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Posts Tagged ‘NB: the Community Foundations!

Why a Connecticut Series Again; Why Now? Well, It’s ALWAYS Timely to “Look It Up,” While We Still Can(!), Also…

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With apologies to any inconvenience this may cause to any early readers of my last post (6/17/2016, “Post #1 of 3”), I’m moving most of its “Introduction/Exhort” and added post-publication “Brexit” section over here.

Section “Brexit,” with the associated “British Gun-Control Legislation and Policy” references, like Fathers’ Day, are only in there because they are “current news headlines and events.”  When they pass, something else will be chosen for “current news headlines and events — but probably not what I blog on — public/private partnerships, government grants, and how little most people know about where they go, what they do, or even how to find out.  Let alone who, if anyone, is keeping track.

Navigation: List of the “Section Titles. “

On this post, sections are marked out by Big, Bright-Blue Titles: So far I have, underneath the Community Foundation Logo and its caption near the top, and in order from the top:

  • The LAPTOP + LONG-TERM-LITIGATION LAMENT 
    • (Expressive, which slipped in here, and was promptly, most of it, moved to a side-link)
  • SHORTLINKs TO/ABOUT THIS POST SERIES: 

  • WHY timely, WHY Look Up Connecticut Organizations and Family Court/ Healthy Marriage/ Responsible Fatherhood Scenarios at this time?

  • IRS Returns are NOT Rocket Science!  They are a rich source of information on any group, including on how it fills out tax returns.

    • Best used in combination with similar looks at many (dozens, hundreds) of other tax returns of similar or related organizations who have mimicked the purpose of government, but done it in a privately controlled, tax-exempt model where fewer citizen’s rights to transparency in government expenditures exist. Let’s Take a Closer Look at this Community Foundation for Greater New Haven
    • YELLOW HERE BECAUSE, IF YOU HAVE TO PICK JUST ONE SECTION TO READ — MAKE IT THIS ONE!
  • FATHER’s DAY, and other Current Events.  

    • (Which is where we get “Brexit” and “British Gun-control Legislation,” and reference to “Orlando” in this post.).
    • Click on the words “Father’s Day” for a link to History.com’s short summary, although I don’t call attention to it, this holiday only went national in 1972, through Richard Nixon declaration.  Interesting, this came after the 1965 USDOL “Moynihan Report” which had so much to say about fatherlessness as a social scourge, and matriarchy as pathological in this patriarchal country.
    • Public policy and major social science academic centers (Columbia, Princeton, UPennsylvania, and elsewhere) STILL built on this premise that the federal government should get involved in designing families, particularly (in terms of that time, at least from this author) “The Negro Family.” I just found it interesting this holiday was so recent in national practice, came after 1965 and in a decade somewhat known for the emergence of a feminist, and a “protection from violence” (Battered women’s shelters) movement, too.  Simultaneously other things such as the 1975 Family Support Act pushing for greater and more aggressive collection of child support from (well, mostly fathers!) to reduce poverty.
  • NOW, about CONNECTICUT POST SERIES, particularly NEW HAVEN (City of / Metro area)….

    • More Exhortation, and this section in light-blue background was taken from Post#1, and is a good read:“About this Connecticut-based series from the starting point of “Male Information Network” participants:”

Those actual contents will be removed from there when this post is published.  Those sections are now  the bottom half of this post of about 8,400 9,500 words.  On the top half, some more exhortation and “show and tell” on not being intimidated by a little old IRS Form 990, even when filled out for a big old (in this case), financially fat Community Foundation — this one. I blurted out a quick summary below the caption before the computer could freeze up again:

Connecticut-based 501©3 which in 2015 began moving its “alternative investments” (Balance Sheet Line 12, Assets, “Investments in Other Securities), currently $138M, into Cayman Islands-based funds. Oh, and promoting Education, Health, Welfare, Youth Programming, and Civic Vitality. EIN#0660321; Related foundation (since 2004 per its IRS form) “The Valley Community Foundation,” (much smaller in size, focusing on a different set of Connecticut cities) is EIN#841637102. Look up either one at http://990finder.foundationcenter.org, but for the 2015 on the larger one, must go to its website, CFGHN.org. Located through its participation in supporting a (nonfiling) leader in the “New Haven Family Alliance” (status IRS revoked as of Nov. 2015 for not filing tax returns for 2012, 2013, or 2014). NHFA, says a local news article (promotional) modeled its “Street Outreach Worker Program” (SOWP) on one in Rhode Island, which (turns out) partners with “Rhode Island Partnership for Mentoring” which is part of “The National Mentoring Partnership” (specializing in Technical Assistance and Training for the same, program certifications?, and it seems (so far) mimicking a government entity through repeated use of the initials “OJJDP” on its material. [see: “https://www.ojjdptta360.org/“] This National Mentoring Partnership [Mentoring.org] (so far as I can tell), IF it is a legitimate business entity, is doing a good job of hiding WHERE (in which state is legal domicile or any HQ) — and taking donations currently under “NetworkForGood.org” [see “https://donatenow.networkforgood.org/mentornational?code=MainDonatePage“]. ~ ~ ~ ~> > But, see my Post #2 of 3 on Connecticut for more on all that. Meanwhile, CFGNH.org is an interesting example of public/private collaboration, and how ONE privately controlled entity, only 11 board members, can direct how and where nearly ½ billion of assets is invested, sold, spent, or stewarded. See also its Schedule O on composition of Board Members and who in local civic life appoints them (Chief Executive of City of New Haven, Head of local Bar Association, Head of PROBATE court, Chamber of Commerce person, etc.] ALSO SEE what it omits from its tax returns (details on Schedule I, etc.). VERRy INterrresting overall!!

“OJJDP” is “Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and part of (under) the Office of Justice Programs?under USDOJ.  http://www.ojjdp.gov/about/DivList.asp.   It relates to an act passed in 1974 by Congress, and, around this time, it would seem we got our NCJFCJ set up in Reno Nevada (although it claims origins back to 1939) and what later became a major subset of the NCJFCJ’s operations, their Pittsburgh-based “NCJJ” I blogged on earlier this year (2016). I DNR recall all those dates, but it does seem coordinated nationally to encourage diversionary justice programs — and it seems that this was then thought to also be a great idea for the family courts as well.  IN FACT, despite claims of earlier 1963 origin, it does seem that the AFCC (Association of Family Conciliation Courts — older name) incorporated in Illinois in 1975 also, with its registered agent (strangely) in Denver and its “entity” address out of 111 Hill Street in Los Angeles, which just so happened to be, I believe, a courthouse.  Private nonprofits (unregistered or registered) out of public buildings must have been harder to track — if you were clueless that they existed — before the internet age, for sure…ABOVE is the government logo.What “Mentoring.org” is doing in mimicking their websites, while (at least one says) taking a grant from OJJDP, I’ve not yet gotten to the bottom of, other than it doesn’t seem that honest in presentation.  As to Nationalizing Mentoring — everything else fatherhood, marriage, child protections, domestic or family violence prevention, for that matter “healthy communities” and so forth) is getting “nationalized” so someone saw an opportunity, obviously!   Also it should be obviously that the field of “fatherhood” would of course also involve mentoring training, and other profit-making adventures, even if there is no charge to the users on some of the websites.

Will discuss more on other posts, especially #2 of 3 in this series.


I have had three days of frustrating, significant computer problems or all this moving, splitting one post into three parts would’ve been done within 24 hours…and by Father’s Day..

“The LAPTOP + LONG-TERM-LITIGATION LAMENT” 

This section, optional.  I put it in, but if you’re not in the mood, skip down to next large-font, bright-blue title.

To personify this still unresolved “computer situation,” with participants: one inanimate, mostly-metallic  piece of hardware, and its related software & operating electronically organized systems, meaning my laptop and/or sources of internet access (plural) —  my “electronic staff” (computer/browser/keyboard, etc.) simply went on strike, refusing to process basic instructions of the simplest sort, but intermittently functioning — unpredictably in both how and when.  Several “saves” were lost during a freeze which then required sorting out which was which and if possible salvaging the latest version, or deciding when not to.

The delay brought home the reality that this blog remains every year still  a one-person volunteer operation, without administrative staff, tech support, or (obviously) copyeditors, or, really, any budget in regularly producing specific tasks (posts!) en route to chosen goals, with deadlines.

How Too Many Simple Obstacles can Deter Long-Range Goals.  When these are deliberately sowed by interested parties, and what that interest (as to family court litigation) is actually sometimes really about (hint — it’s not really the children):

The electronic vulnerability, and frustrating obstruction in just a single, otherwise straightforward sequence of just a few time-sensitive tasks in some ways, seems an analogy for my life run through the family court gauntlet and thereafter attempting to personally re-integrate into anything even approaching normal business, work, housing or social relationships — minus several years productivity and definitely minus confidence in the short- medium- and long-term future apart from things I, personally, have committed to do.  The terrain has most definitely changed, and my ability to “pretend” it hasn’t and re-invest in the same type of initiatives that, absent inter-generational warfare for total supremacy (and control of the resulting “story line” and its interpretations) which can and do produce positive results for many, is greatly diminished.

Read More, here (this is simply a page, which I probably will not add to the sidebar, but will be accessible through this link). If you’re short on time, come back to that later – what’s below is more important, “imho.” Read the rest of this entry »

My June 4, 2011 Post on Four Special Issue Resource Centers, Pt 3 of 3, “Same text, better formatting,” [From June 4, 2011 \ Updated Formatted, Publ. Here March 30, 2016].

with one comment

Post title (with publish dates added), updated April 2022, to get the short-link.  I also changed background-color to white (from light-blue) and removed the default font specs for this post. My new blog default font is “sans-serif” but too many paragraphs within this one copied “Georgia” which is more curly in look.  I’m not re-doing fonts para. by para., so individual paragraphs will not all be in the same font. //LGH Apr. 22, 2022.

My June 4, 2011 Post on Four Special Issue Resource Centers, Pt 3 of 3, “Same text, better formatting,” [Updated Formatted, Publ. Here March 30, 2016]. (short-link ends “-3e7”)

Last post left off at my 2011 exclamation about,

WHO IS MPDI? …WHO are these guys??

WHY WE MIGHT CARE, WHO IS MPDI:

(I figure $18 million to one organization might get our attention.  From HHS):

..and discovering (2016) that the HHS database “TAGGS.hhs.gov” quoted and featured SO MUCH in this blog, just has gotten a facelift.  Over the years I have raised MANY questions about the integrity, organization (flexibility for the public) and reliability of this data, and even set up a blog in Fall 2013 to exhibit some of the seriousness of the issues:  HHSGiveways, Government Shutdowns.  The project was not finished, but the Pages and Posts up so far show-and-tell some of the accountability issues.

The new interface will take some getting used to.. but may make blogging easier, as it does produce those reports in several different formats.  My most immediate concern was no field labeled “Recipient” (but a prompt to type in recipient name into “Keyword” field — and NO search field to input an EIN#.  DUNS# option remains, but the EIN# Select Option does not seem to.

Report Totals of HHS Grants for 2016 at  https://taggs.hhs.gov/SearchRecip, this morning, Year 2016 only, is $241,236,771,196, a.k.a. $241B, approximately one quarter-year’s worth.  Maybe we should pay better attention…

Unlike Parts 1 and 2 (of this mini-series), most of this post is actually what was written in 2011, about two years after I first started this blog. Further down on the post is a photo of the building MPDI was in, which I also found interesting… I’ve attempted several clean-ups of the charts, especially, TAGGS.hhs.gov charts, shown then. I’ll mark 2016 Updates with a different background color and teal-green borders, like this:

UPDATE interjection:

If the charts are still hard to read below, I suggest use the “ADVANCED SEARCH” link at the new-user-interface-website “TAGGS.hhs.gov” — here’s a link.  It’s a good habit to develop anyway!

The post might still be a little complicated reading.  If a chart isn’t clear enough — re-run it.  The conclusion of the matter (or at least, the post written 6/4/2011) I think still makes sense:

(Sorry about the laborious length of this post, which started when I saw several DAIP-type programs at a Family Justice Center ALLIANCE Conference in San Diego.)

Now, we need more “justice centers”? ??  At what point does a person get to say STOP?  Where’s the justice, and why hasn’t domestic violence — or family violence — stopped by now, with all that intervention going on?  Are we chasing the virtual Holy Grail here, or what?

While “Minnesota Program Development, Inc.” is not of the size and funding of “MDRC” — I feel it’s in the same business, with slightly different staffing and origins.  It is in[to] the Development of PROGRAMS based on personal visions of the founders — and being spread with Technical Assistance and capacity building public funded help like a fast growing tree nurtured by the IRS and the dual prongs of HHS and DOJ (all EXECUTIVE BRANCH of USA) grants.

I understand that people want to respond to PROBLEMS and then start and continue PROGRAMS to solve them.  But now the PROLIFERATION OF PROGRAMS has really become a major PROBLEM itself.  These programs have tremendous leverage because of their existing structures, and relationships.  Too much of the public remains clueless that half of them even exist.

And — people “served” doesn’t mean people — or even lives! —  “saved.”  Nor do judges (etc.) trained necessarily increase judicial ethics or “domestic violence awareness.”  I see the grants, I see the people, I see the programs described, and you can’t beat those website — but where is the data that any of this is actually helping?

Instead, the Supervised Visitation Network is being used AGAINST the mothers and children it supposedly is to protect.

 And, because we are here looking at “MPDI” which is in effect, Domestic Abuse Intervention Programs (with a new name), this quote from their website (link probably no longer current) showed their statewide influence as far back as 1991s.  We might ask why it was so well-received in just a decade’s worth of operations (and how much any pre-1995 HHS grants may have helped with that reception):

(RESULTs/Accomplishments at “TheDuluthModel.org”) Due to DAIP’s success, in 1991 the Minnesota Legislature mandated that each of the 38 Legislative Assignment Districts establish an intervention project coordinated by a battered women’s advocacy group. As of 1997, there were 44 intervention projects in Minnesota.

This set up for the coordination of the entire criminal AND family AND social services AND nonprofit (Community referrals) system based on the ideas, in part derived from a Brazilian Christian Socialist / theology of the oppressed (Ellen Pence/Paolo Friere — look it up), and in part from a Toronto institutional ethnographist[?] professor (again, look it up), i.e., the art and practice of systems change to affect mothers, fathers, and children nationwide, and internationally.  That takes a certain amount of arrogant, sheer, abusive/controlling/coercive narcissism to push through — which in some ways reminds me of characteristics of batterers as described by the same groups….

//LGH

This now begins the older post text:


WHY WE MIGHT CARE, WHO IS MPDI:

(I figure $18 million to one organization might get our attention.  From HHS):

 (HHS grants, from TAGGS.hhs.gov) RECIPIENT INFORMATION

Note: One EIN can be associated with several different organizations. Also, one DUNS number can be associated with multiple EINs. This occurs in cases where Dun and Bradstreet (D&B) has assigned more than one EIN to a recipient organization.

Recipient Name City State ZIP Code County DUNS Number Sum of Awards
MINNESOTA PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT, INC  DULUTH MN 55802-2152 ST. LOUIS 193187069 $ 18,027,387

Showing: 1 – 1 of 1 Recipients

(Note, this database only goes back to 1995, i.e., there are 14 previous organizational years unrecorded on the database).

Recipient: MINNESOTA PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT, INC
Address: 202 EAST SUPERIOR STREET
DULUTH, MN 55802-2152
Country Name: United States of America
County Name: ST. LOUIS
HHS Region: 5
Type: Other Social Services Organization
Class: Non-Profit Private Non-Government Organizations

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