Grant Category: Grants
Ulster Immigrant Defense Network
Kingston, NY
Amount granted: $15,000
Grant year: 2024
Grant category: Human Services
$15,000 to support the addition of a part time case worker from the community.
Ulster Immigrant Defense Network’s (UIDN) mission is to provide a network of welcome, safety and support to immigrants, regardless of immigration status. Most of the people served from the immigrant community in Ulster County are either undocumented or seeking asylum and are from Mexico and Central America.
New Bedford Research and Robotics
New Bedford, MA
Amount granted: $44,500
Grant year: 2024
Grant category: Education
$44,500 to support the Women Artists and Technologists in Residence Program (WATiR).
New Bedford Research & Robotics (NBRR) is an inclusive innovation, education, and entrepreneurship laboratory located in New Bedford, Massachusetts. It was founded in 2021 to empower creatives and entrepreneurs by granting them access to extraordinary tools and to foster a community where diverse interests thrive and contribute. The pilot Women Artists and Technologists in Residence Program (WATiR) program aims to provide a supportive environment for artists who want access to industrial robotics and digital manufacturing technology, fostering critical dialog, creativity and collaboration.
Boston Jazz Foundation
Boston, MA
Amount granted: $20,000
Grant year: 2024
Grant category: Music
$20,000 to help cover the cost of artist fees, sound production and rentals, tent rentals, security, promotion and hospitality for the artists.
The Boston Jazz Foundation was founded in 2022 to expand opportunities for artists and audiences by providing free and affordable world-class jazz programming and fostering professional development and educational programs for students to showcase jazz and its rich culture in Boston and beyond.
Anseye Pou Ayiti (APA)
Haiti
Amount granted: $35,000
Grant year: 2024
Grant categories: Education, Human Services
$35,000 grant to support the Coaching Institute’s inaugural cohort.
Anseye Pou Ayiti (APA) was launched in 2014 to build a movement of local civic leaders to create a Haitian education system fueled by collective leadership and community development. Through its fellowship programming, APA is equipping civic leaders with the knowledge and skills necessary for transformational teaching and local leadership. Program activities include immersion training, professional development workshops, individualized coaching, and community activities. Teacher leaders learn student-centered, context-specific teaching techniques and ways to amplify student success beyond classroom instruction.
Rise Above Foundation
Northbridge, MA
Amount granted: $40,000
Grant year: 2024
Grant category: Human Services
$40,000 to support the increased distribution of its Launch Boxes Program.
Rise Above Foundation was established in 2009 to provide youth in foster care with enriching activities, opportunities, and experiences. Rise Above gives youth in foster care access to opportunities that boost their physical, mental, social, and academic wellbeing. Since it began, the organization has provided over 13,000 Massachusetts youth with additional funding that allowed them to participate in extra curricula activities like summer camp, being a part of the football team, joining the school band, taking driver’s education classes or studying abroad in college. Rise Above also support young adults who grew up in foster care and are aging out of the system, as they transition to the next phase of their lives without DCF support. Its Launch Boxes support youth at a critical moment of transition, providing them with the basic household items and resources they need to live independently, “launching” them into adulthood set up for success.
Community Boat Building
Boston, MA
Amount granted: $20,000
Grant year: 2024
Grant categories: Education, Human Services
$20,000 to cover the videographer’s services, video production, and the creation of educational resources for teacher training.
Community Boat Building’s (CBB) mission is to bring real world experience and academic skills together to stimulate excitement for learning among low-income students in public schools in Boston and the surrounding areas through boat building and coastal experiences. CBB introduces approximately 160 5th graders each year to the accessibility and wonders of Boston Harbor, its islands, rivers, and history, while developing spatial thinking skills and reinforcing core academic subjects–math, geometry, science, social studies, and literacy. For most of its students, The core concept of the program revolves around wooden rowboats, which are built with teams of 5-6 students each. The process uses high-quality materials, limited student group size, and a cadre of volunteers to ensure each boat, and student, reaches its potential.
Deerfield Academy
Deerfield, MA
Amount granted: $15,000
Grant year: 2024
Grant category: Education
$15,000 to provide supplemental financial aid to qualifying Deerfield students through the Katy Textor Farmer Fund.
Deerfield Academy is an independent, co-educational academic institution founded in 1797, and recognized today as a leader, both nationally and internationally, in secondary school education.
Boston Collegiate Charter School
Boston, MA
Amount granted: $20,000
Grant year: 2024
Grant category: Education
$20,000 to allow the school to purchase the LLI reading systems for all grades.
Founded in 1998, BCCS serves 700 students from Boston in grades five through 12. Its mission is to prepare each student for college by providing high quality differentiated instruction to all students.
National Police Accountability Project
New Orleans, LA
Amount granted: $20,000
Grant year: 2024
Grant category: Human Services
$20,000 to pilot a program which will offer appellate support to its member attorneys bringing police misconduct cases.
The National Police Accountability Project is a national organization dedicated to holding police and correctional officers accountable to professional and constitutional standards. Its 550+ members litigate the thousands of cases of police and correctional officer misconduct that do not make national headlines.
SPARKSHARE
Boston, MA
Amount granted: $25,000
Grant year: 2023
Grant category: Human Services
$25,000 to support Year Two of the Human Centered Design pilot program.
Sparkshare was created to bring together high school youth to address the problems that they choose to solve and things that mattered to them. Through the power of its Network’s convenings, connections, and learning, SparkShare youth teams share challenges and ideas, develop skills and confidence as problem-solvers, and make connections that enable them to drive positive change in their communities. Its youth teams are focused on issues such as mental wellness, substance use, economic empowerment, and racial justice.
The objective for Design Thinking is to give young people a structured system where they learn how to understand the population they are trying to impact, challenge assumptions, redefine problems, and create and test innovative solutions to address the problems they see in their communities. SparkShare began with the idea that by bringing people together across the boundaries that divide them, they could begin to solve society’s most intractable problems. Through Human Centered Design, the aim is to provide young people with the tool kit they need to do that.