Building
Bridges
Mission Statement & Objectives
As approved by the IRS on the 1023 Application for
501 (c)(3) non-profit status, effective date January 31, 1996.
This
corporation is formed to organize programs and events that will bring
diverse groups of people together to help our communities recognize and
resolve important community problems.
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Building Bridges Recognition Series
Objective: To plan, organize and coordinate events and opportunities that will fulfill the above objective
Function: To plan, organize and coordinate events and opportunities that will fulfill the above objective.
Pilot Program: The following organizations contributed recognition opportunities to over 100 organizations and individuals in Contra Costa County (the pilot county) to put their achievements in the public eye.
A. The United States Postal Service: Authorized the creation of a “Building Bridges of Peace” special postal cancellation series. The center of the stamp allows for space to recognize a local and a national entity that have come together around a particular important event. They also swore into office the Mayor of Walnut Creek as Honorary Postmaster.
B. The Contra Costa Newspapers (CCN): Contributed ad space to recognize various events of importance in the community. CCN also contributed over 30 booths for local non-profit agencies at a Health & Safety Fair that was co-sponsored by Building Bridges.
C. The Valley Yellow Pages: Contributed ad space to recognize significant individuals and organizations in Central Contra Costa County.
D. The Contra Costa Board of Supervisors & 18 city councils in Central Contra Costa County created proclamations for Violence Prevention Month and the Building Bridges of Peace Month.
E.
County owned Contra Costa Cable and the local TIC cable companies
contributed staff, equipment and broadcast time to air the “Launching of
the Building Bridges of Peace Postal Cancellation and Unveiling of Breast
Cancer Awareness Stamp” for TV Broadcast.
Building Bridges Recognition Series Appraisal
For all of these activities, volunteers and sponsors were organized by Building Bridges to coordinate the activities, contribute the photography, design, layout and other resources necessary to carry out the activities and presentations.
This
program has been highly successful, required a minimum amount of Building
Bridges resources and served a great public need. It will be repeated and expanded in future years.
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Building Bridges through the Arts:
Objective: To create partnerships between diverse people and organizations to accomplish a common objective.
Function: To produced events and activities which encourage cooperation and the forming of partnerships which allow all parties to get their needs met without depriving others in the group of the ability to meet their needs.
Pilot Program: Building Bridges designed the Building Bridges Concerts for Kids to promote music education in the schools and provide opportunities for local non-profit agencies supporting the schools to raise money for important educational needs. Four pilot concerts were held in the DLRCA Hoffman Theatre in Walnut Creek in 1996. These concerts were very positive for the schools, parents, students and teachers. For these four pilot concerts, the performers and many professionals involved in the production discounted their fees considerably and in some cases donated their time in order to produce the show.
Grants were given by Building Bridges to local schools to supplement ticket costs for students whose parents could not afford to send their children on the field trip. Money for these grants was donated by the Kiwanis Club of Walnut Creek and by Catherine O’Connor, Building Bridges Founding Director.
Concerts promoting any aspect of the arts continue to be done in partnership with other for-profit and non-profit organizations. Currently we have an ongoing partnership with Diablo Valley College Dance Department to create a series of dance concerts that feature the students and teachers of DVC. Prior to Building Bridges involvement in this, DVC had not had a Dance Showcase featuring many teachers and students for 14 years. See DVC Dance Showcase for an example. Other music and dance concerts are currently being planned.
BB Concerts For Kids Appraisal
Building Bridges Through Service:
Objective: To build trust, respect and cooperation between people who see and do things differently, who want to work together for a common cause.
Function: To organize activities and raise funds to accomplish the above-mentioned objective.
Pilot Program: Homeless Carwash.
This program was unique to Building Bridges in that it wasn't something that was planned in advance. Instead Building Bridges decided to study an already existing problem by getting involved in an immediate situation. In April 1996, Building Bridges was approached by a group of homeless men and women who had been trying to run a carwash in Walnut Creek for 5 years. They were having all types of problems because they did not have a working knowledge of how to run the operations and stay in compliance with the government and other regulating agencies. They were about to be shut down by the Labor Commissioner, who had determined that all of homeless people should be considered employees and be covered by worker’s compensation. For five years, this car wash had been operated without any accounting for income or expenses. No taxes had been filed and the workers were not covered by workers compensation or any other benefits. There were already 400 or more clients coming to the car wash every weekend to have their cars cleaned. Building Bridges agreed to help the Homeless come into compliance with the laws and to study the problems that would need to be solved in order to make this a viable program to employ the homeless. Between June 1, 1996 to February 24, 1997, Building Bridges studied the carwash, met with homeless, local non profit agencies, the Labor Commissioner, the District Attorney, the city of Walnut Creek Community Development and Planning Department, the Environmental Protection Agency representatives. Additional volunteers, Jim Kirschbaum, Lisa Clark and Jim Murphy were recruited from the clients of the carwash and joined acting Executive Director, Karen Lile, in evaluating the situation. They all volunteered many hours each week helping with the operations and establishing trust with the homeless. This project revealed the many complexities of the homeless situation. By early February 1997, the pilot project was completed. We reported our findings and recommendations to the Planner for a report being written on the Homeless for the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors.
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Down & Out in Downtown Walnut Creek - Article
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Nonprofit Group Fills Carwash Void - Article
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Building Bridges Homeless Carwash Appraisal
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Building Bridges through Resources:
Objective: To gather resources from the community that can be used to benefit Building Bridges projects.
Function: To raise money, collect donations, solicit volunteers and coordinate the distribution of these resources to the further Building Bridges programs.
Future Programs and Projects:
Building Bridges is developing other projects within the scope of the 4 areas of concentration. Recognition/Through the Arts/Through Service/Through Resources.
Guidance for developing new projects is as follows:
The programs must stay within the guidelines and precedents established by law for public benefit corporations.
When a project is identified, research should be done to discover other local not-for profit and for profit organizations who are already attempting to solve the same problems. Building Bridges should always strive to cooperate with other already existing organizations wherever possible. Building Bridges should seek to “bridge the gap” between these organizations by creating programs that promote cooperation. Building Bridges should seek to bring additional resources to solving these problems instead of competing with already existing non-profits for resources that are already in scarce supply.
Wherever possible, it is wise to build upon the expertise and experience of others, instead of trying to do everything ourselves. When shaping a program, we should find experts in the various areas needed to perform the functions necessary to the success of the project.
Wherever possible, we should build programs that are designed well enough that they can continue to operate and prosper even if the individuals who started them leave the project.
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Copyright 2000
Building Bridges. All Rights Reserved.
1630 No. Main St. #307, Walnut Creek, CA 94596
Fax: 925-945-8806
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