$284,476 in Focus Grants Awarded Statewide
The Delaware Community Foundation has awarded $284,476 in Focus Grants to programs enriching the lives of Delaware youth and Latino communities.
This year’s Focus Grants recipients are:
Community Education Building – $25,000
To support the Kuumba Academy Summer Camp, a program that provides students from low-income areas with core curriculum and extracurricular activities to promote academic excellence and well-being.
Leading Youth Through Empowerment, Inc. – $25,000
To support the director of high school advocacy for the Home Stretch Support Program, which helps at-risk students transition into more rigorous academic programs and colleges.
TeenSHARP – $25,000
To fund bilingual staff members, a college application boot camp and transportation for college admission events for the Delaware Goes to College Academy in Sussex County, which helps Latinx students gain college admission through professional advising and academic programming.
Best Buddies Delaware – $25,000
To provide supplies, equipment and leadership training for Friendship & Inclusion, a project created to establish connections between adults with developmental disabilities and mentors, strengthening opportunities for integrated employment and leadership development.
Year Up – $25,000
To support doubling the growth of enrollment in the Year Up Program, which provides urban young adults with opportunities to pursue higher education to reach their career goals.
Zip Code Wilmington – $25,000
To fund the teacher training immersion program, which will bring more computer science teachers into Wilmington, and increase the number and diversity of students pursuing careers in computer science.
Sussex Academy Aquatic Center – $25,000
To provide training, personnel, equipment, scholarships, discounts, coupons and transportation for the Water Education and Safety Program, which creates educational opportunities that benefit children’s physical and emotional well-being.
Delaware Institute for the Arts in Education (DiAE) – $25,000
To fund costs of Delaware Wolf Trap, a program dedicated to serving Delaware’s youngest children through active, arts-integrated learning strategies designed to enhance literacy and math development in early childhood classrooms.
Sussex Tech Adult Programs (STAD) – $24,850
To support integrated Spanish-English GED classes, providing almost 50 adult Latinx students with the resources to gain a secondary school diploma or GED.
Summer Learning Collaborative, Inc. – $24,626
To fund instructors leading the Sussex County Tyler’s Camp program, which serves low-income Latinx middle school students with access to summer learning and extracurricular activities. This award is co-funded by the Jeanne M. & William R. Allan Fund and the Mildred H. & Ray A. Thompson Funds.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Delaware – $20,000
To support the Community Mentoring Program, providing 100 new at-risk youth with mentoring services.
La Esperanza, Inc. – $10,000
To fund a portion of salaries for the immigration department staff and rental of space, in support of the New Citizenship Program, which assist Sussex County Latinos in their efforts to attain stability, integration and success.
CAMP Rehoboth – $5,000
To fund the Pilot Needs Assessment for the new THRIVE program, designed to build a more inclusive Sussex community and provide a safe space for LGBTQ students to feel valued and supported.