Stamping Out Sexual Harassment
Entrepreneurial Training Institute
Grant Application Deadline Nears
Corrections or additions?
These articles by Kathy Spring were prepared for the September 10,
2003 issue of U.S. 1 Newspaper. All rights reserved.
Red Cross Disaster Training: Ivan Walks
B>Dr. Ivan Walks, who headed the District of
Columbia’s
health department during the incomparably horrible September of 2001,
is not a big fan of duct tape as a disaster preparedness tool. But,
interestingly, while he chuckles over the tape solution, Walks, who
now heads up his own disaster preparedness consulting firm, says 1950s
bomb drills, which had children crouching under desks to save
themselves
from radiation, were a pretty good idea.
Walks, a smart, funny man whose common sense view of disaster
preparedness
is uncommonly calming, gives the keynote address at the Red Cross’s
“Disaster Preparedness and Business Continuity Conference”
on Wednesday, September 17, at 8:15 a.m. at the Westin hotel in
Forrestal
Village. The cost for the event, which also features a number of other
speakers, is $175.
“I grew up in Southern California,” says Walks. In that part
of the country, disasters — most commonly in the form of
earthquakes,
but also mud slides, rock slides, and wild fires — are common.
He, therefore, became familiar with disaster preparedness as a young
child.
“On the first day of school, we all brought a shoe box,” he
recounts. “We put in our favorite non-perishable food —
Twinkies
were big — and a sealed letter from mom or dad.” In the
letters,
he says, parents would write something like “`Ivan, I know
something
is happening. We’ll come and get you as soon as we can. Don’t
worry.’”
The boxes were piled into a corner, where they were on full view all
year, but the children rarely gave them a thought. That, says Walks,
is how disaster preparedness should work. A specific, concrete plan
should be in place, everyone should know about it, but it should not
cast a dark shadow.
Walks’ father, a Presbyterian minister, and his mother, a school
principal,
made education and social responsibility the twin pillars of family
life. “My father had a small church,” Walks recalls, “but
he had day care, Head Start, a jobs program, and a health clinic.”
Walks, who emigrated from Guyana with his parents as a young child,
is one of seven siblings — “we all have college degrees,”
he says. Surrounded by family in his early years, Walks has kept up
the tradition. In fact, the large, extended family in which he now
lives was, in a sense, started by his mother. “She introduced
my wife and me,” he recounts. “She said `I met this girl,
and you have to meet her.’”
It turns out that his mother and his wife, Dawn Walks, a consultant
who holds a Ph.D. in education policy, attended the same private
school
in Georgetown, Guyana. Every few years, reunions are held for all
students, no matter what their year of graduation. The two women met
at a reunion, and Walks’ mother decided then and there that Dawn would
be the perfect wife for her son.
“My parents have been married forever,” says Walks. “My
dad told me, `I always wanted a woman who loved me, but didn’t need
me.’” His father found those qualities in his mother, and says
Walks, his mother saw them in Dawn. The two now live outside of
Washington,
D.C. Their household includes their three children, Dawn’s parents,
and the two children of her brother, who recently died of cancer.
Walks’ oldest daughter is in medical school at UCLA, where he
completed
his own advanced medical training. He earned his M.D. from the
University
of California at Davis. And where did he earn his bachelor’s degree?
“I didn’t,” says Walks, as he launches into a story.
“When I was being considered for the job with the District of
Columbia,” he says, “my interviewer discovered that I didn’t
have a bachelor’s degree.” Excited to have uncovered a potential
scandal, the interviewer called his medical school with the news.
“She got the dean on the phone,” Walks recounts. “He said
`only the brightest and the best are admitted without a degree.’”
It is a mark of Walks’ confidence, and of his charm, that he tells
the story with humor, but without a trace of arrogance.
Walks indeed landed the job as the chief health officer of the
District
and as director of its Department of Health. Despite being a fan of
Tom Clancy books, one of which, he says, has a plot eerily similar
to the events of September 11, Walks could not have known that he
was accepting a normally low-profile job at a time when unprecedented
disasters were just around the corner.
The first was the crash of a terrorist-piloted plane into the
Pentagon.
Like so many other people, Walks was personally touched by the
tragedy.
“I had a good friend on that plane,” he says. Unlike most
other people, Walks had to protect the physical well-being of the
residents of the District.
“On September 11, I was at work in the same building as the
headquarters
of the D.C. school board,” he says. “It was chaotic. We didn’t
have a lot of direction.” One decision he did help to make was
to keep the schools open. In a way, the reasoning for this decision
went back to his shoe box days in disaster-prone California. “It’s
really much better that the schools stay open,” he says. “It
was a key decision.”
Keeping the children in school helped to reduce the gridlock that
would have been caused by parents rushing to school buildings. It
also allowed parents who were needed at work to stay there, and to
concentrate on the many vital tasks at hand with at least some peace
of mind as regards their children’s whereabouts and safety.
The District got through September 11, but was soon knocked down by
an even sneakier sneak attack — and a much more nebulous one —
when anthrax made a high-profile appearance on Capitol Hill, and a
low-profile, deadly appearance in the area’s main post office.
Walks says he and his department did some things right in that
disaster,
but also made some mistakes, and that the mistakes had lethal
consequences.
On September 24, Walks sent official memos to hospitals in and all
around the District describing the symptoms of anthrax, small pox,
and e-bola, the type of diseases that he thought terrorists might
try to spread. He asked that the hospitals call his office if anyone
with suspicious symptoms arrived at their doors.
“The first verified case in the D.C. area was in Virginia,”
Walks says. “The hospital called us because we had asked them
to.” His conclusion: It’s vital to be proactive.
At the same time, Walks freely faults himself for
missing
the danger to the District’s postal workers.
Before anthrax arrived in Washington, D.C., it had struck at a tabloid
newspaper in Florida. There, a journalist opened an envelope
containing
the substance, became ill, and died. But there had been no reports
of illness among the postal workers who must have handled the letter.
“It was a case where we knew too much,” says Walks. “You
can know too little, but you can also know too much.” Using the
Florida incident as a model, health officials in Washington, D.C.,
rushed to screen, protect, and treat anyone who might have been nearby
when one of the letters sent to Capitol Hill were opened.
The subsequent scramble to protect the powerful, and their staffs,
received no end of media attention. Meanwhile, postal workers were
largely ignored. When several became ill, and two died, the situation
quickly became ugly.
“It broke down along race lines,” says Walks. “Race and
class.” There was an assumption that Congressmen were treated
aggressively — probably too aggressively — while the largely
black, relatively poorly paid postal workers were given short shrift.
Because of their race and class, their lives were less important.
Walks disputes that line of thinking, but does not duck
responsibility.
“You get stuck thinking you know more than you know,” he says.
“No one thought the post office workers were at risk. When they
began to get ill, then everybody looked really stupid.” Walks
includes himself in “everybody.”
“I said `You idiot! You’re a scientist. You know spores are
smaller
than the envelope.’”
In meetings with letter carriers, Walks assured them that “it
wasn’t that you guys were dismissed because of race. No one knew.”
Further, he let the postal workers know that their postmaster, a
powerful
white man, had been in the back room at the Brentwood facility, the
site of greatest contamination, after it was known that the
contaminated
letters had passed through there.
“It was a big mistake, but in hindsight, who knew?” says
Walks.
The challenge now, he says, is to assess what can be done differently
in the future. That, in essence, is the business of his company,
D.C.-based
Ivan Walks and Associates (www.ivanwalks.com). Major clients
include
computer giant Oracle and E-Team, a prominent crisis management
software
company. Walks works with clients and lectures and writes on the
subject
of how to prepare for crises of all sorts. His down-to-earth advice
includes:
Don’t tape the duck. At a time when duct tape was makingappearances on all the major morning talk shows, evening newsbroadcasts,and late-night comedy programs, Walks attended a microbiologyconference.”All of the participants were given stuffed ducks,” herecalls.”They had all been wrapped up in duct tape.” The props werean introduction to a talk on “What do you do now that your duckis taped?””I like Tom Ridge,” says Walks, referring to the HomelandSecurity chief, the man who first floated the idea of duct tape asa first line of defense in case of attack. But he doesn’t think muchof instructing an anxious nation to run out and buy fat rolls ofstickygrey tape.Neither is he impressed by color-coded warnings that an unnamedsomethingcould soon happen somewhere.B>Create a plan. Here is where the Cold War eracivil defense drills come in. Boomers like to laugh at the drillsthat had them diving under their school desks to practice readinessfor nuclear attack, but Walks says the drills were not as crazy asthey now look. No, a half-inch-thick wooden desk top would not keepout radiation, but getting kids under them, in his opinion, couldsave lives.In a crisis, any crisis, he explains, you do not want people runningall over the place. You want them where they are not in the way —not hindering rescue efforts. And you want them where they can easilybe accounted for, and led on to the next step.Children who had been drilled in both the desk diving routine andin how to line up for a fire drill were children who could easilyhave been led to safety, if not in a direct nuclear attack, then infar more common crises, such as hurricanes, fires, or attacks by arandom maniac.Do something, almost anything, constructive. The sameis true for adults. Groups of employees who practice an evacuationroutine are more likely to be able to help one another get to safety.Besides, says Walks, just being able to swing into action, just havingassigned tasks to carry out in case of a disaster, creates calm inthe troops.Be a responsible employer. As if they didn’t have enoughon their plates, employers are now being asked to be the first lineof protection for the entire community. Many, says Walks, are takingtheir responsibility seriously. Ways employers of any size can makea difference include encouraging their workers to prepare a crisisplan for their families and helping workers to draw up alternativeways to get home if mass transit is down or roads are closed.While employers are helping their employees, they are also helpingthemselves. Workers who know that they can get in touch with familymembers quickly in an emergency, and have a pre-designated place tomeet them, are more likely to be able to keep their minds on widgetsand budgets in uncertain times.Find and stock a safe room. Large employers, says Walks,are looking throughout their facilities for a room that could housetheir employees in case of an emergency. The ideal room, he says,would be a large one with no windows in an interior space. Onceidentified,the room should be stocked with water, non-perishable food, andbattery-poweredcommunications devices, perhaps including a computer, a radio, anda television.Designate captains. A safe room is no good if employeesdon’t know where it is, or how to get to it. Identify calm,responsibleemployees and give each one responsibility for accounting forco-workerson their floor, or even those on one section of a large floor, andleading them to the safe room, or through an evacuation procedure.Stay healthy. When he took charge of Washington, D.C.’s,health department, Walks found that fully 40,000 of the District’sschool children had not received their immunizations. He launcheda publicity campaign aimed at getting that number down to zero. Usingprint and broadcast media, he informed parents that it was “Noshots, No school.” By the time that he left office there werejust four children who had not yet received all of their vaccinations.To his mind, this program was disaster preparedness, and very possiblythe best kind of disaster preparedness. “What if some really vileterrorist decided to make the children sick?” he asks. So manyunvaccinated youngsters would make a city an easy target. And oncethe children were sick, the parents would become ineffective workers.”I have an eight-year-old and a four-year-old,” he says.”Whenthey’re sick, I either don’t come to work, or can’t concentrate atwork.” Multiplied across the workforce, the effect of such anattack could be devastating on a number of levels, including businesscontinuity, an area which he says is not getting enough attention.While children need their vaccinations, adults need to move fitnessto the top of their list of priorities. A strong immune system, Walkspoints out, is the best defense in a time of unusual stress and ofcrises of all kinds. Fit individuals are in a good position to wardoff at least some of the effects of some kinds of biological attacks.And as we saw just a few weeks ago, they are much better able to walkhome in case of a black-out.The best preparedness is like the stack of shoe boxes in Walks’childhood classrooms. Because the stack was the result of acoordinated,well-communicated plan, it showed that there is no room forcomplacency,a danger he sees creeping up on us just two years after theunparalleledhorror of September 11. Because the stack was taken for granted onceit was assembled, it showed that normal life can — and must —go on once a plan is in place.”The only way we can turn an advantage over terrorists,” saysWalks, “is to think of what we can prepare for and prevent, whileweighing that against the preservation of a lifestyle.”Top Of PageMitigate Merger MadnessB>Kathleen Reddick, professor and trainingconsultant,has witnessed some brutal lay-off dramas. Perhaps the worst, the oneshe can’t get out of her mind, involves a professional woman, anaccountantin a Manhattan office, who she describes as “big, you know, tall,really tall.” Reddick was on a consulting assignment when thewoman, made redundant in a merger, was called into the HR office toreceive the news of her lay-off.”She came out with two little shopping bags,” Reddickrecounts.”They were more like make-up bags.” The bags were asdiminutiveas the woman was large, and it was the contrast that struck Reddick.”She had to stuff all of her shoes in those bags,” shecontinues.”In New York everyone has 10 pairs of shoes under the desk, andshe had to stuff all of them into those tiny bags.”The incident occurred several years ago, but Reddick still smartsas she pictures the woman, accompanied by a security guard, makingher way to the street, and leaving all of her dignity behind.”It’sbad enough to have to go home and tell your family you’ve lost yourjob,” says Reddick, “but to have to go into the subway likethat . . .”Reddick, professor in the department of business and economics atSt. Elizabeth’s College, and director of graduate programs inmanagement,talks about how to create a corporate culture where such dramas arenot played out when she speaks on “Human Resources: Reinventingthe Employee Environment” on Wednesday, September 17, at 9 a.m.at the New Jersey Society of Association Executives at the SheratonWoodbridge. Other panels address “CEO Contracts,””PromotingYour Industry’s Image,” “Special Events: Innovative Ways toHelp Reinvent Non-Educational Programming,” and “TechnologyStrategy.” Call 732-339-9085 for more information.Reddick, a Manhattan native who was raised in East Orange, has beenat St. Elizabeth’s full time for four years. She is a graduate ofSeton Hall, where she completed her bachelor’s degree as an adult,and went on to earn a master’s degree in business administration anda doctorate in HR training and development, with a specialty in adultlearning theory. While going to school, she raised two children andworked full time, and that was just part of it. “I was presidentof my alumni association, president of the parish council, andpresidentof the home school association; my husband was president of the LittleLeague; and that was just the tip of the iceberg.”Reddick didn’t add “commuter” to her list of activities, butit must have been part of the picture, because she lived in Unionand worked, for a number of years, at setting up training departmentsfor libraries in the five boroughs of Manhattan and in Westchester.Her job took her to the New York Public Library and also to afascinatingarray of specialized libraries, including those of the FrenchConsulate,the New York Fire Department, MOMA, and Carnegie Hall.Much as she loved the work, it became a “burn-out job,” shesays, largely because of the travel involved. “I was in adifferentborough every day,” she says.Her work with the libraries included teaching head librarians howto teach the librarians under them to use the Internet, a new andfrightening development for professionals who had earned their MLSdegrees in the pre-You’ve Got Mail era. The librarians had to learnnot only for themselves, but also so that they could pass theknowledgealong to their patrons. Not everyone welcomed the change.”Lots of people have a fear of returning to school, especiallyif your livelihood depends on it,” she finds. This was true withthe librarians, and it can be true with the students she is nowteaching.”I have a lot of returning students,” she says. “I tellthem `you can do it!’ I started from nothing, and I did it.”In a way, Reddick is starting all over once again. After a happymarriageand 33 years of civic involvement in Union, she has just closed ona new house in New Providence. After the death of her husband, a fewyears ago, she decided it was “time for a change.” As sheprepares for her talk on new workplace environments, she says herupcoming move also involves an environmental shift. The new housewill also be home to her mother and to her son and his wife, and,she speculates hopefully, perhaps grandchildren one day.While Reddick is enthusiastic about her new personal environment,she is a bit pessimistic about the immediate future of the corporateenvironment. Driven, she says, by mergers and acquisitions, theworkplace,circa late-summer 2003, is often not a happy place to be.For her parents, she says, employment was “cradle to grave.”For Boomers like herself and like her husband, there was an assurancethat if skills were a good match, “our work ethic would sustainus for as long as we wanted the job.” There was, she points out,”a mutual loyalty.” Now, loyalty is out, and serial lay-offsare in.The results are not pretty.For every professional sent away like a thief, shoes falling out oftiny shopping bags, there is a little cohort of co-workers leftbehind.Co-workers who witnessed the humiliating exit, and who wonder whentheir time will come.”There is guilt,” says Reddick. “There is grief.”There is also a loss of socialization as office buddies, some of themlongtime friends, disappear. And then there is the extra work as thedeparted employee’s tasks are divided up. “Maybe there is a raise,and maybe not,” says Reddick. If there is no raise, there isresentment.If there is a raise, there is often guilt. Mix it all together, andan office can roil with hostility. But, wait, there’s more bad news— or potential bad news.”Where there was one culture before a merger, there are now threecultures,” says Reddick. There is the culture of the old company,the culture of the acquirer, and the blended culture. Sort of likethe Brady Bunch, but with a lot more anger. This anger may be morethan management bargained for.”People become unmotivated,” says Reddick. “They mayunionize,or strike. They find ways to sabotage goals.” Employees caughtin an especially inept merger may even sue. That is what happened,Reddick recounts, when a group of international investors took overa family cosmetics company, and promptly fired a worker who had beenon staff since day one. She was 93. She filed an age discriminationclaim, and she won.Faced with merger madness — and resulting anger — managersdo have options beyond barricading themselves into their offices andpraying for Friday, says Reddick. Here are some ideas:Speak from the heart. Carly Fiorina, who ledHewlett-Packardthrough a brutal merger with Compaq, is a manager Reddick admires.”She talks about the importance of bringing people together andcommunicating openly,” Reddick says. “She says `talk fromyour heart as well as your head.’ You need intelligence, but you alsoneed empathy.”Start talking early. If there is bad news coming, leteveryone know right away. Don’t wait until the rumor mill grabs it,speculation runs wild, and everyone becomes crazed with anxiety.Pay attention to individual contributions. In her classes,Reddick asks her management students if their bosses know what itis that they do. Most report that the bosses have no idea of theirday-to-day duties. This being the case, it is hard for anyone to seehis place in the company’s mission. Far better to take the time tounderstand each employer’s contribution and to assure him that withoutit, the company’s product or service would not live up to itspotential.Celebrate the company’s unique culture. Blended or not,each company has stories. There is likely to be the one about theguy who walked six miles to work during the big blizzard and the oneabout the new salesperson who met the multi-million-dollar clientwhen they shared a cab during the blackout. Tell the stories tonewcomers,and be on the look-out for new stories. Says Reddick, “Get peopleinvolved early on in stories, myths, and jargon.”Get some friendly competition going. It works in summercamp, and it can work in the office. Try out some version of colorwars, but with an emphasis on fun, and, at least at first, oneasy-to-reachgoals.As teams reach the easy goals, raise them up a bit, suggests Reddick.With luck, everyone will get so involved in working together, andtrying to beat a friendly rival, that productivity will return toa fractured workplace.Reddick sees such strategies as important in getting througha difficult employment environment, but she sees this environmentgiving way. “No management trends lasts forever,” she says.”There are cycles.” Serial firing, followed by hiring cheaperworkers, is unlikely to last. For one thing, she points out, it’svery expensive. For another, it is very disruptive. Loyalty is aboutto make a come-back, she predicts.Meanwhile, she has a final piece of advice: Let them eat cake.”Build celebrations into the acquisition budget,” saysReddick.Until things calm down, find something — anything — tocelebrate.Corporate sanity on a large scale may be a few years off, but ifhostilityis to be kept to a manageable level, the partying needs to start rightaway.Top Of PageStamping Out Sexual HarassmentThink of sexual harassment at work and chances are thata picture of a construction site or a manufacturing plant will popup. “That’s the stereotype,” says John Sarno, presidentof the Employers Association of New Jersey (EANJ). “People thinkit’s more common in blue collar settings.” The reality isdifferent.”The trend over the past three years,” he says, “is thatmost of the high visibility cases have involved brokerages, insurancecompanies, banks,” he says. But he has seen that the problem”cutsacross all industries.” The results are unpleasant — foreveryone.Not only do the victims suffer, but employers open themselves up tosubstantial liability. No employer can control every action of everyemployee, but, says Sarno, every employer can take steps that willsubstantially reduce the possibility that his workplace will be judged”hostile” and that he will be taken to court.After decades of publicity, and thousands of man years of training,it would be reasonable to think that sexual harassment would havebeen swept out of every corner of every office. But the issue is stillenough of a concern that EANJ has scheduled a series of workshopsto educate employers and supervisors. “The Ultimate Sex HarassmentTraining Breakfast Series” begins with a workshop on Understandingthe Law on Thursday, September 18. The second session, Investigatingthe Complaint, takes place on Thursday, October 16. The final session,Defending the Company’s Decision, is scheduled for Thursday, December4. Registration for all three, two-hour sessions takes place at 7:30a.m. at the Mansion at Fairleigh Dickinson University. The cost forall three is $165. Call 973-758-6800 for more information.Preventing liability for sexual harassment is within employers’ reach,says Sarno, especially since the U.S. Supreme Court in 1997 handeddown two significant decisions. The court rulings indicate that anemployer who provides education on recognizing and preventing sexualharassment and who responds vigorously to complaints willsignificantlybolster his defense should an employee file a lawsuit.”Employers should be able to show that there has been a concertedeffort to raise awareness,” says Sarno. “They should issuepolicies and make sure that employees have copies of thepolicies.”These policies can address everything from dating to language topermissiblecubicle art work. “It even extends to dress codes,” saysSarno.He explains that some employers are opting for a requirement thatwork clothes be more conservative, or at least less revealing. Asfar as dating goes, he says that some companies demand disclosure,particularly when a supervisor is dating a direct report. Somecompanies,apprised of the situation, will transfer one of the employees toanotherdepartment.Language and office decorations bring up difficult issues.”Employersare walking a fine line,” says Sarno. What is funny to nearlyeveryone in the office may be offensive to a few people — or maybeto just one person.While one cubicle dweller may offend another with a cartoon or byrecounting — in great detail — the plot of an R-rated movie,the bigger problem tends to involve offensive behavior by asupervisor.”Supervisors control the workplace,” Sarno points out.”Theyare in control, so they have a special duty. What they do sets thetone.” Companies incur greater liability, he says, when thesupervisoris the harasser.Harassers, whether supervisors or co-workers, can be either men orwomen. There are now plenty of cases where it is women who are doingthe harassing, says Sarno, but, he adds, whether the harasser is maleor female, the victim is almost always a woman.Employers need to stop all harassers, and Sarno provides some guidanceon doing so:Emphasize the big picture. As in so many other workplacesituations, communication is vital. Tell all employees — andespeciallysupervisors — just what is at stake. Explain the concept ofliability,and let employees know that each of them plays an important part inpreventing it.”Explain that the goal is that a hostile workplace neveroccurs,”advises Sarno, “and it is more likely that they will work withthe policy.” This frank communication, he adds, minimizes thechances that supervisors will resent employees who complain.Have zero tolerance. “Treat every complaintseriously,”says Sarno. “Even if it’s trivial, respond.” Investigate eachand every complaint. Doing so makes it very unlikely that conductwill escalate to the point where courts will find that “a hostile,intimidating workplace” has been allowed to exist.Speak to offenders right away. When relatively trivialoffenses are reported, speak to those responsible right away. Aninformaltalk might be enough in some circumstances, while a repeat incidentmight require a written warning.Cubicle decorations, or the occasional four-letter word cansometimes raise complaints, but the most serious sexual harassment,says Sarno, generally involves “joking” of a sexual nature,and unrelenting sex-based bullying. “Harassment and bullying arevery closely connected,” Sarno finds. And just what sort of personwould engage in this unsavory behavior? “Someone,” he says,”whose desire for power and control is inappropriate.”Inappropriate and dangerous — both to his victim and to the healthof his employer’s business.Top Of PageEntrepreneurial Training InstituteEntrepreneurs who want to get on the inside track withbankers, mentors, and governmental officials can sign up for aneight-weekcourse, the Entrepreneurial Training Institute, starting this month.Interest in this course has snowballed in recent years, and more than133 students graduated last year, dramatically adding to the totalof 800 people who have taken the course over the past decade.All courses listed here run on a weeknight from 6 to 9 p.m. for eightweeks and cost $295, which is not refundable. To graduate andparticipatein the mentoring program, participants must attend six of the eightsessions.At Raritan Valley College in North Branch, ETI starts on Wednesday,September 17. It opens on Monday, September 22, in Mount Laurel atthe Burlington County College High Technology Center.Another section meeting this fall is open to not-for-profitorganizations.It starts Thursday, September 18, at 6 p.m., at Mercer CountyTechnicalSchool’s Assunpink campus at 1085 Old Trenton Road. For profitcompaniespay the standard $295 fee. Non-profits must pay an additional $400that includes a readiness assessment by Seton Hall Institute on Work.Registration is absolutely required. Call 609-292-9279.Another set of classes starts in the spring, when there will be aspecial course oriented to technology-based firms. It will be heldat DeVry Institute in North Brunswick.Top Of PageGrant Application Deadline NearsThe Princeton Area Community Foundation is accepting proposals forfunding from public benefit (nonprofit) organizations serving thepeople of greater Mercer County. The deadline for fall grants isFriday,September 19, for consideration for a December grant. Organizationsthat applied for a grant in the spring of 2003 are not eligible.Proposals will be considered if they fit one of the followingcategories:Helping Low-Income People Help Themselves. Grants up to$10,000 will be considered for programs provided by nonprofitorganizationswith proven competence in building the self-sufficiency of low-incomepopulations in Mercer County. The Community Foundation recognizesthat all aspects of a person’s life — personal health, economicstability, living conditions, and learning opportunities — areinterrelated. The foundation seeks programs that “make a permanentdifference in people’s lives.”Improving Your Nonprofit’s Productivity. Grants up to$5,000 will be considered for efforts to improve the productivityof a nonprofit organization. Such efforts might include training anddeveloping boards of trustees, improving fundraising, designing andimplementing ways to evaluate and measure outcomes, addressing issuesof diversity, doing better strategic planning, or improving the useof technology. Priority will be given to organizations that documenta track record of achieving results.Building Regional Leadership and Effective Partnerships.Grants up to $50,000 will be considered for projects that strengthencommunities in Mercer County by building on the existing strengthsand resources of the region. Priority will be given to projects inTrenton and for work to build regional partnerships across municipalboundaries.Full grant guidelines and application materials are available on thePrinceton Area Community Foundation website at www.pacf.orgPACF promotes philanthropy, provides charitable giving expertise toindividuals and corporations, and makes grants to local nonprofitorganizations and schools. The foundation can be reached at609-688-0300or at www.pacf.orgTop Of PageTuition HelpAt Mercer County Community College and other New Jerseytwo-year colleges, part-time students now have the opportunity toqualify for state financial aid through a new $3.5 millionappropriationfor the Higher Education Student Assistance Authority (HESAA) PilotPart-Time Tuition Aid Grant (TAG) Program. HESAA’s goal is to getthe awards out this fall.Students taking 6 to 8 credits could receive up to $500 per year.Students taking 9 to 11 credits could receive up to $750 per year.Spring semester awards may change according to state appropriations.Eligibility for the awards is based on financial need. Applicantsmust be U.S. citizens or eligible non-citizens and must have beenNew Jersey residents for at least a year; they must be accepted ina program of study leading to a degree or certificate; and must havea high school diploma or GED certificate; be registered with theSelectiveService (if required); not be in default status on a student loanor owe a refund on any Title IV federal aid program; and maintainsatisfactory academic progress.An estimated 6,800 part-time students statewide are expected toqualifyfor the awards, which until now have been available only to full-timestudents.Application materials are available at Mercer County CommunityCollege’sFinancial Aid Office, Student Center, second floor, 1200 Old TrentonRoad, West Windsor. Call 609-586-4800, ext. 3210, or apply onlineat the financial aid page of MCCC’s website (www.mccc.edu).Next StoryCorrections or additions?This page is published by PrincetonInfo.com— the web site for U.S. 1 Newspaper in Princeton, New Jersey.
