‘A pillar’ in the community
St. John’s foundation funds 40 Stamford-area projects
STAMFORD — One of the most popular spaces at Laurel House is its café, a mecca for both the nutritious meals and informal conversation that are such a part of the atmosphere of the resource center for people living with mental illness.
This time last year, the staff at the Washington Boulevard nonprofit was just finding out COVID-19 realities and restrictions would make it impossible to safely run the space as usual, said Executive Director Linda Autore.
That’s where the grant from the St. John’s Community Foundation came in as a lifeline.
“We went out to the community,” Autore said. “We went out with lunches and masks and sanitizers and things to do, brain games. It turned into wellness checks, too.”
Founded in 1987, the St. John’s Community Foundation provides funding for just that sort of project — behind-the-scenes work that helps individuals and families across Stamford live happier, healthier lives. This year, the organization gave funding to 40 area organizations.
Sheelagh Schlegel, the foundation’s board chair and a parishioner for more than 20 years, said the group’s mission is simple: It aims to support projects that help people change their lives for the better.
St. John’s Episcopal Church created the foundation to address broad social issues, including housing and basic needs, educational enrichment, crisis services and economic opportunity. Run by volunteers, which includes its 15-member board, the foundation is funded through income the church receives from leasing some of its property to Canterbury Green, a mixed-use development of offices, apartments and shops. It works with Garden Homes Management and Housing Development Fund, two nonprofits in Stamford, to subsidize apartments.
Since its founding, it has awarded more than $6 million in grants — most averaging about $5,000 — with 100 percent of the funds raised going directly to the recipient organizations.
Another of its recipients in the past 12 months is the Women’s Mentoring Network. The group provided education and job readiness, computer skills and financial literacy workshops and one-on-one mentoring for about 450 low-income women in 2020, said Executive Director Lana Gifas. The number is significantly higher than in a typical year, where the group’s holistic approach attracts about 250 to 325 women, she said.
“They’ve been a loyal funder of ours,” she said of St. John’s. “We so greatly appreciate it.”
The foundation’s grants also helped Starfish, which addresses Stamford’s academic achievement gap with long-term mentoring, after-school and summer enrichment programs and educational support for children of the city’s underserved families, said Executive Director Donna Wolff. The funding helped the group reinvent some of its initiatives, providing more online content and contact to help keep students on track, she said.
One day, Wolff, who has training as a hospital clown, and some others taught kids how to make balloon animals via computer, she said.
“We played with balloons, we sang songs,” she said. “I think they had fun.”
Keeping children engaged from the beginning of a program that serves them from third grade through high school graduation is a challenge in normal times. Finding creative ways to make sure everyone had a computer and working WiFi as well as enrichment programming when most venues were shuttered was a bigger challenge, Wolff said.
“St. John’s has been a pillar contributing to the success of our program and helping us achieve our mission,” she said.
The group recognizes the vast disparities in Fairfield County — home to some of the wealthiest Americans and some of its newest residents — and it looks to help those who are helping others, Schlegel said.
“We’re supporting across the lifespan,” she said. “And it’s better for us to support the organizations who already have the expertise to help.”