Grants Awarded |
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| In 2009, the Foundation awarded the following 64 grants: Cohort 1 Established Grants Cohort 2 Established Grants Cohort 3 Established Grants Capacity Building Fund Grants Opportunity Fund Grants Field Learning Fund Grants |
| Established Grants-Cohort 3 (Year 2 of 5) |
Albany Park Neighborhood Council's Project Y, Chicago, IL $100,000 - Second year of a five year grant. The Albany Park Neighborhood Council (APNC) is a grassroots, intergenerational community organization with a mission to create a safer community, improve the quality of education and preserve affordable housing in Albany Park. Project Y provides a vehicle for young people to work towards their own vision of change. Through leadership training, Project Y youth have been able to secure adoption of the Youth Bill of Rights for appropriate police conduct, increase access to higher education for immigrant students, and conduct citywide, youth-led participatory research addressing Chicago Public Schools' dropout crisis. |
Chicago Freedom School, Chicago, IL $60,000 - Second year of a five year grant. Chicago Freedom School (CFS) provides a space for young people and their adult allies to address the root causes of social inequality and oppression. Youth are trained as Freedom Fellows in a year-long organizing institute that provides intensive training in organizing campaigns. Past Freedom Fellows addressed gang violence, stereotypes about black males, domestic violence, and homophobia in schools. |
Inner-City Muslim Action Network, Chicago, IL $100,000 - Second year of a five year grant. Inner-City Muslim Action Network (IMAN) is a community-based, multi-service organization that provides direct services, arts programming and organizing opportunities to the Muslim community and its allies. Youth and adults work on intergenerational campaigns addressing various issues, including criminal justice, immigration reform, and support and resources for low-income and working class families in Chicago's Southwest side. |
Korean American Resource and Cultural Center, Chicago, IL $70,000 - Second year of a five year grant. Korean American Resource and Cultural Center (KRCC) is a multiservice organization that serves Chicago's Korean American community through social services and programs in education, organizing, advocacy, and culture. Youth participate in after school arts/culture programs, receive college and scholarship assistance, and organize around issues such as immigrant rights, workers' rights, and youth's access to high education. |
Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, Chicago, IL $45,000 - Second year of a five year grant. Little Village Environmental Justice Organization (LVEJO) provides youth and families opportunities to organize for environmental and social justice in the southwest side of Chicago. Youth and adults partner together in intergenerational campaigns to address issues such as asthma, industrial pollution, and public transit. Young people publish El Cilantro, a newsletter that serves as a platform to express the concerns they are confronting in their personal lives, schools, neighborhoods, and to ultimately mobilize the youth community to take action. |
Tepochcalli Community Education Project's SITY Ollin, Chicago, IL $35,000 - Second year of a five year grant Tepochcalli Community Education Project (TCEP) offers community organizing, leadership development and cultural expression opportunities to Chicago's Little Village community. TCEP's youth organizing program, called SITY Ollin (Stop Ignoring The Youth and Ollin means movement in the Nahuatl language), mobilizes its youth to influence policy and to create social change, specifically by addressing the root causes of youth violence, including issues of gang recruitment, lack of safe after school options for teens, and the disconnect between high school programming and higher education. |
Young Women's Empowerment Project, Chicago IL $30,000 - Second year of a five year grant. The Young Women's Empowerment Project (YWEP) provides a safe a judgement-free space for young women (including transgender and gender variant young women) impacted by the sex trade and street economy. YWEP's Girls in Charge (GIC), a weekly leadership group facilitated by YWEP youth staff and members, allows young women to participate in social justice and self-care workshops. Young women also have opportunities to apply skills and education into leadership roles within the organization, specifically as outreach workers and workshop facilitators. |
(back to top) Established Grants- Cohort 2 (Year 3 of 5) Oakland Kids First, Oakland, CA $60,000 - Third year of a five year grant. Oakland Kids First (OKF) organizes high school students to develop a "college bound culture" in which students, teachers, and administrators work together to advance the goal of supportive classroom climate and increased college enrollment. After seeing its policy victories fail to bring about meaningful improvement in student success rates, OKF developed an approach to organizing that is based on the belief that policy changes rarely succeed without a change in culture. OKF empowers all stakeholders to recognize their role in the success of students and the health of the school communities. |
Oasis Center's Youth Leadership & Action, Nashville, TN $80,000 - Third year of a five year grant. The Oasis Center, a comprehensive youth development and support services organization, provides a wide range of opportunities for youth through its Youth Leadership & Action (YLA) program. Diverse youth across Nashville impact their communities by organizing projects to address predatory lending, community violence, and school equity. Oasis joined 9 other youth organizations to open up the Youth Opportunity Center, where Nashville youth can access counseling services, a health clinic, and a job center all under one roof. |
Northwest Bronx Clergy and Community Coalition's Sistas and Brothas United, Bronx, NY $50,000 - Third year of a five year grant Sistas and Brothas United (SBU) trains youth to lead campaigns on educational equity, community supports for youth, and youth involvement in decisions that affect them. SBU youth increase graduation rates by establishing Student Support Centers, improving school safety through peer-to-peer conflict mediation, and providing opportunities for youth to use art and technology as tools for social change. |
Youth United for Change, Philadelphia, PA $60,000 - Third year of a five year grant. Youth United for Change (YUC) is an organization dedicated to developing young leaders in Philadelphia and empowering them to improve the quality of education and services in their communities to better meet their needs. A diverse group of young people comes together to identify common concerns and take collective action to address them. YUC's five school-based chapters have worked on issues such as improving college matriculation and examining the impact of school restructuring on students. |
(back to top) Established Grants- Cohort 1 (Year 4 of 5) Appalshop's Appalachian Media Institute, Whitesburg, KY $30,000 - Fourth year of a five year grant Appalachian Media Institute is a multi-media arts and cultural organization that trains teenagers to bring attention to the culture, stories, and issues of the eastern coalfields of Appalachia as a way to support their communities' efforts to solve their own problems in a just and equitable way. Youth-produced films and recordings are aired locally and debriefed as a way to generate public dialogue about community issues and solutions. Youth media productions have also been broadcast across the country through public radio outlets and have brought congressional attention to the epidemic of teenage prescription drug abuse in rural areas. |
Global Action Project, New York, NY $90,000 - Fourth year of a five year grant. Global Action Project (GAP) is a youth media production organization founded to allow low-income youth of color to access technology and produce media in order to voice their critical analysis of local and international issues into public debate. GAP provides youth with the knowledge, tools, and relationships they need to create powerful, thought-provoking media on local and international issues that concern them, and to use their media as a catalyst for dialogue and social change. |
Ifetayo Cultural Arts Facility's Youth Ensemble, Brooklyn, NY $80,000 - Fourth year of a five year grant The Ifetayo Youth Ensemble is a leadership and performing arts organization for youth of African descent, in which participants discuss and research issues facing their community, and create original dance, theater, and spoken-word performances to address those issues. In addition, the organization strives to enhance the lives of youth and families by providing programs in cultural awareness, health and wellness, and professional skills development. |
InnerCity Struggle's United Students, Los Angeles, CA $90,000 - Fourth year of a five year grant. United Students is a youth organizing program that focuses on improving educational quality through strengthening a collective youth and community voice, and creating change within four East Los Angeles high schools. Working in severely overcrowded schools, United Students was instrumental in securing funding for new construction for two new schools, and has also worked with school administration on increasing graduation and college-going rates. |
Youth Together, Oakland, CA $100,000 - Fourth year of a five year grant. Youth Together trains and supports diverse teams of youth organizers to address problems in East Bay high schools, such as inadequate and unsafe school conditions, lack of appropriate academic resources and materials, and racially and economically segregated classrooms and schools. Youth organizers have identified four areas of impact along a social change continuum: individual support and leadership development for its youth organizers; multiracial team development in order to build empowered and cohesive groups of young people; youth-led base-building in order to mobilize large numbers of youth and advocates; and institutional/policy changes as a result of the previous three strategies. |
(back to top) Capacity Building Fund Grants Albany Park Theater Project, Chicago, IL $5,000 To develop the fundraising capacity of the Board of Directors of a multiethnic theater company of teens and young adults that creates original performance works based on the real-life stories of immigrant and working-class Americans. |
Appalshop's Appalachian Media Institute, Whitesburg, KY $8,000 To support the Appalachian Media Institute’s (AMI) community college pilot project. AMI will partner with the local community college to increase skills related to research, critical thinking and video production. |
Close to Home, Dorchester, MA $8,000 To improve the current technology system and enhance the organization's efficiency and capacity to share information about domestic violence prevention. |
Crossroads Fund, Chicago, IL $5,000 To coordinate follow-up consultation to grantees who participated in financial management workshops to develop financial management tools and systems. |
Crossroads Fund, Chicago, IL $24,000 To coordinate the creation of a Learning Circle - a focused discussion group that utilizes popular education and individual work with a consultant to improve organizational capacity. |
Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training, Oakland, CA $20,000 To provide fund development training for Chicago grantees. |
Global Action Project, New York, NY $8,000 To build the board and staff fundraising capacity of a youth development and media production organization in which young people raise awareness of social issues through youth-produced media. |
Ifetayo Cultural Arts, Brooklyn, NY $8,000 To support the development of an online tool accessible to public school teachers in using Ifetayo’s Rites of Passage and Financial Management curriculum in their classrooms. |
InnerCity Struggle, Los Angeles, CA $8,000 To support the development of staff at the mid-management level for an intergenerational community organizing group working for educational justice in East Los Angeles. |
| Northwest Bronx Clergy and Community Coalition's Sistas and Brothas United, Bronx, NY $8,000 To support the development of a website for Sistas and Brothas United to improve communication with membership of a community organizing agency. |
Oakland Kids First, Oakland, CA $6,000 For continued executive coaching for this youth leadership organization dedicated to improving schools and building an education movement. |
Oasis Center, Nashville, TN $8,000 To support the strategic planning process for Nashville’s Youth Opportunity Center, which brings together several youth-serving agencies under one roof. |
Women and Girls Collective Action Network, Chicago, IL $5,000 To support the development of a plan for restructuring this citywide collaboration of organizations and individuals empowering women to address policy and system-level decisions that affect women. |
Youth Communication, New York, NY $8,000 To work with a consultant on fund development and marketing for an organization that helps teenagers develop their reading and writing skills so they can acquire the information they need to make thoughtful choices about their lives. |
| Youth Together, Oakland, CA $8,000 To develop a new strategic plan that incorporates the expansion and restructuring of the regional programming of this youth organizing group focused on increasing youth voice and educational quality in Oakland public schools. |
| Youth United for Change, Philadelphia, PA $8,000 For financial management training at a youth-led organizing group advocating for improved educational quality in Philadelphia public schools. |
(back to top) Opportunity Fund Grants Albany Park Neighborhood Council, Chicago, IL $5,000 To purchase critical equipment and hold a youth retreat that will further build youth leaders' fund development capacity. |
Albany Park Theater Project, Chicago, IL $5,000 To support audience engagement and social change goals through a partnership with the Public Square's Café Society. |
Center for Court Innovation/Youth Justice Board, New York, NY $1,800 To print and distribute the youth-developed report, entitled “Strong Families, Safe Communities: Recommendations to Improve Alternatives to Detention in New York City.” |
Chicago Freedom School, Chicago, IL $5,000 To send youth and staff to the Free Minds Free People conference, Making Media Connections conference, and the Allied Media conference. |
Close to Home, Dorchester, MA $5,000 For youth and staff to attend the “Ways out of Domestic Violence- An International Perspective” conference in Hamburg, Germany, where youth leaders shared community organizing methods with a youth group in Germany interested in learning innovative ways to improve their community through domestic and sexual violence prevention. |
| Ifetayo Cultural Arts, Brooklyn, NY $5,000 To support a retreat for administrative staff to focus on Ifetayo's technology plan and donor and teacher databases. |
| Inner-City Muslim Action Network, Chicago, IL $5,000 To hold a staff and board retreat to reflect upon and modify IMAN's strategic plan. |
| InnerCity Struggle, Los Angeles, CA $3,500 For technology upgrades and plumbing repairs. |
| Korean American Resource and Cultural Center, Chicago, IL $5,000 For young people to participate in a Citizenship Day Conference in Washington D.C., where Korean Americans addressed topics including immigration reform, health care reform and worker rights. |
| Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, Chicago, IL $5,000 To purchase critical equipment needed to advance environmental justice campaigns and communications with community members. |
Oakland Kids First, Oakland, CA $5,000 To purchase critical equipment and to support staff development through workshops and trainings. |
| Oasis Center, Nashville, TN $3,200 To send youth and staff to the Free Minds Free People conference, a national, intergenerational gathering of educators, students, and community-based activists to share knowledge and strategies for Education for Liberation. |
| On the Move, Napa, CA $2,800 To obtain a conditional use permit for the new office space which VOICES will rent. |
| Tepochcalli Community Education Project, Chicago, IL $5,000 To purchase critical equipment, including computers for staff and organizers and a projector and screen to use at community events. |
Women and Girls Collective Action Network, Chicago, IL $5,000 For youth and staff to attend and facilitate workshops at the Free Minds Free People conference and at the Allied Media conference. |
Young Women's Empowerment Project, Chicago IL $5,000 To share research report entitled, "Girls Do What They Have to Do to Survive: Illuminating Methods used by Girls in the Sex Trade and Street Economy to Fight Back and Heal: A Study of Resilience and Resistance," in New York City and Washington, DC. |
Youth Ministries for Peace & Justice, Bronx, NY $5,000 To repair siding on building as part of general facility improvements. |
Youth Together, Oakland, CA $2,600 To purchase critical equipment. |
Youth United for Change, Philadelphia, PA $5,000 For Youth United for Change (YUC) staff and out-of-school/alternative school youth to meet and learn from youth organizers in Chicago. YUC will make a site visit to Voices of Youth in Chicago Education (VOYCE) and meet with young people involved in the participatory action research project. |
| Youth United for Community Action, East Palo Alto, CA $4,500 To purchase critical equipment, including a copier to be used by YUCA staff, youth and community members. |
(back to top) Field Learning Fund Grants CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities, Bronx, NY $15,000 CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities was founded by Asian women in 1986 as one of the first organizations in the United States to mobilize Asian communities to counter anti-Asian violence. CAAAV focuses on institutional violence that affects immigrant, poor and working-class communities such as worker exploitation, concentrated urban poverty, police brutality, Immigration Naturalization Service detention and deportation, and criminalization of youth and workers. |
Crossroads Fund, Chicago IL $25,000 A public foundation, the Crossroads Fund supports youth activism in Chicago by providing funding, technical assistance, and learning opportunities to emerging grantees focused on youth led social change. |
Desis Rising Up & Moving, Jackson Heights, NY $15,000 Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM) is a multigenerational, membership led organization of working class South Asian immigrants in New York City. DRUM was founded in early 2000 to build power of South Asian low wage immigrant workers, families fighting deportation and profiling as Muslims, and youth in New York City. DRUM has been a leading organization in protecting the civil and human rights of South Asian and Muslim immigrants since September 11, 2001. |
FIERCE, New York, NY $15,000 FIERCE is a membership-based organization building the leadership and power of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth of color in New York City. FIERCE develops politically conscious leaders who are invested in improving themselves and their communities through youth-led campaigns, leadership development programs, and cultural expression through arts and media. |
Flanbwayan Haitian Literacy Project, New York, NY $10,000 Flanbwayan Haitian Literacy Project (Flanbwayan), founded in 2005, is a youth membership based organization serving newcomer and young adult Haitian immigrant students in New York City who are English Language Learners (ELLs) between the ages of 14 to 21. Flanbwayan provides a safety net for Haitian youth who may possibly fall through the cracks of an overwhelming high school placement process as they enter the New York area, providing much needed services, including individual education assessments and appropriate school placements. |
Funders' Collaborative on Youth Organizing, New York, NY $20,000 The Funders' Collaborative on Youth Organizing (FCYO) is a collective of national, regional and local grantmakers and youth organizing practitioners dedicated to increasing the philanthropic investment and organizational capacities of youth organizing groups across the country. This grant supports FCYO's Occasional Paper Series, focusing on the Leadership Pipeline. |
| New York Foundation's Capacity Building Program, New York, NY $10,000 New York Foundation's (NYF) Capacity Building Program provides technical assistance to grantees. NYF will provide grantees with access to one-on-one consultation with Community Resource Exchange and Lawyers Alliance of New York. NYF will also provide opportunities for grantees to attend workshops and roundtables on topics including individual donor fundraising, proposal writing, fiscal management and board development. |
| People's Production House, New York, NY $15,000 People's Production House (PPH) believes a diverse, ethical, and independent media is an essential element of social change and that historically excluded communities must be protagonists in media democracy. PPH's work combines media creation, media policy education and media organizing to preserve and expand the free press so central to America's identity and democracy. PPH is run and staffed by journalists and community organizers from historically excluded communities. PPH's projects bring together community organizing and independent media creation, to build a community of media organizers: media literate youth and workers who can create and demand a media that functions in their interests. |
| Communities for Public Education Reform, Denver, CO $25,000 Communities for Public Education Reform (CPER) is a collaboration among national and local funders who have pooled resources to support local and regional community groups working to improve student outcomes in low-income communities and communities of color. In Denver, CPER supports four community organizing groups, including Colorado Immigrant Rights Coalition (CIRC), Metro Organizations for People (MOP), Padres y Jovenes Unidos and Stand for Children. They are working individually and collectively to improve education outcomes for low-income and other marginalized students by creating, scaling up, and strengthening effective policies and programs to assure that key marginalized groups have access to high quality educational experiences; and by developing systemic strategies to improve college readiness, access and persistence. |
| Communities for Public Education Reform, Voices of Youth in Chicago Education, Chicago, IL $25,000 Voices of Youth in Chicago Education (VOYCE) works to improve the quality of college preparation at Chicago public high schools; to secure increased flexibility at the District level for high schools to develop curriculum with input from students, parents, and community members; to influence the Strategic Plan that is being developed by the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) Department of Dropout Prevention and Recovery to incorporate recommendations identified by students and better respond to the needs of low-income students of color; to influence recommendations by the Illinois Take Force on re-enrolling students who dropped out of school; and to create a structure within CPS that takes student input on any proposed high school reforms. |
| Red Hook Iniative, Brooklyn, NY $15,000 The Red Hook Initiative (RHI) works to confront and affect the consequences of intergenerational poverty through an approach that offers support in education, employment, health and community development. RHI believes that social change comes from within individuals. The momentum to improve the quality of life for Red Hook's residents - as well as the community at large - must come from the people living in the community. |
| United Puerto Rican Organization of Sunset Park, Brooklyn, NY $15,000 UPROSE is dedicated to the development of Southwest Brooklyn and the empowerment of its residents primarily through broad and converging environmental, sustainable development, and youth justice campaigns. Founded in 1966, UPROSE is Brooklyn’s oldest Latino community-based organization. In 1996 its mission shifted to organizing, advocacy and developing intergenerational, indigenous leadership through activism around a host of environmental justice issues. UPROSE aims to ensure and heighten community awareness and involvement, develop participatory community planning practices, and promote sustainable development with justice and governmental accountability. (back to top) |
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