A Note from the Executive Director

Every way that I would start this report could sound silly and trite. Let me just say that 2020 was radical. 2020 was a year of transition for ENP.

• Moving from our founder, Artie Padilla to myself.
• This year moved us into new spaces like food distributions and virtual engagement.
• As a staff we have been focused on growing in our understanding of how Trauma affects the families in our neighborhoods AND how we become more resilient to the daily stress of poverty and all of its results.
• This year as a team we had to put into play a lot of those strategies for ourselves and our organization.

I am proud to say that we have come through it. Here is our reflection on 2020. We are grateful for your support and belief in this work.

Financial Snapshot

COVID-19 Response

2020 presented us with such uncertainty and a new reality! What does this mean for our community? How does this impact our existing programs and all the momentum that we were developing in our neighborhoods? Finally, what does it mean for our staff and our immediate family? These were important questions that we had to wrestle with. With things shutting down and shifting, ENP pivoted our services to meet the changing needs of our community, drawing on existing relationships with individuals and organizations to come together in new ways.

• 74 Food distributions at FUSD sites June-November through the Central California Food Bank:
  • 29,600 boxes of food
  • 17 FUSD schools
  • 17+ community partners
• 8 Food distribution events through the City of Fresno Cares Act
  • 2,950 boxes of food
  • 11,800 people served
• Launched Fresno County Food Map
• Launched COVID food group Bi-weekly call with CBOS and district and community leaders to make sure food access issues were known, discussed, and addressed together
• Book sorting and distribution with Reading Heart
  • 70 volunteers
  • 140 hours over 11 weeks
  • Sorted over 180,000 books
  • Distributed 20,000 books into the community
• 142 Birthday books distributed to kids whose birthday was during the spring school closures
• 113 former Bee Boxes turned into Book Bins to be placed throughout Fresno and surrounding towns so that more people could have access to books

Neighborhood Development

2020 forced us to think more creatively in terms of our community engagement and it caused us to rethink our long term strategy for neighborhood development. The most challenging thing about the pandemic is that we were not able to physically meet with neighborhood residents. Our community model is really centered around relational connectivity and building upon those shared commitments and aspirations. Covid-19 highlighted the importance of addressing the social disparities that exist in our public health and education systems. Without healthy access to these basic human resources, our community members were left disconnected and under-resourced during those months that followed where our city was hardest hit by the pandemic.

There was a sense of organizational anxiety to restarting our engagement because of the public health fear that many of our most vulnerable residents were facing. I’m proud of how we shifted our existing programs, initiatives, and projects to meet those needs in new and creative ways. We adapted our relational platforms to digital meetings, we provided emergency funding and resources to families, and we provided technical support to our community partners in a collaborative effort to leverage our shared expertise and resources. Wholistic change is happening and social connectivity is re-emerging; neighborhoods are proving once again to be resilient! Neighborhood re-imagination is underway!

• 8 residents were consistently part of the California Avenue Neighborhood cohort for 34 weeks
• 50 resident meetings
• 200 engaged residents
• 10 neighborhood clean-ups

Neighborhood Fitness

2020 started off strong for Neighborhood Fitness, as we had many fitness classes active throughout the community – 13 classes a week at 8 different school sites and 2 Kids Dance Fitness classes at 2 elementary schools. This was the most classes we had since we first started the program in 2018. The instructors grew in their confidence and the friendships that grew between participants was amazing. 

As we all experienced an unprecedented time all over the world, our instructors confidently transitioned to Virtual Dance Fitness classes on our Facebook Group Page. It has been an amazing experience to see our group membership grow from 60 people to 500! Hats off to the instructors who continuously give of their time and leadership. Because of this, 2020 turned out to be a wonderful year for Neighborhood Fitness. 

• Dance classes transitioned to being online
  • 8 weekly 30 minute classes
  • 10-30 participants each
• Women’s Support Group launched
  • 5 sessions with 6-10 participants each

Literacy Mentoring

2020 was a year of learning, adapting and growth for the Literacy Department- while mostly from home in our sweatpants! When schools swiftly went remote in mid-March, we worked with our partners to see how we could best support kids. One of the biggest needs was access to books and tangible educational resources. So throughout the spring and summer we partnered with Reading Heart to sort and deliver books to schools and neighborhoods across Fresno County. The Fresno Bee also supported this effort with former Bee boxes that volunteers helped turn into adorable Book Bins to be placed in “Book Desert” neighborhoods. We also gathered volunteers to drop off Birthday Book gifts to kids who had to celebrate at home from March-June. 

Once we knew schools were not starting back in-person in the fall, we began working on a virtual plan for our Literacy Mentors. Teachers told us how students had largely missed the last trimester of 2019-20 school year and needed the extra academic support. Going online was not easy-especially for our retired volunteers, a few of whom bought their first laptop specifically for this venture! But everyone’s dedication and willingness to learn has been inspiring. Thanks to Tutorfly and FUSD’s Mentoring Team we were able to connect 121 mentors with 242 kids online during the fall. The greatest win of going online has been the connection mentors have been able to make with families. Many parents see their mentor (who meets with their child individually at least twice a week) as a great resource for their kids. One mom said “Thank you from the bottom of my heart for caring about my kids. I thank God for bringing you in my path.” Many mentors have gone above and beyond by dropping off reading resource bags, connecting families to other health and counseling services, mailing little gifts or meeting outside at the park for a safe hang-out. Overall the relationships formed have been a source of joy for mentor, mentee, and family! We all need each other. 

• In-person literacy mentoring January-March 2020 (including Read Fresno mentors):
  • 26 schools, 4 community centers
  • 269 mentors
  • 1,181 students
  • 585 hours given per week
• Virtual Literacy Mentoring September-December 2020
  • 18 schools, 6 after school sites, 2 group homes
  • 121 mentors
  • 242 kids
  • 1,450 hours
  • Additionally, 49 Fresno State work study students were virtual literacy mentors through Read Fresno
    • 13,387 hours
    • $255,431 dollars in Financial Aid
• Connected 21 volunteers to support 6 in-person learning hubs across the city
• Packed and delivered over 1,200 goodie bags to school staff

Recreational Resilience

We started 2020 with a lot of momentum from an amazing year of growth and program development in 2019. In the opening months of 2020, our Recreational Resilience unique programs included our Saturday Sports Ministry, Beat the Odds Drumming, FunFit P.E. and Resilient Playgrounds. These innovative programs incorporated emerging information and best practices from the most relevant fields of scientific research with fun and playful recreational activities. The focus of these programs was to develop and promote individual and community health and wellness. ENP’s unique approach to this work leveraged community partnerships with churches, school districts, universities, CBO’s and an army of community volunteers who love kids and our great city. By March of 2020 we were on target to have another amazing year of growth and positive impact in the lives of kids, and families across our community. However, the emerging reality of the COVID pandemic caused us to have to put all these innovative approaches to building resilient communities on hold. We are hopeful that 2021 will prove to be a year of resilience as we adapt and continue to advance this area of our work.    

For the past several years, ENP has been a strategic partner in convening and coordinating the efforts of the Trauma and Resilience Network (TRN). The TRN is a county-wide cross sector collaborative network of CBO’s agencies and institutions focused on raising awareness and reducing the harmful effects of early childhood trauma and toxic stress in the lives of all people in our community.  Similar to our Recreational Resilience work, we had tremendous momentum coming out of 2019 in this area of our work. In the early months of 2020, ENP was strategic in bringing California’s first Surgeon General, DR. Nadine Burke Harris, to Fresno to share about this important topic. In February, ENP hosted the first of several min-conferences scheduled through the year. 2019 was a year of building capacity and in early 2020 we were positioned to grow this work exponentially by mobilizing over 60 Trauma-Informed trainers to provide this essential education and training throughout Fresno County. Again, the reality of the COVID pandemic caused us to pause what we were doing for a short period. However, by June of 2020, ENP’s continued leadership and resilience help to reignite the work of the TRN. 2020 ended with the work we are doing in and through the TRN emerging as a model approach that is getting attention across our state and the nation. We are now part of several grants and collaborative partnerships working on this important issue at a local, state, and national level. We are hopeful that 2021 will see great advances and strides in this area of our work. 

• 16 school partners for Saturday Sports or other Recreational Resilience programs prior to school closures
• 30+ organizations actively engaged with the work of the Trauma and Resilience Network
• 500+ individuals provided with community education and trauma-informed presentations and training

City-Wide Equipping

We have already highlighted a lot of the workshops and training we have been doing for our various ENP buckets, but we also put on workshops and trainings for various groups. Because of COVID there were a lot less equipping events, but two of note were our Read Fresno workshop in January 2020 and our Discover Fresno training in February.

• Read Fresno
  • 11 organizations
  • 80-100 attendees
• Discover Fresno
  • 10 organizations
  • 250 attendees

Conclusion

Thank you again! Hopefully this was an encouraging read to see the wide work that ENP is doing to serve our residents/community and support our churches in our Valley.

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