Nearly $160,000 in Grants Awarded by Community Foundation
Second Quarter Awards Meet Diverse Variety of Community Needs
The Community Foundation of Greater New Britain has announced its second quarter grant awards, a total of $159,384 in discretionary funds provided to a wide variety of community agencies and programs serving Berlin, New Britain, Plainville and Southington.
A total of 13 agencies and programs received funding, meeting needs in the areas of early childhood development, children and youth, health and human services, community development, and arts and humanities. In addition to discretionary grants, the Foundation also awarded more than $60,000 in scholarships and nearly $6,000 in grants from donor advised funds, which are established by individual donors for a specific charitable intent and are managed by the Foundation.
Second quarter discretionary grants ranged in size from $546 to $50,000. The Foundation awards grants on a quarterly basis and each year distributes upwards of $1 million to nonprofit agencies and organizations in its four-town service area.
Grant recipients and awards approved by the Foundation’s Board of Directors include:
- Tunxis Community College, Farmington, $25,119. For year-one support of the Early Childhood Development Initiative. The funding will allow Tunxis to coordinate the establishment of an area-wide Child Care Consortium which will work to overcome obstacles and provide support for child care providers.
- Spanish Speaking Center, New Britain, $10,000. To support the second year of the agency’s capacity building and organizational strengthening effort. The Center offers English and high school completion classes, as well as computer skills training and job search assistance, to about 300 families in English, Spanish and Polish.
- Opportunities Industrialization Center of New Britain, $10,000. To support Summer Opportunities, an eight-week summer enrichment program for youth at the Mount Pleasant housing development.
- Thomas Jefferson Elementary School, New Britain, $1,000. To support construction of a new outdoor play area
- Human Resources Agency, New Britain, $20,000. For the retention of a fundraising consultant to help the agency raise a $1.3 million endowment to support an expanded and renovated early childhood facility on Clinton Street. The expansion is expected to increase the city’s preschool child care capacity by 204 children.
- New Britain Public Library, $6,000. For development of a five-year, long-range plan.
- Connecticut Radio Information System, $546. To support services for approximately 100 blind and print-handicapped individuals in Berlin, New Britain, Plainville and Southington.
- Southington High School, $3,304. To support the high school’s Alternative to Suspension program. The program is designed to keep students who do not have a history of disciplinary problems in school – rather than be suspended – for a one-time infraction, so that they may reflect upon their behavior in a constructive manner.
- New Britain Museum of American Art, $60,000. A grant of $50,000 to support the museum’s Education and Outreach program, and a $10,000 grant for printing of promotional materials for the museum’s Art Lab, scheduled to open this fall.
- Prudence Crandall Center, New Britain, $5,000. To support an organizational assessment of the center as it embarks upon a capital campaign to expand services. The Prudence Crandall Center has been serving victims of domestic violence since 1973.
- Plainville Association for Retarded Citizens, $8,500. To help conduct a capital campaign feasibility study associated with the construction of an independent living facility that would enable developmentally challenged individuals to live with greater independence.
- Urban Oaks Organic Farm, New Britain, $5,000. To leverage $15,000 from the State of Connecticut Department of Agriculture for advertising. The farm is a working vegetable, herb and fruit farm designed to enhance economic development in the North/Oak Street Neighborhood Revitalization Zone.
- Living in Safe Alternatives (L.I.S.A.), Plainville, $4,915. To support “Stitch in Time,” a vocational training program for young people residing in the Plainville Group Home. L.I.S.A. serves the needs of abused, abandoned, adjudicated and neglected youth.
For more information on the Foundation, please call (860) 229-6018.
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