Recent Special Project Grants
Fall 2024
$200,000 to Mishawaka Parks & Recreation Foundation, Inc.
The Miracle League Field at Normain Heights Park project was established to increase access, awareness, and the quality of life for people with disabilities in St. Joseph County and beyond. As the region’s first Miracle Field, participants will finally have the chance to play organized baseball in a safe, welcoming environment while giving families a place to connect and build lasting relationships. The field, along with additional features, are part of a two-phase renovation plan for Normain Heights, a park that has not undergone any significant improvements since it was built 50+ years ago.
$137,500 to Hope Ministries
Hope Ministries recently launched Phase 1 of its Campaign for Home. Phase 1 addresses critical infrastructure, safety and revenue needs to ensure the home Hope provides to families, men and women will endure for years to come and sets the stage for Phase 2 which will expand and enhance the home. Hope has about 100 residents, which includes a combination of separate housing sections for men, women and families. They serve their residents lunch and dinner daily, along with an additional 95 people per day from the community who are in need.
$125,000 to Habitat for Humanity of St. Joseph County
Funds will be utilized to support costs associated with launching Habitat for Humanity’s new Homeownership Training Center, which will also serve as their organizational headquarters. This vibrant space – a renovated former medical building in Mishawaka – will be large enough to accommodate organizational growth and allow Habitat to facilitate more mission-driven services in a single, welcoming location. By addressing their space, logistical, and safety challenges, Habitat will be able to better meet St. Joseph County’s growing need for affordable housing.
$100,000 to Potawatomi Zoological Society
Funds will support the Potawatomi Zoo’s newest capital project, Big Cat Tracks, a state-of-the-art Amur tiger and leopard habitat. This project will be the first expansion in the Zoo’s history, incorporating two additional acres recently acquired from the City of South Bend, adjacent to the current Zoo border. This unique experience integrates the existing landscape of the park, creating a naturalistic experience for not only the big cats, but for guests as well.
$100,000 to Boys & Girls Clubs of the Northern Indiana Corridor
Funds will help support BGC’s Leadership Academy, which will provide academic enrichment, personal growth opportunities, character and leadership development for suspended students from local partner school districts. The building will also have a training hub for Club staff during the day and a Tween Center after school, providing 5-8th graders access to these high-quality programs. This project addresses a vital community need and aligns with BGC’s mission to prepare all youth for successful futures.
$50,000 to Neighbor to Neighbor
Funds will help support Neighbor to Neighbor’s (N2N) project expansion to hire a full-time social worker to improve the quality and impact of services, ensuring sustainable support for immigrant and refugee families. N2N seeks to enhance its capacity to transform the South Bend community by alleviating isolation and fostering empathy among immigrant and refugee newcomers and local residents. N2N plans to increase their volunteer teams by 50%, totaling 12-15 teams and to increase the number of newcomer families they support by expanding their capacity to 125 individuals in 2025.
$40,000 to Shirley Heinze Land Trust, Inc.
Funds will help support the Lydick Bog Nature Preserve Expansion Project. The project includes preservation of a 93 acre addition to the 178 acre preserve, installation of 1 mile trail to connect the preserve to Pine Road and the Indiana Dinosaur Museum trail system, repair and enhancement of the existing 1.7 mile trail system, installation of informational and interpretive signage, and nature based outdoor programming to activate the trail with the surrounding residents of St. Joseph County.
$25,000 to A Rosie Place for Children
A Rosie Place for Children is embarking on a journey to bring to life the vision of an onsite completely adaptable art studio. Funds will help support a beautifully designed space specifically for medically fragile children and staff to co-create one-of-a-kind pieces of art. This new addition will have a special destination and purpose, be fully accessible and overlook the beautiful natural scenery. “HeARTworks Studio” will foster developmental exploration in a fulfilling sensory environment.
$25,000 to Dustin’s Place
Dustin’s Place provides peer grief support to children and families following the death of an important person in their life. This project is an expansion from their current grief support groups; bringing school grief support groups into at least 15 St. Joseph County Schools in 2025. Expansion will include hiring of a School Program Coordinator. Dustin’s Place school program provides a weekly peer grief support group during the school day for 8 weeks each semester. Through this program students learn what grief is and how grief includes so many emotions beyond what is typically believed, coping skills for those emotions, and hope in their grief journey.
$15,000 to Green Bridge Growers
Funds will support Green Bridge Growers’ Farm to Preschool project. This project expands on a US Department of Agriculture grant awarded to pilot this program. This is a carefully crafted format that incorporates an in-class farm to preschool curriculum, family engagement (cooking demos, nutrition education, tours), preschool gardens, and local food sourcing. Green Bridge Growers’ goal is to create a sustained model for delivering their preschool curriculum through existing partnerships with Ready to Grow St. Joe, area colleges and universities, specifically St. Mary’s College Speech and Language Department.
Spring 2024
$150,000 to Reins of Life
Funds will be used for Reins of Life’s capital expansion project which will include a weather-protected entrance and accessible parking lot, classroom with an adjacent bathroom, conference room, private spaces for staff, volunteers and medical professionals, enlargement of the indoor arena, additional horse stalls, tack room, a fire suppression system and handicap-accessible walkways. With the proposed additions, Reins will significantly improve their ability to fulfill the current demand, anticipate growing enrollment by 25%, and will continue to deliver high-quality, consistent programming.
$94,000 to Imani Unidad, Inc.
As a trusted voice, ally, and advocate for St. Joseph County, Imani is an ideal partner with underserved and underrepresented stakeholders in the community. Funds will support Imani’s program expansion with a two-prong strategy: 1) to relocate the program team into its newly donated renovated facility at 2806 Lincoln Way, South Bend and 2) hiring an Outreach Manager position. Building renovations will create adequate and improved space for drop-in services and programs that Imani provides, such as HIV/HCV testing and connection to community resources, a confidential counseling room, education, training, and hosting of multiple programs such as Imani’s peer individual and group supports. The lower level has a small, outdated kitchen that will be updated to a small commercial kitchen to host nutrition and cooking classes and serve as an additional resource.
$55,000 to LOGAN
Through recent federal and state changes, LOGAN has been challenged to reimagine their service delivery model for clients receiving day services. Funds will support LOGAN’s new Life Enrichment and Employment Pathways, which will provide three pathways to competitive integrated employment, emphasizing community engagement. These pathways are tailored to individual needs and interests, offering diverse opportunities for clients with intellectual developmental disabilities.
$50,000 to South Bend Youth Hockey
South Bend Youth Hockey and the Ice Box skating rink provide access to a skating facility for youth of all ages to learn to skate, play and enjoy ice hockey, and figure skating. Funds will be used to support the addition of a third rink, which will help increase equity and access for ice time. While new rink will boost the Ice Box’s already sizable impact on the local economy through hosting out-of-town tournaments and guests, its enduring impact on St. Joseph County will be in unlocking opportunities for underserved local youth to engage in safe and fun activities.
$35,000 to University of Notre Dame
The South Bend Entrepreneurship & Adversity Program (SBEAP) through the University of Notre Dame’s McKenna Center offers an 11-month wraparound solution for helping disadvantaged individuals start and grow businesses. Since 2020, SBEAP has trained and equipped 346 entrepreneurs in South Bend, and saw 189 businesses launched. To provide more support and help address unique challenges and problems that arise, funds will help support a drop-in center to facilitate ongoing support for entrepreneurs: The SBEAP Entrepreneurship Empowerment Zone. In addition to tailored support services, the site will offer expanded, ongoing training, mentoring, and consulting.
$27,000 to YWCA North Central Indiana, Inc.
Over the past year, more than 760 women and their 400 children called the YWCA North Central Indiana domestic violence shelter in South Bend home. Most of these children witnessed domestic violence or were victims of abuse themselves and are at risk for serious long-term physical and mental health concerns. Funds will support YWCA’s Children’s Counselor position to help clients heal and move forward with their lives with the confidence they need to overcome trauma.
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
$150,000 to Indiana University South Bend (payable over two years)
This grant will support the creation of IU South Bend’s modern Healthcare Simulation Center, a 20,000 square-foot center that will include state-of-the-art applied clinical spaces, fully equipped with modern simulation and virtual technologies for hands-on learning opportunities. The Healthcare Simulation Center will help the campus meet current and growing demand for health science programs.
$100,000 to Camp Millhouse, Inc.
This grant will help Camp Millhouse replace its deteriorated main lodge. The new 6,500-square-foot lodge will almost double the size of the old building, better meeting the needs of the children and adults with disabilities that Camp Millhouse serves. Improvements will include new bathrooms with adult changing tables, as well as expanded kitchen space devoted to food preparation and storage.
$60,000 to LOGAN
This grant supports LOGAN’s efforts to offer speech and behavioral services to children in the Early Learning Center in the United Way of St. Joseph County’s new Southeast Neighborhood Center. It will help to provide a full-time speech and language pathologist (SLP), a part-time board-certified behavior analyst (BCBA), and the special tools and equipment for these services. All 112 students at the ELC will have access to these services. LOGAN plans to replicate this model at each of the future United Way neighborhood centers planned throughout St. Joseph County.
$25,000 to Near Northwest Neighborhood, Inc.
This grant will be used for repairs and upgrades to Near Northwest Neighborhood’s (NNN) Community Center on Portage Avenue. The building has served the NNN and community since 1997, hosting more than 800 well-attended neighborhood events annually. Planned projects include updates to the roof, parking lot, and building exterior, as well as upgrades to security systems, internet access, and HVAC equipment.
$24,000 to Broadway Christian Parish United Methodist Church
This grant will support improvements to Broadway Christian Parish’s hospitality facilities for homeless and low-income individuals. On Monday through Thursday, BCP serves breakfast to more than 50 people, and currently the organization has only one shower/toilet/grooming station. This funding will make it possible to add new, accessible bathrooms that include additional shower and grooming facilities.
$20,000 to enFocus, Inc.
Using Pete Buttigieg’s Carbon Neutral 2050 (CN2050) plan as a guide, enFocus is creating the Carbon Sustainability Pilot Program to address the impact of residential housing emissions within South Bend, which they estimate to contribute approximately 44% of the city’s total carbon emissions. This grant will help support a multi-phase process through which enFocus will map out South Bend’s stakeholders and infrastructure, and then develop and implement pilot-level projects to help residents reduce their housing emissions.
Winter 2021
$250,000 to Youth Service Bureau (YSB)
This grant will support a new 22,000 sq. ft. facility that will allow YSB to provide a continuum of services under one roof, from prevention to housing, to support youth who are in crisis and/or struggling with homelessness. The YSB Center for Youth Success will be the first of its kind in St. Joseph County, consolidating YSB programming that currently operates out of three separate aging facilities.
$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
$100,000 to Boys & Girls Clubs of St. Joseph County
This grant will support Boys & Girls Clubs of St. Joseph County’s (BGCSJC) 2021 “No Screen” Summer Programming in at least six different locations in South Bend and Mishawaka, serving over 500 students. These funds will allow BGCSJC to maintain the necessary staff, institute COVID safety measures, purchase PPE, and provide innovative and collaborative programming for disadvantaged youth, with an emphasis in academic recovery and social and emotional support in response to COVID-19. These efforts aim to curb the summer slide and provide a safe, fun and supportive learning environment.
$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
$100,000 to United Way of St. Joseph County (payable over two years)
Funds will be used to build a Southeast Neighborhood Center that will serve as a replicable model in the fields of education, youth and community development, on five empty lots donated by 466 Works and the City of South Bend. The site is located on the corner of Fellows and Dubail and located three blocks away from the Boys and Girls Club and Ivy Tech. Anchored by a high-quality Early Learning Program, the new facility will provide holistic health, youth, and senior services as a “under one roof” model and is adjacent to 24 new single-family units of affordable housing. Many community partners will be involved with the new Center, including Head Start, REAL Services, LOGAN, local hospital systems and several others.
$50,000 to Oaklawn (payable over two years)
Funds will support for Partnership for Children – St. Joseph County (PFC SJC), which is a collaboration among youth-serving agencies in SJC that help identify youth with emotional or behavioral health issues earlier, gets them help faster and improves outcomes for children, families and youth care workers. Partner agencies provide important front-line support to over 17,000 youth living in SJC. PFC SJC partners, youth, and families will have access to local, free mental health training, support, and services from Oaklawn. Oaklawn is utilizing the framework from Partnership for Children – Elkhart County as a guide for SJC but tailoring the needs to SJC specifically based on the local landscape and established partnerships with youth-serving agencies.
$30,000 to YWCA North Central Indiana, Inc.
Funds will be used to hire a master’s level sexual assault therapist to provide counseling services to victims of sexual assault. Through this new program, the YWCA plans to provide counseling to 50 victims in the first year. Clients will articulate progress towards recovery measured through the Family Development Matrix. The program will help victims overcome the trauma of sexual assault; whether it was a recent experience or from their past, a victim seeking counseling is never turned away from the YWCA without having been provided the counseling they seek.
$25,000 to Ivy Tech Foundation
Funding will be used to expand Ivy Tech’s pre-nursing/nursing programs to meet the region’s growing demand for healthcare professionals, specifically LPN and ASN graduates. The number of students applying for the nursing program significantly outweighs the number of available spots. Ivy Tech is partnering with Beacon Health System, which includes Memorial Hospital, to increase access for students to gain clinical seats for the nursing program. Funds will be used to help expand their current nursing facility and purchase necessary equipment for the simulation lab at the South Bend Campus. This program will help bridge the gap of the severe nursing shortage in the region, as Ivy Tech nursing graduates have a high retention rate for staying in local workforce.
$25,000 to LOGAN
Funds will be used to design and implement an intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) curriculum into Studios (Day Services) to provide more than 450 clients in LOGAN day services an impactful day and ensure their desired quality of life. The new curriculum will be designed to include previous favorite activities and programs, new technology, and new safety mandates, and allow clients to learn skills to enable them to become independent, helping them to be successful in social, employment, and even vocational and school settings. The project includes equipment and the use of three staff coordinators to create the new program, which is being modeled after a state-of-the-art curriculum from a regional I/DD peer organization, Opportunity Enterprises. The coordinators will guide and teach direct support professionals to create daily, meaningful activities for LOGAN clients.
$20,000 to St. Joseph County Health Department
St. Joseph County Health Department’s Fetal Infant Mortality Review (FIMR) will use funds to form a partnership with the National Birth Equity Collaborative (NBEC). Through their partnership with NBEC, they plan to develop effective strategies to eliminate inequalities in birth outcomes for black mothers and infants in St. Joseph County through community engagement, internal program and policy assessment, and development of a Birth Equity Workplan. FIMR will work with their established partners, including both hospital systems and community agencies that serve women and families, to implement the plan that comes forward from their partnership with NBEC.
Winter 2019
$40,000 to Upper Room Recovery Community
Funding will be used to complete renovation of their historic home which will be occupied by 16 women in recovery. Last fall they began a capital campaign to rehab, re-zone and make ADA compliant, a historic home that has now opened as their women’s residence. They have secured much funding for programming and case management but funds will help cover completion of the work by contractors.
$25,000 to South Bend Heritage Foundation
Funding will be used for center repairs. The Charles Martin Youth/Community Center has been an anchor in the community and surrounding neighborhood for over 20 years, serving youth with educational programming, hosting governmental, community, and special events, and offering tenant and partner space. The building is in need of vital repairs, including a new parking lot, accessibility, plumbing, electrical, and AV upgrades, and other general safety and stabilization repairs. These repairs will ensure that the Center will continue to serve the community and its youth in a safe and accessible environment for many more years.
$15,000 to Family & Children’s Center
Funding will be used to help ensure safer sleep habits in homes. They will work to enhance sleep safety among babies born in St. Joseph County by offering free Baby Boxes for infants to sleep in during their first six months of life. Baby Boxes provide parents a safe alternative where baby can sleep, nap or rest when parents are busy or sleeping. Baby Boxes give new parents the ability to have baby close by with out the dangers of bed sharing and other unsafe sleep practices.
$10,000 to Dismas of Indiana
Funding will be used to help restore their 140 year old house. The Dismas House provides housing/training for persons recognized by the courts as redemptive. Their graduates are twice as likely (88% to 44% for Indiana) to never be reincarcerated again. Their location has structural problems causing it to be unsafe for residents. Funding will help replace windows, paint the exterior, fix plumbing and electrical needs.
$6,700 to Youth Services Bureau of St. Joseph County
Funding will be used to train case managers in the Parents as Teachers evidence-based home visiting model. YSB’s Young Moms’ Self-Sufficiency Program (YMSSP) is a home visiting program that provides opportunities for at-risk pregnant or parenting young women ages 16 through 24 to overcome the many, complex barriers to self-sufficiency and decrease the possibility of child abuse and neglect. Funding will allow case managers can be trained in the Parents as Teachers (PAT) evidence-based home visiting model to improve YMSSP outcomes. In 2018, the YMSSP served 258 young women with more than 600 children.
Spring 2019
$75,000 to St. Joseph County Parks Foundation
Grant funds will be used to support development of a Natural PlayScape, a natural play area which will serve as a recreational/educational amenity encompassing over 1.5 acres of open space and woods at St. Patrick’s County Park. It will highlight the theme of the St. Joseph River and offer multiple stations utilizing natural features, such as rocks, logs and water to encourage children to manipulate elements and develop problem solving skills and creativity. Areas for climbing, digging, and crawling through tunnels will be linked with an accessible path. The central hub will feature a shade structure that will serve as a gathering point.
$40,000 to Women’s Care Center
Women’s Care Center has served women on South Bend’s west side from a small center on Chapin Street for several years. With the completion of a recent capital campaign, a much larger west side center will open fall 2019 and allow for growth in educational programs. Funds will be used for program expansion at the new west side center and a new curriculum for parents entitled, “Raising Kids with Character.”
$25,000 to Robinson Community Learning Center
Funds will help support a staff training initiative to integrate design thinking and a makerspace curriculum and equipment at Robinson Community Learning Center (RCLC). Makerspace curriculum uses design thinking with the elements of STEAM encouraging curiosity, creativity, experimentation and innovation. RCLC staff will use the 2019-2020 academic year to complete training and prepare the new curriculum, which will be used across program areas in their new facility. The facility will include a technology lab connected to the makerspace.
$25,000 to University of Notre Dame – College of Engineering (Center for Civic Innovation)
The University of Notre Dame’s College of Engineering, specifically the Center for Civic Innovation (CCI) is collaborating with the City of South Bend and Riley High School for a hands-on environmental data lab. The project will engage diverse intern teams to install sensors at key sections of Bowman Creek and install a weather sensor to collect data for integration in Riley High School courses and capstone projects. The project will take place in the diverse Southeast Neighborhood where poverty rates are high.
$10,000 to Neighborhood Resources Connection
Funds will be used for expansion of the Neighborhood Resource Connection’s Engaging Youth Engaging Neighborhoods (EYEN) photovoice and civic leadership curriculum to launch the EYEN Advisory Council in close partnership with the City of South Bend. Participants will collectively define a community concern or opportunity through photovoice (an arts-based research methodology) and then learn and exercise the process to prepare legislation for City Council consideration. The project will facilitate active civic engagement among youth and empower them to take tangible action to improve their neighborhoods. The cohort’s photovoice images will also be displayed during an annual event.
$9,500 to O’Hana Heritage Foundation (A Rosie Place)
Funds will be used to expand A Rosie Place’s (ARP) art therapy program for medically fragile children. Funds will allow ARP to contract an art therapist for one year to develop an art program that offers projects for every level of ability through a variety of art mediums, help support the cost of materials, and program implementation expenses. Projects will be featured at Art Beat to promote the diversity and inclusion of medically fragile children in our community and used to develop their annual art calendar.
$5,000 to St. Joseph Polish Roman Catholic Cemetery Association of SJC
Funds will be used to provide St. Joseph County and surrounding communities the opportunity to visit “The Wall That Heals” which is a 3/4 scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington D.C. The project also includes a Mobile Education Center, and a Hometown Heroes display; the event will take place September 19-22, 2019. The project is an effort to “remember, heal, honor and educate” those in our community on the impact of the Vietnam War.
Winter 2018
$100,000 to South Bend Venues Parks & Arts
Grant funds will be used to support the Howard Park Redevelopment. The park itself will be a four-season regional attraction, complete with a community center, an ice skating trail with ice bridge (first in the country), fire pits, generous plaza space, an event lawn, an interactive water fountain, a signature universally accessible playground, a cafe, and many more features.
$75,000 to Clubhouse of St. Joseph County
Funding will be used for purchase and renovation of a former warehouse in South Bend, located at 1153 Northside Boulevard. Centrally located with access to public transportation, the Clubhouse is open daily to those in our community living with mental illness. The Clubhouse helps provide additional purpose and meaning to members’ lives through Clubhouse activity and community job placement.
$50,000 to Cultivate Culinary School and Catering, Inc.
Funding will be used to help purchase and renovate a larger building and freezer for their food rescue program. This program is serving approximately 30,000 people struggling with food security in St. Joseph County, with capacity to do more. The goal is to rescue more food and feed more people by distributing 5,000 meals per week, which would be over 250,000 meals per year.
$12,000 to United Way of St. Joseph County
Funds will be used for the United Way’s Kindergarten Readiness Camps. These camps are a last-chance intervention to impact school readiness and to set the stage for positive educational experiences for students and their families. The eight camps planned for 2019 will target four and five year-old children from low-income families who are not participating in early learning programs prior to kindergarten. Two camps serving 20-25 students are planned in each of St. Joseph County’s four school districts.
$11,750 to YWCA North Central Indiana, Inc.
Funds will be used for a new domestic violence outreach program, “Domestic Violence Comes to Work – What Employers Should Know,” that will help increase community involvement in combating this stigmatized, under-reported, often lethal social issue. The program is in addition to the successful Teen Dating Violence Prevention Program and is designed for area employers and their employees. The program began October 2018 as part of YWCA’s Domestic Violence Awareness Month programming.