St. Johns Center for Opportunity

“The external accounting firm prepares the form 990 and supplemental schedules as soon as possible and forwards a draft of the return to the executive director and governing board for review. The executive director receives all board members' comments (if any) and relays them to the cpa firm for answers. Once the executive director and board has approved 990 and supplemental schedules instructions are given to the external accounting firm to prepare a final version of the return for signature or electronic filing. The executive director receives an electronic copy of the return for record keeping. Every effort will be made to file the return in a timely manner with the internal revenue service.”

“Annually member are asked to disclosed any potential conflicts of interest.”

“The executive director's salary is reviewed annually as part of the budgeting process (starting in april). The board chair performs the annual review based on goals and criteria established previusly. Any adjustments to compensation is based upon performance and financial capacity to do so.”

“Upon written request documents are made available.”

“Volunteers assist in a variety of ways at the community events that take place, including ticket sales, setting-up and taking-down exhibits, clean- up and manning information booths.”

“Community programs and farmers market - prior to the start of the season, we hired two market coordinators to support day-of activities. We also secured the double up food bucks grant for 4,766.00 and successfully onboarded the market to the farm direct nutrition program for the season to ensure maximum access to market food products, along with accepting snap benefits. At time of submission, the market has 55 vendors, selected by committee starting in march and on an ongoing basis thereafter. Of the total vendors, 44% are bipoc, 15% are lgbtqia+, 20% are immigrants or refugees, and 2% have a disability. Before the season began, we promoted the event on social media and distributed 100 posters, designed by neighborhood artist, to neighborhood businesses. We also worked with wayfinding academy, a local two-year college, to hold another volunteer friday event focused on cleaning and preparing our market site for the start of the season. We also launched our new interactive market map, which allows vendors to update their business listing. It also allows the market to manage space as efficiently as possible, updating open and filled spaces in real time. In 2020, we welcomed two new interns to our farmers market who are high school freshmen living in st. Johns. We have been inspired by the fourteen year olds' commitment to the market this year with everything going on in the world during this time. They arrive promptly at 7:00am each saturday and serve our community by administering our food equity programs while delivering exceptional customer service. They process ebt transactions, distribute double up food bucks, and work with our square credit card processing. They also perform three customer counts per day and assist in setting up and tearing down the market, including set up of our hand washing stations. Juneteenth as a market day this year. Leading up to the market that week we featured black-owned businesses from our vendors. We also printed and laminated celebratory and educational signs that we offered to the vendors to display on market day. Every vendor wanted a sign and placed it visibly at their booth.”

“Storefront grant - wayfinding academy is a two-year nonprofit community college located in the st. Johns neighborhood. They are at the heart of a movement to revolutionize higher education. Students are encouraged to find their way, stretch their minds, and live life on purpose. They graduate with an associate's degree in self & society. Every month, students are given the opportunity to participate in volunteer friday. On february 5, st. Johns center for opportunity was the host of the student volunteers. The goal of the volunteer-led effort was to raise awareness about our storefront improvement grant. Two volunteers conducted in-person outreach, taking to the streets by foot to 11 bipoc-owned businesses. They were also equipped with materials in both english and spanish for hispanic-owned businesses. The remaining seven volunteers met over zoom to divide up email and phone outreach to the remaining businesses. Four volunteers from the community at large assisted in compiling the outreach list in advance and one volunteer provided translation services. By the end of the 1.5-hour volunteer effort, we had collectively reached over 100 eligible businesses about the grant opportunity. St. Johns center for opportunity had awarded all storefront improvement grant funds for the fiscal year to eight community businesses. In february, we relaunched our online jobs board, which is now the digital home to more than forty job listings in st. Johns. In addition, we have featured job listings on our facebook and instagram pages and in our mailchimp email newsletter. We also share the listings with our workforce navigator who directly serves clients looking for work. We are excited to share that in addition to amplifying opportunities to job seekers in the neighborhood, we have also built stronger relationships with area businesses who are hiring.”