Final Grants of 2017 Reflect Community Foundation’s Commitment to Inspire Initiatives Designed to Strengthen Our Communities
Nearly $200,000 Awarded in New Community Initiatives Grant Category
New Britain, Conn., December 29, 2017 – For several years, the Community Foundation of Greater New Britain (CFGNB) has embraced a subtle but important enhancement of its mission, that of community leadership to complement its traditional and fundamental duties as grantmaker. The Foundation has now taken this evolution a step further, awarding nearly $200,000 from within the newly created category of Community Initiative Grants.
The Foundation’s final grants of 2017, some $198,233 in Community Initiative Grants, are reflective of a wide array of Foundation-inspired programs and initiatives designed to strengthen and better Berlin, New Britain, Plainville and Southington.
“Our Foundation embraced being a community leader and partner as part of its mission several years back, and since that time our Community Initiatives Committee has been responsible for not only identifying issues and opportunities where Foundation leadership could make a difference, but also for making grant awards to support these causes,” said CFGNB Community Initiatives Chairperson Rebecca Karabin-Ahern, co-president of New Britain-based Acme Monaco Corporation. “It was time for us to group our grants in such a way that the community, and our supporters, could better and more easily grasp the depth and breadth of the impact we are making as a community leader and partner.”
More than $145,000 of the grants are from the Foundation’s First Years First Fund, the Foundation’s signature early childhood development initiative founded more than a decade ago. Additional grants falling under the new Community Initiatives category will fund initiatives ranging from Workforce Development to Leadership Training to Capacity Building for non-profits.
The following is a listing of approved Community Foundation Community Initiative Grants to conclude the 2017 grantmaking year:
Community Initiatives Grants
Coalition for New Britain’s Youth. A $75,000 grant from the First Years First Fund for backbone support for the work of the Coalition ($55,000) plus an additional $20,000 to support Parents and Voices Empowering New Britain (PAVE-NB), a parenting group dedicated to empowering parents for the benefit of their children.
Connecticut Early Childhood Alliance. A $10,000 grant from the First Years First Fund to support a project in the four towns served by the Community Foundation with two components, the provision of 1) Early childhood policy monitoring and mobilization and; 2) Infant/toddler data and stakeholder development.
Literacy Volunteers of Central Connecticut. A $40,000 grant from the First Years First Fund to support its program combining ESL or GED classes with literacy playgroup for the children of adult education students under age 5.
Plainville Family Resource Network (PFRN). A $20,733 grant from the First Years First Fund for staffing to enable PFRN to maintain its level and quality of programming in the face of state budget cuts and to provide the Conscious Discipline series to Plainville parents and educators.
YWCA of New Britain. A $5,000 grant to bring Columbia University psychiatrist and researcher Dr. Mindy Thompson Fullilove to New Britain for a day of learning and leadership training designed to increase city leader and resident understanding of how trauma is affecting New Britain, to offer solutions to move forward as a more “trauma-informed” city.
Plainville Community Schools. A $10,000 Catalyst grant to hire a part-time job coach for the newly developed Plainville Alternative Learning Center at Plainville High School to help students who are behind in credit achievement and/or who may not have a clear direction for their post-secondary life to receive job training, preparation and employment.
A funding commitment of $30,000 to support a new Capacity Building Initiative that will provide local non-profit organizations in-depth and hands-on training that will increase and strengthen their ability to achieve their missions.
A funding commitment of $7,500 to support events and activities in 2018 focused on Informing and Inspiring Younger People about Philanthropy and the Community Foundation.
Established in 1941, the Community Foundation of Greater New Britain is “Where Good Begins” in Berlin, New Britain, Plainville and Southington. The Foundation works to inspire philanthropy, manage permanent charitable assets effectively, and partner to address key community issues through strategic leadership. For more information or to support our work, visit www.cfgnb.org
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Contacts:
David Obedzinski
President
Community Foundation of Greater New Britain
860-229-6018 x306
david@cfgnb.org
Dennis Buden
DBPR
860-558-0514
dennis@dbpr.net
Website: www.cfgnb.org