Simon Youth Foundation honored as a top national nonprofit by Mutual of America Foundation

Life at Simon Youth Foundation doesn't get much better being in the midst of graduation season and seeing 1,000 students from our nationwide Simon Youth Academies, who could have been dropouts, earn their high school diploma. So, we'll just have to call May 25, 2011, the icing on the cake.

At a luncheon event, SYF celebrated with collaborators and stakeholders its recognition as a Mutual of America Foundation Community Partnership Award winner as one of the nation's top three national nonprofits for "facilitating partnerships with public, private or social sector leaders who are working as equal partners to build a cohesive community that serves as a model for collaboration that benefits the greater good."

In particular, the award recognized our Simon Youth Academies initiative, the national network of 25 alternative high schools formerly known as Education Resource Centers that, with the help of local school district partners and corporate sponsors, extend unique educational opportunities to at-risk students, keeping them in class and reducing the alarming national drop-out rate.

From a pool of candidates that numbers well into the hundreds, each year, Mutual of America Foundation names a Community Partnership National Award Winner and two Honorable Mention Recipients. In 2010, SYF was named an Honorable Mention Recipient as one of the three best U.S. nonprofits.



At the luncheon, SYF President and CEO J. Michael Durnil, Ph.D., talked about the special relationships that make SYF successful.

"Our more than 80 local school system partners nationwide and corporate sponsors, like Simon Property Group and CVS Caremark, are igniting the hope in thousands of students that they can graduate," Durnil said. "We are humbled to have the Simon Youth Foundation name on this award from Mutual of America Foundation, but it is our valued partners that deserve the recognition."

To further illustrate the importance of partnerships in the Simon Youth Foundation mission, seven SYF collaborators were honored with Mutual of America Foundation commemorative coins. Those collaborators included Deborah Simon, the SYF Board of Directors Chairperson; David Simon, the CEO of Simon Property Group; Lena Barkley, a Governemnt Program Liason for CVS Caremark; Faye Snodgress, the Executive Director of Kappa Delta Pi; Jim Morrison, the President of Pacers Sports and Entertainment; Rick Fuson, the Chief Operating Officer of Pacer Sports and Entertainment; and Theresa Knox, the Director of the Simon Youth Pacers Academy at Washington Square.