WCGMF Grants: 2000

• Children First Initiative (CFI)
• Community Engagement and Parental Involvement Grants
• Director's Discretionary Grants
• Levin Fund Grants
• Membership Grants
• Policy Research and Advocacy Grants
• School Change Grants
• Totals

Children First Initiative (CFI)

$205,000	CFI Convening, Technical Assistance & Publications
$56,250	Danbury Children First Initiative / United Way of Northern Fairfield County
$62,500	Hartford Children First Initiative / Community Renewal Team of Hartford
$128,000	hildren First Initiative Evaluation / Center for Assessment and Policy Development
$75,000	Meriden Children First Initiative / United Way of Meriden
$50,000	Middletown Community First Initiative / Community Action for Greater Middlesex County
$50,000	New London Children First Initiative / Project LEARN
$50,000	Norwich Children First / United Community Services, Inc.
$50,000	Windham Children First Initiative / Windham Regional Community Council, Inc.

Community Engagement and Parental Involvement Grants

$15,000	All Our Kin
To provide legal and administrative support to help participants start their own family day care within the community.
$89,700	Children First Initiative Dissemination Project Child & Family Agency of Southeastern Connecticut, Inc.
To publish a manual of successful practices in the following four areas: Family Support, Parent Engagement and Leadership, Family Literacy and Transition from Community to School.
$30,000	Collaboration and Evaluation of After-School Programs / The Waterbury Foundation
For the second year of a project aimed at helping community youth service providers to coordinate and assess after school programs for K-8 grade students in five Waterbury neighborhoods.
$10,000	Danbury Children First Initiative
To support collaborative planning and action on issues affecting early childhood care and education and young children.
$24,300	Neighborhood Schools Collaborative Process Institute for Educational Innovation
To continue the creation of an enriched educational and neighborhood environment for children in ten public and private, elementary and middle schools in the Fair Haven section of New Haven, by adding an eleventh school and developing a long-term sustainability plan.
$65,000	Youth As Resources Regional Youth / Adult Substance Abuse Project
To develop and position children as leaders of real change to solve community problems placing emphasis on the problem of interpersonal conflict and violence.
$65,000	Youth As Resources / Promote the Peace Center for Youth as Resources
For expansion of a Bridgeport program that involves K-8 students in designing and running community service projects aimed at improving their classrooms, schools and neighborhoods.

Director's Discretionary Grants

$500	Bridgeport Child Advocacy Coalition / Family Services Woodfield
$100	Child Care Action Campaign
$2,500	A Community Vision for Waterbury
$1,500	Action Against Crime and Violence Education Fund
$1,000	Alliance for Children & Families
$2,500	Connecticut Association of Boards of Education, Inc.
$5,000	Connecticut Association of School Based Health Centers
$1,000	Connecticut Institute for Municipal Studies, Inc.
$4,000	Connecticut Policy and Economic Council
$5,000	E Magazine
$500	Eli Whitney Museum
$1,000	Fairfield University
$2,500	Friends of the Children's Hospital at Yale-New Haven
$5,000	Greens Farms Academy
$1,000	Independent Sector
$1,000	Institute for Educational Leadership
$500	Million Mom March
$1,500	National Storytelling Network
$5,000	New Haven Academy
$5,000	New Haven Public Education Fund, Inc.
$1,000	Orange Community Services
$5,000	Quinnipiac College
$500	South Arsenal Neighborhood Development Corporation
$5,000	The New Haven Ecology Project, Inc.
$1,000	The Open End Theater
$1,400	The Princeton Review Foundation, Inc.
$5,000	United Way of Greater New Haven
$5,000	Urban Solutions @ Youth Fair Chance
$5,000	WSHU Public Radio
$5,000	Yale Psychiatric Institute

Levin Fund Grants

$500	Mitchell College Children's Learning Center
$800	ArtWorks
$750	Benjamin Jepson School
$700	Danbury Children First Initiative
$451	Forbes School
$475	Hanover Elementary School
$500	Haystown Avenue School
$500	Israel Putnam Concerned Parent / Teacher Organization
$750	Meriden Children First Initiative
$520	Mitchell College Children's Learning Center
$500	Six to Six Interdistrict Magnet School
$500	The Village for Families and Children
$480	YWCA of the Hartford Region, Inc.

Membership Grants

$9,660	Council on Foundations
$500	Education Writers Association
$100	Family Support America
$5,000	Grantmakers for Children, Youth & Families
$175	Hispanics in Philanthropy
$4,000	Independent Sector
$2,000	Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility
$5,500	New York Regional Association of Grantmakers
$2,500	The Foundation Center

Policy Research and Advocacy Grants

$50,000	ASPIRA
To build organizational governance and financial capacity in order to continue promoting the positive development of Puerto Rican/Latino and other minority youth through community-based programs that focus on academic achievement, cultural awareness, college preparation and leadership.
$7,000	Bridgeport Public Education Fund
For a series of neighborhood school-based conversations about education.
$50,000	Capacity Building Institute to Prevent Violence / National Funding Collaborative on Violence Prevention
To support a national public information, media and advocacy component supporting violence prevention efforts in local communities and nationally.
$90,000	Charting A Course For Children’s Advocacy / Connecticut Association for Human Services
To implement the organization’s new strategic plan and explore deeper strategic alliances with other key child advocacy organizations in the state.
$100,000	Child Care Investment Fund In Connecticut Local Initiatives Support Corporation
To provide capital and technical support for child care facilities development in Connecticut in order to increase the supply and quality of child care and preschool programs available to all children in the state.
$75,000	Community Conversation Guides for Two New Topics / Public Agenda Foundation
To create a framework for public dialogue on two pressing educational issues: 1) student diversity, educational excellence and neighborhood schools, and 2) child care and early childhood education, and to develop print and video discussion materials (in both English and Spanish), moderator guides and moderator training materials for the conversations.
$10,000	Connecticut Council of Philanthropy
To increase public awareness of the role that foundations and the nonprofit sector play in civic life.
$35,000	Connecticut Metropolitics / Archdiocese of Hartford Office of Urban Affairs
To broaden public awareness of growing social and economic polarization and sprawling inefficient land use in metropolitan areas, using geographic information system maps and new alliances among cities, suburbs and rural communities.
$114,600	Conversations About Education/League of Women Voters of Connecticut Educational Fund, Inc.
To support the League and its statewide partners in promoting civil dialogue on education issues, and to help a growing number of communities use this new tool to identify common ground and build an action agenda among parents, the public and educators.
$60,600	Early Care and Education in Connecticut / Connecticut Voices for Children
To support organizational development and the expansion of public information, community outreach and citizen mobilization efforts through a variety of media.
$57,000	Education Initiative / Connecticut Policy and Economic Council
To pilot a model of community engagement and public information that brings community members together to create public school guides.
$25,000	From Policy to Practice 2000 / Connecticut Association for Human Services
To organize an education policy leadership briefing and provide state and local officials an opportunity to become better informed and exchange ideas on the education topic selected by representatives of the group.
$25,000	From Policy to Practice 2000 / William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund
To support the costs of the briefing.
$49,700	Growing Up in Poverty Dissemination and Policy Engagement Project / Yale University - The Bush Center in Child Development
To provide the public with preliminary data about the impacts of welfare reform on children. To develop public support for child care policies that help TANF parents move into the workforce and improve the quality of care their children receive.
$32,000	Latino Agenda 2001: Into the Next Millenium / State of Connecticut Latino and Puerto Rican Affairs Commission
To conduct a Needs Assessment Study to help prepare a Latino Agenda for the next millennium.
$50,000	National Teen Action Research Center Education and Advocacy Project / Institute for Community Research
To develop and pilot a model program that engages students in identifying and researching issues that effect the quality of education in their schools and elsewhere in the state.
$20,000	Professional Development Opportunities for Connecticut Reporters/Education Writers Association
To support scholarships for Connecticut reporters to attend national seminars on closing the achievement gap and other educational issues, and to participate in the National Fellowship in Education Reporting program
$55,000	Professional Development That Enhances Student Learning / University of Connecticut
To implement phase one of a model based on the principles of adult learning, developed at the Neag School of Education, for improving the proficiency of teachers and other educational professionals.
$74,200	Sheff v. O'Neill Research Study / The Civil Rights Project-Harvard University
To publish an accessible, well-researched book about the impact and future possibilities of the civil rights lawsuit, Sheff vs. O’Neill.
$35,000	Social State of Connecticut 2000/Fordham (University) Institute for Innovation in Social Policy
In cooperation with the Connecticut State Legislature, to continue a statewide trend analysis and provide the Social Health Index through 2000.

School Change Grants

$24,000	Celebration of Excellence / Area Cooperative Educational Service
To support the 14th Celebration of Excellence, a statewide teacher recognition program actively promoting professional development, networking and replication of award-winning curriculum units throughout the state and nation.
$50,000	Comprehensive School Reform Through Public Engagement / Terrel H. Bell School Reform Network
To provide technical assistance and follow-up support for implementing the comprehensive school reform model in ten Title 1 elementary schools throughout Connecticut.
$650,000	Connecticut Center for School Change
To support efforts of comprehensive reform in Connecticut schools.
$40,000	Early Care and Educational Training Initiative / EASTCONN
To initiate a new level of staff training and professional development for center-based and family day care providers.
$10,000	International Festival of Arts & Ideas
To support a series of public discussions on educational issues.
$25,000	Research on Education / William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund
To survey school reform literature, research and some of the national and statewide issues that provide a context for current educational trends in Connecticut.
$30,000	Schooling for Community Success / Windsor Public Schools
To engage the broader public and develop consensus about what students need to succeed in the 21st century.
$22,500	The Connecticut Network of Charter Schools / The New Haven Ecology Project, Inc.
To support and foster the excellence, effectiveness and responsiveness of Connecticut’s charter schools.

Totals