2022 Finalists

Jubilee Partners

FAMILY

Project: Playground and Kitchen Remodel

Since 2010, Jubilee Partners has broken cycles of poverty, violence, incarceration and substance abuse through opportunities for education, developing healthy relationships and building life skills. We serve children from high-risk environments and invest in building relationships with their parents for long-term success. Our After School Program, Summer Kid’s Club, Leadership Program, and Jubilee Academy (early intervention preschool and phonics and reading intervention program), have assisted hundreds of children in overcoming trauma, setting and achieving goals, embracing hope, and learning to serve and lead others. Play therapy helps kids understand their emotions and gain insight about resolving inner conflicts. Through play therapy children also learn self-control, self-respect, to express their feelings, problem solving, communication skills, and to modify problem behaviors.

An Impact Oklahoma grant would provide hope in two ways: a revitalized playground for the children, and an updated commercial kitchen. The playground will include a small greenhouse to run alongside the current box gardens, a 12×10 storage shed, a commercial level play system, and a permanent fence around the basketball area. Our goal with the commercial kitchen is to bring it up to code in order to start a business to employ some of the moms of students in our program who face barriers to employment due to either legal background, lack of job training, or struggling to respect authority.

A grant from Impact Oklahoma will strengthen families in at-risk environments by helping them overcome trauma through play therapy and by gaining invaluable job skills in a remodeled kitchen.

For more information visit our website at jubileepartnersokc.org.

Mental Health Association Oklahoma

HEALTH & WELLNESS

Project: Health and Wellness Program

One outcome of the pandemic has been a significant increase in the number of individuals experiencing mental health challenges and economic struggles, putting more people on the street.

As the premier boots-on-the-ground nonprofit specializing in the intersection of mental illness and homelessness, the demand for our services has never been higher. Launched in February 2021, our Community Health and Wellness program is Oklahoma City’s first street medicine team, improving access to quality healthcare by searching the streets for those experiencing homelessness and providing services where they are.

These often-overlooked members of our community face significant barriers to accessing healthcare even as their symptoms escalate and conditions deteriorate. Believing it their only option, they call 911, resulting in high costs to the community and poor health outcomes for themselves. Our Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) intervenes in this cycle by building relationships with a very trust-averse population so he can provide critical medical services and needed advocacy, bridging the gap between vulnerable individuals and the healthcare system. In our first year, we served 388 unique individuals and saved the city’s emergency systems approximately $127,400 by reducing participant emergency utilization.

We need a dedicated medical van, modified for field work and fully equipped with medical equipment and supplies, to increase our mobility and significantly expand our reach across the community for years to come.

Your vote will help us meet the needs of Oklahoma City’s most vulnerable community members and protect them from the dangerous situations they face on the street.

For more information visit our website at mhaok.org.

Daily Living Centers

EDUCATION

Project: Our Daily Life Impact Oklahoma Programs

Since 1974, Daily Living Centers is the first and leading non-residential adult day services provider for senior adults and adults with disabilities ages 18 and older. We provide healthy meals, socialization, exercise, activities, community outings, health monitoring and door-to-door transportation. Our “participants” experience hope, joy and purpose while attending our centers. We provide caregivers relief from 24/7 duties so that they can work, rest, and have peace of mind. Caregivers often refer to our services as “lifesaving.”

We are currently serving ages 18 to 102! Many of our participants have physical and/or mental limitations or suffer from isolation and depression. Recently we hired Danielle, our first ever recreational therapist to help meet the needs of each participant. With the funds from the Impact Oklahoma Grant, she will lead efforts to improve educational programming, defined in three areas.

First, we will purchase educational resources for staff and caregiver training on specific diagnoses such as dementia. Second, the program will provide educational resources for participants that promote life skills, recreational skills, daily living skills, social skills, and occupational skills. Third, your support will change the life of Marcus and other participants that are wheelchair bound. Currently, Daily Living Centers doesn’t have the ability to transport ambulatory and wheelchair bound participants in the same vehicle. We will purchase an “Impact Oklahoma Van” that will allow Marcus and his friends the ability to ride together to attend educational outings.

With your support we will truly make an IMPACT on Oklahoma’s most vulnerable populations.

For more information visit our website at dlcok.org.

Not Your Average Joe

COMMUNITY

Project: Not Your Average Event

80% of adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) are unemployed after high school. Not Your Average Joe exists to change that statistic by providing customer-facing jobs for adults with IDD alongside neurotypical peers in an encouraging coffee shop environment. But we cannot change this statistic alone. We need you.

Our dream project is Not Your Average Event, a food truck serving coffee and ice cream at schools, churches and businesses followed by a school assembly or seminar taught by our differently-abled staff. We want Oklahoma citizens to see what inclusion looks like, hear why it is important in terms of learning and earning, and be shown how they too can practice inclusion in life and business.

Imagine thousands of students and staff being challenged to practice inclusion in central Oklahoma schools every year. Imagine how many businesses could be inspired and trained to hire adults with IDD. Imagine how much we could impact Oklahoma together by spreading the need for everyone to be accept-ional: to include people of all abilities.

Now imagine this vehicle wrapped in our logo, and yours. Imagine if we share that Not Your Average Event is brought to you through the generosity of Impact Oklahoma. Everyone attending a school assembly or seminar will hear what you have done, how they can join you, and why they should be a part of impacting Oklahoma for good.
Thank you all for being generous women, making an impact on Oklahoma and being truly accept-ional.

For more information visit our website at nyaj.coffee.

 

El Sistema Oklahoma

ARTS & CULTURE

Project: Vocal Arts Program

El Sistema Oklahoma provides musical opportunities to underserved students in Oklahoma City Public Schools as a free after-school orchestral program. The pandemic had the potential to halt all program activities. Still, we continued to meet needs and provide hope to more than 150 students grades 3-12 while also beginning a new vocal program in January 2022.

The El Sistema Impact Vocal Program, in partnership with UCO and Northern Hills Elementary in Edmond, provides vocal music for students of ALL abilities. There are limited arts programs in Oklahoma that offer free, year-round, extracurricular activities to include students with special needs. Our unique model of including ALL students promotes a musical environment for neurodiverse, neurotypical, and students with physical conditions.

Numerous studies show that music helps develop self-expression, self-confidence, and social skills in our ever-changing world. ALL students benefit when they build relationships and define each other by strengths and abilities. In our almost ten years, our students continually demonstrate that music naturally breaks barriers, provides pathways to achieve goals, and promotes overall well-being and satisfaction!

In order to ensure regular attendance in both programs, double enrollment within the vocal program, and reduce depletion of resources from the orchestral program, we need:

  1. A 15-passenger van to provide reliable transportation for BOTH sites
  2. Teacher assistants to implement modified/adapted vocal music activities for additionally enrolled students
  3. Necessary musical equipment for music creation and performances

Your support ensures El Sistema continues to increase our reach and maximize the life-changing impact of music for ALL students!

For more information visit our website at elsistemaok.org.