The Delaware Community Foundation has awarded grants totaling $280,000 to five statewide initiatives that mentor, support homeless people and empower financially vulnerable people.
Through the collaborative grant program, the foundation supports organizations’ efforts to work together for community benefit.
- La Red Health Center in Sussex County received $100,000 to provide services to the homeless people, through a collaboration with Tap Faith and the ACE Peer Resource Center.The center will use the money to help pay a case manager and behavioral health practitioners. Tap Faith will open two transitional houses for 16 people, provide rental assistance for qualifying applicants, and open a life- skills-and-education program. ACE will provide resume production and buy professional clothing, a washer and dryer, a van and bicycles to help homeless people go to job interviews.
- Communities in Schools, in partnership with the Delaware Adolescent Program Inc. and nine other agencies, received $29,000 to support programs addressing teen pregnancy and teen parenting. The goal is to reduce the high school dropout rate in Kent County. Communities in School and its partner agencies provide mentoring, academic support, healthcare, parenting support and basic necessities for parenting and pregnant teens.
- The Opportunity Center in New Castle County received $69,000 to partner with the $tand By Me financial coaching program and 22 disability services providers to support ROADS to Financial Independence, an initiative that provides financial coaching and disability-benefits counseling to s individuals with disabilities. The grant will enable the Opportunity Center to hire a financial coach to help 40 people with disabilities each month – coaching them to make informed financial decisions and work toward higher salaries.
- Read Aloud Delaware, in partnership with the Sussex County Health Promotion Coalition, received $22,000 to grow its Healthy Dollar Dinner program. Participants pay $1 for each Healthy Dollar Dinner, which includes a healthy meal and a 30-minute presentation on topics immunizations, financial resources, health screenings, food banks, nutrition and cooking and dental and vision care. At the dinners, representatives from Read Aloud Delaware give away new books and magazines, help participants sign up for library cards and recruit volunteers for the Volunteer Reading Program. Meals are prepared by individuals enrolled in cooking classes provided by Connections Community Support Services, a group that helps Delawareans facing mental health, substance abuse and other issues.
- The Summer Learning Collaborative received $60,000 to recruit and train counselors at Collaborative Camps, five summer camps that aim to reduce summer-learning loss among low-income and minority children in Wilmington. The collaborative serves 1,000 children in summer camps at the Walnut Street YMCA, the Latin American Community Center, Boys & Girls Club of Delaware, Hilltop Lutheran Neighborhood Center and West End Neighborhood House. The grant will pay for training to help stem learning loss, in collaboration with with Outward Bound, Teach For America and The Exploration School.
The Delaware Community Foundation’s collaborative grants are funded by earnings from the Forever Fund, the foundation’s unrestricted fund. Gifts to the Forever Fund can be made online delcf.org/forever.