April Grant Highlights | Cleveland Foundation

We’re thrilled to announce $5.7 million in April grants to organizations serving residents of Cuyahoga, Lake and Geauga counties. The selection of April grants below concentrates on the arts, the environment, and investing in people. Here are just a few highlights:

Arts & Culture:

$40,000 to Ingenuity Cleveland to expand the organization’s IngenuityLabs in the St. Clair-Superior neighborhood. Ingenuity Cleveland ignites the spark of creativity among artists, entrepreneurs and innovators of all types through year-round programming and collaboration, and through an annual IngenuityFest. The Ingenuity Labs at the Hamilton Collaborative is a community hub, providing resources for artisans and innovators working in Cleveland. Our support will help Ingenuity Cleveland expand their IngenuityLabs by making facility improvements, refining programmatic offerings, and better connecting to the surrounding St. Clair-Superior neighborhood.
$50,000 to East Cleveland Public Library to support high-caliber musical performances in their Greg L. Reese Performing Arts Center. The Cleveland Foundation provided a capital grant of $1 million to help build the Greg L. Reese Performing Arts Center at the library in 2003, which now has a strong history of hosting excellent performances attended by residents of East Cleveland and beyond. This new support will allow for 11 musical performances each year for the next two years.
$75,000 to Inlet Dance Theatre, a professional contemporary dance company. Faced with the need to find a new studio space under a short timeline, our support will help Inlet prepare, secure and fundraise for a new building and studio space. In addition, our grant will help the company plan a mastery-based dance education program for the 2018-2019 school year.

Environment:

$84,750 to West Creek Conservancy (WCC) to support a new Central Lake Erie Basin Collaborative and sustainable operations center. WCC is focused on urban watershed management, facilitating land acquisitions and providing technical assistance to watershed groups. In 2016, WCC created the Central Lake Erie Basin Collaborative, a group of 17 watershed organizations in Northern Ohio. Our grant will support the operations of the Collaborative, and also aid WCC in creating a model green office that can provide necessary space for both WCC and the collaborative.
$75,000 to Trust for Public Land (TPL) to help inform greenspace and connectivity investments at Lakeview Terrace, a Cleveland public housing site. TPL is a national environmental nonprofit working to preserve and protect open space for public enjoyment, with a local office started in 1997 by the Cleveland and Gund foundations. Our latest grant will help TPL work with partners to re-envision the Lakeview Terrace estates to better connect residents to Lake Erie and outdoor space that is nearby but currently inaccessible. This will include hiring “park listeners,” who will engage with community members throughout the design process, community engagement workshops, partnership building, and day-to-day program support for Lakeview Terrace.

Investing in People:

$45,000 to Neighborhood Leadership Institute (NLI), which works to improve the quality of life for people in Greater Cleveland’s diverse communities through grassroots leadership development and engagement. Our grant will support MyCom, the ICONS program, (Individuals Collectively Overcoming Negative Situations) and the Hannah Gibbons Elementary School to create a pilot mentoring project in the Glenville and Collinwood neighborhoods that will help 5^th to 8^th grade students process anger and frustrations.
$175,000 to the Legal Aid Society of Cleveland, which provides legal aid and representation to low-income clients in Northeast Ohio. For the past two years, with support from the Cleveland Foundation, Legal Aid has created and successfully implemented advocacy for low-income people with limited English proficiency. With this new grant, Legal Aid will continue its civic legal advocacy to increase safety, health and economic stability to those with limited English proficiency, expanding their focus to include Lake and Geauga counties.
$50,000 to Front Steps Housing and Services, a nonprofit dedicated to ending the cycle of homelessness in Cuyahoga County through permanent supportive housing and services. More than half the residents of Front Steps’ 60 permanent supportive housing units are living with substance use disorders. Our support will help provide an on-site outpatient substance treatment program that will eliminate transportation barriers, leverage existing relationships, and embed support networks directly in the living environment.
$175,000 to The Literacy Cooperative of Greater Cleveland (TLC) which was founded over 10 years ago to create systemic and lasting change to the field of literacy. Our support will help TLC continue to integrate adult literacy services into workforce initiatives and benefits programs, particularly by developing and piloting curriculums for in-demand industries that pay family sustaining wages. In addition, our grant will support two generational practices that teach adult literacy at the same time as helping early learners.