The Connecticut Community Foundation (CCF) awarded its second and final round of 2013 grants to area nonprofits for program support, arts and youth, leadership initiatives, literacy, nonprofit assistance, older adult services, health and travel. Funding, which came from funds established by area donors, totaled nearly $455,000 and included grants from the Saunders Fund for the Sick and Infirm of the Borough of Naugatuck and the Southbury Community Trust Fund. For a detailed listing of grant recipients, visit www.conncf.org/2013-grants-RD2.

In addition, CCF awarded nearly $16,000 in sponsorship grants during its third and final round of 2013 funding for public events in Greater Waterbury and the Litchfield Hills hosted by 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations. For a detailed listing of recent sponsorship recipients, visit www.conncf.org/recent-sponsorships.  For more information, visit www.conncf.org, or contact 203-753-1315, grants@conncf.org.
Altogether, grants awarded by the Foundation in 2013 totaled over $2.7 million.

Current Grant Recipients
Thriving Communities Grants

After School Arts Program: Metamorphosis Project – $10,000 for a collaborative effort to provide nature and arts programming for sixth grade students at Waterbury Arts Magnet School.

Brass City Harvest: Mobile Nutrition Program – $9,830 for nutrition outreach program and mobile farmers’ market to expand healthy food options in underserved neighborhoods, public and elderly housing facilities in Waterbury.  

Connecticut Counseling Centers: Expanded Recovery Services for Area Latino Community Members – $7,000 to improve existing counseling and educational services to Latino individuals in recovery from substance addiction and make services more accessible and affordable.

Flanders Nature Center: Outdoor Science & Learning Center – $10,000 to help fully establish the Woodward Outdoor Science & Learning Center and expand curriculum.  

Granville Academy of Waterbury: Afterschool Program Support – $10,000 to support projects and related equipment for a variety of afterschool and summer enrichment programs.

Greater Waterbury Interfaith Ministries: New Van for Food Pickups – $10,000 toward the purchase of a new vehicle, which will allow organization to continue critical community feeding programs. 

Judea Garden at St. John’s Church, Washington: Summer Internship Program – $4,592 for a summer internship program to teach organic gardening, raise awareness of nature and community need and to provide a consistent work force ensuring a greater harvest for the people served.

Junior Achievement of Southwest New England: Waterbury Youth Programs – $10,000 for continued support of an  intensive Junior Achievement experience for Waterbury students, allowing 5th grade students to participate in multiple programs in various settings. 
Livingston Ripley Waterfowl Sanctuary: Avian Ambassador Program – $3,500 to construct a birds of prey enclosure, while expanding the number of school outreach programs offered and introducing educational presentations for the public at the Sanctuary.
Northwest Regional Mental Health Board: Mental Health First Aid Trainings – $2,570 to support “Mental Health First Aid” training, identified nationally as a key mechanism to offer better resources to identify and treat mental illness. 
Safe Haven: Main Office Renovation Project – $10,000 to renovate Safe Haven’s Main Office building to provide handicapped accessibility, increased energy efficiency and to provide a welcoming atmosphere for clients.
Salvation Army: Housing Assistance Office – $10,000 Year One ($10k per year for 3 years) to provide rapid re-housing, sheltering and homeless prevention case management services to Waterbury families and individuals.
Shakesperience: Blinding Truth – $4,500 for educational work around the upcoming King Lear production in Library Park. Funding will support conversations throughout the community, open rehearsals, and pre- and post-show discussions. 
Waterbury Youth Services: Waterbury Juvenile Review Board – $10,000 for continued support of the Waterbury Juvenile Review Board, a diversionary and prevention initiative designed to provide alternatives to arrest for juvenile offenders, thus decreasing the number of arrests for low-level offenses.
YMCA of Greater Waterbury: Berkeley Warner Rec Center – $10,000 to support the re-opening of Berkeley Warner Recreation Center. This grant will allow the YMCA to offer youth activities and programs for at-risk youth living in the Berkeley Heights neighborhood of Waterbury.

Non-Profit Excellence (Capacity Building) Grants

Northwest Arts Council: Website Upgrade Project – $8,000 to support extensive website upgrade.
Children’s Community School: Needs Assessment & Feasibility Study – $8,000 for a consultant to help the school explore how it will sustain itself in the future. 
Girls, Inc.: Payroll and Fund Development system upgrade – $10,000 to upgrade payroll and fundraising software for increased efficiency.
Housatonic Valley Association: Strategic Plan Consultant – $6,500 for a consultant to assist in a full strategic plan that covers their geographic area from MA to Long Island Sound.
Litchfield Community Center: New Brand Identify and Website upgrade – $5,000 to support the efforts of a re-branding campaign and website upgrades.
Merwinsville Hotel Restoration: Website Enhancement – $1,395 for website upgrade to upgrade coding, add interactive elements and train staff.
Neighborhood Housing Services: Computer Network and Software Upgrade – $6,000 for purchase of new computer equipment and software to assist with low income housing and economic development efforts.
Pomperaug River Watershed Coalition: Website Redesign Project – $7,000 for website redesign to better meet the needs of the organization.
St. Vincent DePaul Mission: Hardware Purchase – $1,300 for purchase of computer equipment necessary to integrate new and existing software programs.

Priscilla Whittemore Travel Fund Grants

Shepaug Valley School: French Class Carnaval Trip to Quebec City, Canada – $2,550 to support February Quebec City trip. Students will be housed with local host families enabling for a cross cultural exchange.  

Environment Grants

CT League of Voters Education Fund: Community Environmental Policy Engagement Project – $7,885 to organize Community Forums to identify areas of common concern and provide an opportunity to connect people through regional collaboration; support partnerships with Housatonic Valley Association and Rivers Alliance to feature a program focused on water quality and watershed protection. 

Housatonic Valley Association (on behalf of AP River Partners coalition): Aspetuck Pomperaug River Partners RiverSmart Project, Year 2 – $21,630 to expand and enhance the RiverSmart Campaign to attract more landowners, businesses and younger generation; provide targeted landowner outreach to properties along rivers; and conduct public outreach via strategic social media efforts.

Naugatuck River Website (Currently managed by Housatonic Valley Association and Pomfret Technologies) – $6,000 to Housatonic Valley Association to reorganize website content into recreation-themed content areas, development of those areas into a “one-stop shop” for trip planning, and integration of social media.  

Town of Oxford: Rockhouse Hill Sanctuary Invasive Eradication – $9,816 for the removal of the invasive Japanese Barberry plant by the Oxford Youth Conservation Corp, a high school volunteer and paid group of students that work in Oxford’s open-space and on its trails. 

Rivers Alliance of Connecticut (Litchfield): Project Pesticides – $7,900 to reinvigorate conversations over excessive use of pesticides by educating and encouraging local community leaders.  Rivers Alliance will call upon citizens and officials to ask for common-sense limits on pesticide use on lawns and playing fields used by children, and in or near public-trust waters.

LitLinks Grants

New Milford Public Schools: Pre-K/Kindergarten Transition – $6,338.05 to improve literacy skills by empowering parents to be the first teacher before kindergarten, and offering parents a literacy tool kit before kindergarten. 

United Way of Naugatuck & Beacon Falls: Pre-Kindergarten/Kindergarten Peer Mentor Initiative – $9,692.23 for continued Early Education Council work including the new effort to align curriculum from age three through grade three. 

Watertown Board of Education: Preschool Collaboration/ Watertown Family Resource Center¬  – $7,340 to serve 800 children with programming including promoting language development, children’s social and emotional development, parent’s training on school readiness, and ongoing activities including the Early Childhood Fair and Parent Newsletters.

Thomaston Early Readiness Council (Thomaston Public School): Town Collaborative Training & Revision of Preschool Curriculum – $9,630 for training and support of Black Rock School preschool staff, community daycare staff and kindergarten teachers to align the curriculum to the Common Core.

Brass City Charter School: Preschool Curriculum Consultant – $6,070 to develop a curriculum aligned with the Connecticut Preschool Curriculum Framework with a goal of improving preschool literacy leading to appropriate grade level reading.
Concepts for Adaptive Learning: Digital Learning for Early Learners, “A Primer for Parents” – $4,000 to increase parents awareness of the importance of early learning and to help engage parents in educating their children from birth to age five through a digital literacy program.

Education Center of the New Milford United Methodist Church: NAEYC Accreditation – $10,109 to develop new curriculum focusing on effective literacy instruction in the preschool classroom with the ultimate goal of achieving NAEYC Accreditation.
Reach Out and Read, Inc.: Greater Waterbury Early Education Initiative – $7,600 to provide developmentally and culturally appropriate books for children during pediatric wellness visits. Program also helps pediatricians to provide parents with reading information at every child wellness visit.
Waterbury Youth Service System, Inc.: School Readiness Wednesday Night Book Buddies – $3,711.80 for the first year of a three year grant to host a monthly book club for four year-olds and their parents to encouraging a love of reading and provide support to caregivers to read to their children.

Saunders Fund Grants

Human Resource Development Agency: Medical Transportation/Socialization – $15,722 to expand funding for medical transportation for senior and disabled Naugatuck residents during the afternoon hours.
Naugatuck High School: Substance Abuse Prevention & Intervention – $14,400 to provide continued support for onsite substance abuse and intervention services to High School and City Hill Middle School students, through a Wellmore Behavioral Health clinician. 
Naugatuck YMCA: Senior Exercise & Youth, Health Fitness – $20,776 for funding that will subsidize the cost of senior exercise programs and support expansion of youth programming including ongoing activities in the afternoon, a vertical climbing wall and pre & post-testing on nutritional knowledge and fitness levels.
Valley United Way (for the Valley Council for Health & Human Services): Valley CARES Quality of Life Assessment & Report – $12,000 for the first year of funding to support the inclusion of Naugatuck in primary and secondary data collection related to quality of life indicators in Naugatuck Valley, including education, emotional well-being, health, arts and recreation.

Southbury Community Trust Fund Grants

Connecticut Food Bank: Southbury Mobile Food Pantry – $4,000 to support the Food Banks Mobile Food Pantry which provides monthly distribution of fresh fruits and vegetables in Southbury.
Pomperaug District Health Department: Better Aging & Lifestyle Awareness Network – $5,400 to provide funding for a new evidence-based diabetes self-management workshop for Southbury residents over the age of 60.
Waterbury YMCA: Teens in Action – $13,500 to support a third year of the Youth in Government and Leaders Club programs at Rochambeau and Memorial Middle Schools and at Pomperaug High School.
Wellspring: Southbury Counseling Fund – $10,000 for continuation of funding to cover expenses for Southbury residents who are currently uninsured or cannot afford co-pays for treatment.

Pathways for Older Adults Grants (East Hill Woods Fund)

Audubon Center, Bent of the River, Southbury: Bird Tales Program – $13,054 to support a therapeutic program to bring the natural world of birds to people living at dementia care facilities.
New Opportunities, Inc. Waterbury: Chef-on-Site Program Year 1 – $6,500 to continue chef-on-site program piloted at the Southbury, Woodbury and Middlebury Senior Centers. Covers incremental meal costs for fresh, restaurant quality lunches provided two days per week at three sites.
Pomperaug District Department of Health, Southbury: BALANCE – Better Aging and Lifestyle Awareness Network  – $16,050 to continue building the Matter of Balance fall prevention initiative, launch Diabetes Self-Management Workshops and establish Medicare billing capabilities for long-term sustainability of the project.

Rebuilding Together Litchfield County, New Milford: Housing Preservation/Aging in Place Modifications Year 1 – $10,000 to purchase materials for home modifications and repairs that increase safety and accessibility of single family dwellings owned by low income older adults.
VNA Health at Home, Watertown: Realigning Intake and Liaison Activities in a Care Transition Model – $7,550 to hire and work with a consultant to realign internal functions and better collaborate with other health providers. Project goals are to streamline the referral and admissions process, increase successful transitions to home health and increase agency referrals.
Waterbury Senior Center, City of Waterbury: Purchase of Physical Fitness Equipment – $10,000 to purchase two treadmills and two recumbent bicycles for use by center participants to complement other fitness offerings.

About the Connecticut Community Foundation
     Founded in 1923 as the Waterbury Foundation, the Connecticut Community Foundation was the first community foundation in the state.
     The Foundation’s mission is to foster creative partnerships that build rewarding lives and thriving communities. Serving 21 towns in Greater Waterbury and the Litchfield Hills, the Foundation administers more than 420 charitable funds established by local donors with combined assets of nearly $90 million. Funds reflect a variety of philanthropic interests and support a range of giving opportunities in the arts, environment, health care, education, human services and women’s and children’s issues.
     With this support, the Foundation provides grants and services to nonprofit organizations and scholarships to students. Volunteers and staff offer their expertise by serving on committees and supporting special initiatives that effect positive change, growth and improve the quality of life in our region. For more information, please visit www.conncf.org.