January Grant Highlights

← Back to Blog February 10, 2020 by At the Foundation, Grantmaking, Strengthening Cleveland
A girl performs the splits while dancing onstage
Photo © Jeff Forman

We’re excited to share a few highlights from our recent grants to organizations serving residents of Cuyahoga, Lake and Geauga counties. These January grants focus on arts & culture, health & human services, and organizations that provide high-quality out of school time programming for kids.

Arts & Culture

  • $61,712 for The Music Settlement’s music therapy program. The Music Settlement provides services in music instruction, early childhood education and music therapy; its music therapy program is considered a national model in the field and the most comprehensive program in the state. Our grant will help The Music Settlement enhance accessibility to its music therapy program, maintain HIPAA compliance, expand community outreach programming and more.
  • $200,000 to Cuyahoga Community College Foundation for its Creative Arts Academy Vocal Arts Mastery Program and Dance Arts Mastery Gala Showcase. This grant continues our support for both programs, which we’ve invested in as part of our commitment to expanding access to mastery arts education for Cleveland students. Our grant will help the programs provide instruction to hundreds of students at community sites in the City of Cleveland and stage a gala dance showcase featuring 100 dance mastery students this summer.
  • $50,000 to Inlet Dance Theater as it plans to relocate to the Astrup Awning Building in Cleveland’s Clark-Fulton neighborhood. In the newly redeveloped Astrup building, Inlet will create space accessible for all ages and socio-economic backgrounds. Our grant will help Inlet build its presence, programming and services within the Clark-Fulton neighborhood.
  • $15,000 to LatinUs Theater Company, which promotes and produces artistic and theatrical works in Spanish, honoring the cultural heritage and traditions of Northeast Ohio’s Latin American population. Our January grant supports LatinUs’ current theater season, titled “Get to Know the Latino Community,” which includes three plays from Venezuela, Argentina and Puerto Rico.
  • $50,000 to Progressive Arts Alliance (PAA), an organization that provides dynamic arts-in-education programs that connect teachers to new methods, artists to the community and students to learning. Our grant supports PAA residencies focused on social-emotional learning in three Cleveland Metropolitan School District schools. These residencies will support learning in science, technology, engineering and math through the arts.

Health & Human Services

  • $75,000 to Cleveland Clergy Alliance to help the organization expand the capacity of its Connecting Seniors to Services Initiative. Entering its second year, the program places a community navigator in each member church to help senior community members with a range of issues, including home repairs, personal finance, medical insurance and more.
  • $125,000 to Neighborhood Family Practice to help the community health center expand access to quality pre- and postnatal care for low-income women at its newly opened Ann B. Reischman Community Health Center. Cuyahoga County continues to experience high rates of infant mortality and premature birth that disproportionately impact African American women and low-income women. Our grant will help NFP address these disparities by expanding the number of primary care and midwifery patient visits it can offer.
  • $99,000 to Old Brooklyn Community Development Corporation to support continued implementation of the neighborhood’s strategic plan, which aims to improve life for residents by addressing food access, greenspace equity, neighborhood resource access and usage, housing injustice, chronic disease and substance abuse. Our grant will help create a Director of Community Health position, as well as strengthen the Ben Franklin Community Garden, Cuyahoga County’s largest community garden.  
  • $50,000 to the Alzheimer’s Association Cleveland Chapter to help fund educational and outreach programs designed to expand awareness, reduce stigma and encourage early detection of Alzheimer’s disease. Our grant will help the Cleveland chapter expand its education programming and caregiver support programs, as well as to increase its services to priority populations in the African American, LatinX and LGBT communities.
  • $30,000 to the Cuyahoga County Public Library to bring the traveling exhibit “Drugs: Costs and Consequences” to Northeast Ohio. Developed in 2002 by the Drug Enforcement Administration Foundation, the exhibition explores the devastating consequences of drug addiction, making it a powerful educational tool in combatting the opioid crisis. Our grant will allow the library to host the six-month exhibition at its administration offices in Parma beginning in February.
  • $35,000 to Peace by Piece Cleveland to help the agency expand its Adult Day Support program offerings and vocational training for adults with disabilities. Peace by Piece currently serves 35 individuals in the Lakewood area by providing job training and placement services as well as programs that include art and music therapy sessions, fitness and nutrition classes, and group outings.
  • $25,000 to Sisters of Charity Foundation Cleveland to support the Ohio Regional Convergence Partnership in its efforts to preserve and expand children’s access to health insurance.

Out of School Time Programming

Our January grants also include a total of $655,500 supporting high-quality out of school time programming for young people in Cleveland. This total includes grants for After-School All-Stars, Boys & Girls Clubs of Northeast Ohio, the Cleveland Arts Education Consortium, Famicos Foundation and Youth Opportunities Unlimited. These investments in accessible out of school time programming align with our support for Say Yes to Education Cleveland as well as our MyCom youth development initiative.

These are just a few of our January grants. Follow our blog throughout the year to learn more about the projects and organizations we’re funding, and subscribe to our monthly e-newsletter for the latest news and information from the Cleveland Foundation.