At its annual Grant Awards Celebration, held on May 29, the Evanston Community Foundation (ECF) awarded $258,330 in 2014 grants. The event celebrated recipients of the full range of ECF grants, including Communityworks, root2fruit, Responsive Grants, Partners for the Future, and Community Catalyst grants.
“Tonight’s awards demonstrate the depth of commitment the foundation has to the Evanston community,” said ECF President and CEO Sara Schastok. “The 28 grantees were selected from a strong pool of 73 proposals requesting $805,709. If we had the resources, we would have awarded at least an additional 24 grants, and more than twice the dollars,” she added.
The grants include a $15,000 special-initiative grant to the Midwest Child-Parent Centers Expansion to enhance achievement for Pre-K to third-graders by investing in one cohort of low-income families through strategies of parental support and engagement in their children’s education.
Mike Brody, chair of the foundation’s grants committee and vice chair of the Board said, “The grants committee, comp[posed] of Board members, community representatives and the Northwestern University Dance Marathon executive co-chairs, believes that this slate of grantee recipients demonstrates the broad range of creative and productive thinking on how we can all make Evanston a more vibrant, just and inclusive community.”
2014 grant award recipients include the following:
Caring Outreach by Parents in Evanston, Center for Economic Progress, Center for Independent Futures, Warren W. Cherry Preschool, Ciencia para Todos, CJE Senior Life, Community Partners for Affordable Housing, Connections for the Homeless, Inc., Edible Evanston, Erie Family Health Center, Erika’s Lighthouse: A Beacon of Hope For Adolescent Depression, Evanston Art Center, Evanston Rebuilding Warehouse, Evanston Scholars, Evanston Swims!, Evanston Symphony Orchestra Association, Family Focus, Frances Willard Historical Association, The Harbour, Inc., Literature for All of Us, McGaw YMCA, James B. Moran Center for Youth Advocacy, Mudlark Theater Company, Next Theatre Co., Northlight Theatre, Youth Organizations Umbrella (Y.O.U.), Youth Job Center of Evanston, Inc. and YWCA Evanston/North Shore.