The Community Foundation recently announced $211,950 in grant awards to nonprofits serving Lancaster County. The community investments range from projects that will encourage literacy and increase affordable housing, to programs focusing on racial justice and environmental stewardship. “Nonprofit organizations are working harder than ever to provide their programs and services. By offering grant support, we can help to sustain the essential services and programs that they provide,” said Sam Bressi, President & CEO of the Lancaster County Community Foundation Investments were made from the Community Foundation’s yearly competitive grants cycle that supports a variety of initiatives in the areas of arts, culture, community development, environment, education, and health & human services. 2009 Competitive Grant Awards: - Better Lancaster Fund:
Lancaster Day Care Center: Ready, Set, Read is a comprehensive program to encourage parents to read to their children and use literacy rich materials at home. This program reinforces the importance of the parent being the child’s primary teacher and includes parent child literacy workshops, read-at-home programs, and parent modeling. Parents can build a small library for their children by earning books through the program, helping to ensure children will be ready to learn when they enter kindergarten.
SouthEast Lancaster Health Services: SELH’s “Baby’s First Doctor” initiative is aimed at improving health outcomes for children who are born into demographic groups that have historically high levels of health disparities, specifically minorities and the impoverished. By providing a comprehensive, culturally competent, educational approach, the program builds healthy foundations for children from prenatal care through early childhood.
- Margaret R. Eppihimer Fund:
Habitat for Humanity: Habitat for Humanity will build capacity to build more homes by strategically employing professional marketing, fundraising and event planning services to raise awareness, engage community support in housing issues, and explore new funding opportunities.
- Patrick Kenney Jr. Fund:
YWCA of Lancaster: The Racial Justice Institute is an intensive three day workshop that brings national trainers to Lancaster to examine the subtle ways racism permeates our society and to develop strategies to counteract them. The YWCA will provide scholarships to public servants of Lancaster County municipalities wishing to foster greater equity, fairness, and respect among those who serve their diverse constituents.
- Lancaster Environmental Fund:
Lancaster Farmland Trust: The “Smart Farms” program is an initiative to educate Old Order Amish and Mennonite farmers on the use of best management practices and give them access to the resources necessary to implement those practices. The intent of the initiative is to improve the quality of the County’s watersheds while maintaining the viability of agriculture. “Smart Farms” also addresses a key element of the Trust’s mission – to support good stewardship of the land.
- Anne C. & W. Franklin Ressler Memorial Fund:
Lancaster County Conservancy: The Welsh Mountain Nature Preserve (WMNP) is the Conservancy’s first expansive property in Elanco. With Phase 1 protected, stewardship will begin, including cleanup, trail upkeep, signage, and invasives removal. There will be continued outreach to Elanco officials and residents for their support to ensure the acquisition of Phases II/III of this keystone open space. Success means a 1,100+ acre park that will enrich the community that lives, works, and visits Elanco.
- Ada Harr Fund:
SouthEast Lancaster Health Services: SouthEast Where You Are provides medical home visits to some of the most vulnerable, home-bound patients in Lancaster. The program has been able to overcome barriers of poverty, language, transportation, and lack of health insurance in order to vastly improve the lives of those it serves.
- Florence Starr Taylor Fund for the Visual Arts:
Friendship Community: The heART of Friendship is a creative arts program sponsored by Friendship Community to provide artists with developmental disabilities the opportunity for self-expression and to provide a meaningful income source.
- Sam & Verda Taylor Fund for the Performing Arts:
Lancaster Symphony Orchestra: The Music Discovery Experience includes three performances at J.P. McCaskey High School on May 17, 2010, followed by 15 traveling instrument “petting zoos” on May 18-20, and the Symphony’s Gift of Music instrument loan program which lends instruments to students in grades 4-12. The Music Discovery Experience is an ongoing program primarily for the School District of Lancaster that helps to position students for academic and social success.
Fulton Opera House Foundation: The Access to the Arts program consists of three outreach efforts associated with the Fulton’s annual mainstage season: American Sign Language Interpreted performances for the deaf and hearing impaired; Audio Described performances for the blind and vision impaired; and Spanish Interpreted performance for the local Latino population. The Access to the Arts Program is intended to make the Fulton’s mainstage offerings readily accessible to individuals traditionally underserved by the arts.
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