Delaware Community Foundation awards $240K in Focus Grants

The Delaware Community Foundation announced June 29 it has awarded $240,000 in Focus Grants to programs enriching the lives of Delaware youth and Latino communities.

During the pandemic crisis, community needs have changed, and many nonprofits have changed their business models, stepped up services and cancelled events. For this reason, the Focus Grants program was modified this year to allow recipients to use the grants for operations and pandemic-related needs as well as for the original projects.

This year’s youth-serving grant recipients are Choir School of Delaware, $12,250 to expand their transportation program for choristers as they expand their program to include a summer session; Multiplying Good, $12,250 to support the Students in Action program to prepare Delaware youth for leadership and public service; Read Aloud Delaware, $9,800 to continue expanding the Volunteer Reading Program in New Castle County; CAMP Rehoboth, $12,066 to support LGBTQ+ youth in middle and high schools through promoting and strengthening school GSA clubs; Arise Delaware, $7,350 to support building relationships among special needs participants and volunteer “buddies,” and among parents; Jobs for Delaware Graduates, $12,250 to provide academic, workforce preparation and life skills education to some of the most at-risk middle- and high-school students in Delaware; Summer Learning Collaborative, $9,800 to support the six-week Tyler’s Camp program for Sussex County middle school students, including sports, arts, STEM and academics; YearUp Wilmington, $12,250, to support a workforce development program for young adults who have not progressed past a high school diploma or GED; Urban Garden Initiative, $5,145 to expand their student gardening program to a workshop series that will serve about 200 students at five Wilmington community centers; Mom's House of Dover, $4,900 to provide free child care and other support services to low-income single parents who are pursuing secondary or post-secondary education; Latin American Community Center, $12,250 to implement a new trauma-informed youth drugs and violence prevention program; Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch Up, $11,144 to begin providing an Attachment and Biobehavioral Catch-up home visiting program to families at imminent risk of their children being removed to foster care; Plastic Free Delaware, $4,900 to host high school students from across the state for a new Youth Environmental Summit; Teen Warehouse, $12,250 to support the Teens in Motion program for personal development and soft skills training designed to move teens to employment; United Way of Delaware, $12,250 to implement their Step on It program to increase the capacity of two middle schools in Wilmington Promise Communities by engaging community stakeholders; and Christiana Care Health Systems, $5,145 to support the annual spring overnight field trip of the First State School, which serves chronically ill children and adolescents.

Latino-serving grant recipients are Sussex County Habitat for Humanity, $21,250 to support the anticipated growth of Latino clients in the Family Empowerment Program for financial literacy education; TeenSHARP, $11,750 to support the Delaware Goes to College Academy, which provides academic advising and college guidance in English and Spanish to Latino high school students and their families across Sussex County; Children and Families First, $8,500 to allow the Sussex Community of Hope Latino Community Outreach project to translate outreach and survey materials into Spanish; ESL Lutheran Church of Our Savior, $4,250 to expand the English as a Second Language program to serve the growing population of non-English speakers in Sussex County from South and Central American countries; La Esperanza, $8,500 to support a New Citizenship Program to provide education, outreach and full naturalization preparation for eligible Lawful Permanent Residents; Literacy Delaware, $8,500 to expand services into Sussex County; Autism Delaware, $8,500 to expand the Autism Care Team program in Sussex County, with a focus on Spanish-speaking families in Sussex County with a child affected by autism; and Sussex Tech Adult Division, $12,750 to provide continuing GED instruction for English Language Learners in English and Spanish at James H. Groves High School.

For more, visit delcf.org or call 571-8004.