressed with her ‘can do’ attitude to tackle whatever the challenge in front of her and are looking forward to bringing her on as the first full-time Executive Director of the Foundation.”

Thornburg brings 28 years of experience as a health administrator, research coordinator, and educator. Locally, and most recently, she has worked to coordinate a variety of research projects including on coaching and decision support at the Center for Informed Choice of The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice. She serves as Chair of the Board of Directors at the HIV/HCV Resource Center in Lebanon, New Hampshire, and as a Trustee of the Chewonki Foundation in Wiscasset, Maine.

“I am looking forward to collaborating with local health agencies, providers, and individuals to identify the current needs of the community in order to better support health care delivery and access,” says Thornburg. “I am really excited to work at the community level to address access to health and to help promote well-health throughout the OHF community.”

Prior to her work at The Dartmouth Institute, Thornburg served for many years as an educator and curriculum coordinator in Canaan, New Hampshire and Tokyo, Japan. She has held various positions in health administration, health education, and health research in Australia, Japan, and the state of California, USA. From supervising twenty-five clinical staff providing reproductive medical services to planning and teaching pre-natal birth education courses, from developing and authoring case studies in public health policy to coordinating medical and developmental case management for eighty individuals, Thornburg has extensive understanding and practice in collaboration and community engagement.

Thornburg is a May 2010 graduate of the Leadership Upper Valley Institute and has a Masters in Public Health (MPH) from the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of New South Wales, Australia.

According to Lynn Peterson, former OHF Board President and member of the Search Committee, “Sherry will be an exciting addition to our community; she will be bringing to the helm of OHF not only her long-standing focus on public and community health, but also a background in health-related research and a Masters in Public Health.”

All of OHF’s community support – including the Good Neighbor Grants, Organizational Grants, and Loan Forgiveness programs – is sustained not only through OHF’s modest endowment, but this past year also by grants from the Oertley-Sarianata Foundation, the Laurance and Mary Rockefeller/Woodstock Foundation Fund, and donations from over 100 community members. OHF’s Good Neighbor Grants program is supported by contributions from the Merchants Bank Foundation, and Price Chopper’s Golub Foundation. The Community Care Coordinator program, implemented by one of OHF’s organizational grantees – Mt. Ascutney Hospital and Health Center – is supported in part by gifts from the Jack and Dorothy Byrne Foundation, Health and Information Referral Services (HIRS), and the Laurance and Mary Rockefeller/Woodstock Foundation Fund. The Oral Health Public Awareness Initiative – implemented by OHF and promoted through a website at www.uvoralhealth.org – is supported by grants from the Boyle Fund, the Jack and Dorothy Byrne Foundation, the Northeast Delta Dental Foundation, and Granite United Way.

This past year, all of the above-mentioned organizations and people helped OHF to assist 50 individuals in paying for the health care they needed but could not afford and to sustain 25 local not-for-profits in their local health-related work, helping countless other community members through health-focused initiatives. Their support is vital to OHF’s continuing efforts to address the unmet health care needs of Woodstock and the surrounding area and to ensuring a healthier tomorrow for our community. As we transition into 2012, OHF extends wishes for the best of health and happiness to them and to everyone in our connected communities.

A Masters Degree or a minimum of 5 years experience in a related field is required.  Experience with a community-based foundation is a plus. This is a salaried position with flexible hours. Salary commensurate with experience.

Please send resume and cover letter to:
Ottauquechee Health Foundation
PO Box 784
Woodstock, VT 05091

or email
ohfexec@gmail.com

The Foundation’s relief funding will be distributed in two ways.  Existing or newly formed community relief groups may receive grants to disperse for health-related needs based on their community processes. For health-related needs that cannot be addressed by community efforts, the Foundation is committed to quickly processing Good Neighbor Grants in order to support the health of individuals and families in our communities.

Good Neighbor Grants are made available on behalf of individuals in our community who are unable to afford their personal health care needs.  Applications are submitted jointly by the individual and the provider who has provided or will provide the care.  Grants range in size from $150 to over $5,000, covering medical supplies, mental health care, dental or doctor bills, pharmacy, eye glasses, or physical therapy.

The Foundation’s core programming will continue to function throughout the fall alongside these special relief efforts. Regular fall Organizational Grant proposals will be accepted through September 30th and Good Neighbor Grant applications that are not hurricane relief-related will be accepted from individuals and their health care providers on an ongoing basis. Hurricane-related relief applications – either Organizational or Good Neighbor – will be accepted through at least December 1st.

Applications can be found at http://www.ohfvt.org or by calling the Foundation office at 457-4188.

The Ottauquechee Health Foundation has long recognized that the definition of health goes beyond the absence of illness or injury.  To honor this, in the fall of 2009, the Board of Trustees set aside $100,000 for a 3-year Health Promotion Grant Initiative within its organizational grant program. Over the past two years, the initiative has focused community efforts on promoting the “complete physical, mental and social well being,” that OHF, following the World Health Organization, defines as health.

Since the fall of 2009, OHF has granted over $81,000 – 40% of all organizational grants given during this time period – specifically for health promotion activities.

On the impact of the Foundation’s funding, Peter Allison, Director of the Upper Valley Farm to School Network, had this to say: “The seed grant from the OHF to the Upper Valley Farm to School Network came at a pivotal point in the development and growth of our organization. The funds supported our efforts to initially get into some new schools, meet the teachers and staff, and work with students on some hands on projects.  As importantly, the OHF staff and board provided valuable suggestions and ideas for new partnerships and connections in the community. And the OHF seed grant served as matching funds for several other funding proposals.  Combined, OHF’s initial funding, ideas, and connections have helped to leverage over a dozen subsequent funding opportunities, representing a twenty-fold increase in dollars to support our efforts to strengthen the connections between our schools and local farms and the food they produce. Just 3 years later, the UVFTS has grown from an idea to a thriving regional network that involves over 30 schools in the region.”

The Foundation awards grants, through its Organizational Grant Program, to not-for-profit organizations that serve people residing in the towns of Barnard, Bridgewater, Hartland, Killington, Plymouth, Pomfret, Reading and Woodstock, as well as the Village of Quechee.  Grant proposals from organizations that do not serve this area directly cannot be considered.

Grant proposals with a health promotion focus will be welcome with the regular Fall Organizational Grants, due on September 30, 2011.  Organizational Grant applications can be found at http://www.ohfvt.org, or by calling the office at 802-457-4188.

For a description of our Health Promotion Initiative, please click here.

Projects supported through the Health Promotion Initiative over the past 2 years include:

• substance abuse prevention training through Second Growth for 6 elementary and middle schools and a weekly substance abuse support group for older Woodstock youth
• an Upper Valley Trails Alliance project to promote winter outdoor exercise for children in 9 elementary schools in our community
• Farm to School programming in local schools
• substance abuse and bullying prevention activities for local high school-aged youth through Spectrum Teen Center and the Ottauquechee Community Partnership (OCP)
• physical exercise promotion activities through the Friends of the Ottauquechee Trail (FOOT)
• the local Trek to Taste event
• a fitness and nutrition program at Zack’s Place
• health-related outreach case management through Hannah House for local teen parents
• a nutrition education program provided by Willing Hands at Hartland’s Food Pantry
• a nutrition education program provided by The Haven to people in our catchment area
• prevention, education, and health promotion through Good Neighbor Health and Red Logan Dental Clinics to people in our catchment area.

In the first half of this year OHF has provided over $36,000 in Good Neighbor Grants on behalf of over 25 community members who were unable to pay their health care costs.

The Foundation’s Loan Forgiveness program was initiated last year as a means of supporting the retention of new health care providers in town.  So far this year $2,000 went toward the education loans of Physician Assistants at the Ottauquchee Health Center.

The Foundation continues to support community health needs by leasing its space at 32 Pleasant Street to health providers and health-related non-profit providers at rates below-market value.

During this period the Foundation also made ten Organizational Grants totaling $49,086 in support of programs that identify and help meet the health care needs for residents of our catchment area, which includes the towns of Barnard, Bridgewater, Hartland, Killington, Plymouth, Pomfret, Reading, and Woodstock and the village of Quechee.   These grants ranged in size from $500 to $15,000 for a wide range of needs:

Zack’s Place – To support sending individuals and their caregivers to the Upper Valley Aquatic Center twice a month. ($1,920)

Barnard Academy’s Farm to School Initiative – To support the hiring of a coordinator to supervise expansion of the school’s vegetable gardens and to develop and educational component for the program re: healthy nutrition.  ($1,100)

Good Neighbor Health Clinics – To support medical and dental care to low-income, uninsured residents in the OHF service area. ($9,000)

Woodstock Area Council on Aging / The Thompson Center – To support medical transportation services for seniors in the OHF area. ($15,000)

Mount Ascutney Hospital / Ottauquechee Health Center – To continue the popular ongoing literacy promotion program, “Reach Out and Read”, which provides free books to Ottauquechee Health Center pediatric patients for use as a developmental screening tool during check-ups as well as a means of promoting family reading in the home. ($1,350)

Upper Valley Haven – For healthy cooking demonstrations, recipes, and samples at the Haven’s Food Pantry, as a means of educating and encouraging consumption of nutritious, low cost, fresh foods. ($5,000)

Upper Valley Farm to School Network – To support the development of local community food and farming curriculum and activities and implement this curriculum in three WCSU elementary schools during the 2011-12 academic year. ($6,216)

Woodstock Nursery School – To support a benefit performance of Get a Life! Sane Wisdom for an Insane World, a presentation by stress-management expert Loretta LaRoche. ($500)

CONFR-Council on Fundraising – To support the attendance of participants from health organizations in the OHF service area at an autumn 2011 or spring 2012 NH Grants Institute conference. ($500)

Health Information and Referral Services / Community Care Coordinator – To provide partial funding for short-term, in-home caregivers to individuals in OHF service area. ($3,500)

Good Neighbor Grant applications are accepted and reviewed throughout the year. Organizational Grant proposals will be accepted for the Autumn with a deadline of September 30, 2011.  Guidelines and application materials are available on our website or by calling the office at 802-457-4188.

As I leave the Ottauquechee Health Foundation to join the Vermont Community Foundation as philanthropic advisor for the Upper Valley, I am filled with thanks.

I am thankful for the opportunity to work in such a great set of towns, with a wonderful group of volunteers and donors who support a great cause—addressing the health care needs of our communities. In the eight and a half years that I’ve worked for the foundation, we’ve been able to make many grants to organizations as well as directly help hundreds of people who couldn’t afford their health care costs.

I am thankful too for the great staff I have had a chance to work with at the foundation. For the past five years, Judith Smith has served as an indispensible administrative assistant before she and her family left for California. Now Milena Zuccotti brings her energy and savvy to the position. Elaine Geyer Redden has ably served as our bookkeeper, Quickbooks expert, and tech support for nearly eight years, all in three hours a week as she contracts to help many other non-profits and small businesses in the Upper Valley.

I am thankful for the hard work and dedication of our board members who put in many hours to support the organization and lend their many talents—in real estate, finance, fundraising, law, healthcare, business, and so many more—to keep the organization flourishing. And thanks to Deb Heimann for stepping off the board to serve as interim director of the foundation.

Finally, I am thankful to still be working in the area, so we can still be working together to improve the lives of Vermonters!

Tom

The Ottauquechee Health Foundation has appointed Deborah Heimann as Interim Executive Director to continue OHF’s work while they seek a new Executive Director following Tom Roberts’ departure. Heimann, previously a member of the Board of Trustees of OHF, has taken a leave of absence from the board through the interim time period. “I’m really looking forward to sustaining the foundation and the work of the Board of Trustees during this time of transition,” says Heimann. “I strongly support OHF’s mission of identifying and helping to meet the health care needs of our communities. I hope to help the OHF Board examine the best ways to meet that mission, given the current health care climate and context in our state.” Milena Zuccotti, OHF’s Administrative Assistant, will continue to provide support through the interim period.

Heimann has a background leading the management, production, and sustainability of communication, networking, and partnership initiatives. Most recently, she was Director of Editorial Policy and Content for The Communication Initiative, an international web-based network with over 70,000 members focused on the use and support of communication for social and economic development. Heimann is a 13 year resident of Woodstock and has been a mentor with the Shining Light Mentoring Program in Woodstock for 10 years and has served on the board of the Ottauquechee Community Partnership. She came to the Upper Valley in 1998 having worked as manager of a theater space, director of theater productions, and producer of television commercials in New York City.

MIDDLEBURY, VT – The Vermont Community Foundation announced that Tom Roberts will join the Foundation as its Upper Valley Philanthropic Advisor. The position was formerly occupied by Lisa Cashdan, who announced her retirement earlier this year.

Roberts comes to the Community Foundation after serving the past 8-1/2 years as director of the Ottauquechee Health Foundation (OHF), based in Woodstock, Vermont.

During his tenure at OHF, Roberts helped grant out more than a million dollars to organizations addressing healthcare needs in Woodstock and the surrounding towns. Those grants came in many sizes and supported a broad range of projects, from smaller grants that allowed local organizations to purchase basic healthcare equipment to larger grants that paid for initiatives like creating a local community care coordinator position or providing transportation for hospital and pharmacy visits by seniors.

Roberts is particularly proud of OHF’s Good Neighbor Grants program, which works with local service providers to help residents purchase needed healthcare supplies or services, such as eyeglasses, hearing aids, or dental care. “It’s been very rewarding to help people get the healthcare they need and get back on track,” he says.

Roberts says that his new position at the Vermont Community Foundation will allow him to expand his focus well beyond healthcare while continuing to serve his passion for helping communities remain healthy and vital. In his new role, Roberts will work actively with donors in the Upper Valley and beyond to build charitable resources that benefit communities. “What’s wonderful about the Community Foundation is that its work encompasses so many levels: neighborhoods, towns, regions like the Upper Valley, the entire state of Vermont—which is itself a community—and beyond.”

Vermont Community Foundation President & CEO Stuart Comstock-Gay says that Roberts’ blend of professional experience and personal passion made him a natural choice. “The Community Foundation, at its core, is a place where people’s hopes for their communities are realized through their giving,” he says. “Tom has an intimate understanding of how philanthropy and community connect, and he’s eager to share that understanding with people to help them grow as philanthropists and community leaders.”

Roberts lives in Hartland, Vermont with his wife and two children. He is a graduate of Stanford University and has a law degree from Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California, Berkeley. Before coming to Vermont, Roberts was the director of the Oakland Fund for Children and Youth, a partnership between the East Bay Community Foundation and the city of Oakland, California.

The Community Foundation is currently celebrating its 25^th anniversary. It was started in 1986 with a mission to grow philanthropy in Vermont and ensure that Vermont nonprofits have the resources they need to be effective. Since then, the Foundation has grown to include more than 575 funds established by individuals, businesses, and organizations for a broad range of charitable purposes. The Community Foundation awards approximately $10 million dollars a year in grants, thanks to the donors who work under its umbrella. Additionally, the Foundation offers planned giving, nonprofit agency endowment management, and other services that help charitable partners achieve their missions. For more information, visit www.vermontcf.org.