The Community Foundation of Greater New Britain approved $228,349 in year-end grants, bringing the foundation’s total impact for the year to $1,065,311.
The largest grant — up to $70,000 — went to the Community Foundation’s Community Initiatives Committee for continued exploration of a possible Greater New Britain arts initiative and implementation of selected arts-related projects in 2013.
Other grants included:
• $50,000 to Foodshare to provide direct support for food and supplies to 22 food pantries and shelters in Berlin, New Britain, Plainville and Southington.
• $20,000 to the Early Childhood Collaborative of Southington for its Family Resource Center.
• $25,722 to Literacy Volunteers of Central Connecticut for its Central Connecticut Family Literacy Initiative.
• $15,000 to the Coalition to Enhance Family Literacy for a study of the effectiveness of using 21st century technology to improve and increase family literacy.
• $6,627 to Connecticut Voices for Children to enable the organization to provide local data and research that is currently unavailable.
• $7,500 to the Children’s Law Center to support the New Britain Truancy Intervention Project, a pro-bono, pre-court diversion program pairing attorney volunteers with truant middle school students.
• $10,000 to the Congregational Church of Plainville to provide the last dollars needed for the church to rebuild and equip its kitchen following winter storm damage in 2011. The kitchen is used for the Food for Friends program, which provides hot meals to those in need from Plainville.
• $10,000 for Hoops for the Homeless for one-time start-up costs associated with an annual fundraising event that will raise awareness of and generate funding for organizations that provide services to homeless children and families.
• $13,500 to House of Heroes to provide no-cost home improvements that will help veterans maintain a safe, secure and accessible home.
The foundation serves Berlin, New Britain, Plainville and Southington.
Grant for Husky Sport
Husky Sport, which uses sports to connect UConn students with children in Hartford’s impoverished North End, has received a $75,000 grant from the Connecticut Health and Educational Facilities Authority.
The grant will support the salaries of five part-time staff persons and cover transportation costs for more than 100 student volunteers who travel from UConn to Hartford and provide as many as 20,000 hours of service each year. The UConn students collaborate with Hartford schools and community organizations to provide sports activities and nutrition lessons and to get the goal of attending college in the minds of the youngsters.
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Grant supports dance
Wesleyan University’s Center for the Arts in Middletown will receive a $42,660 grant from Dance/USA, the national service organization for professional dance.
The funds will be used to increase audience engagement through two new programs that will launch later this year: the DanceLink Fellowship Program, in which Wesleyan students will intern with three professional dance companies during the summer, and then serve as ambassadors for the companies when they are presented on campus during the 2013 — 2014 Breaking Ground Dance Series; and Dine/Dance/Discover, a new event to take place before and after Breaking Ground Dance Series performances, incorporating dance workshops featuring movements from those performances, dinners facilitated by the DanceLink Fellows and Wesleyan faculty members, and post-show discussions.
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Financial literacy grant
Hartford Public Library has received a grant of $99,980 from the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority Investor Education Foundation and the American Library Association to provide financial and investor education to the community as part of the Smart investing@your library initiative.
With the funding, Hartford Public Library will offer a series of financial literacy workshops for families with children and for young adults in high school and college. The library is partnering with the University of Hartford, to provide faculty and supervised graduate students to serve as workshop instructors.
Capital Community College will host selected workshops for young adults, including its own students and students from area high schools.
Corey Fleming, senior public services manager, and Ann Binder, branch manager, will lead the project for the Library.
