wcw NOVEMBER 2023

good news department
Barancik Foundation Honors Five Teachers
Family members of Triad Alternave School teacher Robert Whipple (center) joined the surprise
presentation of the Ripple Effect Teacher Award in Whipple’s classroom.
Five Sarasota County educators were recently
named 2023 Ripple Effect Teacher
Award winners by Charles & Margery
Barancik Foundation and Sarasota County
Schools.
Each award, which recognizes educators
for their impact on their students, schools,
and community, came with a $5,000 check
for the teacher from Barancik Foundation.
The Ripple Effect Teacher Awards program
honors the chosen profession of Margery
Barancik, co-founder of the foundation
that bears her name, who was a teacher
and lifelong supporter of education.
Barancik Foundation presents the Ripple
Effect Teacher Award to five educators
twice a year, in September and May, to
mark the respective birthdays of Margie
and Chuck Barancik. The recipients of the
fall 2023 Ripple Effect Teacher Award were:
• Elizabeth Donofrio, Venice High School
• Kim Hunt, Venice Elementary School
• BJ Ivey, Sarasota High School
• Marjie Smith, Sarasota Middle School
• Robert Whipple, Triad Alternative School
“Margie Barancik understood the positive
ripple effect that great teachers have
throughout the lives of their students,”
said Hansen. “These Ripple Effect Award
winners deserve to be recognized and
thanked. Our community is immeasurably
better because of their dedication,
professionalism, and hard work.”
The Ripple Effect Teacher Award program
was launched in 2021 and invites
Sarasota County School District principals
to nominate one educator from their
school who sets the bar for innovation
and creates lasting impacts on their students
and peers. To date, Barancik Foundation
has presented 30 Ripple Effect
Teacher Awards.
Child Protection Center, Inc. awarded grant by
Venice Coldwell Banker Realty
The Child Protection
Center, Inc (CPC) has
been awarded a $5,822
grant by the Venice
Coldwell Banker Realty
Cares Foundation. This
funding was awarded
to continue the foundation’s
support of the Children
and Families Supervised
Visitation Program
(CFSVP), one of CPC’s core
programs providing child
abuse intervention services. CVSVP is the
only non-profit program in Sarasota County
providing on-site supervised visitation
services. CFSVP provides a safe place for
children to interact with parents without
the stress of being in the middle of a family
argument, observing a parent who is
impaired by substance abuse, and without
uncomfortable conversations that include
adult topics.
By accessing CFSVP, the risk of violence
to children decreases as the program addresses
the needs of both the child and
parents to interrupt the cycle of abuse.
Over 50 Sarasota County citizens serve as
CFSVP volunteers. For more information
on CPC or to inquire about volunteering
with the Children and Families Supervised
Visitation Program, visit www.cpcsarasota.org
or call 941-365-1277.
All Faiths Food Bank in DeSoto opens
Sarasota Orchestra receives grant from The
Exchange
Sarasota Orchestra has received a $35,000
grant from The Exchange in support of the
2023-2024 Young Person’s Concerts (YPC).
Sarasota Orchestra’s YPC are experienced
by nearly 9,000 students annually and
have been presented since 1953.
This live orchestra concert experience
for fourth and fifth grade students combines
a year-long curriculum in schools
with a field trip to see the professional Sarasota
Orchestra in concert. The 2023-2024
Young Person’s Concerts were held this
past October with eight daytime concerts.
The curriculum guide was developed by
a team of area music teachers and the Sarasota
Orchestra Education Department; it
includes detailed lesson plans with information
on the featured composers, specific
pieces, and general music vocabulary.
To learn more about Sarasota Orchestra’s
2023-2024 season and programs,
visit www.SarasotaOrchestra.org.
Resilient Retreat awarded grant from
Michael Saunders and Company Foundation
Resilient Retreat received a $1,000 grant
from the Michael Saunders and Company
Foundation for training first responders
and helping professionals during a time of
critical need.
Resilient Retreat’s mission to help those
impacted by trauma and abuse. They provide
free, evidence-based programs to survivors
of trauma and abuse, first responders, and
helping professionals, to heal the impacts of
trauma on the mind, body, and spirit.
The grant provided by the Michael Saunders
Foundation Grant will partially fund
a four-part educational series for first responders
and helping professionals, focusing
on compassion fatigue, well-being
Elsa and Peter Soderberg
All Faiths Food Bank has served DeSoto
County for over 25 years and, in the fall
of 2019, celebrated the official opening of
its new DeSoto Food and Resource Center
(DeSoto FRC) in Arcadia. Funded by six donors
and initiated as a pilot program, the
DeSoto FRC was created as a hub to provide
services and strengthen partnerships
with other programs.
Building on their initial grant to support
the opening of the DeSoto FRC, Elsa and
Peter Soderberg have provided a threeyear
lead gift of $600,000 to help subsidize
three new mobile pantries. These
new mobile pantries will provide food
to neighbors in remote areas of DeSoto
County, as well as offer benefits assistance,
nutrition education, wrap-around
services on-site and compensation for
a truck driver. The funding will be distributed
on a payment schedule running
through June 30, 2026.
“We believe collaborating with
like-minded funders optimizes the opportunities
for catalytic change and we will
continue to support the DeSoto FRC as the
needs of the community evolve and more
is understood about how to best serve
people living in DeSoto County,” said Peter
Soderberg.
In 2021-2022, All Faiths conducted two
new community assessments that examined
DeSoto County issues facing residents
such as, the impacts of Covid and
hurricane disasters on available services
and gaps in services and opportunities
for the DeSoto FRC to provide additional
assistance. Based on the findings of the
assessments, it was determined there was
a need for expansion of the facility and
additional services including food distribution,
outreach, and benefits assistance
in remote, unserved areas.
In DeSoto County, where agriculture is
the dominant industry, the number of persons
living in poverty is nearly 26% (the
national average is 12.8%). With a population
of just over 34,400, median household
income in DeSoto County is just under
$40,000 versus the median income in
Sarasota County of nearly $72,000.
during a natural disaster, self-care, healing-centered
engagement, peer support,
and leadership training.
According to data from their 2022 reports,
over 80% of professionals are currently
experiencing compassion fatigue and 75%
are experiencing burnout and secondary
traumatic stress (PTSD for helpers). After
participating in programs at Resilient Retreat,
over 75% of participants reported an
improvement in emotional regulation, 85%
reported a decrease in burnout symptoms,
and over 70% reported an improvement in
compassion satisfaction. In 2022 Resilient
Retreat provided training to 1,891 community
members in 38 local organizations.
12 WEST COAST WOMAN NOVEMBER 2023