Foundation awards community grants
By Sheryl Edelen
sedelen@courier-journal.com
The Courier-Journal
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Richard Higdon helped Mohamed Abraham, 7, left, and Bakdad Mohamed, 7, with their homework at the Arcadia Community Center in the Taylor-Berry neighborhood, which received a $25,000 grant. (By Jim Winn, The Courier-Journal) |
Nearly two dozen programs that reach out to some of the city’s neediest children and teenagers are getting help in the latest round of grants awarded by the Community Foundation of Louisville.
The philanthropic organization is giving a total of $396,000 to 23 agencies and organizations that sponsor summer, after-school and year-round activities for more than 9,000 children and teens who live in 16 struggling Louisville neighborhoods.
The neighborhoods are Algonquin, California, Chickasaw, Limerick, Newburg, Old Louisville, Park DuValle, Park Hill, Parkland, Phoenix Hill, Portland, Russell, Shawnee, Shelby Park, Smoketown and Taylor-Berry.
The Arcadia Community Center in Taylor-Berry plans to use its $25,000 award to hire more staff for programs that serve the area’s growing Somali population.
“When we applied for the grant last fall, we were working with about 50 children a day and 38 were Somali. Now we’re working with about 70 a day, and 58 of those are Somali, ” program coordinator Katie Carmen said. “This grant will allow us to catch up to where we should be” in terms of staffing.
The Arcadia Apartments, on Arcade Avenue near Seventh Street Road, are home to a large number of immigrants. The community center offers after-school, weekend and summer programs for children.
Another organization receiving a grant is the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville. It will get $13,000, which will be used for its Kids Being Kids life and social skills program at the Catholic Enrichment Center in Parkland.
Beginning in July, the center will offer summer classes for 50 children between 6 and 13 years old. The classes will continue after school this fall.
M. Annette Manderley-Turner, who heads the Office of Multicultural Ministry, which runs the center, said the foundation money will pay for educational field trips, workbooks and other materials and transportation.
“What started out on a smaller scale … we’re now talking about offering to 50 kids,” she said. “This funding makes all the difference in the world.”
The Community Foundation of Louisville was formed as the Louisville Foundation in 1916. After years of inactivity, it reorganized in 1984 as a community foundation.
It accepts financial gifts from individuals, organizations and nonprofit groups, invests their money and distributes the profits to groups and programs that match the donors’ charitable goals.
The foundation’s Community Grant Program helps groups that provide young people with educational, cultural and recreational activities, immigrant services and leadership development.
Since it began in 1997, the Community Grants Program has awarded 200 grants totaling more than $3.5 million. This year’s recipients were whittled from more than 60 nonprofit groups that requested a total of $1.4 million.
Community Foundation of Louisville president Dennis Riggs said the organization allows people to give to charity in a way that makes a difference.
Reporter Sheryl Edelen can be reached at (502) 582-4621
Source: The Courier-Journal, April 25, 2006
