:: The Cricket Island Foundation ::

Grants Awarded

2010 Grants

In 2010, 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 3 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.

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Established Grants- Cohort 2 (Year 4 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.

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Established Grants- Cohort 1 (Year 5 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.

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Global Action Project, New York, NY
$8,000
To complete website upgrade in order to increase capacity in online communication, expand program recruitment, engage in field dialogue and disseminate youth media.

Ifetayo Cultural Arts, Brooklyn, NY
$8,000
To build an online learning community with training and educational materials for teachers and students. Funding also supports creation of “I-Rites”, an online portal to disseminate Ifetayo’s Rites of Passage program model nationally and internationally.

InnerCity Struggle, Los Angeles, CA
$8,000
To create a performance management plan that develops the capacity of staff to become the next leadership arm of ICS. Funding also supports individual training for the organization’s current leadership.

Little Village Environmental Justice Organization and Tepochcalli Community Education Project's SITY Ollin, Chicago, IL
$16,000
To work with the Grassroots Institute for Fundraising Training (GIFT) to develop a fundraising training that is culturally appropriate for Spanish-speaking volunteers.

New York Foundation's Capacity Building Program, New York, NY
$15,000
Funding supports the NY Technical Assistance Collaborative, administered by New York Foundation. The Collaborative provides opportunities for New York City grantees to attend technical assistance workshops and roundtables on topics including individual donor fundraising, proposal writing, fiscal management and board development.

Oakland Kids First, Oakland, CA
$8,000
To develop an evaluation system for defining desired program outcomes and measuring progress. Evaluations will provide data about impact of OKF programs on young people.

Oasis Center, Nashville, TN
$8,000
To create a multi-media website and email marketing platform that will increase Oasis' individual donor base and deepen communication with young people that they serve.

Youth Together, Oakland, CA
$8,000
To refine evaluation tools and methods, and more effectively measure progress made on following new strategic plan.

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Opportunity Fund Grants

Albany Park Neighborhood Council's Project Y, Chicago, IL
$3,000
To send four youth to the Alliance for Educational Justice Youth Convening in Washington D.C. Funding also supports two youth to attend the School to Prison Pipeline Action Camp organized by the Advancement Project and Padres y Jovenes Unidos.

Appalshop's Appalachian Media Institute (AMI), Whitesburg, KY
$3,000
To pilot a structure for advancing youth leadership opportunities within AMI by training four transitioning youth interns as lead educators for afterschool programs.

CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities, Bronx, NY
$2,500
To send two youth organizers to School of Unity and Liberation's (SOUL) National Youth Organizer Training Institute to learn new youth development tools and build relationships with other youth organizers from across the country.

Chicago Freedom School, Chicago, IL
$5,000
To coordinate travel arrangements for youth, staff, and community members from the Chicago Freedom School, Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, and Korean American Resource and Cultural Center to attend the U.S. Social Forum in Detroit.

Chicago Freedom School, Chicago, IL
$2,700
To participate in the Applied Research Center's Facing Race conference, where youth developed tools for expanding racial justice and youth organizing work. Funding also supported CFS to print and bind 500 copies of the "Something is Wrong" curriculum.

Desis Rising Up & Moving, Jackson Heights, NY
$3,000
To print and distribute a youth-led Immigrant Safe Zone Report about conditions facing immigrant youth in NYC schools. Funding also supports DRUM to develop the advocacy and research skills of youth, and to build a community base of support for the report.

Flanbwayan Haitian Literacy Project, New York, NY
$5,000
To develop the infrastructure needed to manage donations for victims of the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. Funding supports hiring of a part-time Earthquake Relief Assistant and purchase of a phone line, computer, and packaging supplies for donations.

Global Action Project, New York, NY
$3,000
To purchase two new computers and software needed to distribute youth media and complete fundamental office administration functions.

Little Village Environmental Justice Organization, Chicago, IL
$1,300
To support LVEJO's Youth Organizer and three youth leaders to participate in the Allied Media Conference in Detroit. Funding also enables three Organizers to attend the Applied Research Center's Facing Race Conference in Chicago.

Oakland Kids First, Oakland, CA
$3,000
To work with a curriculum developer and graphic designer to create a Facilitator's Guide for the PASS (Peers Advising Students to Succeed) program. The Facilitator's Guide will be used to expand the PASS program into a new high school.

Oasis Center, Nashville, TN
$2,650
To print 500 copies of the Oasis Annual Report and distribution of report to constituents.

People's Production House/Radio Rootz, New York, NY
$3,000
To hold a retreat for Radio Rootz youth and current and former staff to reflect on, and document, impact of program, and plan a participatory evaluation process.

Red Hook Initiative, Brooklyn, NY
$3,000
To print and distribute the youth-produced Red Hook Directory to Red Hook community members. Funding also supports printing of RHI’s new letterhead and business cards.

Tepochcalli Community Education Project's SITY Ollin, Chicago, IL
$3,000
To effectively communicate about the work of TCEP by creating a concise brand, producing and printing new brochures and purchasing outcome tracking software.

United Puerto Rican Organization of Sunset Park, Brooklyn, NY
$3,000
For youth and staff to travel to the U.S. Social Forum in Detroit, present a workshop about their environmental justice campaigns and network with likeminded youth organizations.

Young Women's Empowerment Project, Chicago IL
$3,000
To travel to, and attend, the Allied Media Conference and US Social Forum. YWEP led workshops and presented their youth-led research at both the AMC and USSF.

Youth United for Change, Philadelphia, PA
$3,000
For students and adult staff to attend US Social Forum in Detroit and Alliance for Educational Justice's Day of Action in Washington, D.C. At both convenings, YUC built relationships with other youth organizations working on education reform.

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Field Learning Fund Grants

Alliance for Educational Justice (AEJ), National
$20,000
Alliance for Educational Justice is an alliance of youth and multigenerational education justice organizing groups throughout the U.S. AEJ engages young people to build an educational system where all young people can learn and are prepared for college and meaningful employment. Funding supports AEJ's Southern Expansion Initiative.

Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation, Brooklyn, NY
$15,000
Cypress Hills Local Development Corporation seeks to revitalize the community through housing preservation, economic development, and the positive development of youth and families. The Future of Tomorrow program organizes teenage students to improve local public high schools.

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.

Crossroads Fund, Chicago IL
$10,000
The Youth Fund for Social Change is a youth-led grantmaking program that provides support for projects that develop youth leaders and activists who work to change inequalities and injustices that directly affect them.

Department of Probation Youth Advisory Council, New York, NY
$20,000
The Youth Advisory Council is a forum for youth on probation to help DOP assess the effectiveness of supervision and services; understand the strengths, interests and needs of young people on probation; and inform city-wide efforts to reduce juvenile incarceration and improve juvenile justice policies.

Families United for Racial & Economic Equality, Brooklyn, NY
$20,000
FUREE organizes low-income families to build power to change the system so that all people's work is valued and all of them have the right and economic means to decide and live out their own destinies.

Funders' Collaborative on Youth Organizing, New York, NY
$18,000
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.

Girls for Gender Equity, Brooklyn, NY
$20,000
Girls for Gender Equity (GGE) is committed to the physical, psychological, social and economic development of girls and women. By focusing on education, organizing, health and wellness, GGE encourages communities to remove barriers and create opportunities for girls and women to live self-determined lives.

National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP), Washington D.C.
$15,000
To complete a forecast of social justice funding in the coming years. This project is a collaboration between NCRP, the Cricket Island Foundation, the Foundation Center and the Social Justice Philanthropy Collaborative.

Ojo de Agua Arte y Produccion, Brooklyn, New York
$5,000
Ojo de Agua trains immigrant and first-generation Latino youth to make documentaries about their lives and concerns in their communities. Their youth-produced films and workshop curriculum engage the broader public in discussions about immigrant rights and immigration policy.

United Community Centers / East New York Farms, Brooklyn, NY
$20,000
East New York Farms organizes youth and adult residents to address food justice issues in the community by promoting local sustainable agriculture and community-led economic development. Young people operate their own 1/2 acre farm and coordinate a farmers' market.

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