Bridge Foundation Organisation Summary.

1. Promoting the
holistic
development of
children, families
and communities

2. BRIDGE FOUNDATION 2014
Summary The Bridge Foundation is a registered, non-governmental organization with roots both in the international and Caribbean communities which recognizes the assets of the Caribbean and the resources and experiences of the global community. The Foundation’s mission is to BRIDGE the best of both to strengthen institutions, systems and communities ability to positively impact people within Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean. The Foundation achieves its mission through the offerings of sustainable innovation services to non-governmental entities, private institutions, government and communities promoting best practices grounded in research & practice within the related fields of youth development, family engagement, literacy, early care and education and community building and offering a full complement of organizational development, capacity building, stakeholder engagement, strategic planning and technical assistance and training services.

3. BRIDGE FOUNDATION 2014
The Bridge Foundation promotes the holistic development of children, youth and families and realizes its mission by:
Our Core Values Sharing best practices and innovations grounded in research and practice on school transformation, collaborative literacy, family and youth engagement, community building & partnership development across all related sectors and facilitating relevant institutions to implement those best practices and innovations and implementing some of those best practice models with funding partners. Delivering integrated and inter-disciplinary capacity building services to strengthen organizations impact, effectiveness and responsiveness to populations’ and communities’ needs. The Foundation’s services range from organizing, planning to facilitating seminars, workshops, trainings to conferences and offering a full complement of technical assistance services within the areas of strategic planning,, program development, organizational development, knowledge management, fundraising, school board governance, board development, proposal development & fundraising.
The Foundation capitalizes on international knowledge through resource experts who have worked within various fields of human, health, education, youth, early care and education & child welfare services and works with professionals who have worked internationally and in Trinidad and Tobago with civil society non- governmental organizations and institutions funded by government, local and international funding agencies.
Who We Are
Bridge Foundation through Bridge Partners & Associates works with clients one-on-one to develop strategic solutions, provide advice, facilitation, training and consultation. BpA also encourages corporate social responsibility and philanthropic practices.

4. BRIDGE FOUNDATION 2014
Our philosophy and approach are centered on core principles of partnership, empowerment, quality, comprehensiveness and sustainability.
BEST WORK IS ACHIEVED TOGETHER
We work with organizations side by side and promote the importance of partnerships and collaborations to maximize organizational and external resources and relationships to achieve organizational mission.
SHARED KNOWLEDGE EMPOWERS
We provide hands on one-on-one technical assistance, leadership trainings, individualized workshops and “how to strategies” to ensure organizations independence and to help them achieve improved capacity to deliver services more effectively and efficiently to meet the needs of their clients, customers and/or beneficiaries
We also identify cross cutting organizational issues, challenges, strengths, limitations and provide trainings, workshops and seminars to multiple organizations to fuel alliances, partnerships, collaboration and network building.
BOTTOM-LINE MATTERS
We inform organizations about their financial and legal obligations and link organizations to the right resources while working to improve other necessary organizational competencies such as governance, monitoring and evaluation.
INNOVATION KEEPS YOU RELEVANT
We encourage creativity and share evidenced-based research, case examples and innovative tools to inform multiple organizational strategies without compromising core services and values.
TRANSFER WHAT WORKS AND SUSTAIN
We spend time ensuring what is learned is transferred and the relevant structures, systems and people are identified to ensure that key learnings continues to be shared and strategies are implemented and sustained.
The Bridge Foundation Strategy
Our Core Values
We align the right people behind the right skills
We promote interface among diverse partners
We design processes for all stakeholders to become fully engaged partners
We promote collective intention, experience and intellectual capital
We seek common ground, common language, and common vision and identify common needs around an issue, opportunity or challenge
We pinpoint differing perspectives to achieve common ground or a solution
GEF SGP UNDP
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION LOCAL SCHOOL BOARDS
NON-GOVERNMENTAL AGENCIES: CARIMAN
MINISTRY OF COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
SCHOOLS
Clients

5. BRIDGE FOUNDATION 2014
Our clients are diverse
A non-governmental organization looking for new strategies to improve its youth leadership program
A school seeks to create a literacy porgramme to promote reading and parent involvement
A splintered community needs to come together to gain concensus and to design a plan for submission
A Ministry looking for studies and strategies to improve family engagement in their early childhood programs and in their primary schools.
An institution that wants to undergo a strategic planning process to prioritize its goals and objectives
Government seeking the input of community residents to inform their local reform plans and formulation of new policies.
Photos taken from GEF UNDP Knowledge Fair Project

6. BRIDGE FOUNDATION 2014
What We Know Supports our Approach
We know parental and family involvement
 positively influences children achievement in school
 should start early
 motivates students to attend school regularly
 improves students’ self- esteem
 is twice as predictive of students’ academic success
 leads to higher grades, test scores and graduation rates
We know that quality early care and education makes a difference for young children
 early introduction to reading makes a difference
 quality curriculum matters
 good teachers make a difference
 supportive parents matter
 a stimulating environment makes a difference
We know youth development is both a philosophy and approach
 Youth is a time when they develop a sense of competence, usefulness, belonging and empowerment
 Youth need environments that make them comfortable and encourage independent thinking
 Youth need to form relationships with caring adults, build skills, exercise leadership and be part of something bigger than them including their community
 Supports for youth come in all shapes and sizes and work best when entire communities include young people
__________________________________________________________
We know that community building work should be:
 Community-driven with “real” resident and stakeholder involvement be focused on initiatives that reinforce values and build social capital
 be comprehensive with the flexibility to capture individual expectations and what matters to the community
 be asset and strength-based be tailored to the community and be matched to the reality of the community
 be linked to institutions that are influential and can alter and change systems to address local assets and conditions.
Children thrive in families
Families thrive in healthy communities
Communities depend on healthy children and families
Children, families and communities function at their best when all systems recognize their role and provide the support they need and work together in partnership on behalf of children and families.
What We Know

7. BRIDGE FOUNDATION 2014
The Bridge Foundation Literacy Projects
Read to Rise Mission
Read to Rise makes reading exciting and a new habit for students through building classroom libraries, book placement, student book exchange & rotation, providing classroom incentive – activities & supports to teachers, providing skill building information for parents to enhance their capacity to create conducive reading and learning home environments and partnering with stakeholders to enhance and support the programme.
Read to Rise has two components which complement each other:
Jumpstart Read for the Record Day
Bridge Foundation promotes literacy for all ages. Since 2010, Bridge Foundation each year in the month of October promotes Read for the Record day in schools and distributes books in schools. The Foundation brings national and community stakeholders to join students as they read and schools are asked to record student participation.
Bridge Foundation has helped to beat the record each year where Trinidad and Tobago school participation continues to climb each year.
On Read for the Record day, the Foundation continues to proclaim the importance of community in supporting our schools and the need to support community-school partnerships.
The Read Component
•places books in the classroom, executes the mechanisms for book rotation and provides additional classroom resources
The Rise Component
•provides the support and skills to facilitate students reading, offers positive reinforcement and mentorship to encourage students to read & write, supports teachers to engage in creative and innovative reading and teaching activities and engages parents in skill building activities that support their children’s learning
Bridge Foundation supports the development of young children through the promotion of literacy programmes that encourage early reading, facilitate critical skills for learning and implement evidenced- based practices that support the growth and development of young children.
Read to Rise, a collaborative literacy and n evidenced-based book rotation programme funded by BGTT.
Read for the Record day, a celebration of reading in schools in partnership with Jumpstart, USA.
Projects
The Bridge Foundation in Partnership with BG Trinidad and Tobago has built libraries in 10 classrooms in Mayaro and Guayaguayare
25 schools in 2010 (2814 students)
51 schools in 2011 (9,029 students)
78 schools in 2012 (24, 062 students)
80 schools in 2013 (25, 494 students)

8. BRIDGE FOUNDATION 2014
Bridge Foundation works with relevant institutions to support best practices, innovations and collaboration
PLANNING & FACILITATION: Bridge Foundation planning and facilitation work provide framework & methodologies for clients engaged in collaborative and partnership development.
It also creates pathways and shares strategies for clients:
to facilitate exchange of knowledge and replication of best practices;
to improve awareness and understanding about programmes missions, strategies and results;
to promote knowledge sharing and transfer and its value; and
to identify community-based responses to support a public policy agenda.
SCHOOL-DRIVEN TRAINING: Bridge Foundation school trainings include evidenced-based frameworks for successful school management & transformation including strategies to foster positive-school-environments. Specifically, Bridge Foundation works with schools and local school boards to:
create working templates or written frameworks which include strategies;
methods to create a positive school culture that fosters healthy communication and strategies for family engagement & support;
develop responsive curriculum built upon best practices and activities that impact and influence school culture.
TOOLS SKILL BUILDING INITIATIVE - TSBI): Bridge Foundation organizational focused training is implemented through BPA TSBI ( Tools, Skill, Building Programme which uses an incubator-driven-experimental training approach to provide CSO's with essential tools and skills.
Level1: Start Up Operations, Basic Organization and Human Resource Management
Level 2: Program Development, Proposal Writing and Fundraising
Level 3: Governance, Accountability and Strategic Planning
Level 4: Documentation, Monitoring and Evaluation
COMMUNITY-BASED: The Foundation’s community-based training emphasizes:
 community leadership & making your community relevant;
 community-building and engagement;
 pathways for collaboration and partnership
Bridge Foundation mission is to encourage creativity and to advance civil society or non-profit sector and related sectors by sharing of information, best practices, resources, library of tools and publications written by leaders and practitioners in the relevant fields. Information shared by Bridge Foundation is
to be applied to match the setting and environment of all organisations; and
to offer new strategies, inspirational information for new efforts and offer validation for those on-going.
Promote
Innovation
&
Partnerships
Services

9. BRIDGE FOUNDATION 2014
 maki
CONTACT INFORMATION
BRIDGE FOUNDATION
10 NOOK AVENUE
ST.ANNS
PORT OF SPAIN
TRINIDAD
PHONE: 868.621-2387
EMAIL: BRIDGEFOUNDATION.TT@GMAIL.COM
WEBSITE: BRIDGEFOUNDATIONTT.COM

10. BRIDGE FOUNDATION 2014