This Week: Clinton Foundation Updates
Clinton Foundation CEO Kevin Thurm provides updates on the work of the Foundation’s programs.
Published in
3 min readSep 18, 2018
What to look for the week of September 17, 2018:
- The Alliance for a Healthier Generation (Healthier Generation) announced its 2018 list of America’s Healthiest Schools Monday. This year’s list features 461 K-12 schools — 81 percent of which serve high-need populations — from 26 states and the District of Columbia which have met a rigorous set of criteria for serving healthier meals and snacks, getting students to be more active, offering high-quality health and physical education, and empowering school leaders to be healthy role models. Healthier Generation will be highlighting success stories from these schools via a robust social media campaign and national and local media outreach throughout September. Follow along on social media using #HealthiestSchools.
Highlights from the week of September 10, 2018:
- Clinton Development Initiative (CDI) staff members — Ariana Constant, Bill Rustrick, Vincent Mugabowibanze, Dyna Kuthyola, Austin Ngwira, Ally Hemed, and Fidele Nshimiyimana, from three different countries: Rwanda, Malawi, and the U.S. — attended the African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF), the largest AGRF conference attendance to date. AGRF is a platform for CDI to talk about and promote the work in Malawi, Rwanda, and Tanzania training farmers to improve quality, increase quantity, and establish consistent production of crops for the markets. It is also a place where we re-connect with old and meet new partners to help CDI amplify its impact across its farming communities. The theme of AGRF 2018 was enabling new pathways to turn smallholders into sustainable agribusinesses.
- Clinton Development Initiative staff held community agribusiness orientation meetings in Ilula, Iringa Rural, and Kilolo, Tanzania. These meetings — which will continue over the next few weeks — give a chance for farmers to hear about the changes in CDI’s work, and to increase CDI’s support in helping farmers turn farming into a business. In Ilula this week, 60 of CDI’s lead farmers learned about how they would be eligible to become “hub farmers” and take on increased responsibility to drive agricultural business in their areas through CDI’s new community agribusiness approach. As hub farmers, they would also drive the agriculture business in their areas such as: commercial production for high-quality commodity markets, selling agro-inputs, and multiplying seeds.
- The Clinton Health Matters Initiative (CHMI) held two working group meetings with community partners in San Diego, where they continued their efforts to improve mentorship services and trauma-informed care for children and families involved in the foster care and juvenile justice systems.The “Mentorship” group planned the launch of its community survey, which will capture critical programmatic details from existing mentorship programs in the region and inform how the group can increase their reach and effectiveness. The “Trauma-Informed Care” group evaluated specific strategies to create accountability in the delivery of trauma-informed care to these children and families, by a variety of social services providers as well as increasing the number of parents in the community who participate in education around trauma, resiliency, and de-stigmatizing the use of counseling.
- On September 12, Too Small to Fail presented at United For Brownsville’s Family Advisory Board meeting. United for Brownsville is a collaboration between SCO Family of Services and Community Solutions to improve language and social emotional developmental outcomes for children aged 0–3 in Brownsville, Brooklyn. Too Small discussed its work to transform everyday places into literacy-rich environments designed to promote early language and brain development.
- The Clinton Presidential Center celebrated the grand opening of its newest temporary exhibit, “The White House Collection of American Crafts: 25th Anniversary Exhibit,” with keynote remarks from Secretary Hillary Rodham Clinton. More than 300 guests attended the event including 17 artists featured in the collection. Other speakers included Stephanie S. Streett, executive director of the Clinton Foundation; Terri Garner, director of the Clinton Library; and ceramic artisan James Watkins, whose piece is included in the collection. A selection of photos from the event can be found at this link.
