Foundation Spotlight: Bella Vista Foundation
For more than 20 years, the Bella Vista Foundation has supported Catholic Charities work with families and children through grants for our Baby Steps and New Beginnings programs.
The Bella Vista Foundation was founded by Jean Gerlinger Kirkwood and Georgiana Gerlinger Stevens. Jean was the mother of the late Bob Kirkwood, who was a major donor and Lifetime Benefactor to Catholic Charities. The Foundation focuses on environmental restoration and building resilient families, with an emphasis on pre-3 support. Bob served as president of Bella Vista’s board until his passing in 2017; he was extremely knowledgeable and passionate about early learning and the importance of parent-child bonding, as well as support, skill-building and stress reduction for parents.
These goals live on through two popular Catholic Charities programs for children ages 0-3 and their parents and caregivers. Baby Steps provides home visitation support and “Just Us” parenting/playgroups. New Beginnings includes Raising a Reader, which provides free bookbags and reading activities to support language acquisition and literacy development; plus Infant Music and Movement and Zumbini®, which offer guided exploration of music, instruments, songs, rhythm and movement to support social-emotional and cognitive development for little ones.
“The Bella Vista Foundation is proud to support Catholic Charities’ vital work with young children and their parents,” shares Co-Executive Director Stefani Willis.
“It helped me better understand how to read to my kids at home and showed me how important it is to read because it helps them learn new vocabulary,” according to a parent participating in New Beginnings.
Thanks to the Bella Vista Foundation, Catholic Charities continues to expand opportunities for supporting healthy families in our community.
