November 2021: Two Coleman Grantees Inspire Gratitude and Fresh Ideas

With the hustle and bustle of the holiday season upon us, it’s easy to focus on long to-do lists and year-end tasks and forget to take a moment for appreciation or gratitude. In this newsletter, we do just that by spotlighting the work of two grantees, Almost Home Kids, and National Main Street.

Stewarding the resources of a private foundation like Coleman is privileged work. We take care to partner closely with our grantees by listening to their expertise and investing in their missions and programs that change lives. As part of our long-standing commitment to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, we were honored to support Almost Home Kids as they developed a program model that enabled families to care for their children with medically complex needs at home. We are also appreciative of the lessons we learned from National Main Street when we pivoted our focus from entrepreneurship education in universities to community organizations supporting entrepreneurs in their own neighborhoods. We hope that you will be inspired by the stories our program officers share about these grantees.

We also ask you to join us in wishing the best the future has to offer to Senior Program Officer Clark McCain who is moving on to new endeavors after 15 years of service to the Coleman Foundation. Clark’s outgoing message can be found below.

I wish you a joyful and peaceful holiday season,

Almost Home Kids Develops a Replicable Care Model for Children with Multiple Disabilities

The Coleman Foundation has long supported organizations that serve individuals with developmental disabilities with a goal to increase self-determination and well-being. One of our long-term grantees, Almost Home Kids, teaches families to care for children with medical complexities at home and has recently been working to address the critical shortage of medical professionals trained to work with these kids. In this article, Rosa Berardi, Senior Program Officer, shares Almost Home Kids’ story of moms on a mission, inspirational leadership, and impressive accomplishments.

Community Economic Recovery through Entrepreneurship: Revitalizing Urban Corridors

In this article, Clark McCain, Senior Program Officer reflects on The Coleman Foundation’s pivot to community-based entrepreneurship education in low- and moderate-income neighborhoods. He reflects on lessons learned from decades of supporting entrepreneurship education in colleges and universities, and from a pilot program with UrbanMain to revitalize three Chicago neighborhood business corridors.

The Coleman Foundation wishes a fond farewell to Clark McCain. Clark offers these reflections on his fifteen years at The Foundation.