20 Semifinalists! So Many Great Causes.
Wow! We receivedย 82 videos vying for a $20,000 Liberty Bank Foundation grant in one of the three categories. Thanks to all nonprofits that took the time to tell us their stories! After much deliberation, weโre delighted to present the semifinalists we've selected.
Education for Economic SuccessโโAffordable and Supportive HousingโโBasic NeedsโโSee Our Runners Up
Are you a visitor?ย You canย scroll down in each category to meet our semifinalists and check out the great work they're doing in our communities! Watch their videos. Visit their websites. Consider a donation. Most important,ย spread the word to your family and friends by forwarding a link to this page. Why? Between September 5 and 15, weโll be asking the public (that means you!) to return to this page and VOTE forย one $20,000 winner in each category.
Are you a semifinalist? Congratulations! Youโre in the running for the final round โ and nowโs your chance to make sure that if youย areย selected as a finalist, your supporters are ready to get out the vote beginning on September 5. So share this page link withย all your contacts and ask them to pass it on. Itโs a great opportunity to introduce your agency to a much wider audience, and to communicateย aboutย how you're changing lives.ย Good luck!
รdelbrook, Inc.
Area of Focus: Education for Economic Success
Proposal summary: รdelbrook's priority is to increase future economic success for young people with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Developmental Disabilities through state-of-the-art STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) education. Our project wish is to strengthen our STEAM curriculum by creating Innovation Labs in our Cromwell and Middletown schools. Our vision is that the labs will ignite and excite a passion for education in our young people, and provide future-focused vocational and job training. Using the labโs graphics and 3D capabilities, student teams will create tangible items to be used or sold in The Barkery, our educational job training store; a win-win situation. Our 'secret sauce' is that we hire only the most motivated, qualified, positive and creative educators to work with our young people.
Learn More & GiveConsolidated School District of New Britain
Area of Focus: Education for Economic Success
Proposal summary: XTREME is an exciting new summer learning opportunity for students in Grade 6โ8 in the Consolidated School District of New Britain (CSDNB) for Summer 2017. XTREME will offer students the opportunity to engage in high-interest summer programming. Teachers and community partners will continue to work in close partnership to provide students with an integrated learning environment where they can make connections between activities and the real-world as well as strengthen their connection to the school and local communities by developing and implementing a community-service project. The focus of XTREME will be on strengthening STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) skills through hands-on engaging activities that allow students to see practical applications of abstract concepts.
Learn More & GiveLEAP
Area of Focus: Education for Economic Success
Proposal summary: LEAPโs goal is to get books into the hands and homes of the kids that most need them in order to close the achievement gap. LEAP wants to give home libraries to 500 children from New Havenโs lowest income neighborhoods as an extension of our free summer literacy program. LEAP counselors will also work with their parents to share literacy techniques they can use to help their children when they read at home. The 20th Anniversary Liberty Foundation Grant will enable LEAP to maximize our impact on the children and families we serve, making us stronger and more sustainable. Ultimately, this grant will enable LEAP to provide education for economic success to more low-income children so they can achieve their dreams and fulfill their potential.
Learn More & GiveLiteracy Volunteers of Central CT
Area of Focus: Education for Economic Success
Proposal summary: Literacy Volunteers of Central CT has a Computer Learning Lab used for language practice, research and digital literacy, all of which help prepare our students for success on the job and in life. We have space for six computers, but three are limping along, tired from use and age, and three have died. A combination of ten new computersโdesktops and laptopsโwould give us the infrastructure needed to teach computer literacy, resume writing, etc., and it would allow us to upgrade four staff computers to better support our tutors and students. $20,000 would cover the cost of computers, software, technical support and the hiring of digital instructors to train tutors and students.
Learn More & GiveNew Haven Reads
Area of Focus: Education for Economic Success
Proposal summary: At New Haven Reads, we are educating children for economic success. The ability to read transforms lives and breaks the cycle of poverty. We are applying for this special grant to expand and improve our external communications. These communications are the key to how New Haven Reads is viewed outside our organization and, crucially, lead to the recruitment of a vital resource โ our volunteers. Improving our communications with a new website, professionally produced videos, and specific marketing materials for outreach will increase engagement with our mission. This grant award will lead to more volunteers and supporters โ and consequently, more students off the waiting list and in the program learning to read. This is how we will create a community that reads! Thank you!
Learn More & GiveNew Haven Works, Inc.
Area of Focus: Education for Economic Success
Proposal summary: New Haven Works is a partnership between government, community, labor and the private sector to strengthen the middle class in New Haven and improve economic stability in all communities by providing employers access to a qualified, pre-screened workforce and connecting New Haven residents to good jobs. This Spring, New Haven Works placed its 1,000th member into a job. With support from the Liberty Bank Foundation, we can address the high demand for our services by moving our intake process online, saving time for participants and ultimately serving more residents. We can also update our computer hardware and software to meet our participantsโ needs. With the Liberty Bank Foundationโs help, we can set our sights on helping the next 1,000 New Haven residents obtain good jobs with local employers.
Learn More & GiveNutmeg Big Brothers Big Sisters
Area of Focus: Education for Economic Success
Proposal summary: This coming year, Nutmeg BBBS will launch mentor2.0 โ and connect hundreds of students in need with committed, college-educated mentors who will help them to pursue college, and become the first in their families to earn college diplomas. Mentoring pairs will build trusting relationships through frequent communications (using a secure e-platform) and monthly, face-to-face meetings. We plan to collaborate with a high school whose students have high rates of chronic absenteeism and below-average graduation rates. Participating students will graduate high school, attend and graduate college at rates exceeding national averages. Given that a college diploma is critical to success in the 21st century, this increase in college graduation will spark a winning cycle โ for the students we engage, their community, and our state as a whole.
Learn More & GiveOur Piece of the Pie, Inc.
Area of Focus: Education for Economic Success
Proposal summary: Our Piece of the Pie, Inc. looks to upgrade and replace the outdated dysfunctional technology (computers, printers, internet access) in our Norwich Youth Center serving at-risk youth in Eastern CT. Low-income teens and youth of color are less likely to own computers and have access to the internet. Lack of access to technology disadvantages these youth reducing their readiness to engage in the primary means of information access and transfer in our technology based society and economy. Goals for our youth are straightforward โ high school diploma, a postsecondary credential and meaningful employment โ or simply becoming economically independent adults. Our relationship centered approach integrates services from youth development, academics and workforce development providing youth with an individualized plan to reach their goals.
Learn More & GiveWindham Regional Community Council, Inc.
Area of Focus: Education for Economic Success
Proposal summary: The Windham โCommunity Academyโ builds the capacity of the Windham Youth CORE, GROW Windhamโs award-winning high-school workforce and leadership development program, to reach more youth and have a deeper impact on participants. This proposal will transform the program from one that serves youth to one that is youth-led, providing participants steady employment and opportunities to grow into positions of increased responsibility and independence. Supported by professional mentors, program staff, and university interns, youth participants develop enterprises that promote access to healthy food in Windham, one of Connecticutโs most under-resourced communities. Through this process, they build career portfolios, gain community advocacy skills, and earn leadership certificates that prepare them to build and teach a network of their peers.
Learn More & GiveCapital for Change
Area of Focus: Affordable and Supportive Housing
Proposal summary: Capital for Change is a nonprofit CDFI that provides flexible financing and offers technical assistance to borrowers to promote affordable housing, energy efficiency, the success of non-profit organizations and small businesses. This project will advance our Socially Responsible Investor program through which C4C invites investments from individuals, foundations, faith-based groups and nonprofit organizations aligned with its values. This grant will help leverage the resources necessary to launch a state-wide multi-media outreach campaign that will consist of the engagement of a professional advertising firm to create a formal program marketing plan, development of new print and online materials, and to help us promote a seminar series with speakers who are experts in community development.
Columbus House, Inc.
Area of Focus: Affordable and Supportive Housing
Proposal summary: For 35 years, Columbus House has served people who are homeless or at risk of becoming homeless by providing shelter and housing, and by fostering their personal growth and independence. Over the next five years, in partnership with Yale School of Architecture, five modularly-constructed duplexes will be designed and built (one per year at $200,000 each) which Columbus House will own in order to house and reintegrate into their New Haven community those experiencing homelessness. By utilizing principles of affordability, sustainability and replicability, this partnership can forever change how academia, industry and homeless services agencies address the severe lack of affordable housing in Connecticut. A Liberty Bank Foundation anniversary grant will help lay the foundation for this first home and help leverage additional funding.
Learn More & GiveHOPE Partnership
Area of Focus: Affordable and Supportive Housing
Proposal summary: HOPE Partnership has successfully developed affordable housing options in Old Saybrook. We are now excited to have the opportunity to create additional affordable housing along the shoreline. HOPE has begun the preliminary process to begin development on a parcel of land in our community. This grant would enable HOPE to engage architects, host community forums for area residents and conduct a tour of multiple affordable communities in our region. The need for affordable housing along the shoreline is great and we look to provide safe, affordable housing for those in our region.
Learn More & GiveMiddlesex Habitat for Humanity
Area of Focus: Affordable and Supportive Housing
Proposal summary: An increase in staff will provide an environment of consistency and we have shown when we can surround ourselves with people who share a passion around a common purpose, we can accomplish great things. We arenโt in a position to take this leap on our ownโthatโs why this grant is such an opportunity for usโit allows us to take the next step. We will continually monitor and measure the impact of the new position and if the result is impactful we will continue with the position. Increasing our capacity in the ReStore will continue to prove that you donโt have to lift a hammer to help us build a house.
Learn More & GiveRebuilding Together New Britain
Area of Focus: Affordable and Supportive Housing
Proposal summary: RTNB is a volunteer-based nonprofit which provides no-cost home repairs to low-income homeowners, particularly the elderly, disabled, or families. With $20,000 from Liberty Bank Foundation, RTNB aims to invest in technology infrastructure, including: a color printer, two computers, mobile workstation, and tech support. The RTNB office canโt produce quality color communications, so client outreach materials (i.e., posters, brochures, doorhangers) are printed offsite. Additionally, two of the officeโs desktop computers are over seven years old, and computing speed has deteriorated. With 1.5 staff and many clients, partners, and volunteers with whom to coordinate, these issues are impacting RTNBโs potential. We respectfully request this $20,000 grant to boost our capacity and maximize impact on our clients, volunteers, and our community.
Learn More & Giveย
