The Wilson-Gray YMCA Youth and Family Center has received a $5,000 grant from Berkshire Bank to support its Teen Incentive Program (Y-TIP) that benefits underserved, at-risk teenagers from Hartford’s Clay-Arsenal and Upper Albany neighborhoods. Y-TIP helps teens, ages 13-18, overcome challenges to their success including gangs, violence, drugs and other harmful and self-destructive influences.
Students attend Y-TIP programs two days per week and commit to a minimum of one hour of community service monthly. Y-TIP features a work-study component consisting of a 10-hour workforce readiness training program, a four-week non-paid pre-internship and an eight-week round of paid summer internships.
Travelers Awards $24,500 Grant to reSET
The Travelers Cos.’ charitable arm recently awarded social enterprise trust reSET a $24,500 grant to support its programs. ReSET’s mission is to preserve, promote and protect social enterprise in Connecticut to solve community problems.
Among reSET’s programs are the Accelerator Program, the Social Enterprise Challenge and Awards, and co-working space at 99 Pratt St. in Hartford. ReSET’s incubator and community co-working space welcomes social entrepreneurs, small businesses, freelancers, and traveling business people who need office space to work. The co-working space offers professional development and business support programs, high-speed WiFi and flexible work space.
CT Children’s Research Programs Receive UConn Genomics Grants
The Institute for Systems Genomics at the University of Connecticut has awarded $1 million in funding to four collaborative research programs, three of which include researchers from Connecticut Children’s Medical Center. Each program will receive $50,000 per year for the next five years. These funded programs have been named “Affinity Research Collaboratives,” or ARCs, and are based on a similar initiatives developed at Boston University.
“Our goal in funding these ARCs is to spur cross-disciplinary and cross-institutional research programs. This creates talented investigators who can bring together their different areas of expertise to study important biomedical problems and cure disease,” says Marc Lalande, director of the Institute.
Three of the four ARCs consist of a team of at least four investigators with representation from Connecticut Children’s, the Jackson Laboratory for Genomic Medicine and UConn.
Hartford Public Library Receives Grant from Nutmeg Foundation
The Hartford Public Library was recently awarded a $20,000 grant from The Nutmeg Foundation in support of its “Arts and Archives: Master Classes in the Arts and Humanities for Older Adults,” program. Arts and Archives seeks to engage participants in creative expression and thinking; developing artistic and critical thinking skills; and helping them discover their potential and productivity.
The library’s Hartford History Center will provide enhanced education and lifelong learning opportunities through hands-on fine arts and humanities workshops taught by professional artists. All classes will be free and open to the public, and specifically targeted to the Hartford community over the age of 55.
BlumShapiro to Receive Nonprofit Partnership Award From Greater New Haven Chamber
West Hartford’s BlumShapiro, the largest regional accounting, tax and business consulting firm based in New England, will receive the Greater New Haven Chamber of Commerce’s 2013 Nonprofit Partnership award for its work with Christian Community Action (CCA). The award, to be presented Thursday, recognizes the BlumShapiro Thanksgiving Food Basket Campaign for Christian Community Action. In 2012, that campaign collected non-perishable food items and monetary donations to provide 2,300 full traditional meals, a record in CCA’s 30-year history of providing the holiday meal.
