2014 Grants

Click on the grantee’s logo to go to their website.


BRAVO Youth Orchestras

Project: BRAVO Rosa Parks Enrollment Growth

Year: 2014 Grant Amount: $12,500 Location: Portland, OR
About:

Provides rigorous, daily instruction for 20-24 additional students in 2nd-4th grade, including choral singing, music literacy, stringed instrument technique and full orchestra.  Provides performance opportunities in high-profile venues, hosts international caliber guest artists, celebrates cultural richness reflective of the students while maintaining a low teacher-student ratio and high student retention.  The program works to  develop executive function in our students (inhibitory control, emotional regulation, sustained focus) for improved academic outcomes and ability to achieve long-term goals.

  

 



Bridge Meadows

Project: Empowering Youth through Intergenerational Place, Permanence and Shared Social Purpose

Year: 2014 Grant Amount: $15,000 Location: Portland, OR
About:

 

By leveraging the power of intergenerational place, permanence and shared social purpose, Bridge Meadows’ residents create a whole that is greater than the sum of its parts. Since April 2011, the former foster youth, adoptive parents and low-income elders who call Bridge Meadows home have been working together to combat social isolation and individual vulnerability.  Anticipated impact includes: 1) Increased housing stability for children formerly in foster care and their families; 2) Children increase academic success; and 3) Parents and elders gain skills to successfully parent youth formerly in foster care.



Chess for Success

Project: After-school Chess Programs in 75 schools

Year: 2014 Grant Amount: $10,000 Location: Portland, OR
About:

The mission of Chess for Success (CFS) is to help children develop the skills necessary for success in school and life by learning chess.  This grant provides after-school chess clubs for 70 K-8th grade students in the Portland metro area for a year. The schools served have an average of 73% of the students qualifying for free or reduced food programs.  The students receive chess instruction; t-shirts that are designed by club members; chess sets to take home at the end of the year; and free entrance to CFS tournaments. Schools also receive all chess equipment for the clubs, including chess sets, demonstration boards, and a chess library for the school.  Teachers from the school are paid to coach the clubs and the program is free for all students.



Ethos, Inc.

Project: General Operations

Year: 2014 Grant Amount: $10,000 Location: Portland, Or
About:

Since its inception, Ethos has worked diligently to make music education accessible to all K-12 kids by offering affordable music lessons, workshops, assemblies, and artist-in-residence programs. Ethos has become one of Oregon’s leading sources of music education and has won numerous regional and national awards, including being selected as one of the top 50 after-school programs in the country by the President’s Committee on the Arts and Humanities.  This grant supports this good work.



Family Tree Relief Nursery

Project: Nursery-center based therapeutic early childhood program

Year: 2014 Grant Amount: $15,000 Location: Albany, OR
About:

With the objective to strengthen families and prevent child abuse, the Therapeutic Early Childhood Program provides a combination of center-based and home-based developmental learning experiences for children ages 2 through 5 and provides healing emotional support for the children and their families.



Homeplate Youth Services

Project: Activities for Youth Experiencing Homelessness

Year: 2014 Grant Amount: $10,000 Location: Hillsboro, OR
About:

Supports additional coordination and expansion of programming for HomePlate’s drop-in centers as well as outings with youth experiencing instability. Adding activities that increase youth’s mastery and belonging help to further their stability and hopes for a better future.  The main expectation is to support the positive development of young people experiencing homelessness or housing instability through intentional and well-rounded programming.  Project proposes to serve a projected 1,000 Washington County homeless youth during 2015.



Janus Youth Programs

Project: Harry's Mother outreach materials and client assistance fund

Year: 2014 Grant Amount: $8,825 Location: Portland, OR
About:

Harry’s Mother will initiate a two-pronged outreach and visibility campaign with materials designed to reach  grade, middle and high school youth, parents, school counselors, churches and businesses throughout Multnomah County, on the “traditional” services provided by Harry’s Mother, as well as information specifically tailored to sex trafficking for distribution to motels, truck stops, movie theaters, malls and other known high recruitment areas. As a youth development program, Harry’s Mother will gather input from youth through focus groups to ensure that the message and look of all materials “speaks” to youth. This will also lay the groundwork for Harry’s Mother staff to shape and develop a “youth council”; the members of which would personally deliver additional messaging throughout the community to youth, families, school counselors, faith groups and the community at large. Input from youth who have experienced sex trafficking will shape and design the message for all materials tailored to this issue.  Additional funds were included to meet the great and growing need for transportation for safety, school and appointments.

    



Kinship House

Project: Expanding Journeys to Permanency

Year: 2014 Grant Amount: $15,000 Location: Portland, OR
About:

This grant supported year one of program expansion to serve additional hard-to-place children involved with foster care or adoption.  The program provides intensive therapy with the goal of a permanent healthy reunified or adoptive family.  This grant will cover start-up costs involved with a healthy expansion, allowing the program to become sufficient and not overburden current operations.



Metropolitan Family Service

Project: Ready, Set, Go! Kindergarten Readiness

Year: 2014 Grant Amount: $10,000 Location: Portland, OR
About:

Program objectives are to: 1) improve literacy skills in pre-kindergarteners; 2) improve social/emotional readiness for kindergarten; 3) increase positive, developmentally-appropriate child/parent interaction; 4) increase parental knowledge of normal child development; and 5) improve the links between families, schools, and community organizations. Parents will learn how to strengthen their children’s learning environment, manage family stress, and improve overall family functioning. Research indicates that early childhood intervention and quality parent education are strong determinants of educational success. In addition, families are linked to resources such as emergency food, clothing, and housing to support overall family success.



Native American Youth & Family Center

Project: Chxi San Playgroup

Year: 2014 Grant Amount: $8,000 Location: Portland, OR
About:

Chxi San is designed to help parents learn to interact with their children in ways that support emotional and cognitive development.  Early learning opportunities in Chxi San prepare children for Head Start and Kindergarten readiness with structured play activities that increase social and developmental skills. Our culturally-specific program allows children to become engaged with their Native heritage while parents are supported with traditional Native parenting skills and values.

 



Oregon Symphony

Project: Continued support for Music Education and Community Engagement

Year: 2014 Grant Amount: $10,000 Location: Portland, OR
About:

Providing continuing support for the Oregon Symphony’s Music Education and Community Engagement programs for under-served children in Portland metro-area public schools in the 2014-2015 school and program year.  Programs include: early learning events for preschool-Kindergarten aged children in public libraries; interactive classroom ensemble performances for K-2 students in Title I elementary schools; interactive concert hall concerts for grades 3-8; Sunday matinee family concerts for K-5; performance opportunities for student and community ensembles of all ages; and teaching resources for inter-disciplinary learning.

   



Pacific Rivers Council

Project: Conserving Aquatic Resources on O&C Lands in Western Oregon

Year: 2014 Grant Amount: $15,000 Location: Portland, OR
About:

Informing the public debate regarding the potential negative effects from reductions in river protections, building support for addressing restoration needs and funding, and establishing permanent protection for rivers in our most treasured watersheds.  These efforts serve all Oregonians who either derive their drinking water from many of Oregon’s most iconic watersheds, or who value these rivers for the immeasurable benefits they provide.



Social Venture Partners Portland

Project: Ready for Kindergarten Transitions Program

Year: 2014 Grant Amount: $8,000 Location: Portland, OR
About:

The Transitions project creates effective transition to kindergarten for children, families, communities, and schools in targeted districts where many of the 60% of Multnomah County children entering kindergarten with no prior classroom experience live.  For children with no prior classroom experience, their ability to socially, emotionally, and mentally adjust to a school environment can set them up for failure and a lag that is unrecoverable.  The transitions project aims to give these children the opportunity to enter kindergarten prepared to learn and able to move forward with their classmates and also prepares their families/caregivers to support them through that process.



The Library Foundation

Project: The Every Child initiative: Changing the literacy odds for at-risk children

Year: 2014 Grant Amount: $8,000 Location: Portland, OR
About:

This project will reach over 57,000 children and adults, delivering vital messages about early literacy and brain development, and making appropriate books available to the highest-risk families who are living in poverty, and those who may have language or literacy challenges at home.



Upper Deschutes Watershed Council

Project: Whychus Creek strategic planning & projects

Year: 2014 Grant Amount: $30,000 Location: Bend, OR
About:

Provides support to develop a Strategic Action Plan for Whychus Creek using the framework developed in collaboration with the Oregon Watershed Enhancement Board.  The Strategic Action Plan outlines the integrated restoration activities of the Watershed Council (stream restoration, fish passage, fish screening and education), the Deschutes Land Trust (land conservation) and the Deschutes River Conservancy (streamflow restoration) for the period of 2015-2021.

This effort will build off of the successful partnership work that has occurred in Whychus Creek over the past decade and help guide the future restoration efforts of these partner organizations.