• Gifts of Cash: The CARES Act allows taxpayers who take the standard deduction to make up to $300 of charitable contributions to qualified charities. Itemizers can deduct up to 100% of adjusted gross income. As of now, this only applies to 2020.
• Stock or Securities: Make a gift of stock or securities to Agassiz Village and avoid capital gains tax on the appreciation of your stock. Please call Lisa Carter, Executive Director, at 781-860-0200 ext.1006 to make your stock gift.
• Individual Retirement Account: If you or a family member are 70½ or older with an individual retirement account (IRA), you can make a tax-free gift to Agassiz Village directly from your IRA. This is called a qualified charitable distribution. Through the SECURE Act you can transfer any amount up to $100,000 per year directly to a qualified charitable organization without paying income tax on the distribution.
• Donor-Advised Funds: Give through your donor-advised fund to maximize your impact. Your fund sponsor handles all record-keeping, disbursements, and tax receipts.
SEL PROGRAM
Since 1935, Agassiz Village has offered industry-leading programming that fosters the development of pro-social competencies in underprivileged, urban boys and girls through an immersive residential recreational camp experience. By integrating an adapted nationally recognized Social and Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum, we are able to capitalize on its clear language, objectives, and approaches in nurturing happy, healthy, and kind kids. Additionally, we are able to use the SEL model to provide opportunities for kids to reflect on their growth over the course of their stay at camp.
What Is SEL?
Research has confirmed that SEL is the process through which children acquire and effectively apply the knowledge, attitudes, and skills necessary to understand and manage emotions, set and achieve positive goals, feel and show empathy for others, establish and maintain positive relationships, and make responsible decisions.
Our Agassiz Village SEL Program focuses on four skills:
Self-awareness: The ability to accurately recognize one’s emotions and thoughts and their influence on behavior. This includes accurately assessing one’s strengths and limitations and possessing a well-grounded sense of confidence and optimism.
Self-management: The ability to regulate one’s emotions, thoughts, and behaviors effectively in different situations. This includes managing stress, controlling impulses, motivating oneself, and setting and working toward achieving personal and academic goals.
Social awareness: The ability to take the perspective of and empathize with others from diverse backgrounds and cultures, to understand social and ethical norms for behavior, and to recognize family, school, and community resources and supports.
Responsible decision-making: The ability to make constructive and respectful choices about personal behavior and social interactions based on consideration of ethical standards, safety concerns, social norms, the realistic evaluation of consequences of various actions, and the well-being of self and others.
SEL Results at Agassiz
Application of the adapted SEL curriculum to all aspects of our camp life last summer significantly helped us in our effort to measure the effectiveness of our program and better define our camper experience. Integration of SEL has yielded very positive and exciting reviews and data. The data allows us to see clearly how campers develop in each SEL area, and how the dynamics of a group experience over the course of a two-week camp session impact each child's SEL development. This provides invaluable data for making improvements in programming, approaches to counseling, and empowering campers to take stock in their own growth and exercise their agency in becoming their best selves.
Partnership with ThinkGive
Agassiz Village is proud to partner with ThinkGive, a Boston nonprofit that provides a Social & Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum that helps campers build character, confidence, and connection. ThinkGive inspires children to reflect on their gifts and to choose kindness. Our SEL Counselor can now teach ThinkGive’s curriculum in the Serenity Cabin, helping campers to explore topics such as empathy and inclusion, and encouraging them to consider who they are and want to be
SEL Activity:
I Am a Poem
Grades: 3-6
Time: 30 minutes
SEL Activity:
Try Something New
Grades: 3-5
Time: 30 minutes
SEL Activity:
What Do I Want to Be?
Grades: 6-8
Time: 30 minutes
SEL Activity:
Challenge a Stereotype
Grades: 6-8
Time: 30 minutes
SEL Activity:
Cast a Vote for You
Grades: 6-8
Time: 30 minutes
For more information on ThinkGive, visit www.thinkgiveproject.org.
