\u201cI started developing an interest on the fundraising side of things and moved into the grants manager position at the Y,\u201d Simon says. \u201cI\u2019ve basically always been a writer. I\u2019ve done curriculum development into grant writing into writing books. So, I\u2019ve always done writing to some capacity. My audience has just changed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grant writing helped her make it through the COVID-19 pandemic, during which she lost her job at the YMCA. She founded Greenhouse Grant Writing in May 2020 and now has worked with over 100 nonprofits in Dallas-Fort Worth, plus those in other states and parts of Texas. <\/p>\n
\u201cI decided, \u2018Well, what can I lose? I\u2019m just going to see if there\u2019s a need. I\u2019m going to start reaching out to nonprofits in the area and see if there\u2019s an interest and a need in grant writing assistance,\u2019\u201d she says. \u201cAnd it turned out there was a big need for that.\u201d <\/p>\n
Grant writing is still Simon\u2019s full-time job, but she was inspired to write the children\u2019s book series on the side \u2014 Paisley Poodle Finds Courage, released this summer, and Paisley Poodle Finds His Style, which was expected to publish last month. <\/p>\n
Meant for children ages 4-7, these self-published books focus on overcoming fear and change, respectively. Paisley feels anxious about slippery floors, fire hydrants, sidewalk grates and a new haircut but learns to move forward despite being afraid. Simon hopes the stories help parents have conversations with their children about fears and navigating emotions.<\/p>\n
\u201cMost kids have pets, so they understand interacting with a pet and the feelings that pets have and also experience those feelings themselves,\u201d Simon says. \u201cSo I feel like it makes a feeling that we all have very relatable and understandable, especially for young kids, and a way that they can deal with some of these emotions in healthy ways.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI started developing an interest on the fundraising side of things and moved into the grants manager position…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":453172,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[155730,102,104,103,155731,28523,155732,155733,20557,155734,155735,12782],"class_list":["post-453171","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-dallas","tag-anna-simon","tag-dallas","tag-dallas-headlines","tag-dallas-news","tag-dallas-ymca","tag-educator","tag-greenhouse-grant-writing","tag-illustrator","tag-junius-heights","tag-paisley-poodle-finds-courage","tag-project-transformation","tag-writer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453171","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=453171"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/453171\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/453172"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=453171"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=453171"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=453171"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}