PROVIDENCE – The Rhode Island Foundation today announced more than $5 million in year-end grants to 112 projects across the state, including affordable housing developments and innovations in elementary and secondary education.
In all of 2007, “I am proud to say we made approximately 2,500 grants to more than a thousand organizations,” George Graboys, the foundation’s chairman and acting president, said in a statement today. Those awards – with a total value of $25.4 million – fell into two broad categories: funds to organizations designated by donors, which accounted for $16.6 million of the total; and grants left wholly to the foundation’s discretion, which accounted for the remaining $8.8 million.
The money awarded by the foundation in its year’s-end flurry of grants included:
• $1.92 million in economic and community development aid, including affordable housing awards of $90,000 apiece to Church Community Housing in Newport and NeighborWorks Blackstone River Valley in Woonsocket, to support the position of a project developer at each organization; $75,000 to the Housing Network of Rhode Island, to help it train and retain a qualified community development staff; and community development assistance to the Local Initiatives Support Corporation and the Neighborhood Development Fund.
• $788,118 in grants to projects supporting children and families, including $75,000 to Rhode Island Kids Count, to evaluate the BrightStars rating system for child care and early learning programs; $25,000 to the AS220 Broad Street Studio to support an arts-focused program for youths served by the R.I. Department of Children, Youth and Families or recently released by the R.I. Training School, a program that also received a matching grant of $25,000 from a foundation supporter; $25,000 to Reach Out and Read/Rhode Island, a physician-based literacy outreach program; and $10,000 to the Gray Panthers of Rhode Island to support the statewide Senior Agenda coalition.
• $639,500 in aid to education – a longtime priority for the 92-year-old foundation – including a $50,000 commitment to the Central Falls Academy Planning Project, a collaborative effort of the Central Falls School District and the University of Rhode Island that will divide the Central Falls High School into several smaller “academies” as part of an effort to create a more positive learning environment; and $25,000 to the International Yacht Restoration School, to purchase supplies and equipment for marine systems courses in Bristol.
• $616,157 in grants to health and wellness programs, including $52,532 to Family Service of Rhode Island to help create a mental-health services office at Westerly High School that will be part of the Westerly Integrated Social Services Program; and $40,000 to In-Sight to support the expansion of the Vision Rehabilitation Program that helps people with vision loss develop the skills to live independently.
• $610,950 for community arts and culture programs, including two grants totaling $110,000 to the Arts & Business Council of Rhode Island.
• $284,100 in grants for rights and justice programs including $44,600 to support a program at the Community Mediation Center of Rhode Island that provides an alternative to the criminal justice system for first-time offenders ages 8 to 14; and $75,000 to support the Pro Bono Collaborative at Roger Williams University.
• $257,510 in grants for environmental programs across the state, including $80,000 for the Environment Council of Rhode Island’s education fund; and $47,010 to the Woonasquatucket River Watershed Council to help organize a corps of community stewards who will help maintain the greenway bicycle path from Johnston to downtown Providence.
“These grants, which are awarded after a highly competitive process, make a real difference to Rhode Island residents who are most in need of assistance,” Graboys said. “They clearly express the Foundation’s continued commitment to affordable housing, to job training and employment, and to critical areas such as health care and education.”
The Rhode Island Foundation, founded in 1916, is one of the nation’s largest and oldest charitable organizations serving a specific geographic community with more than $600 million in assets under management. It grants more than $20 million per year to more than 1,000 charities. To learn more about the foundation or the programs it administers, visit www.rifoundation.org.
