Dear RJF Supporter,

2013 has been a year of growth for us all – for our projects, for our partners, and for our organization. This past year allowed us to establish fruitful partnerships that lay the groundwork for achieving long-term measurable success in our three core program areas: Education, Environment and Creative Development.

This year, we supported various projects that allowed us to provide support for children in communities across Central America. We partnered with six different organizations, providing almost $25,000 in funding to implement projects that provided youth participants with essential life skills training, engaged communities to achieve measurable environmental outcomes, and allowed for artistic expression.

As part of our growth in our first year of operations, our focus was on evolving and growing our impact as an organization. Here are RFJ’s top accomplishments in 2013:

Partnered and supported six locally run organizations assisting youth throughout Nicaragua and Guatemala;

Hired a Nicaragua Country Director to support in-Country project oversight, program development, and en-sure continued success in the region;

Impacted over 2,000 indigenous children from sixteen rural communities, all of whom directly benefited from RJF programming;

Worked with 395 families in three coastal communities to identify ecological, social and economic risks that youth and families face and develop resources and strengths for successful resolution; and

Established working agreements and strong relationships with local government and universities to design and implement projects pertaining to education, the environment, and creative development that benefit youth in Nicaragua.

With an incredible year under our belt, RJF could not be more excited for the continued success and development to come in 2014. We thank you for your support as we continue to grow as an organization and expand our reach to support youth to be leaders within their communities.

All the best,

Executive Director The Raechel & Jackie Foundation

Connecting Youth with their Environment

A year of growth establishing fruitful partnerships . . .

GRANTEE PROJECT STORIES

In 2013, RJF partnered with six different organizations, providing support to implement project throughout Central America. Proj-ects provided youth participants with essential life skills training, engaged communities to achieve measurable environmental out-comes, and allowed for artistic impression. With our project part-ners, we directly impacted over 2,000 indigenous youth across Ni-caragua and Guatemala.

Chajul Community Library

Limitless Horizon Ixil’s mission is to create opportunities that de-velop the academic and professional skills of the indigenous youth, women, and families living in Chajul, Guatemala. RJF partnered with Limitless Horizons Ixil to expand the children’s programming in the Chajul Community Library. Through a range of fun and dy-namic activities, the community library now provides children with a loving, safe, and creative learning environment.

Children’s Visit to the Sea Turtles

The Santa Teresa Sister City Project was established to promote people-to-people relationships between Richland Center, Wis-consin and the municipality of Santa Teresa, Nicaragua. With as-sistance from RJF, the Santa Teresa Sister City Project implemented the “Children’s Visit to the Sea Turtles” Project in Nicaragua. Chil-dren from the local community were taken to the Chacocente Wildlife Refuge to see endangered sea turtles, learn why they are threatened, and raise awareness of what they can do to protect and restore the sea turtle population.

Art for Social Action

In association with the Foundation for Sustainable Development, RJF implemented the “Art for Social Action” Project. The project provides local partner organizations in Nicaragua with training in innovative arts-based strategies which unlocks creative potential, transfers critical knowledge, and inspires long-term change. The Art for Social Action Project engages and empowers community members to creatively address problems central to their social and environmental well-being.

Connecting Youth with Watersheds

Paso Pacifico’s mission is to restore and conserve natural ecosys-tems of by collaborating with landowners, local communities, and involved organizations to promote ecosystem conservation. Through RJF support, Paso Pacifico implemented the “Connecting Youth with Watersheds” Project which used art to teach children in rural Nicaragua about the functions of watersheds and the impor-tance of managing and protecting them.

Environmental Education

Asociacion Axayacatl Madre Tierra encourages young women to participate on equal terms in their community and address social, cultural, political, and economic concerns. In association with RJF, Asociacion Axayacatl Madre Tierra promotes environmental edu-cation and soil conservation by providing outreach and education to youth in five communities throughout Masaya, Nicaragua.

Art and Dance to Share with Street Kids

Los Quinchos gives hospitality to abandoned and vulnerable chil-dren with the goal of reinserting children in their own society by offering them the right to a peaceful childhood and the knowl-edge of their rights and duties as future citizens. As part of this effort, Los Quinchos and RJF implemented the “Art and Dance to Share with Street Children” Project, where street children staying at Los Quinchos were provided with art and dance lessons to explore their creative interests.

To learn more about The Raechel & Jackie Foundation, or to make a donation, please visit our website: www.raecheljack-iefoundation.org.

Over 2,000 seeds planted: RJF supported projects benefitting over 2,000 indigenous youth in Central America during 2013.

Supporting strong roots: RJF projects are selected for their long-term sustainability and social and economic benefit to youth and their communities

PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT

RJF believes that educating youth is inextricably linked to tangible prog-ress. To that end, we support projects that provide long-term benefits for children and youth while simultaneously developing community resilience. We believe in supporting local communities through projects that focus on youth development in at least one of the three primary program models: Education, Environment, and Creative Development.

Education. We work with community partners to provide train-ing and education in areas deemed high priorities by the com-

munity. Through community-driven training, local youth learn practical skills that enhance opportunities and encourage independence while also contributing to community needs. Our projects reflect a commitment to advancing the education of local youth.

Environment. Through participation in projects that achieve measurable environmental outcomes, youth explore the wonders of the environment and embrace their individual relationship with

nature. We partner with organizations to design and implement environ-mental projects in communities that benefit most from preservation of the environment and natural resources.

Creative Development. We work with local partners to develop opportunities for artistic expression and cultural awareness across diverse economic and environmental landscapes. By investing in

projects that use innovative methods, we provide youth with experiences in creative development and the arts, transporting them beyond the bounds that circumstance provides and expanding their horizons.

METHODOLOGY

By focusing on projects that develop and support the next generation of natural leaders, RJF instills greater awareness, education, and knowledge in youth, better equipping them to be stewards of their environment.

The extent a project enables youth development determines project de-velopment. Rather than focusing solely on need, our assessment process focuses on projects that allow youth to better understand their commu-nity by identifying the many ways the community is rich in resources and the benefits they, as individuals, can offer the community. Each project is evaluated for innovation and measureable outcome. Critical to the assess-ment is the likelihood the project will serve as a tool for youth to better understand the dynamics and interrelated components of their community and their role in it. By focusing on the positive attributes of the community

and ways to ensure local resources are protected and managed, youth are empowered to make positive changes.

Results. In 2013, RJF began new relationships with three coastal com-munities located within the San Juan del Sur Province of Nicaragua which achieved the following results:

1) 60+ youth from the coastal communities of Tortuga, Collado and Os-tional completed surveys with 395 families to better understand the social, ecological and economic dynamics of their communities: Participating youth prepared and conducted survey’s, analyzed findings, shared results with their communities through youth led presentations and assisted in fa-cilitating discussions with elders and leaders to identify priority resources, stresses on those resources and potential partnerships and strategies to mitigate impacts. RJF is excited to continue to work with these youth in 2014 to further develop and implement projects that they feel strengthen their individual and community resilience.

2) Created a new partnership with the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua to collaborate on Community Action Research: In an effort to bridge the gap between academic research and community needs, RJF brought faculty and graduate students, with varied expertise, to visit the communities where we are working. The focus of these visits was on de-veloping relationships between Nicaraguan researchers and community leaders to learn about the benefits they could provide to one another and the results they could achieve by working together. As a result of this ef-fort, RJF and the National Autonomous University of Nicaragua completed a memorandum of understanding to engage students in addressing high priority concerns within these communities whereby students gain hands on experience putting theory into practice in their area of study and the communities benefit from hands on training and project results.

3) Created a new partnership with the Ministry of the Environment in Ni-caragua to connect local government initiatives with community environ-mental needs: To improve environmental awareness and strengthen and develop the management of sensitive ecosystems, RJF established a funda-mental relationship with local government. Our hope is that this partner-ship will strengthen regional and national capacity to address community environmental needs that have lasting impact.

Staff

Sooni Gillett Executive Director

Henningston Hodgson Nicaragua Program Director

Board of Directors

April JernbergBoard President

Venessa MadrigalBoard Secretary and Treasurer

Cally Houck Board Member

Advisory Council

Sarah Otterstrom, PhD