Expanding Our ExcellenceInviting Your Involvement in our

Campaign for Endowment

FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT RIVERVIEWSCHOOL.ORG/SUPPORT➺

Our Mission: Riverview School, an independent coeducational boarding/day school, provides a caring community for adolescents and young adults with complex language, learning and cognitive disabilities. The School is committed to developing student competence and confidence in academic, social and independent living skills.

Our Promise: The promise of a Riverview education is a richer, fuller life for our students — a life filled with options and opportunities, underpinned by a strong, positive self-image. With the confidence developed at Riverview, our students embrace challenges, master new skills, develop life-long friendships, self-advocate when necessary, and view themselves as capable and competent young people. Prepared with a Riverview education, our alumni live, work, and grow as healthy individuals and productive members of their community. This is the promise upon which Riverview School was founded and an abiding commitment that is being realized on our campus right now.

“Riverview’s team overall is experienced, motivated, and cares deeply about their students. The conversations with the academic, residential, and specialty staff all high-lighted their desire to help their students become more independent and help them achieve their own life goals.”

From the Visiting Team Accreditation Report, New England Association of Schools and Colleges

Expanding Our

ExcellenceCreating caring relationships

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Our Future: Riverview is now seeking to advance and assure its position as an international leader in the education of adolescents and young adults with complex needs. Strengthening our endowment is critical to this secure future and to keeping our promise to each and every child in our care.

Since 1957, Riverview has developed a culture of innovation in meeting the needs of its students. While embracing best practices, the School has also served as an incubator for new programs and strategies. Not only have Riverview students benefitted, so too have young people with learning challenges nationally as other programs have adopted our strategies and practices. Sustaining this culture of innovation while simultaneously strengthening the quality of current and future academic, co-curricular, vocational, and residential offerings requires an investment of resources not currently available in the School’s annual operating budget.

Therefore, increasing the endowment is an essential investment in our future. It will yield increased annual income and thereby support a greater portion of the annual operations, as well as expand opportunities for all members of the school community. Presently, the endowment is valued at approximately $10 million. Our goal is to increase it to $15 million, equal to one year’s operating budget, a recommended level for immediate impact as well as future sustainability.

These designated funds will support

our intentional strategic directions.

I. Attract and retain highly qualified teaching and residential faculty through enhanced compensation and continuous professional development

II. Provide greater student access and diversity through increased financial assistance

III. Expand job training and career development programs

The academic, residential, and specialty staff at Riverview all live its mission and values daily, at every moment and in every interaction with students and their families. Riverview families continually comment on the mutually respectful and caring relationships between students and faculty, seeing it as one of the pillars of the School’s success.

By focusing solely on the current and future needs of our students, our dedicated faculty has developed exceptional programs and innovative strategies that enable young people to achieve their personal best. These caring mentors make all the difference in the life of each Riverview student and maintain those strong connections with alumni.

More and more, attracting and retaining such faculty is a major challenge. Essential to meeting this challenge effectively is a competitive salary and benefits program. As the current generation of teachers retires over the next decade, the task of recruiting highly qualified replacements will become increasingly difficult.

FACULTY $5,000,000

➺ Establish a dedicated fund to attract and retain highly qualified teaching and residential faculty through enhanced compensation and constant professional development.

“It is important to get the Riverview teaching method out to others. It should not be reserved just for those who can afford it, but also for those who need it, and can’t. Riverview should be for everyone.”

Robert Wilson, Officer Sharon D. Lund Foundation

The income produced from this new dedicated endowment fund will directly and substantially impact Riverview’s ability to invest in its faculty through a more competitive compensation package, now and in the future. This fund will also tangibly recognize their professional commitment and personal dedication to our students.

In addition, to preserve a position of educational leadership in the field of special education, Riverview must continue to invest in meaningful professional growth. For example, our faculty must be current on developments in brain research and the best practices that emanate from that research. Keeping pace with appropriate uses of assistive technology is another vital need. Income from this fund will support on-campus graduate course work, participation in seminars and conferences, and targeted research projects that enhance and expand our educational programming.

The value of the academic, residential, and specialty faculty at Riverview cannot be overstated. Their deeply caring and respectful relationships with our students are essential to each student’s success.

FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE $3,000,000

The cost of a Riverview education makes it inaccessible to many eligible and eager students and their families. This reality has never been more evident than during the recent economic downturn. Presently we are able to extend financial aid to only 15% of our families. Increasingly, many young people who truly need and would benefit from Riverview are not able to join our community due to the cost.

Endowing financial assistance will ensure the annual availability of funds to help a greater variety of families meet the cost of a Riverview education. This endowment fund therefore is crucial to the School’s future success because it will help ensure continued and even more accessibility and diversity through greater affordability.

➺ Provide greater accessibility and diversity through expanded financial assistance to increase Riverview’s affordability.

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As recognized in mental health research, a satisfying career is a key component to a sense of personal well-being and worth. This richness of a fuller life is the Riverview promise to each graduate.The unemployment rate for individuals with disabilities is consistently around 70%. Riverview School reverses this trend. Compelling evidence reveals that when young people with disabilities successfully complete intentionally designed school-to-work training programs, their employment outcomes change significantly and positively.

Building on Riverview's current school-to-work programs, which include an on-campus business center, school store, and cafeterias, and an off-campus thrift store and café, Riverview will expand its school-to-work offerings to develop the stronger vocational and socialization skills needed in the adult work world. Collaboration with Spaulding Rehabilitation Hospital has opened many new career opportunities, as have partnerships with Heritage Museum and Gardens, TD Bank, DoubleTree by Hilton, TJX Companies, Inc. and others. Café Riverview and Second View Thrift Shop are open to the public and thriving. Our students receive tailored job coaching in these integrated workplaces, thereby greatly increasing their future employability. A proposed database of independent living programs and employment opportunities will serve as a resource for alumni and alumni parents seeking information about life and work after Riverview.

JOB TRAINING $2,000,000

Having a job gives me much more self-respect because I have gained greater independence. In fact, I now have three jobs!”

RVS Alumnus ’97

Inaugurate a dedicated fund to expand our job training and career development programs to help our alumni secure gainful employment and greater personal well-being.

SUMMARYSTAFF SUPPORT: $5,000,000

FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE: $3,000,000JOB TRAINING & CAREER DEVELOPMENT: $2,000,000

Expanding Our ExcellenceCampaign for Endowment

Inviting Your Involvement. Now is the time to advance and secure Riverview’s position as the international leader in the education of adolescents and young adults with complex language, learning, and cognitive disabilities. Reaching our endowment campaign goal represents a major step towards this end.

Now is the time for action. We invite you, as well as each and every member of the Riverview School community, to join in this critical effort. Each gift, combined with the generosity of others, will strengthen our endowment in support of the School’s people and programs. The richer, fuller lives of our students, past, present, and future, will be the result of your generous support.

TOTAL GOAL $10,000,000

Together we can DO IT!