Kathryn McQuade
Grants awarded in August
The Foundation is pleased to announce August grants. Even in these difficult times with COVID restrictions, organizations are finding creative ways to continue their missions.
-Squash Dreamers, Helping girls in Jordan gain access to education through sports.
-Mother2Mothers, trains and employs women living with HIV across ten sub-Saharan African countries as “Mentor Mothers” who help families access essential services and medical care, initiate any treatment they need.
-Circles RVA, provides the social network, financial tools and emotional encouragement that activate economic growth in Richmond VA.
-Roots & Wings, providing assistance to Foster youth aging out of the system in NJ.
Grants awarded in June and July
The Foundation awarded grants in June and July to the following organizations:
-IDE Foundation, Farming Facilitator Program for women in Nepal,
-Hope’s Door, providing domestic violence assistance to women in Alabama.
-FINCA Emergency Response Fund in Uganda due to COVID
-AmericanIndian College Fund, Scholarship Program and Indigenous Visionaries Women’s Leadership Program,
-AHALA Children’s Right Foundation, Life Projects
-ForKids, Inc., Rapid Rehousing and Economic Mobility Programs in Norfolk, VA
May Grant Awards
The Foundation is pleased to announce grants awarded in May 2021.
- YWCA Central Carolina, Women In Transition, providing housing for single women who suffer homelessness.
- Prevention Council of Roanoke County, The Kindness Project, providing area schools with coping methods to fight hate, violence, stress, anxiety and loneliness for K-8th.
- International Anti-Poaching Foundation, Akashinga (meaning Brave Ones), empowering disadvantaged women to restore and manage a network of wilderness areas as an alternative economic model to trophy hunting.
April Grant awards
The Foundation is pleased to announce grants for April 2021.
-Project Gateway, The Empowerment Program, Gateway School in South Africa
-Polaris Project, Survivor Empowerment Initiative, focuses on human trafficking where 80% of victims are women and children.
-TCF-USA The Citizens Foundation, USA- Their Adult literacy Program in Pakistan
-Center for Livelihoods and Support to Sustainable Development, to help train women and provide them with small business skills in Cameroon, Africa
We are pleased to read that so many educational programs are continuing even in the face of difficulties due to COVID. These programs endure due to the passion and need of the participants.
March Grants Awarded
The Foundation is pleased to announce 3 grant awards for March 2021. We continue our support for the first 2 organizations that do amazing work to better the lives of women and Children. The third organization is new to the Foundation focusing on education.
- Women’s Global Empowerment Fund (WGEF) : Three programs, : Credit Plus, Agriculture and Agro Business Loan Program, Healthy Periods Initiative and the Girls Decide, Literacy.
- AHALA Children’s Rights Foundation (CODENI); year 2 of Life Projects
- TeachUNITED:School Accelerator in Tanzania
February Grant Awards
The Foundation is pleased to announce Grant Awards for February 2021. In this very difficult pandemic times, these organizations are still working hard on their missions as well as providing help to bridge the issues developed by the pandemic. These awards are to organizations previously supported as well as new projects.
-Ace Africa, to train and support 200 women to establish and manage profitable agri-businesses based on indigenous organic farming practices and sheep rearing, to provide long-term income security and self sufficiency.
-Rise International to fund one classroom in a primary school being built in Angola…to educate children, empower communities and contribute to the rebuilding of the country.
-Virginia Foundation for Community College Education to support the Great Expectations Program for foster youth and support Gerald L Baliles’s Rural Virginia Horseshoe Initiative.
-The Sunflower Global to support their Pathways to Alternative Learning and Education and Sunflower Early Education and Development Programs.
-The American Indian College Fund to provide scholarships to American Indian and Alaska Native women.
January Grants
The Foundation is pleased to announce the awarding of grants to the following organization:
- Rukundo International, Expanding Primary School in Western Uganda,
- Rural Development Centre Cameroon(RUDEC) , Agricultural Support for Women,
- Living Goods, Uganda County Program, providing healthcare to women,
- The Women’s Home Residential Treatment Program for mental health and substance disorders.
These organizations are working to assist women and children by battling the issues of poverty through education, training, health care.
Grant awarded to Hibiscus Children’s center
The Foundation is pleased to support Hibiscus Children’s Center, Career Pathways to Independence Program.
Hibiscus Children’s Center is a not-for-profit agency made up of a number of programs serving abused, neglected and abandoned children. The Hibiscus Children’s Village is a group home facility; a more home-like setting to help teens successfully transition to foster, adoptive homes, and independent living at age 18.
Each year Career Pathways provides approximately 150 foster youth ages 13 – 17 with the support, structure, and guidance they need to receive a high school diploma or GED. Additionally foster youth ages 15 – 17 participate in career and adulthood preparation activities. Besides work experiences, the program gives these youths career, literacy and personality testing in order to ascertain their interests, abilities and possible career paths. Career Pathways provides weekly practice and information regarding critical thinking and intelligent problem solving, independent living skills, continuing education options, skills essential for getting and keeping a job and work counseling. Foster youth are assigned adult group mentors, receive adult guidance, direction and counseling, before they turn 18. They are also shown possible work, career and continuing education options available to them. This program curtails the vicious cycle of poverty, hopelessness, abuse and neglect as children develop and acquire skills and the confidence to make informed and positive decisions about their future. The program includes a full-time Career Pathways Coordinator who helps each youth explore their interests and encourages education and college options, arranges weekly seminars led by volunteers on career and life skills topics, as well as places youth in internships and pre-employment training for each youth. A full-time Educational Liaison develops an Educational Plan with each youth, provides daily oversight of their academic progress, and acts as a liaison to the school district and other educational entities. Additionally they are provided a part-time Teacher/Education Expert, whose office is located in our on-site GED Lab. The teacher and volunteer tutors are dedicated to assisting foster youth improve their math and literacy skills.
Grant awarded to Together We Rise
The Foundation is pleased to support the work of Together We Rise (TWR) and their efforts to help Foster youths,
TWR was founded in 2008 by Danny Mendoza after he discovered that his 9-year-old cousin was living in a car. He wanted to help but ran into obstacles because he was under the age of 21. Instead of giving up, Danny decided there needed to be ways to help children in foster care without becoming a foster parent. Danny’s vision became a reality as Together We Rise grew into a nation-wide organization changing the way youth experience foster care.
The Rapid Response Program for Foster Youth in College provides immediate access to flexible resources that quickly address the wide range of challenges presented by COVID-19 that could potentially threaten a student’s transition to and through college. Due to the crisis, aged-out foster youth who are currently attending college or about to enter are being displaced, especially those who depend on campus housing. In addition to housing loss, these students are facing food insecurity, a lack of education technology, and many other unforeseen challenges. In response, Together We Rise is providing emergency funding support to current and aged-out foster youth who are in need of housing, groceries, education technology access to remain enrolled in school, access to mental healthcare, and other urgent needs. The funds are intended to enhance, not supplant federal, state or local public funds. The Rapid Response program will serve foster youth into 2021 as the need persists.
The Rapid Response for Foster Youth in College program will pursue three key strategies to ensure that students in foster care have the resources and support they need to pursue their educational goals: 1. Advocacy to ensure that students currently in and from foster care are receiving additional support and resources to succeed in college and career. 2. Ensuring that professionals in campus support programs, nonprofits, etc. have up to date information on federal, state and private resources available and making sure that students in foster care access everything they are entitled to. 3. A designated safety net fund that is nimble enough to support foster youth with a variety of emergency needs that cannot be addressed through other public and private funding. Goals and Desired Outcomes : The primary objective of this program is to provide the target population with immediate assistance in the following key areas: 1) Imminent housing loss – Help with rent payments and temporary housing rental 2) Emergency food resources: A stipend for the purchase of groceries, hygiene products, and other vital necessities 3) Case Management: Individualized information resources, webinars for students, addressing specific needs of students who are parents . 4) TechnologyAccess: Funds for the purchase of a laptop, access to wifi, or software so the student can continue to successfully complete online courses and remain enrolled during Summer and Fall semesters 5) Health Care: Funds for testing and preventative health measures, access to mental health treatment, prescriptions and medications. 6) Other Individual Needs: These needs are not always addressed with other types of aid. However, through our one-on-one evaluation process we can identify needs such as cell phones, internet & wifi, technology needs, case management, personal development & life coaching, financial planning, unemployment & expanded unemployment insurance, access to government services (CalFresh), government stimulus check.
Grant awarded to The Boys and Girls Club of Central Virginia
The Foundation is pleased to again support the Boys and Girls Club of Central Virginia (BGCCVA) and their STEM program.
Founded in 1991 and opened in 1992, BGCCVA serves 2,400 boys and girls ages 6-18, residing in Charlottesville and the counties of Albemarle, Buckingham, Fluvanna, Orange and Madison for a total of six clubs. Their mission is to “enable all young people, especially those who need us most, to realize their full potential as productive, responsible and caring citizens”.
The Grant will support year-round STEM programming, which is a component of the Club’s plan to provide expanded services in response to the COVID-19 crisis. Among the most pressing needs children are facing to COVID is filling out-of-school time gaps. For the rest of 2020 and well into 2021, schools will primarily be virtual, leaving kids without a place to go and parents unable to return to work. Filling these gaps is critical for ensuring the academic health, mental health and the safety of these kids, as well as allowing parents to go to work and earn a wage. With that in mind, BGCCVA is expanding from the traditional after-school model to provide all-day services from 8:00a to 5:30pm, 4 days a week. Staff will also work a 5th day which will be dedicated to program planning and full scale cleaning. The primary objective of the Club during full day programs is to provide a safe space for kids and to operate as an Academic Support Center for the virtual learning and instruction they receive from school. Led by Boys & Girls Clubs’ full-time STEM specialist, high yield STEM activities will be a key component of the Clubs’ Academic Support Center to help kids stay on track. The grant will help the club fund a full-time STEM specialist, as well as provide programming materials, supplies, and equipment