WCGMF Grants: 2002

• Director's Discretionary Grants
• Discovery Community Grants
• Levin Fund Grants
• Membership Grants
• Opportunity Fund Grants
• School Change Grants
• Statewide and Regional Grants
• Totals

Director's Discretionary Grants

$1,000	Alliance for Children & Families
$5,000	ASPIRA
$1,000	Boundless Playgrounds/Friendship Place
$750	Bridgeport Child Advocacy Coalition/Family Services Woodfield
$5,000	Bridgeport Public Education Fund / Neighborhood School Conversation
$1,500	Connecticut Association of Boards of Education, Inc.
$1,000	Connecticut Association of School Based Health Centers
$1,500	Connecticut Collaborative for Education Against Gun Violence
$3,600	Connecticut Council for Philanthropy
$1,500	Corinne G. Levin Education Fund
$2,500	Gazelle Productions, Ltd. / “Standing Tall” Series
$2,000	Grantmakers for Children, Youth & Families
$500	Greater New England Alliance of Black School Educators
$300	Greater New Haven Leadership Center / Youth Empowerment Team
$750	Greater New Haven Leadership Center / Youth Leadership Conference
$1,000	Greens Farms Academy / Horizons program for Bridgeport students
$2,500	Hope for New Haven
$1,000	Independent Sector
$3,000	International Festival of Arts and Ideas / Children’s Programs
$1,500	Junior League of Greenwich / Child Care 2000
$1,000	Martin Luther King School / Summer Kindergarten Orientation
$2,000	Mid-Fairfield Child Guidance Center / Devon’s Place Playground
$500	North End Arts Rising / The Buttonwood Tree
$600	Pooh Corner Preschool Learning Center
$1,000	The School for Ethical Education / Character Development
$2,500	United Way of Greater New Haven
$500	Volunteer Center for Greater New Haven, New Haven Scholarship Fund, and the New Haven Fund for Public Education
$5,000	WSHU National Public Radio

Discovery Community Grants

Ansonia	Valley United Way/Healthy Valley [Community info]
Bloomfield	Capitol Region Education Council [Community info]
Branford	The Branford Community Foundation [Community info]
Bridgeport	Bridgeport Public Education Fund [Community info]
Bristol	United Way of West Central Connecticut [Community info]
Brooklyn	United Services [Community info]
Chaplin	EASTCONN Regional Education Service Center [Community info]
Danbury	United Way of Northern Fairfield County / Danbury Children First [Community info]
East Hartford	East Hartford Community Project [Community info]
East Haven	Area Cooperative Educational Services [Community info]
Enfield	The After School Program [Community info]
Greenwich	United Way of Greenwich [Community info]
Griswold	EASTCONN [Community info]
Groton	United Way of Southeastern Connecticut [Community info]
Hamden	Area Cooperative Educational Services [Community info]
Hartford	Capitol Region Education Council [Community info]
Killingly, Plainfield, Putnam	Women’s Center of Northeastern Connecticut [Community info]
Manchester	Manchester Early Learning Center [Community info]
Mansfield	EASTCONN [Community info]
Meriden	United Way of Meriden [Community info]
Middletown	United Way of Middlesex County [Community info]
Milford	United Way of Milford [Community info]
Naugatuck	United Way of Naugatuck and Beacon Falls [Community info]
New Britain	New Britain Foundation for Public Giving [Community info]
New Haven	Community Foundation for Greater New Haven [Community info]
New London	LEARN Regional Education Service Center [Community info]
Norwalk	United Way of Norwalk & Wilton [Community info]
Norwich	United Community & Family Services [Community info]
Plymouth	United Way of West Central Connecticut [Community info]
Shelton	Boys & Girls Club of the Lower Naugatuck Valley [Community info]
Southington	United Way of Southington [Community info]
Stafford	First United Methodist Church [Community info]
Stamford	Child Care Learning Centers [Community info]
Stratford	Stratford Library Association [Community info]
Thompson	The Thompson Ecumenical Empowerment Group [Community info]
Torrington	Education Connection [Community info]
Vernon	Hockanum Valley Child Care Center [Community info]
Wallingford	The Quinnipiac Chamber of Commerce Trust [Community info]
Waterbury	United Way of the Central Naugatuck Valley [Community info]
West Hartford	The Bridge Family Center [Community info]
West Haven	Area Cooperative Educational Services [Community info]
Winchester	Winsted Area Child Care Center [Community info]
Windham	Windham Regional Community Council [Community info]
Windsor	Friends of Northwest Park [Community info]

Levin Fund Grants

$1,000	Benjamin Jepson School
$255	Edgewood School
$996	Hayestown Avenue School
$750	Laurel School
$500	Mitchell College Children’s Learning Center.
$750	New London Main Street Corporation
$500	Putnam Public School
$935	Second Hill Lane Elementary School
$750	The Village for Families and Children

Membership Grants

$5,400	Connecticut Council for Philanthropy
$11,367	Council on Foundations
$7,500	Grantmakers for Children, Youth & Families
$500	Grantmakers for Education
$175	Hispanics in Philanthropy
$3,866	Independent Sector
$2,000	Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility
$4,160	New York Regional Association of Grantmakers
$500	Rockefeller Family Fund
$2,750	The Foundation Center
$500	The Philanthropy Roundtable

Opportunity Fund Grants

$27,000	Avon Public Schools
To initiate in Avon and other Farmington Valley towns the Parents As Teachers program, an early childhood parent education and family support program that aims to strengthen families’ ability to nurture their young children.
$21,000	Connecticut Children’s Museum
For the Museum Multiple Intelligences Project, a pilot designed to strengthen the partnership of teachers and families in the education of young children by using the Museum’s exhibits as a shared learning environment.
$20,200	Connecticut School Readiness Network / Area Cooperative Educational Services
To support the Connecticut School Readiness Network of local school readiness councils as they share information and promote early childhood issues in their communities and across the state.
$35,000	Family Literacy Outreach Project / Connecticut Voices for Children
To support the Family Literacy Outreach Project, a collaborative effort among public and private organizations working to improve literacy.
$14,000	Hope for New Haven
To develop the organizational capacity of a collaboration among several New Haven churches to expand the supply of quality and affordable child care in their neighborhoods.
$44,000	Libraries for the Future
To support Life Options Libraries, aimed at enhancing the role of Connecticut libraries as centers for positive aging, engaging older residents in educational activities that benefit the state’s young children, and facilitating intergenerational exchange.
$10,000	Music and Arts Center for Humanity
To pilot the Start with Arts program in Bridgeport by providing training to parents and early childhood teachers on how to improve the quality of early learning by incorporating the arts into classroom activity.
$10,000	P.E.A.R.L.
To support a self-assessment by the Parent Education and Resident Leadership (P.E.A.R.L.) of its work with Bridgeport parents and to develop the organization’s future goals.
$20,000	The Cove Center for Grieving Children
To support those who work with grieving children through training, multicultural outreach and expansion of the Cove program to Meriden and surrounding communities.
$20,000	Weston Woods Institute
To support the Literacy Caravan, a staff development project providing literacy training for professionals and for family caregivers and others in early childhood settings.

School Change Grants

$800,000	Connecticut Center for School Change
For the Center’s efforts to improve student achievement by improving instructional leadership at the district and school levels. As a partner in the Memorial Fund’s Discovery Initiative, the Center commits at least half of its efforts to working with those communities participating in Discovery.

Statewide and Regional Grants

$65,000	Bridgeport Child Advocacy Coalition
To design and conduct in Bridgeport schools an assessment of parent engagement that will identify best practices, roles for principals and teachers, and recommendations for school and district changes to enhance parents’ roles in children’s education.
$162,000	Community Conversations About Education / League of Women Voters of Connecticut Educational Fund
With the League’s support and small grants, 18 Connecticut communities engaged citizens in conversations about ways to improve early childhood learning and K-12 education.
$25,000	Connecticut Association of Human Services
For the Education Fellows Program for emerging leaders among child care providers, teachers and parents who wish to become more effective on behalf of young children.
$25,000	Connecticut Association of Human Services
To support Champions for Early Childhood Education, a project that gives a voice to providers of early childhood care and education and offers important information on ways to improve the system.
$75,000	Connecticut Children’s Investment Partnership/Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC)
To expand and improve the buildings and spaces used by early learning centers through the generation of specialized capital and the provision of technical resources to local communities.
$10,000	Connecticut Council for Philanthropy
To support the Connecticut Giving Project, an initiative aimed at increasing knowledge and awareness about philanthropy, thereby expanding philanthropic capital in the state.
$128,500	Connecticut Voices for Children
For support of this statewide advocacy organization’s efforts to raise the profile of early childhood issues, to assist in the development of the Early Childhood Alliance’s strategic agenda, to link Voices’ advocacy work with the Discovery communities, and to participate in the national Early Childhood Communications Collaborative that is working to build awareness of the importance of early childhood learning.
$40,000	Danbury Children First Initiative / United Way of Northern Fairfield County
The goal of Parents As Partners in Danbury is to increase parental involvement in elementary schools, to document how children are faring, and to investigate ways to help more children succeed and to close the achievement gap.
$40,000	Early Childhood Data Primer/Connecticut Voices for Children
To support the work of Discovery communities with baseline demographic data, technical assistance on data gathering and its use, and the production of a data primer to guide others in gathering, computing and presenting data on children and families.
$60,000	Meriden Children First Initiative
For the Community Engagement, Leadership and Advocacy Project that includes leadership training for a diverse group of parents and research on critical issues related to child and family well-being.
$10,000	Public Agenda
To build Public Agenda’s capacity to respond to the most critical issues of the day with balanced presentations, unique insights and a perspective that encourages open discussion and deeper engagement in public life.
$35,000	The Social State of Connecticut / Fordham (University) Institute for Innovation in Social Policy
For support of the Social State of Connecticut, in partnership with the State of Connecticut, as a policy tool that reports on indicators of the social health of the state.
$10,000	United Community & Family Services / Greater Norwich Community Leadership Team
To increase the capacity of the Community Leadership Team to engage parents in parent leadership training, alumni activities and other opportunities for leadership graduates.
$32,000	Yale University Child Study Center
To extend to more sites an ongoing study of the impact of attending a highquality preschool program on young children’s educational success and on closing the achievement gap between low-income minority students and more affluent students.
$55,000	Youth As Resources / Regional Youth and Adult Substance Abuse Project
To support the continuation and evaluation of the impact of the Youth As Resources “Promote the Peace” program in seven Bridgeport schools; this program aims to improve students’ social, emotional and academic success by engaging them in projects that improve their schools and communities.

Totals