Recent Special Project Grants

Fall 2023

$125,000 to Center for the Homeless
Approaching 35 years of service to the South Bend community, the Center for the Homeless is now requiring extensive renovations in order to fit guests’ changing needs, keeping guests and staff safe, and allowing them to continually improve their programming and services in order to meet their mission of ending the cycle of homelessness in our community. Funds will be used for renovation of the Community Partners Building (north building) which houses their Early Childhood Intervention and Jobs, Training and Education Centers, community fellowship space, classrooms and administrative offices.

$125,000 to Women’s Care Center
Funds will be used to build a new Women’s Care Center in downtown Mishawaka. The City of Mishawaka is donating land and a parking lot at the corner of Lincolnway and Cedar. The new center will be double the size of their current small Mishawaka center, and will be located right next door to the potential One Roof St. Joseph County neighborhood center. With a dedicated classroom, more counseling and education rooms, and a large childcare space, the new center will allow for more classes and individual sessions, as well as for a new program in partnership with the health department to help women access prenatal care sooner. Women’s Care Center has a goal of 3,800 visits at the new center in 2025.

$75,000 to Boys & Girls Clubs of St. Joseph County
Funds will be used to support the planning and implementation of a Pilot Program for Harrison Elementary School. In collaboration with Beacon Community Impact, University of Notre Dame researchers, and The Child Abuse Services Investigation & Education Center’s Truancy Prevention Program (CASIE), their team is implementing a Coordinated Action for Resilience through Early-intervention (CARE) Pilot Program to provide a preventative, multi-tiered system of student and family support, focused on reducing chronic absenteeism and improving academic outcomes for K-5 students.

$55,000 to Clubhouse of St. Joseph County
Funds will be used to develop an Education and Employment Program to support Clubhouse members’ interests and goals in education and career development. The Education and Employment program is a signature program within the Clubhouse model, however Clubhouse SJC, who will be evaluated by Clubhouse International for consideration of accreditation in August 2024, does not currently have this program. Clubhouse SJC will use funding to help develop this program including supporting interested members’ participation in a professional peer support specialist training program.

$50,000 to Unity Gardens
Funds will support the Educational Expansion Program, which utilizes new resources to broaden Unity Gardens’ impact and programming reach. The four Season Geodesic Learning Lab, the Edgy Veggie Mobile Classroom, and the Giving Grove Urban Orchards will help Unity Gardens reach more people with more food in more spaces while creating additional program revenue. Each of these educational tools targets underserved populations who have less access to safe green space, fresh healthy food, and meaningful hands-on learning opportunities.

$25,000 to Neighbor to Neighbor
Funds will support expansion of Neighbor to Neighbor’s Welcome Project. Neighbor to Neighbor (N2N) trains volunteer teams to be paired with newly arrived refugees and asylum seekers in St. Joseph County through The Welcome Project. Through this project, volunteers practice welcoming newcomers through assistance with everyday needs, such as transportation assistance and education, employment assistance, meal sharing, and this program allows the newcomers to welcome volunteers into their homes and lives. N2N will be adding 100-150 new newcomers (clients) and a new cohort of volunteers, adding 50 new community members to the project. In total the organization will work with 150-200 new individuals through project expansion.

Spring 2023

$250,000 to Cultivate Culinary School and Catering, Inc.
Funding from this grant will be used for Cultivate’s Community Cold Storage capital expansion project. This new state-of-the-art cold storage facility will provide the community with 21,000 square feet of cold storage for rescued food with the capacity to receive up to 78 truckloads of food at once. This will allow for the rescue of 19 million pounds of food each year that will be redistributed to over 100 community partners. Cultivate has rescued over 1.5 million pounds of food directly from St. Joseph County in the past five years and over 50% of the organization’s food distribution remains in our county.

$100,000 to Potawatomi Zoological Society
Funds will be used to support Potawatomi Zoo’s newest capital project: a Concession Lodge and Bear Habitat. The 6,000-square-foot Lodge will include a dining area that looks directly into the bear habitat. This project is part of the Zoo’s $10.7-million “Phase 3” of its Master Plan, which also includes a new, upgraded lion habitat and a state-of-the-art Amur tiger exhibit. The Concession Lodge has capacity for indoor seating of 120 plus 300-400 on an outdoor plaza, a significant upgrade from the Zoo’s current modest concessions area.

$50,000 to Kindness to Prevent Blindness
The Kindness to Prevent Blindness (K2PB) program provides a community service annually to hundreds of students by treating and preventing eye issues. This mobile eye clinic provides space for screenings and a lab for making glasses. Students in need of glasses receive two free pairs, as well as a voucher for a replacement pair if needed. Since its founding in 2018, K2PB has provided over 5,000 eye exams and 8,000 pairs of eyeglasses to students in St. Joseph and Elkhart counties. This funding will support a dedicated pediatric optometrist to staff the mobile unit part-time, as staffing shortages in the medical industry are making it harder to find volunteer doctors. Over 65% of K2PB’s services have been for St. Joseph County students, serving over 60 different St. Joseph County schools.

$25,000 to Center for Civic Innovation (University of Notre Dame)
Notre Dame’s Center for Civic Innovation (CCI) Summer Internship Program will partner with the Near Northwest Neighborhood (NNN) and St. Paul Bethel Baptist Church to design and implement a public play area for children on the church-owned lot at 715 Leland Avenue in South Bend. Funds will be used for construction materials for the play area; support for the interns performing the design work is provided by a matching grant from the Leighton Foundation. This collaborative project has additional support from the City of South Bend IGNITE grant.

$7,000 to Reins of Life
Funding from this grant will help expand Reins of Life’s Interactive Vaulting program, covering the mandatory workshop and training costs for two instructors to become PATH-certified in Interactive Vaulting and the necessary equipment for program expansion. Interactive Vaulting, or Therapeutic Vaulting, is a type of physical activity for children and adults with balance, attention, motor skill, or social-emotional deficits. This project will secure components to cover the growing demand for these services by participants with behavioral and social diagnoses.

Fall 2022

$250,000 to Oaklawn Foundation for Mental Health (payable over two years)
This grant will support a $5 million capital project that will replace Oaklawn’s 170-year-old building and transform how the organization provides mental health and substance use services to St. Joseph County residents. The new space will allow Oaklawn to expand its existing programs and staff, and will include an integrated physical care clinic, a pharmacy, multiple new group therapy rooms, an additional 52 therapy offices, and telehealth offices.

$125,000 to Transformation Ministries
This grant will support Transformation Ministries’ renovation of 1101 King Street in South Bend. This additional space will allow the organization to expand its current program capacity from 15 to 75 students in “City Light Kids” (grades K-5), 72 to 100 students in “Iron Sharpens Irons” (middle and high school students), 20 to 50 young adults in “Alumni,” and 100 to 400 people at family-style dinners. The building will also include a Family Resource Center that can accommodate over 100 community members. Transformation Ministries’ current building on Portage Avenue will be renovated into an Early Learning Center, serving children up to age 5.

$100,000 to Boys & Girls Clubs of St. Joseph County
This grant supports BGCSJC’s transportation program, encompassing the purchase of two 25-passenger buses, one yellow bus, and the salary for two part-time bus drivers. A recent grant awarded by the IDOE’s STRIVE program has resulted in significant growth in the number of youth that BGCSJC serves (from 500 to 1,700 students), the number of Club sites (from 10 to 25), and total staff (from 50 to 180). Housing its own transportation program will allow BGCSJC to create many more experiential learning programs and will get Club members there safely with dependable staff and reliable vehicles.

$100,000 to Goodwill Industries of Michiana
This grant will help support the creation of The Academy at Goodwill’s Bendix Campus. Located within the same building as The Excel Center, this new 35,000-square-foot facility will include an Automotive Training Center, as well as spaces for certification courses in welding, CNC, construction (in partnership with Habitat for Humanity), and industrial sewing. Goodwill plans to serve 150-180 students across these programs annually. The building will have dedicated conference room space available for local nonprofits to use for training and professional development.

$55,000 to the Upper Room Recovery Community
This grant will help upgrade the kitchen and community room in the Men’s Home at the Upper Room Recovery Community (URRC), making the space feel more like “home” for residents. With access to the upgraded kitchen, 32 male residents will have the opportunity to establish healthy eating habits by cooking balanced meals in conjunction with URRC’s Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL) program. Renovations will include new flooring, cabinets, countertops, sinks, energy-efficient light fixtures and extended wiring, as well as large energy-efficient appliances which will reduce utility costs.

$50,000 to Faith IN Indiana (payable over two years)
This grant will support Faith IN Indiana St. Joseph County Chapter’s efforts to build and broaden grassroots leadership and participation through training 50 leaders and engaging in hundreds of relationship-building and listening meetings. Ultimately, Faith IN Indiana seeks to improve our community’s dialogue around significant issues by bringing together a broad base of citizens from different faith and cultural backgrounds.

Spring 2022

Winter 2021

$45,000 to Mishawaka Parks & Recreation Foundation
This grant will support updates to Temple Park, located on the north side of Mishawaka, as part of the city’s strategic plan for parks development. Community Foundation funding will be used to complete two basketball courts, a pavilion with picnic tables, and ADA-compliant playground equipment with special amenities for visually impaired children; in addition, Temple Park will receive a new playground, bathroom, and interior sidewalks.

$25,000 to Holy Cross College
Students of the Moreau College Initiative (MCI), a college-in-prison program sponsored by Holy Cross College and the University of Notre Dame, earn a college education while incarcerated in Westville Correctional Facility, but face steep barriers in finding employment once released. This grant will help fund a staff position at Holy Cross College that will provide career support and professional development to formerly incarcerated men as they reintegrate into society.

Spring 2021

$50,000 to Cultivate Culinary School and Catering, Inc.
Cultivate Culinary School and Catering will use funds for its Food Procurement Program, which was created to meet a growing need for balanced and staple food items in local food pantries. The goal is to provide necessary perishable items to food pantries through food rescue work, as well as to utilize combined purchasing power to source items at a much lower cost than pantries can currently achieve. In support of this, Cultivate has hired a full-time Food Sourcing Agent to build a comprehensive network of food donors and food distributors while assessing food pantries’ needs and capacities.

$50,000 to Potawatomi Zoological Society
The Potawatomi Zoo is receiving funding for the Giraffe Feeding Adventure. This project will include a giraffe barn, exhibit, and feeding platform, as well as an indoor feeding opportunity. As the only Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) accredited institution within 90 miles, the Potawatomi Zoo is in the position to become a regional destination with this exhibit.

$30,000 to Five Star Life
Five Star Life (FSL) is receiving funding to provide experiential outdoor summer programs for children from kindergarten through 12th grade at Summit, FSL’s 300-acre leadership training facility in Union, MI. Students will engage in a wide variety of outdoor activities such as archery and hatchet throwing, nature education, sports, horsemanship, team-building and more. FSL enhances its programs with a social-emotional learning curriculum, adding value for children who have lost extracurricular activities, interactions, sports, and more during the ongoing pandemic. FSL is working closely with the United Way of St. Joseph County to partner with youth-serving organizations in our county that will recommend children who would benefit from this program.

$30,000 to South Bend Rotary Charitable Foundation
South Bend Rotary Charitable Foundation is receiving this grant as part of Phase II of the Habitat for Humanity/Carter Work Project in Mishawaka, just south of Byrkit and Jefferson streets, which will take place September 20–24, 2021. In partnership with Habitat, Rotary Club of South Bend will lead other area Rotary clubs in building a safe, universally-accessible and fun playground in Darnell Park for families living nearby.

$25,000 to Transformation Ministries
Transformation Ministries currently provides middle and high school students with programming focused on mentoring, academic empowerment, life skills development, and social-emotional learning. This grant will support its new after-school program for K-5 students, known as “City Light Scholars,” modeled after its successful middle and high school program. Beginning in fall 2021, the program will serve 30-40 elementary students during the first school year, with plans to increase the number the following year.

$20,000 to Robinson Community Learning Center – University of Notre Dame
The Robinson Community Learning Center (RCLC) is receiving funds to scale up its summer programming by increasing the ages of children served, extending weeks of operation, offering morning and afternoon sessions, and adding new programs. Instruction will address learning loss in reading and math and will incorporate Design Thinking as well as the Take Ten curriculum. RCLC will provide six weeks of summer programming, five days per week, serving a total of 116 children from pre-kindergarten through 12th grade.

Winter 2020