January Grant Highlights | Cleveland Foundation

As January draws to a close, the Cleveland Foundation has made grants this month totaling $2.1 million. Let’s take a peek at some of the organizations we supported across Cuyahoga, Lake and Geauga counties:

We awarded $37,950 to Kent State University Foundation to support a semester-long design exchange between KSU’s Cleveland Urban Design Collaborative (CUDC) and the University of Havana, Cuba in spring 2016.The design exchange will connect CUDC staff, faculty and graduate students in architecture and urban design with Havana-based artists, architects, urban designers and planners to share ideas and learnings, with hopes of building a long-term relationship between the institutions. The grant was funded through our Creative Fusion program, and it will also explore the possibility of a two-way artist exchange between Cleveland and Cuba in 2017.
Attention animal lovers! A $5,000 grant was awarded to Geauga County Human Society’s Rescue Village, to provide general operations support. Check out some of the animals they have up for adoption right here.
The Nature Center at Shaker Lakes has partnered with Cleveland Metropolitan School District for the Applied Science for Kids (ASK!) program, which seeks to provide experiential science education opportunities for preschool, kindergarten and first-grade students and teachers, with an emphasis on promoting environmental stewardship. We’re helping to fund this partnership with a $48,000 grant to support staffing, transportation, program evaluation and outdoor classroom maintenance associated with the ASK! program.
The biennial Cleveland International Piano Competition (CIPC) brings internationally-acclaimed young pianists from around the world to University Circle to compete for this prestigious prize. In an effort to better connect the competition to the Cleveland community, CIPC launched a community festival in coordination with the competition in 2013. We’re supporting an expansion of the festival this year with a $50,000 grant to the Piano International Association of Northern Ohio. The 2016 community festival will include guest recitals featuring internationally-acclaimed jazz and duo pianists, public master classes and workshops, a piano film series, as well as a Future Young Artist Retreat in partnership with the Boys and Girls Clubs of Cleveland and CIPC Community Day in partnership with the Greater Cleveland Neighborhood Centers Association.
Our grant for $89,917 will support Stepstone Academy’s implementation of the evidence-based GrapeSEED program to bolster students’ language acquisition, vocabulary and literacy skills, critical to student success on standardized testing and evaluation. Conceived and launched by Ohio Guidestone, a leading social service provider in Cuyahoga County, Stepstone Academy is located in Cleveland’s Central Neighborhood and currently serves nearly 350 students in preschool through 4th grade. The Cleveland Foundation has supported Stepstone Academy since it launched in 2012. The photo above shows Stepstone Academy students who were recognized for outstanding citizenship.