Generations
Incorporated named Massachusetts’ Community Champion
Citizens
Bank and NECN to provide $25,000 grant, PR and volunteer support
Originally aired May 13, 2005
BOSTON – Citizens Bank of Massachusetts
and New England Cable News (NECN) today named Generations Incorporated
as this quarter’s Community Champion in Massachusetts.
As part of the award, Generations Incorporated will receive $25,000,
media coverage and extensive promotional and volunteer support for
improving the literacy of Boston’s school children.
Generations Incorporated, based in Boston, was chosen as Citizens
and NECN’s 11th Community Champion for matching children who
have literacy needs with seniors who volunteer as reading coaches,
classroom literacy coaches and lunchtime mentors. The partnership
happens during the school day, throughout the school year.
"Generations Incorporated’s ability to effectively increase
the reading levels of Boston school children while putting to use
the underutilized talent and knowledge of senior citizens in our
communities shows just how powerful this initiative is,” said
Robert E. Smyth, President and CEO of Citizens Bank of Massachusetts.
“With Generations Incorporated’s growing outreach in
Boston schools, we are looking forward to seeing the support the
program continues to bring to teachers and students preparing for
the standardized tests.”
'Generations Incorporated’s visionary, in-school approach
to improving children’s literacy makes it a true Community
Champion,” said Philip S. Balboni, President and Founder
of NECN. “The nonprofit organization’s extensive outreach
draws attention to the tremendous need to raise awareness about
this issue. We hope the Community Champions program will
provide Generations Incorporated with the resources necessary to
continue making advancements in Boston schools.”
Generations Incorporated is being recognized for:
- Increasing each child’s reading skills by an average of
2.7 reading levels through its outreach.
- Being selected as one of five organizations in the country
to receive funding to leverage and expand the national Experience
Corp program, a partnership that will enable Generations Incorporated
to offer literacy assistance to more than 2,500 Boston youth by
2006.
- Delivering its tutoring and mentoring program to 12 Boston
Public Schools and three Boys & Girls Clubs. During the 2003-2004
school year, Generations Incorporated’s volunteers provided
31,000 hours of literacy and mentoring assistance to 1,400 children.
- Serving as an innovative literacy model throughout the nation.
The Points of Light Foundation has named Generations Incorporated
a “Daily Point of Light” and the Corporation for National
and Community Service honored it as an “ideal model for
senior service programming.”
As a Community Champion, Generations Incorporated will
receive:
- A $25,000 contribution in unrestricted funds from Citizens Bank
- Media coverage from NECN, including public service announcements,
news stories and segments on other NECN programs such as NewsNight
and New England Business Day
- Volunteer support from Citizens and NECN employees
- Extensive public relations support
- Promotional support highlighting the Community Champion
in all Citizens Bank branches and on its ATMs
- Exposure on both Citizens Bank and NECN Web sites.
"Generations Incorporated is providing Boston with a dynamic
new way to help both children and older adults, but we lack the
resources to spread the good news about our services,” said
Mary Gunn, Executive Director of Generations Incorporated. “We’re
grateful that Citizens Bank and NECN have recognized the power of
our programs and helped us bring them to light.”
Launched in July 2002, the Community Champions program
is designed to recognize and support nonprofit organizations for
their contributions to Massachusetts communities. A new champion
is selected each quarter among a wide range of social service areas.
The Massachusetts Community Champions to date are: Mattapan
Community Health Center in Mattapan, Friends of the Homeless in
Springfield, RAW Art Works in Lynn, Wellspring House in Gloucester,
the Worcester County Food Bank in Shrewsbury, Employ+Ability in
Braintree, HarborCOV of Chelsea, United South End Settlements of
Boston, Women of Means in Wellesley and CareerPoint in Holyoke.
For more information about the Citizens Bank / NECN Community
Champions program, visit www.citizensbank.com
or www.necn.com. To learn more
about how to contribute to Generations, call 617-423-6633 or visit
www.generationsinc.org
.
About Citizens Bank of Massachusetts
Citizens Bank of Massachusetts is a $31 billion bank with more
than 260 branches and 640 ATMs stretching from greater Boston to
Cape Cod and the Berkshires. It is headquartered at 28 State Street
in Boston. It is a subsidiary of Citizens Financial Group, Inc.,
a $137 billion commercial bank holding company headquartered in
Providence, R.I. Citizens has more than 1,600 branches, approximately
2,800 ATMs and approximately 26,000 employees in a 13-state retail
branch network and non-branch offices in more than 30 states. Citizens
is the eighth largest commercial banking company in the United States
ranked by deposits. Citizens is owned by RBS (The Royal Bank of
Scotland Group plc). Its Web site is citizensbank.com.
About New England Cable News
NECN is headquartered in Boston and is the largest regional news
network in the country. Founded in March of 1992, the station is
a partnership between The Hearst Corporation and Comcast, and serves
more than 3.2 million cable subscribers in more than 1,000 communities
throughout New England. The news network operates new-gathering
bureaus in Worcester, MA; Hartford, CT; Manchester, NH; Burlington,
VT; and Portland, ME, and has unique editorial partnerships with
many of the region’s most important newspapers including the
Boston Globe.
###
|
