Annual Report of Grants January 1, 2014 – December 31, 2014

The Stranahan Foundation Board of Trustees considers grant opportunities that fall within five priority areas of interest:

 Human Services  Ecological Well-Being  Arts & Culture  Education  Mental & Physical Health  Other Philanthropic  Early Childhood Special Initiative – Invitation Only

We encourage you to visit the “Grantmaking Priorities” section of our website (at www.stranahanfoundation.org) for a more detailed description of each of these areas of interest.

During 2014, over $4.7 million in Foundation grants supported a wide variety of important programs in communities all across the country. Following is a brief description of each of these grant-funded programs.

Human Services

Bittersweet Farms $50,000 Whitehouse, OH

This grant was made to assist the organization with the construction of a house for women participating in Bittersweet Farms programming which includes on-site habilitation, pre- vocational activities, and work opportunities for adults with autism.

COMPASS for kids $50,000 Lexington, MA

The Community Collaborative helps homeless parents obtain jobs by increasing their ability to attain and retain stable employment through education, skills training, and coaching in both Lawrence and Lexington.

Daughter Project $10,000 Bowling Green, OH

This organization operates a residential facility and provides needed services for girls ages 10 - 17 who are survivors of sex trafficking to help them stabilize and return to their families or home community.

Economic and Community Development Institute $35,000 Columbus, OH

This Small Business Administration micro-lender provides loans in amounts up to $150,000 as well as business-related technical assistance to small businesses in Toledo, OH. Loans are made to low and moderate-income entrepreneurs or those with insufficient credit histories to be able to qualify for a loan through a tradition financial institution.

Epidaurus dba Amity Foundation $50,000 Tucson, AZ

A truck was purchased and modified so that food items can be prepared and sold at various sites in Tucson and Arizona as part of a vocational food service training program for adults living and receiving services at Amity Circle Tree Ranch Center.

Franciscan Shelters dba Bethany House $20,000 Toledo, OH

This organization provides long-term, safe shelter and programming for women who have been victims of domestic violence and their children.

Good Grief of Northwest Ohio $40,000 Holland, OH

This organization offers free, biweekly peer support groups for children, ages 4-17, who have experienced a loss due to the death of a significant person in their lives. The support groups, led by trained volunteers, are also available to the children’s parents or caregivers.

Grace Place for Children and Families $35,000 Naples, FL

Bright Beginnings, a program for parents of children between the ages of birth and 5, is designed to teach techniques and build the confidence of parents so they can provide quality early learning experiences for their children

Growing Hope $25,000 Ypsilanti, MI

The Downtown Ypsilanti Farmers’ Market and the Ypsilanti Depot Town Farmers’ Market provide community residents with access to a variety of fresh fruits and vegetables and other healthy food items provided primarily by local vendors. Participation by low income residents is encouraged and facilitated through a number of payment options including food stamps, Electronic Benefits Transfer, WIC, and Market FRESH for low-income seniors.

HAVEN $25,000 Bozeman, MT

HAVEN provides emergency shelter and support services for victims of domestic abuse to ensure their safety and progress toward independent living. Services include a 24/7 crisis line, temporary housing, legal advocacy, and assistance to find needed resources or other help.

Meals on Wheels of the Palm Beaches, Inc. $20,000 Palm Beach, FL

This organization uses volunteers to deliver hot meals five days a week to homebound residents of Palm Beach County, Florida.

Montana Community Development Corporation $45,000 Missoula, MT

The Accounting and Business Assistance Program helps low income Montana entrepreneurs become more fluent in financial, accounting, and management practices leading to greater self- sufficiency and sustainable businesses. Services, provided by CPAs, include forensic accounting, charting of established accounts, data entry coaching; report, inventory and other specialty system set ups; and instruction on how to glean useful information from financial reports.

NCBI Missoula $25,000 Missoula, MT

The Empowering Youth, Transforming Communities programs are designed to reduce the prejudice and violence in Missoula and other Montana schools that negatively impact students’ mental health, self-esteem, and academic performance through student support groups, student workshops, and teacher training.

Neutral Zone dba Ann Arbor Teen Center $20,000 Ann Arbor, MI

The SCORE after-school program offers individual academic support, college exploration opportunities and application assistance, and access to job internships for youth between the ages of 14 and 18 who are at risk for poor high school performance and lack the adult and/or financial support needed to be successful in high school and to pursue post-secondary education.

New Urban Arts $27,500 Providence, RI

This organization offers an after-school Youth Mentorship in the Arts program and a Summer Arts Inquiry program for high school students from low-income Providence neighborhoods. The programs match the teens with an adult mentor as they learn and practice standards-based art skills, increase their knowledge in the arts, and express their artistic views.

Senior Independence $13,000 Toledo, OH

A recreation therapist is employed by the Adult Day Center to help staff engage Center clients in activities such as cooking, arts and crafts, and music appreciation that address their interests and physical and cognitive abilities and limitations.

Thrive $35,000 Bozeman, MT

An Administrative Assistant was hired to support senior management staff as they work to develop a long-range plan to maintain the organization and to develop or expand programs that support families with young children from the Bozeman area.

Toledo Botanical Garden $10,000 Toledo, OH

The Toledo GROWS Robert J. Anderson Agriculture Training Center and greenhouses are used as an educational forum for Owens Community College students who are studying urban agriculture and as place to educate inner city youth on gardening and growing sustainable nourishment including chickens and turkeys.

United Way of Greater Toledo $5,000 Toledo, OH

Funds are being used to provide short-term hotel stays for homeless families with children who have no other housing options and/or for transportation expenses to the hotel or to other available housing.

University Church, The $25,000 Toledo, OH

The Community Garden Project uses paid staff and volunteers to produce fresh vegetables, eggs, and honey on a 6-acre urban Toledo site. These food items are distributed to needy individuals and families in the area. Several acres have also been set aside so that area residents can grow their own produce.

The Reynolds Community School provides after school programming for 80 students who attend the K – 8th grade Reynolds Elementary School. Western Avenue Family Center $25,000 Toledo, OH

Baby U is a free, 10-week Saturday program for the low-income parents of children ages birth to three. The program, based on the Nurturing Parenting Curriculum, is designed to provide parents with the information and skills needed to take an active, positive role in their children’s development.

Young Womens Christian Association of Tucson $20,000 Tucson, AZ

The YWorks Employment Education and Training Program helps low income women who are searching for employment, changing careers, seeking advancement in their current position, or are new to the United States reach their employment and/or educational goals through personal and employment skills training, mentoring, and clothing assistance.

Ecological Well-Being

Black Swamp Conservancy $15,000 Perrysburg, OH

This organization encourages and assists with the conservation and protection of farmland and natural areas in sixteen northwest Ohio counties for the benefit of current and future generations.

Blackfoot Challenge, Inc. $15,000 Ovando, MT

The Blackfoot Challenge organization was formed and is guided by a diverse steering committee that works to enhance, conserve, and protect the natural resources of the Blackfoot River Valley watershed. Some specific activities include community education, water conservation, and reduction of conflicts between humans and wildlife.

Conservancy of Southwest Florida $35,000 Naples, FL

The Conservancy of Southwest Florida staff monitors and assesses mangrove re-growth as part of a mangrove restoration project taking place in Rookery Bay National Estuary Research Reserve on Marco Island, FL. Four collaborating organizations are working to restore three areas totaling 250 acres of dead, dying, or severely stressed mangroves because of their importance to the ecological well-being of the area and the stability of the local economy.

Gallatin Valley Land Trust $25,000 Bozeman, MT

This organization is responsible for the development and maintenance of a system of trails that connects areas within Bozeman and downtown Bozeman to public lands and mountains on the north and south ends of town. Staff recruits and oversees over 500 volunteers who maintain existing trails; and works to secure land, design plans, and oversee construction of new trails.

Schumacher Center for a New Economics $20,000 Great Barrington, MA

The Education and Outreach Program Community Land Trust Program Director works to educate citizens, business owners, farmers, government officials, and others living in Berkshire County about the features and benefits of community ownership. Arts & Culture

Arts Council of Beaufort County $34,500 Beaufort, SC

Storytelling: Building on Our Past, Creating Our Future focuses on storytelling as both an art form and educational tool. Storytelling is used to entertain and inform through activities that include professional development for teachers, storytelling troupes for school-age children and for families, and community storytelling events for Beaufort area residents and tourists.

Community MusicWorks $35,000 Providence, RI

The Daily Orchestra Program, modeled after the Venezuelan El Sistema program, provides daily homework assistance and individual and group instrumental music instruction for 25 to 30 low- income youth between the ages of 6 and 8 in collaboration with the Federal Hill House.

IS183 $35,000 Stockbridge, MA

The organization offers an after-school Learning Through the Arts, and a summer ArtsCool, program at three schools in Berkshire County, MA. Both programs, whose curricula are aligned with Massachusetts state standards, use hands on, creative activities to reinforce academic learning in twenty different content areas from local rivers/watersheds to world history.

Toledo Museum of Art $20,000 Toledo, OH

The Art After School Program gives school-age youth from low-income Toledo neighborhoods an opportunity to visit and view the collections at the Toledo Museum of Art; and to create works of art as a way to develop critical thinking, creativity, dexterity, problem solving and visual literacy skills.

Toledo Orchestra Association dba The Toledo Symphony $25,000 Toledo, OH

The Youth Orchestra Programs serve a diverse group of 7th to 12th grade youth from northwest Ohio and southeastern Michigan through the Philharmonic, Symphonic, and Concert Orchestras all of which include private and group instruction and opportunities for public performances.

Toledo Repertoire Theater $2,000 Toledo, OH

This community theatre organization used funds to replace outdated computers used to maintain public ticket records to prevent possible security breaches.

Education

AMIkids Beaufort $25,000 Seabrook, SC

This vocational welding program provides residential youth with the opportunity to earn four welding certificates through 305 hours of training in Oxyacetylene Torch, ARC, MIG flux core, and TIG welding. Taught by a Certified Welding Instructor, youth learn welding skills as well as basic math, how to read blueprints, properties of metals, and welding safety. Youth completing the program are eligible to apply for welding jobs in their community at age 18.

Bozeman Public Schools Foundation $4,700 Bozeman, MT

The Links to Literacy program provides a free book to all first graders in the Bozeman School District each September. A copy of the book is also provided to each classroom teacher and the school library while the children’s families receive information about the importance of early literacy and suggestions for reading aloud with their child/ren.

Mary C. Wheeler School (Breakthrough Providence Program) $25,000 Providence, RI

Breakthrough Providence offers a tuition free education program for 90 low-income or otherwise disadvantaged 7th and 8th grade students that includes an intensive full-day, 6-week summer program, 24 after-school sessions, 9 Saturday sessions, and weekly school year tutoring. The program is designed to prepare these students for the academic and social rigors of a high school college preparatory curriculum.

New Mexico School for the Arts – Art Institute $35,000 Santa Fe, NM

This grant was made to enhance the Media Arts components of the Visual Arts Program at the New Mexico School for the Arts, the only statewide, public, residential high school for the arts in New Mexico.

Oak Openings Region Conservancy $12,000 Holland, OH

The Oak Openings Region Education Project, which addresses Ohio state science standards, provides 3rd, 4th, 5th grade and high school environmental education teachers in Northwest Ohio with lesson plans that emphasize the historical significance, value, and need to preserve the Oak Openings in an easy to use web-based digital format that includes videos, photographs, PDF’s and web links to the Oak Openings Region.

Phillips Exeter $40,615 Exeter, NH

Tuition assistance is provided to secondary school teachers to attend the Summer Professional Development Conference.

Port Townsend Marine Science Society, The $25,000 Port Townsend, WA

Whales of the Salish Sea is a three-day residential program for 5th and 6th grade students living on Washington’s Olympia and Kitsap Peninsulas. During the three days, participating students and their teachers learn about orcas and the Puget Sound marine ecosystem through hands-on activities, discussion, and reflection. An additional college readiness component adds one-half day aboard the schooner Adventuress where predominantly Native American students engage in activities designed to help them learn about science and its application to scientific careers.

Read for Literacy $30,000 (2 grants) Toledo, OH

Creating Young Readers Preschool and Elementary programs recruit and train volunteers to work with preschool through 2nd grade students who are at risk for falling behind in emergent or grade-level reading skills. The volunteers spend approximately 45 hours per school year working with each student on such skills as vocabulary, rhyming, word recognition, phonemic awareness, and reading fluency based on age or grade-level as well as to develop the students’ enjoyment of books and reading.

Funds were used to replace lost funding so that a volunteer-led reading program could begin as planned for 36 kindergarten students whose literacy skills are in the lowest 25% from a Toledo area public school.

Toledo Day Nursery $15,000 Toledo, OH

This accredited Step Up to Quality preschool program provides affordable child care for Toledo’s working and student parents. The curriculum is designed to enhance the children’s educational, social, emotional, and physical development.

Toledo School for the Arts $75,000 (2 grants) Toledo, OH

This charter school, which provides 6th – 12th grade students with creative opportunities to achieve personal and academic success through an arts-based education, is adding classrooms and equipment for technical and creative arts activities.

Toledo Science Center dba Imagination Station $26,000 Toledo, OH

The STEM Program Beyond Our Walls: Reaching Economically Disadvantaged Youth takes hands-on activities that have a science, technology, and/or math theme to Girl Scout troops, preschools, and summer camps that serve children from low income neighborhoods. The participating children and their families are also able to spend a day at Imagination Station enjoying fun, science-related activities.

University of Florida Foundation $32,000 Gainesville, FL

This grant supported the work of the University of Florida’s Whitney Laboratory for Marine Bioscience staff in the development and implementation of an interactive display of the Matanzas River Basin. The display, housed at the South Florida Science Center, is designed to help school-age youth learn about the biodiversity of the Matanzas River Basin and, hopefully, to interest them in science.

Veggie U $20,000 Oberlin, OH

The Veggie U A+ program provides a hands-on seed-to-planting-to-harvesting-to-eating experience that introduces school-age children with autism to vegetables. The multi-sensory program includes lesson plans, reproducible worksheets, and suggested activities that address reading and math, verbal and nonverbal skills, social skills such as turn taking and working in groups, and life skills such as making healthy food choices and setting the table all of which can be adapted for varying ability levels.

Mental & Physical Health

Alliance for Paired Donation $75,000 Maumee, OH

The Alliance for Paired Donation matches altruistic live kidney donors with those in need of a kidney transplant and helps to facilitate the kidney transplants through work with kidney transplant centers across the United States.

Diabetes Youth Services $25,000 Toledo, OH

The Nurse Outreach Program helps children with type 1 diabetes and their families learn the skills needed to monitor and control their blood sugar levels. The Nurse Outreach Program Director provides consultation and education to schools that have a student with type 1diabetes, works with families who have a child with diabetes either one-on-one or in small groups, and helps to establish support groups for parents.

Family Service of Northwest Ohio $15,000 Toledo, OH

The Batterer Intervention Program is designed to reduce the risk to victims of domestic violence by providing expert treatment for the male batterer. The 26-week group program that emphasizes the batterer’s accountability and ownership of choices and actions is co-facilitated by a licensed psychologist and licensed therapist.

Greenwich Hospital $1,000 Greenwich, CT

Grant funds were used by the Greenwich Hospital Hospice Program for Hospice patients who lack the ability to pay for needed services.

USA Aniridia Network $35,000 Charlottesville, VA

The Aniridia Foundation International Medical Registry collects medical and other data from individuals who have aniridia, a genetic eye condition. Data in the Medical Registry is made available to carefully selected researchers who wish to add to the knowledge and understanding of this genetic condition or to explore possible treatment options. The Victory Center $2,640 Toledo, OH

This organization that provides support and palliative care services for cancer patients and survivors used funds to help cover unexpected expenses related to the service fee for a donor database and printing of the participant newsletter for this organization

Other Philanthropic

Foundation Center - Cleveland $2,500 Cleveland, OH

This national organization provides information and resources designed to assist nonprofit organizations in the grant seeking process. The Center provides databases, print resource materials and training sessions at libraries across the country, including the Toledo/Lucas County Public Library.

Nonprofit Finance Fund $2,000,000 New York, NY

This program-related investment (PRI) loan will enable Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF) to assist nonprofit organizations with capital, cash flow, and similar needs that require financing. Funds will be used by NFF to assist programs that serve disadvantaged populations and that fit with the Stranahan Foundation priorities in the areas of human services, health, education, arts and ecological well-being. In the future, this PRI loan will be repaid to the Stranahan Foundation, at which time funds will become available for new grants or new PRIs.

Toledo Community Foundation $65,000 (2 grants) Toledo, OH

Funds support the Toledo Community Foundation and the Strategic Alliance Partnership, a collaboration of three Toledo area foundations, that provides funds that allow nonprofit organizations to explore opportunities for joint ventures (or even mergers) designed to reduce duplication of effort, improve service delivery, increase efficiency and/or conserve human or monetary resources.

Other $18,537 The Stranahan Foundation also supported the efforts of other philanthropic organizations including the Council on Foundations and Philanthropy Ohio.

Early Childhood Education Special Initiative – Invitation Only

Administrators of the Tulane Educational Fund $131,269 New Orleans, LA

The Early Childhood Mental Health Consultation program is offered to pre-K through 2nd grade classrooms at two charter schools and two community-based childcare centers. Trained early childhood mental health consultants provide mental health consultation, classroom coaching, and social skills groups to help early childhood educators support children’s social-emotional development and mental health; structure and manage classrooms in ways that promote positive behavior and reduce negative behaviors; and craft specific strategies and interventions in response to children experiencing behavior challenges.

Agenda for Children, Inc. $75,000 New Orleans, LA

The grant supported a feasibility study and development of a business plan for establishing a comprehensive Early Care and Education Professional Development Institute. The Institute would provide training, technical assistance and coaching for early childhood teachers in center- based, school and other early childhood setting in order to provide children with quality early childhood experiences that lead to school readiness.

Comprehensive Community Child Care Organization Inc. dba 4c for Children $199,455 Cincinnati, OH

4C for Children, which serves 40 counties in southwestern Ohio and northern Kentucky, educates and support the adults—parents, child care providers, preschool teachers, early learning program administrators—who care for young children and prepare them for success in school and life. The organization provides information on early care and education programs for parents, training and technical assistance for early childhood caregivers and teachers, and advocates for public support for quality early education and care for all children.

Erickson Institute $200,000 Chicago, IL

Erikson Institute operates the New Schools Project which establishes partnerships with Chicago rd Public Schools to implement high-quality PreK-3 grade education that includes family and cultural connections, classroom learning communities, practices that support child development, intellectually challenging teaching and learning activities, and continuous assessment to guide instruction.

Georgetown University $74,974 Washington, D.C.

Georgetown researchers are evaluating the long-term effects of quality pre-k education in Tulsa on students who entered 8th grade in the fall of 2014. The evaluation is addressing whether the gains pre-k students made in kindergarten persist through 8th grade; there is a difference among 8th grade students who did and did not attend pre-k; and pre-k had a long-term impact on social- emotional skills. The research will also assess the role of school quality, student mobility, and family engagement in mediating the long-term impacts of pre-k education.

Manaus Fund $150,000 Carbondale, CO

The Manaus Little Bus (El Busesito) program provides developmentally appropriate early learning services for 3-5-year-old children who would otherwise lack access to preschool. Two retrofitted school buses have been converted to preschool classrooms. The Little Buses travel to 6 sites in the Carbondale or Glenwood Springs areas to deliver a 90-minute preschool experience to classes of 7-10 children twice a week.

Meridian Community College $57,000 + $7,160 Meridian, MS

Through the early childhood department, the College is providing: (a) workshops for early childhood workers to assist them in understanding and implementing appropriate practices that support young children’s learning and development, and (b) parent-child sessions intended to build parents’ (or other family caregivers’) ability to support their children in developing age- appropriate social, physical and language skills and independence. In addition, grant funds have supported professional development opportunities for the College’s Early Childhood Education Technology program faculty.

Ounce of Prevention $100,000 Chicago, IL

Ounce’s Professional Development Initiative (PDI) is evaluating its program that provides intensive, individualized training and technical assistance to improve the quality of care, education, and family support for children in community-based early childhood centers.

Third Sector New England $34,499 Boston, MA

Grant funds supported a series of fact-finding activities and planning sessions with high performing early childhood education providers and networks from across the country. The purpose of this effort is to identify ways in which providers, funding partners, and others could work together to benefit and elevate quality in the early education sector.

Southwest Human Development $257,497 Phoenix, AZ

The Early Childhood Quality Initiative provides intensive coaching services to improve the quality of instructional support in 32 Maricopa County early childhood education (center-based childcare and Head Start) classrooms as well as an evaluation component to determine the effectiveness of the program.