The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven, the region’s permanent charitable endowment and largest grantmaker, has made $2,461,350 in multi-year grants.
Among the more than 50 nonprofits receiving funding, the focus is on programs that provide street outreach to reduce youth violence in the City of New Haven, that engage a diverse group of religious communities unified in tackling immigration issues, that provide legal assistance for the region’s veterans and behavioral support services to children.
The largest grants are a three-year, $225,000 grant to Hamden Public Schools for its Educational Care Collaborative; a three-year, $175,000 grant to the City of New Haven for its Street Outreach Worker Program and a $150,000, three-year grant to Achievement First for its K-12 programming.
“We saw a greater number of requests for education and youth-focused programs, which is not surprising given that 2012 is the year for education reform in our state,” said Priscilla F. Canny, the foundation’s senior vice president of grantmaking and strategy. “As well, there were significant clusters in the areas of supporting vulnerable children, mental health, and family economic security.”
A complete list of 2012 Responsive New Grant recipients is available at www.cfgnh.org.
First Niagara honored
First Niagara Bank Foundation was recognized with the Partner in Prevention Leadership Award at The Governor’s Prevention Partnership’s 22nd annual governor’s luncheon recently.
First Niagara was honored for its commitment to youth mentoring through financial support, employee participation and other resources.
“We have made mentoring a primary focus of our corporate philanthropic efforts for the positive impact it has on today’s youth and tomorrow’s workforce,” said Jim Bzdyra, First Niagara senior vice president of commercial banking, New England Region, who accepted the award on behalf of the bank.
In 2011, First Niagara made a $100,000 commitment to strengthen mentoring initiatives across Connecticut. And at the luncheon, First Niagara announced it would renew that $100,000 commitment, through the First Niagara Bank Foundation, to strengthen youth mentoring initiatives in 2012. In addition to producing and airing more PSAs during National Mentoring Month, First Niagara will focus on increasing mentoring for Hispanic and Latino youth in Hartford; creating a mentoring fund to build capacity for mentoring; and, disseminating financial literacy information to support mentors.
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Capital offered challenge grant
The National Endowment for Humanities is offering Hartford’s Capital Community College a $300,000 challenge grant to sustain its Hartford Heritage Program, an initiative linking courses with the city’s cultural and historic institutions.
To secure the funding, Capital must raise $600,000 in private matching funds over the next four years and create an endowment fund.
“The Heritage program takes advantage of our immediate surroundings and Hartford’s cultural diversity,” said Capital President Wilfredo Nieves. “We believe it represents a model of place-based learning for many communities.”
The NEH endowment grant supports new Learning Communities — two courses linked by a common theme and taught by two professors to the same students — that will bring humanistic modes of inquiry to courses in the social sciences and other disciplines, as well as a digital component to showcase the work of students and faculty. The college will also hold a Hartford Bridging Cultures Symposium on an annual basis using funds from the Heritage program, and support other humanities events central to the aims of the program.
Capital faculty members and representatives of Hartford’s historic and cultural institutions launched the Heritage Program in 2010 using a $98,645 “We the People” grant from NEH.
Capital is one of only six community colleges to receive the NEH grant offer.
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In brief…
The AT&T Foundation has donated $25,000 to the Connecticut chapter of the American Red Cross to support relief and care efforts benefitting people impacted by Hurricane Sandy. The local grant builds on a $250,000 national grant to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief fund, bringing to $500,000 AT&T’s total grants for Hurricane Sandy relief … UIL Holdings Corp., parent company of The United Illuminating Co., also sqaid it will donate $25,000 to the American Red Cross to support Hurricane Sandy storm relief in Connecticut…. And Dutch Point Credit Union hosted an American Red Cross Blood Drive at its Newington Branch and collected 46 pints of blood. Hurricane Sandy led to the cancellation of approximately 300 blood drives in affected areas, which equates to a loss of up to 10,500 blood and platelet products… Bank of America recently awarded Hartford Public Library a $20,000 workforce development grant to support CTWorks@HPL, a collaborative one-stop career center. The center connects diverse, low-income unemployed and underemployed individuals to livable wage jobs and other employment opportunities by offering on-site resources, job services, and occupational skills training?. Aetna Arts Week is underway in Hartford through Nov. 17. Among the free programs are a behind-the-scene tour at The Bushnell, Tuesday at noon; a tour of the ‘Medieval to Monet’ exhibit at the Wadsworth Atheneum Thursday at 1 p.m. and a lantern lighting ceremony at the Old State House Thursday at 4:30 p.m. For details, visit FeelYourArtBeat.com … Ives International Film and TANGO are offering a program designed to pair nonprofit agencies with corporate sponsors willing to fund visibility-generating commercials. An initial series of breakfast seminars will outline details. The session will run Nov. 14-20 at five locations around Connecticut. For information, visit the TANGO seminars page at www.ivesfilm.com.
