Singing for Change supports small nonprofits that help individuals become more self-sufficient and create positive change in their communities.
We focus on low income communities or people living in poverty.
Singing for Change has donated over $1 Million to organizations in 2018.
VIEW OUR GRANTEES (Children & Families)
PROGRAM NAME
CATEGORY
DESCRIPTION
Al Wooten, Jr. Youth & Adult Cultural Education Center
https://www.wootencenter.orgChildren & Families
The Heritage Center provides mentors and tutoring to a minimum of 60 at-risk students per year in elementary, junior and senior high school, improving their reading and math scores by one grade level, promoting a sense of belonging, good citizenship and community pride through involvement in community service projects. The Center identifies and selects boys and girls living in South-Central Los Angeles from fragmented or fatherless homes. The primary goal of the project is to enable participants to believe, learn and experience the feeling that there are positive things they can do to benefit themselves, their family and the community.
Alexander Children’s Center
https://www.rehab.com/alexander-childrens-centerChildren & Families
Alexander Children’s Center provides quality professional treatment to children with serious emotional and behavioral problems. ACC delivers an array of services that enable children and their families to exercise self-determination, achieve their potential and become positive contributors to society. ACC offers unique, high-quality services that range from crisis intervention to home-based support for children and families from North and South Carolina. In many cases, ACC is the last resort for severely emotionally disturbed children and their families.
All Kinds of Minds
https://allkindsofminds.orgChildren & Families
All Kinds of Minds helps students who struggle with learning measurably improve their success in school and life. Millions of children are falling through the cracks because the many ways in which kids’ minds are “wired” do not always match the way in which they are taught. Research shows that children who cannot overcome their learning difficulties are far more likely to underperform in school, develop low self-esteem, and engage in serious negative behaviors with devastating consequences to society. All Kinds of Minds was founded to synthesize and “translate” the latest research on how kids learn into a powerful and effective system of programs for helping kids succeed. Our programs are based on over 30 years of clinical research by renowned pediatrician Dr. Mel Levine and his colleagues at the University of North Carolina Medical School. When implemented within schools, our programs enrich the learning of every child
Baltimore Child Abuse Center, Inc.
https://dchtresources.amaralegal.org/baltimore-child-abuse-center/Children & Families
SFC supports the Baltimore Child Abuse Center’s volunteer program, in which ten student volunteers from a variety of local colleges spend a total of 80 hours a week helping coordinate interviews of children who have been sexually abused. The Center provides a child-friendly place for abused children to come for interviews by a licensed mental health professional about the abuse. Police detectives, child protective services workers and prosecutors watch the interview from an adjoining room. The investigative team is able to obtain confirmation about the abuse without further traumatizing the child with multiple interviews. Pediatricians trained in diagnosing child sexual abuse examine the children in the Center’s on-site clinic, eliminating the need for most children to go to a hospital emergency room with a police officer.
Bay Area Discovery Museum
https://bayareadiscoverymuseum.orgChildren & Families
Located at the foot of the North Tower of the Golden Gate Bridge, the museum provides hands-on learning opportunities for children that combine the study of science, art and technology. The museum enables children visiting with their families or classmates to explore new ideas and experience different points of view in an atmosphere that promotes cooperative learning and self-directed study.
Berkshire Hills Music Academy
https://www.berkshirehills.orgChildren & Families
Berkshire Hills Music Academy is a unique college-like program for young adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities who are looking to expand their social, vocational, and life skills in a music-infused environment
Bethany House Services
https://bethanyhouseservices.orgChildren & Families
In response to the crisis of homelessness, Bethany House Services is a community of persons who are committed to quality emergency shelter, outreach advocacy, employment training and transitional and permanent housing programs for women and children. Through comprehensive assistance programs, Bethany House seeks to restore participants' dignity and independence through comprehensive assistance programs. It actively promotes community response, legislative change, and the networking of resources that will provide creative solutions to the problems of homelessness in a holistic mode of empowerment.
Beyond Shelter
https://www.beyondshelterinc.comChildren & Families
The mission of Beyond Shelter is to combat chronic poverty, welfare dependency and homelessness among families with children, through the provision of housing and social services and the promotion of systemic change. Beyond Shelter was initially developed in response to growing numbers of homeless families in Los Angeles and the need for a more comprehensive approach to serving them. The agency’s first work, the Transition Program for Homeless Families, was designed to provide the “next step” for families in the emergency shelter system -- to help them find, move into and stabilize in decent, affordable, rental housing in residential neighborhoods. The success of this program has led to the creation of several others designed to help at-risk and low-income families.
Bicycle Action Project, Inc.
https://greatnonprofits.org/org/bicycle-action-projectChildren & Families
The Bicycle Action Project began in 1988 with the concept of supply and demand. Its founders reasoned that the used bicycle surplus in the Indianapolis area should be able to meet the demand of affordable bicycles for inner-city youth. This simple, privately developed idea has expanded and evolved into a diversely funded nonprofit youth organization. Its Earn-A-Bike program is designed to give inner-city kids ages 9-16 an opportunity to earn a bike and helmet by completing a 25-hour training program in mechanics, repair, safety and cycling skills. Some of BAP’s goals are to teach effective work habits, develop leadership skills and promote attitudes of responsibility and personal accountability, provide an opportunity for youths to develop their physical abilities and appropriate social skills and to learn retail business methods.
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Houston
https://bbbstx.org/greater-houston/Children & Families
This famous one-to-one mentoring program is designed to help children increase their self-esteem and achieve personal goals such as improving behavior or academic performance. Big Brothers Big Sisters’ mission is to provide adult support to children from single-parent families so they may grow into productive members of the community. The agency is committed to reaching all children who need a Big Brother or Big Sister in the Houston area. Currently, the Bay Area Branch Office serves 75 children through one-to-one matches with carefully screened adults, and with SFC’s help, the staff hopes to be able match the 50 children on the waiting list with mentors.
Boys & Girls Club of the Keys Area, Inc.
https://bgckeywest.orgChildren & Families
With the assistance and financial support of Singing for Change, the Boys & Girls Clubs of the Keys has established "Campaign 3 P.M.," an effort to raise awareness and encourage community caregivers to participate and change the after-school world in the city of Key West and Monroe County. The Boys & Girls Club currently serves over 90 children in its after school program and approximately 150 children during the summer. Over half of these children are from single-parent homes and more than fifty percent are from families with annual incomes of less than $22,000. While these young people seem particularly vulnerable, statistics and experience make it crystal clear that all children are at risk in the after-school hours if left unsupervised. The goal of “Campaign 3 PM” is to increase the number of youths that have access to and can fully utilize the Club’s existing Teen Center and to expand the hours the Center is available. Faced with federal, state and county cutbacks, the Club recently had to cut the hours that the Teen Center could be open. However, with the continued support of Singing for Change, the Club has been able to reopen the Teen Center in the evenings. In response to the needs of the community, it continues to offer an accessible site and positive alternatives for youth development and programming during critical afternoon and evening hours.
Boys Hope Girls Hope
https://boyshopegirlshope.orgChildren & Families
Founded in St. Louis in 1975, Boys Hope Girls Hope is a privately funded, nonprofit, non-denominational organization that quite literally “saves kids…one life at a time.” The program provides at-risk, yet academically capable children with a stable home, positive parenting, high-quality education and the support needed to reach their full potential. Children generally enter the program between the ages of 10 and 14 and live in the homes (in 14 cities nationwide) through graduation from high school. Placement in the program is voluntary, on the part of the child and his or her parents. Since 1991, 100% of the program’s high school graduates have gone on to college, and the children receive financial and emotional support even through college and beyond.
Children & Families
Caraway Intermediate School has an at-risk student population of 86% during the 200-2001 school year. The chess team’s participants cross all economic, social, and educational levels, practicing after school to compete in the state and national tournaments. Julian Garcia, a longtime friend of Jimmy Buffett’s, has set goals for his team and the many students he reaches through chess: to encourage self-confidence, an ability to learn, and appetites for study and practice that will transcend chess to the world of academics
Children & Families
Carroll Gardens Neighborhood Women was founded in 1978 to provide women with community-based education, guidance and support essential to effective participation in economic, social and political processes. Further, to enhance women’s ability to identify, articulate and achieve their individual goals and to increase decision-making skills. It provides day and evening classes in all levels of literacy to 300 low income, under-educated women, most of whom are mothers, to help them prepare to enter or re-enter the economic mainstream. The population is 46% Latinas, 27% Arabs, 21% African Americans and 6% Caribbeans, Asians and Italian-Americans, half of whom receive public assistance and read significantly below the 8th grade level. Instructors try to foster self esteem and encourage community/school involvement. They build the curriculum around the issues of working-class women’s lives and encourage women to think about alternative paths for themselves and their children.
Casita de San Jose
https://casitasanjose.orgChildren & Families
Casita provides long term, therapeutic group homes for abused children in Orange County. The Casita Treatment Team, consisting of in-home counselors and clinical case managers, serves as a role model in the development of physical, mental, social, emotional, and ethical standards and skills for the children placed in its care. The impact of the Casita Program is undeniable. Children who come into the home physically and emotionally damaged by untold violence learn to love and laugh again. “If we can reach the youngest and most vulnerable members of our society with compassion and intensive therapy at a very young age, they ultimately have a chance to grow and develop into healthy citizens.” Casita has proven the effectiveness of this comprehensive, holistic approach with more than 300 children who have left the program and continued to live in healthy family environments. The Casita program is founded on a system of intervention and rehabilitation, coupled with a loving, safe environment in which children are given every opportunity to develop and grow
Center for Child & Family Health
https://www.ccfhnc.orgChildren & Families
Center for Children in Crisis
https://childrenincrisisfl.orgChildren & Families
The Center for Children in Crisis is dedicated to helping children who have been physically and sexually abused. Its mission is to identify and protect abused and neglected children, provide comprehensive treatment to incest victims and their families and to prevent child abuse through education and social change. You can make a difference through their Adopt-A-Child program -- it costs approximately $1000 to provide one child with one year of comprehensive treatment at the Center. There are almost 100 children waiting for therapy. Tragically, these children are receiving no services and are at great risk of permanent harm. By taking children off the waiting list, they immediately receive services and the treatment they desperately need to get the healing process underway. The opportunity to grow and develop into a healthy adult is a gift every child should be given.
Center for Independent Living
https://www.cilncf.orgChildren & Families
This program’s motivation is based on the founders’ belief that the 15-19 year old high risk youth in their care are not “throw-away” kids but survivors who have been exposed to conditions which most of us would find unbearable. They are referred by foster care, youth parole officers and probation officers as a last attempt to help them. 50% of the teens in this residential center have parents who have lost custody, 80% have dropped out of school, 80% have been subjected to physical, emotional and sexual abuse and have no safety net when they leave custody to live on their own. The Center provides educational and vocational skills, life skills classes, and most important, the caring and concern everyone needs at a young age. The Center director writes, “The feeling we get when one of our youth “graduates” and returns with a smile, job, care and a future, cannot be measured. We are proud to share that feeling with Singing for Change.”
Children First
https://childrenfirst.comChildren & Families
The Detroit Free Press, called “a model for journalistic advocacy for children” by Marian Wright Edelman, started “Children First” in 1993. The project does everything from chronicling urban violence against children to organizing pro bono lawyers to help endangered kids, to sponsoring seminars on preventing violence against children for parents, educators, children’s advocates, juvenile justice officials and social workers. Its “Summer Dreams” initiative raises funds for nonprofit organizations that run summer activities for children.
Children’s Miracle Network
https://childrensmiraclenetworkhospitals.orgChildren & Families
Children's Miracle Network, the alliance of premier hospitals for children, is dedicated to helping kids by raising funds for 170 children's hospitals across North America. Each year, these non-profit hospitals provide the finest care, research, and community outreach to help millions of children with disease and injuries of every kind. These hospitals are there 24 hours a day to help kids of every age and background. This year alone, Children's Miracle Network hospitals will provide charity care worth billions, yet these hospitals depend on community support to help fund their vital services. Children's Miracle Network organizes and executes thousands of special events and promotions each year through dedicated corporate sponsors like Food Lion. Headquartered in Salisbury, NC, Food Lion has been a corporate sponsor of Children's Miracle Network for the past 14 years. In support of Food Lion's efforts to raise funds for Children's Miracle Network hospitals, Singing for Change made this contribution on behalf of Food Lion Store #385 in Virginia Beach, VA. Children's Miracle Network will send 100% of this donation to the Children's Hospital of the King's Daughters in Norfolk, Virginia.
Children’s Place & Connor’s Nursery, Inc.
https://www.helphomesafe.org/homesafe-history-2/Children & Families
Begun in 1979 as a day care for six abused and neglected children, The Children’s Place and Connor’s Nursery is now a multi-service agency operating three shelters, a preschool, a family support program (outreach) and parental support and educational programs focusing on the prevention of child abuse and neglect. In addition to its family strengthening services, The Children’s Place provides families with a temporary safe and nurturing home for their infants and children until the family stabilizes and is able to care for them. Each year it serves approximately 450 clients throughout Palm Beach County.
Breaking Ground
https://breakingground.orgChildren & Families
Breaking Ground’s mission is to strengthen individuals, families, and communities by developing and sustaining exceptional supportive and affordable housing as well as programs for homeless and other vulnerable New Yorkers.
Communities in Schools Dallas, Inc.
https://cisdallas.orgChildren & Families
Communities in Schools Dallas has a positive impact on more than 20,000 at-risk students every year, helping them to learn, stay in school and prepare for life. Considering both the physical and emotional wellness of the child, CIS uses an individualized case-management approach to work with children in grades pre-kindergarten through twelve. There are 25 schools in the Dallas area that have a CIS team. With academic tutoring, pre-employment training, parental involvement activities, hygiene, health and nutrition services, gang prevention and early intervention, home visits and parenting skills, the CIS team fights for happy, healthy kids and families. Results? The overall dropout rate in these schools is reduced (100% of CIS Dallas seniors graduated for the second year in a row), and incidents of juvenile crime are down, as are those of substance abuse, teen pregnancy and attendance problems. CIS Dallas hopes to produce a higher-skilled work force and a more productive generation of young adults.
Communities in Schools Fayette County
https://www.ciswv.org/pages/counties.aspx?County=FayetteChildren & Families
For the past seven years, Communities in Schools Fayette County has played a paramount role in “turning around” at-risk youth in a rural area struggling with severe poverty, high crime, low educational rates, and widespread drug and alcohol abuse. CIS is now poised to take another giant step by instituting the Teen Health Corps, a national pilot program that empowers youth to embrace healthy principles and practices. In teams, the Teen Health Corps focuses on nutrition, physical fitness, violence prevention, mental and sexual health, and abstaining from tobacco, alcohol, and other drugs. Leading the sessions are trained adult volunteers from a wide variety of community health and welfare agencies. The young Corps members then return to their own school districts as peer mentors, sharing their expertise to assist other students in examining their lifestyles and modifying destructive attitudes and behaviors. Satellite sites develop educational programs and choose activities appropriate for their student body. On a regular basis, all students involved in Teen Health Corps network come together at the host site for instruction and interaction with their instructors, mentors and peers.
Communities In Schools/The L.A. Mentoring Partnership
https://www.cislosangeles.orgChildren & Families
Communities In Schools/The LA Mentoring Partnership is a community development organization. It works with all elements of the community including kids, parents, teachers, schools, colleges, churches, labor, businesses and government. CIS encourages these groups to collaborate and together, establish programs and relationships that prepare youth for the challenges they will face in life. CIS specializes in placing students into mentoring relationships in the workplace. For example, CIS staff guided HBO through an awareness program for 200 employees that resulted in 32 new mentors to help kids in need. Similar workplace mentoring programs with Fox, Nickelodeon, KMEX Univision and Ticketmaster. SFC helped fund CIS’s Universal Studios City Walk Entrepreneurial Academy. Through this program, students attend morning classes at their LA high schools, then travel to the City Walk location to participate in a combination of “on the job/ workplace” mentoring, leadership instruction and the basics of business. This program enables teenagers to make money, prepare business plans, run a business and receive 20 high school graduation credits and 5 community college credits leading to an AA degree
Congregation Shearith Israel Night Shelter for Homeless Women
https://www.shearithisrael.com/rebeccas-tentChildren & Families
The Night Shelter offers a safe place to stay from November through March to homeless women who are mentally or physically disabled. Two meals per day, laundry room facilities, showers, two bus tokens per day and the services of a social worker are provided to 16 women at a time. No restrictions regarding length of stay are imposed, as long as guests abide by house rules. The Shelter is operated solely by volunteers, who stay 12 hours each night and serve breakfast in the morning.
Covenant to Care
https://choosecovenant.orgChildren & Families
Covenant to Care provides local congregations with innovative ways to meet the needs of abused, neglected and impoverished children. All programs are interfaith, respecting the uniqueness of the varied religious congregations throughout Connecticut. A social worker is “adopted” by a congregation, creating a link between needy children in the community and the members of the congregation. More than 50,000 children have received basic comfort items such as cribs, blankets, coats and other clothing through Covenant to Care since it opened in 1993.
Earth Rangers
https://www.earthrangers.com/EN/US/about-us/Children & Families
Earth Rangers is the charity that transforms children’s concerns about the environment into positive action. When a child becomes an Earth Ranger, they become animal-saving heroes, developing confidence that they can make a difference and optimism about the future. Through a variety of programs and content, Earth Rangers empowers kids to become environmental leaders at home and in their communities. From organizing shoreline clean-ups to creating backyard animal habitats to reducing food waste and energy consumption at home, members are committed to leaving the world better than they found it – and having a whole lot of fun doing it.
East Point Community Action Team, Inc.
https://youth-organizations.cmac.ws/east-point-community-action-team/227/Children & Families
Singing for Change supports work at the DeLowe Village Apartment Complex, a low-to-moderate income apartment complex (approximately 100 families) located in East Point. A majority of its residents are single female parents and heads of households and are striving toward self-sufficiency. Through collaboration with Teens At Work, EPCAT seeks to develop Teen Leaders Today (TLT), a youth leadership development program targeting 15 youths who live at DeLowe Village. Its aim is to develop a Teen Leadership Corps, providing options for youth where there are none in a safe and nurturing environment, build individual and community capacity by developing youth leaders with positive messages (promoting community pride and dispelling violence among themselves), and increase parent and community involvement through workshops that will promote social action and awareness of their children’s needs. The training will be provided by Teens At Work through its Character Building Initiative (CBI) project, which is designed to promote honesty, respect and responsibility. The program will also integrate academic enhancement, student projects (community service), recreation activities, cultural enrichment, youth entrepreneurs and conflict resolution to round out a program that provides structure, purpose and skills needed to make positive lifestyle choices. During training, students will be encouraged to participate in the Read-to-Learn tutoring program at the Learning Link Center based at DeLowe Village, in addition, participating youths will have an opportunity to practice their leadership training by helping to coordinate and facilitate the Teen Summit, perform in skits that will dramatically depict the dangers of alcohol, drugs and gang activities. Field trip activities will include camping and wilderness adventures that will focus on teambuilding and physical skills development. At the end of the school year, eligible participants will be selected to participate in the Summer Camp Program at DeLowe Village as Team Leaders and Activity Coordinators.
Educated Eats
https://www.educatedeats.orgChildren & Families
Educated Eats is a program in which students create, run, and own a business, with revenues going toward scholarships for higher education. It is based on an incredibly successful model in South Central Los Angeles (see www.foodfromthehood.com) that was created in the wake of the 1992 riots. 100% of the students in the program have graduated high school, 100% have gone on to higher education, and 100% are still in higher education three years later. The Chicago-based program began in Chicago with seed money from Singing for Change, which allowed the group to begin taking steps to make the dream of Food From the 'Hood a success. Developing partnerships was first -- with schools, urban gardeners, community groups, people in the food manufacturing industry, and more. Students in Chicago are now the owners of the business in every sense of the word. They learn the steps of achievement: visioning, goal setting, planning, and implementation. The students determine the product, test recipes, write a business plan, and find a food manufacturer. They learn about and implement plans for sales, distribution, and marketing. Along the way, they stumble and encounter obstacles, but they will also learn the measure of their own strength, the value of teamwork, and the power of community.
Extend-A-Care for Kids
https://www.eackids.orgChildren & Families
Extend-A-Care for Kids provides after-school child care on-site at 60 elementary schools in Austin, Texas and surrounding Central Texas communities, for 3,000 students in four school districts. It is both an employment support program for parents and a child development program for children; students 4-12 years old stay on their elementary school campuses for child care after school while their parents work or participate in work training programs. Parents pay child care fees on a sliding-fee scale, and the agency raises funds to subsidize the cost of care for low-income families. Extend-A-Care’s program is fun and enriching for the students and includes homework time, games and puzzles, arts and crafts, science and cooking projects, sports and outdoor games and field trips.
Family Rescue
https://familyrescueinc.orgChildren & Families
Family Rescue is dedicated to alleviating domestic violence in the Chicago Community by providing comprehensive support services and shelter to victims of domestic violence, particularly to abused women and their children; engaging in systemic advocacy to promote future change; and encouraging prevention through community education. Family Rescue offers emergency shelter, a 24-hour crisis line, transitional housing, daycare, counseling, legal and medical advocacy, and, most importantly, trained, caring staff who want to help victims stop the pain and stop the cycle of violence. Family Rescue helps families become self-sufficient and lead violence-free lives. The organization offers help with obtaining orders of protection, affordable housing opportunities, job training, career development, employment, and counseling services for children, adolescents, and adults. Most of all, it offers hope. All services are free of charge.
Family Self Sufficiency Program
https://www.hud.gov/program_offices/public_indian_housing/programs/hcv/fssChildren & Families
This program is designed to mobilize HUD housing assistance to leverage public and private resources in order to help poverty level families obtain and maintain economic independence and freedom from public aid. The use of housing as a stabilizing force allows Family Self Sufficiency participants to invest their energy in developing the skills necessary to become self-supporting: resume writing, parenting skills, improving self-esteem, household budget/money management, credit counseling and how to get and keep a job.
Fernside, Inc.: A Center for Grieving Children
https://fernside.orgChildren & Families
The Center helps children ages 4-18 resolve grief issues associated with the death of a significant family member. Frequent consequences of unresolved feelings of grief are low self-esteem, abusive behavior, substance abuse, violent crime and poor academic performance. 23 support groups run by a small staff and a corps of 120 trained volunteers are attended by 323 children and teens.
Children & Families
Fight Back of Central Ohio is committed to providing tools to overcome violence. In a safe, supportive environment, resolve is strengthened, choices are expanded, and fear is transformed into courage. SFC’s grant will enable the group to expand and refine its programs for adolescent boys. Dealing with the threat and real possibility of violence is not gender specific. How young men learn the lessons of violence and what can be re-learned to stem the impact of violence on all lives will be explored through this pilot project. The project involves pilot-testing a curriculum for boys, developing male high school leaders as assistants in this work and expanding the organization’s presence within the community.
Flora S. Curtis School
https://www.psdri.net/curtis/Children & Families
River) and maintaining a healthy ecosystem and lasting quality of life in the Flathead watershed. The Flathead Lakers provides leadership in the protection of Flathead Lake and clean water through education, advocacy and
Florida Keys Healthy Start Coalition
https://www.keyshealthystart.orgChildren & Families
Healthy Start is authorized by Florida statute to provide for the coordination of a prenatal and infant health care system, in order to expand access to medial, social and environmental services that promote healthy pregnancies and the birth and development of healthy infants and children. A professional care team that interfaces and collaborates with other public and private agencies and providers is the drive behind the Healthy Start Program, whose two main objectives are to reduce infant mortality and infant morbidity. While all women are eligible for services, Healthy Start targets pregnant and parenting teens as well as pregnant and parenting women who have a history of alcohol and/or drug abuse. SFC supports its prevention programs, which are also aimed at these two target groups.
Fresh Youth Initiatives (FYI)
https://freshyouth.orgChildren & Families
Children & Families
Friendship House
https://bocafriendship.comChildren & Families
Friendship House is the only privately funded women’s residential reintegration recovery program in the Greater Kansas City metro area. Over 400 women, 14 at a time, have been residents of Friendship House since 1992. The organization’s mission is to provide a dignified, safe haven in which women and their families in recovery from alcoholism and other chemical dependencies can learn to live soberly and become economically self-reliant. Thanks to Singing for Change and other donors, Friendship House will open the doors of its second home, Catherine’s Place, in 2001. Catherine’s Place will allow 22 additional women and their children to focus on the needs of each mother’s substance abuse problems while laying a strong foundation upon which families can sustain a lifetime of recovery.
Girls Hope of Pittsburgh, Inc.
https://bhghpittsburgh.orgChildren & Families
Girls Hope is a closely supervised residential and educational program for girls who have the potential for leadership but who have been affected by adverse conditions and environments. The mission of Girls Hope is to provide a nurturing, family-like home and a quality education, through college, for capable but disadvantaged youth in order to actualize their potential as responsible leaders of our world. This pro-active program is designed to break the chains of poverty, abuse and teenage pregnancy which shackle many adolescents, and to reach them before they become pregnant, delinquent or addicted to drugs or alcohol. A well-structured business internship program places girls over the age of 16 in responsible positions where they can gain insights into possible career opportunities.
Global Kids
https://globalkids.orgChildren & Families
Human rights…sustainable development…the global economy…US foreign policy…One might expect to discuss such issues in university lectures or diplomatic gatherings, but in New York City, dozens of inner-city youths can be found engaged in spirited debate about these and other important topics as participants of Global Kids, Inc. Global Kids is dedicated to preparing urban youth to become community leaders and global citizens. Its programs help students think critically about what they see and hear, take action to address injustice in their neighborhoods, and see themselves as part of a global community. Through Global Kids’ “Power of Citizenry Leadership Program”, students learn about local and global issues through interactive workshops, role plays, field trips, dialogue with international guest speakers, public forums, retreats, and conferences. The program also provides intensive training in workshop facilitation, public speaking, and organizing so that students can lead discussions and develop projects to address issues of their concern. Recent projects include a radio program on teen health, a board game educating youth about child labor, and a children’s book about homelessness. Global Kids shows youth that they have the power to make a difference and if they speak out, their voices will be heard.
Guidance in Media
https://www.healthychildren.org/English/family-life/Media/Pages/kids-and-screen-time-how-to-use-the-5-cs-of-media-guidance.aspxChildren & Families
A newly formed nonprofit entity, Guidance in Media is committed to developing nonviolent, educational and entertaining television for children and adults, with a strong emphasis on programs for children that teach important life messages in an educational manner. Its founders realized such programming lacked corporate sponsorship, and dedicated themselves to offering alternative quality shows that teach problem resolution through non-violent means. Guidance in Media operates in a “workshop” environment by bringing together experienced writers, producers, directors, technical personnel and young graduate students majoring in film and/or broadcast areas. It is building an internship program that will provide students with a working knowledge of the television industry while allowing them to make contacts for future employment. The broad hope and goal of the internship program is that these “future media executives” will carry through the lessons they learn about the influence of this powerful medium on our society by continuing to provide quality entertainment for generations to come.
Hands On Atlanta
https://www.handsonatlanta.orgChildren & Families
Hands On Atlanta is a non-profit organization that helps individuals, families, and corporate and community groups find flexible volunteer opportunities at more than 400 service organizations and schools. Hands On Atlanta volunteers, now 25,000 strong, are at work every day of the year building community and meeting critical needs in schools, parks, senior homes, food banks, pet shelters, low-income neighborhoods, and more. Hands On Atlanta is an affiliate of CityCares, a network of thirty-three "Cares" and "Hands On" organizations across the United States, U.K., and the Philippines.
Hanley-Hazelden Foundation
https://www.hazeldenbettyford.orgChildren & Families
Singing for Change supports the foundation’s Roots & Wings Parenting Program, which shows parents how to nurture and teach their children skills to help them overcome the serious challenges regarding the use of alcohol, nicotine and other drugs. Offered in a variety of settings throughout the community (schools, churches, homeless shelters, community clubhouses, libraries, etc.), Roots & Wings is delivered in English, Spanish and Creole. It offers ideas on how to protect children by developing their resiliency, giving them the ability to withstand and bounce back from problems; how to set standards, to use logical consequences instead of punishment, and how to strengthen families through rituals and traditions
Healing the Children
https://www.htcflorida.orgChildren & Families
Healing the Children provides medical treatment and advocacy services to disenfranchised families and their children who lack financial resources, non-availability of services and insurance benefits, and knowledge of and access to our complex healthcare system. As part of its ongoing services, Healing the Children provides the following to its clients: direct financial assistance for medical treatment, supplies, and medicine; information and education for case families pertaining to insurance, agency, and medical treatment options; and enables patients to receive necessary treatment and medicine. In many instances this treatment is free or provided at a discounted rate by the hospitals, physicians and pharmacies, all due to the relationship network established by the program. HTC evaluates clients on an individual basis and the prospective client must explore all available sources of governmental funding (state and federal) prior to being accepted. The client base profile is 18 years and younger, multi-cultural and multi-racial. To date, over 2500 children have been helped by this program
Healthy Families – Monroe
https://www.spcc-roch.org/programs/healthy-families-monroe-hfm/Children & Families
Help for Abused Women and Children
https://hawcdv.orgChildren & Families
Help for Abused Women and Their Children (HAWC) offers battered women and their children shelter, support and practical information about their options and an opportunity to interact with others who understand their situation, to enable each woman to make independent and informed decisions about her future. Its mission is to provide comprehensive emergency and support services to battered women and their dependent children in Northeastern Massachusetts and ultimately to end the cycle of violence against women. Fortunately, unlike many social problems that afflict vulnerable people, domestic abuse can be prevented and ultimately ended. But it will take a groundswell from people like you expressing their outrage and their support for victims of domestic abuse. HAWC has a philosophy of self-help. Its staff and volunteers believe that battered women are caught in a crisis caused by long-standing societal patterns of oppression against women, not caused solely by individuals.
Hendersonville Youth As Resources
https://www.hendersoncountync.gov/health/page/children-teensChildren & Families
This organization is community- and youth-based, helping teens give back to their community. In order to help youth become resources in Hendersonville instead of what local merchants viewed as nuisances, Hendersonville Youth As Resources found a temporary place for the skateboarders to skate, built ramps and purchased other equipment for the skateboarders to use. Kids are now gathering from miles away to use this park, instead of breaking the law by skating on Main Street. They have to assist with community projects (at least once a month) in order to use the park. Thus far projects have included painting a building for All Creatures Great and Small (a nonprofit animal rescue center), cleaning up trash, and participating in an annual art contest where they took second place. Singing for Change provided funds for this group to apply for 501(c)3 status
Home to Home
https://www.mainehometohome.org/about_usChildren & Families
Home to Home is a safe haven on the Maine coast for the exchange of children in court-ordered visitation between divorced or separated parents. This is a pioneering effort to deter domestic violence by eliminating any opportunities for interactions between parents when children are exchanged. A local Naval Air Station donated a building specifically for Home to Home’s use. Custodial and non-custodial parents use separate entrances, have separate waiting rooms and parking lots. Volunteers are the key to this program’s success, acting as guardians ad litem of the Maine District Court, escorting the children from one parent to the other. This program has been hailed by local judges who are anxious for its replication in other counties, because of the following positive results: parents return to court less often; children become less anxious, enabling them to perform better academically; some children have been able to terminate psychological therapy; formerly victimized parents are relieved of the burden of regular, explosive encounters with their abusers; and entire families learn non-violent methods to relate to one another
Human Services Inc.
https://humanservicesinc.orgChildren & Families
Human Services Inc. is a community-based, private, not-for-profit organization with over 100 years’ experience in helping families become strong and self-sufficient. It offers programs such as The Florence Crittendon School, which gives counseling, parenting skills, education, job training and employment opportunities to teen parents, to enable them to complete their education, become good parents and obtain employment. SFC supports the Young Fathers Program. This program addresses the parenting, education and job readiness training needs of young fathers and helps break the generational cycle of family violence.
Children & Families
Innovative Alternatives for Women (IAW) is designed to assist low-income, unemployed, or underemployed women transition into entry-level career positions. IAW uses a holistic approach that incorporates job training, financial management techniques, health information, parenting education, legal assistance, nutritional education, violence reduction techniques, and business and social etiquette into a 12-week curriculum. The program is a partnership of the Medical University of South Carolina College of Nursing and over 25 area businesses and community groups. All partners donate their time and talents to the program and are committed to helping women become self-sufficient. All Innovative Alternatives for Women services are free of charge. Seventy women have completed the program. Ninety percent remained employed at the end of a year post-graduation, and twenty-three percent have enrolled in college
Children & Families
The INN responds to the needs of hungry and homeless individuals on Long Island by providing food, shelter and a variety of supportive services designed to promote self-sufficiency. From the first soup kitchen established in 1983 by a small group of concerned Long Islanders, The INN today is supported by a professional staff and volunteer force of 2,000 people from all faiths, backgrounds and communities (its ratio of volunteers to paid staff is 40/1). This year, nearly 300,000 meals will be served, and 2,500 individuals and families will receive shelter. The INN’s volunteers also offer a range of services including training in budgeting skills, job interviewing techniques and self-esteem development to customers, and outreach to business and community groups who want to volunteer.
Joseph’s Hope (formerly Casita de San Jose)
http://www.joeshope.orgChildren & Families
Joseph’s Hope (formerly Casita de San Jose) has been providing services to abused children in Orange County for over 15 years. Due to recent changes in California legislation, Orange County is experiencing a severe shortage of services for young children who are now residing with foster parents. Due to emotional trauma these children are often unable to succeed in community pre-schools, kindergartens and after school programs. This program the first of its kind in Southern California, is in Santa Ana and will serve as a statewide model. The three cornerstones of the program are the morning pre-school program (ages 3-6), an afternoon enrichment program (ages 3-12) and extensive family support services. With the combination of education, therapeutic services, recreation, performing and creative arts children are free to safely express and explore their individual skills and talents. As children stabilize emotionally and begin to heal and grow their long-term success is ensured.
Kids on Campus
https://www.ohio.edu/kidsChildren & Families
Kids on Campus is a year-old program consisting of the five local school districts in Athens County, parents of students, the community at large and Ohio University. This is an out-of-school educational enrichment and nutrition program for 375 underserved elementary school children, over 80% of whom meet federal qualifications for poverty. It was designed to break the cycle of poverty in one of the poorest counties in the state and represents the community’s first real partnership effort. Kids on Campus is an expression of the community’s belief that their children are their greatest asset and their future: “What these children believe about themselves, and their community will be reflected in the lives and systems that they will create. We hope to instill a vision in each of our kids, to create hope. The problems of southeastern Ohio will not easily be solved, but with vision, we can create the basis for leadership.” During a six-week summer session at the University, children participate in hands-on learning activities in reading, writing, math, science, computers, fine arts, swimming and sports. In addition, they learn peaceful problem-solving and conflict resolution and take part in healthy decision-making experiences.
La Leche League
https://lllusa.orgChildren & Families
La Leche League believes that breastfeeding, with its important physical and psychological advantages, is best for baby and mother and is the ideal way to initiate good parent/child relationships. Complementing the care of physicians and other health care professionals, LLL recognizes the importance of one mother helping another to perceive the needs of her child and to learn the best means of fulfilling those needs. While LLL is an international organization, each local group supports itself. SFC sponsored a local leader’s attendance at LLL’s annual international conference, which afforded her the chance to take back the most accurate and up-to-date information to disseminate to mothers in her community.
League of American Bicyclists
https://bikeleague.orgChildren & Families
The League’s mission is to improve the health and welfare of our communities through the safe, enjoyable use of the bicycle for recreation and transportation. While there is a significant environmental component to all the League’s programs, its focus is increasingly on grassroots-based, community self-improvement programs. Its Community Youth Initiative supports and replicates inner-city programs that use the bicycle to reach at-risk youth and help them develop skills, self-esteem and self-sufficiency. Its goals are to create a detailed support guide for new communities looking to benefit from the success of others, and to promote the replication and long-term viability of locally based, locally led programs in neighborhoods throughout the U.S.
Literacy Action Corps
http://www.literacyactioncorps.org/who-we-are.htmlChildren & Families
The mission of the Literacy Action Corps is to promote literacy and pro-social behavior among local youth and juvenile offenders who demonstrate low achievement in reading and writing. This innovative campus-based program provides literacy instruction for juveniles and at-risk youth, expanding the services currently offered through the 14th District Juvenile Court and the public school system. The court provides the Literacy Action Corps with a steady stream of children who suffer from reading deficiencies and have found themselves on the wrong side of the law. The Corps has trained a growing number of McNeese State University students as tutors, who act as role models for the children, who all too often would otherwise lack a positive adults influence in their lives. Because the Literacy Action Corps wants to extend its effort in the parish, it broadened the program to include not only juvenile offenders, but other children in public schools who are quietly slipping through the cracks. Working in association with teachers anxious for additional help, tutors are starting to make significant progress.
Living Classrooms Foundation
https://livingclassrooms.org/who-we-areChildren & Families
Living Classrooms Foundation's Frederick Douglass After School Program (FDASP) serves some of Baltimore's most disadvantaged youth during the critical after-school hours when they are most likely to get involved in substance abuse and other risky behaviors. FDASP utilizes a hands-on, experiential approach to education for students who may not thrive in traditional academic settings. Based on environmental horticulture, the Frederick Douglass After School Program's curriculum includes the study of agricultural history and cultural growing techniques, teambuilding and leadership development through community service projects, hands-on vocational projects, and homework help.
M.V. Enterprises, Inc. (Mo Vaughn Youth Development Program)
https://vaughnsportsacademy.comChildren & Families
The Mo Vaughn Youth Development Program is a unique, community-based organization dedicated to the educational, social and spiritual growth of Boston’s inner-city kids. Founded in 1994, the Program seeks to help at-risk or underachieving children 13-16 years of age, instilling in them a sense of pride, self-confidence, accomplishment and especially, hope for the future. The “Strictly Business” Project educates youth in the free enterprise system and the rudiments of job readiness, places youth in business environments and offers youth the opportunity to create and develop their own business ideas through an entrepreneurship program.
Make-A-Wish, Hawaii
https://wish.org/hawaiiChildren & Families
Make-A-Wish®, Hawaii represents the local chapter of the Make-A-Wish Foundation® of America headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona. "We are a non-profit organization whose mission is to grant the wishes of children with life-threatening illnesses to enrich the human experience with hope, strength, joy and aloha." The staff knows that a child's first wish is to be healthy. The organization can't provide that, but often the magic of having a wish fulfilled has had a profound, positive impact on a child with a life-threatening illness. One of the miracles of granting wishes is a new, special bond for a family under stress. Since the entire family is included in a wish, the memories can suspend the pain that touches each family member
Manhattan Youth Recreation and Resources
https://www.manhattanyouth.orgChildren & Families
Serving as lower Manhattan’s after-school program for the three elementary schools surrounding the World Trade Center, Manhattan Youth usually provides innovative educational and recreational opportunities for kids and their families from diverse economies and cultures. In the aftermath of the attacks, Manhattan Youth’s offices and playground served as safe havens and temporary shelters for students (and their parents) from the evacuated schools. Maintaining normalcy in the face of tragedy is now their job, and their role in the lower Manhattan community is huge despite their small size. The Singing for Change grant will enable a neighborhood that was challenged during the attack of September 11th return to normal. Manhattan Youth is the only provider of youth services in this Lower Manhattan neighborhood. Located just two blocks from the site of the World Trade Center, this downtown community center is an important part of the rebuilding effort. In 2001-2002, Manhattan Youth Recreation and Resources will offer over 30 programs ranging from senior swim programs to after school activities to theatre programs. Over 700 families use Manhattan Youth’s programs every school day of the year. Bob Townley, a parrot head who taught his primary grade kids to sing “Beach House on the Moon,” intends to make the lives of these families as positive as he can.
Marcus House®
https://www.jewishaz.com/temple-beth-israel-honors-marcus-house/article_d137970c-4887-11e6-a026-a7d0a11749e0.htmlChildren & Families
Marcus House is a five bed, 24-hour emergency shelter for abused and abandoned children, from birth to age five, who were removed from their caretakers by Child Protective Services. The goal of this shelter program is to give each child physical safety, emotional nurturing, personal respect and developmentally appropriate learning and growth opportunities. A yearly state contract provides only 80% of the cost to sustain the program, and this year SFC provided the remainder.
Maria Mercedes Foundation
https://www.lcrpc.org/business/maria-mercedes-foundationChildren & Families
Since 1998, the Maria Mercedes Foundation has been working with juvenile offenders in a vocational and sailing training program. With diligence and an expectation of good behavior, the staff of the Maria Mercedes Foundation has found a way to work with this most needy segment of our population. They work to assure that young adults will resume their desire to live within the structure of society and become productive members with the vocational skills that they have learned in the program. According to a parole officer writing about one of the foundation’s clients: "I am excited to report that I have seen this young man blossom over the course of this program. When I meet with him it is no longer a struggle to engage him in conversation. He can now look directly at me and when we talk about this program and what he is learning he is confident and animated in his expression, grades, effort, and attitude have improved at school. His family is excited and now is anxious to spend time reporting the positive aspects of their relationship with their son. This young man has also remained crime free."
Martin County Career Apprenticeship Program (CAP) ®
https://www.martinschools.org/page/career-and-technical-educationChildren & Families
CAP is an off-campus work/mentoring program for at-risk eighth graders. The majority of students are within the “exceptional” population which includes students with emotional, intellectual and physical handicaps. Most come from families living below the poverty line. CAP students are paired one-on-one with employer/mentors from the community and work for three to six hours per week. CAP students learn marketable job skills while gaining the confidence necessary to become productive members of society. The guiding hand of an adult volunteer mentor has proven to significantly increase the student’s attendance in school, grade point average and citizenship. The long waiting list of interested students is just one indicator of the program’s success. However, they are in desperate need of additional sponsors to expand the program.
Men Stopping Violence, Inc.
https://www.gagives.org/organization/Men-Stopping-ViolenceChildren & Families
MSV is an organization dedicated to ending violence against women. Its focus is to stop battering, and it is our intention to work toward ending rape and incest.
Nashua Youth Council Inc.
https://tycnh.orgChildren & Families
The Nashua Youth Council offers affordable, innovative services directed to meet the contemporary needs of the areas’ most vulnerable children, teens and families. It provides counseling, diversion programming and crisis services to children and families struggling with abuse, neglect, substance abuse, parenting stress and behavioral difficulties. SFC supports a program created by Girls Incorporated and Nashua Youth Council, which offers a wide array of affordable, effective parent education and support groups, offered with food, transportation and child care.
National Conference on Community and Justice
https://nccj.orgChildren & Families
National Conference for Community and Justice (NCCJ) is a human relations organization providing programs specifically addressing issues of diversity. Camp Anytown is a unique, weeklong experience that has a positive and lasting impact on its high school participants. Youth are given the opportunity to create a “community” without prejudice, bias and stereotypes, while learning to appreciate and celebrate gender, religious, ethnic, and racial differences. Supervised by up to 24 adult and college-aged volunteers, Anytown helps mold and change lives of individuals through experience and empathy. Their education continues with Anytown Council meetings throughout the following school year and many Anytown graduates continue to assist in later years as volunteer staff for the program
National Honor Society, Fairhope Middle School
https://www.bcbe.org/Page/8745Children & Families
The Fairhope Middle School National Jr. Honor Society is a service group of academically outstanding eighth graders dedicated to school improvement. With the support of the community, corporations, and grants this amazing group of children have provided window shades, white boards, and student desks for every classroom. Now they endeavor to equip the library for the very first time with computers. This dream has been made possible by student fundraisers, the principal, the technology department, and grants such as this one from Singing for Change. The students have accumulated enough funds to purchase fifteen computers, a laser printer, and software licenses for the new computer center. For the first time, the 625 middle students of Fairhope will receive instructions in using the Alabama Virtual Library databases and other Internet sites for their research. The students and teachers are very excited about this new learning resource.
National Organization for Fetal Alcohol Syndrome
https://fasdunited.orgChildren & Families
NOFAS is the only organization dedicated exclusively to eliminating fetal alcohol syndrome and helping children and families already touched by alcohol-related birth defects. Its public awareness campaign is a collaborative effort among diverse health, education and religious groups, and targets teenagers and community outreach workers. Teen advisors receive credit from DC public schools for their role as planners, marketers, and recruiters for the campaign.
Nevada Empowered Women’s Project
https://researchworks.oclc.org/archivegrid/collection/data/494422946Children & Families
This grassroots, multicultural organization furthers the rights of low-income women and children by addressing relevant issues such as welfare, child care, child support, housing, and health care, and by changing negative public perceptions of poor people. NEW Project is the only organization in Nevada providing advocacy services for low-income families on direct and policy levels. In addition to helping families secure resources, the NEW Project has also taken on a watchdog role, monitoring the state Welfare Division by monitoring the implementation of welfare reform. Women clients are involved in the political process so that their voices can be heard on issues affecting them and their families
New Orleans Children’s Advocacy Programs (NOCAP)
https://www.idealist.org/en/nonprofit/4b020398e35540f79f2bd3eb5c255742-new-orleans-childrens-advocacy-center-new-orleansChildren & Families
New Orleans Children’s Advocacy Programs (NOCAP) is a non-profit organization which honors and nurtures the imaginations of young children as that faculty through which we express our uniqueness, build self-esteem, resolve problems and handle conflict without violence. Its mission is to acculturate children from every part of society into a coalition of future caretakers of peace. NOCAP produces an inner-city after-school diverse arts program in which college students work for internship credit, guiding the participating NOCAP kids in the process of performing and visual arts productions which the children then “take on the road” into the community. NOCAP also produces the Children’s Peace Project, a visual arts contest which involves over 1,000 elementary schoolchildren each year from public, private and parochial schools. The 24 winners are awarded with several selections for billboards, note cards and T shirts: with savings bonds, books, and an awards banquet. Both programs move the participating children across social barriers which divide them, as well as offer them the opportunity to be on the “giving” side of an otherwise unyielding socioeconomic force.
Oasis Center, Inc.
https://oasiscenter.orgChildren & Families
Since 1970, Oasis Center has been dedicated to the mission of working in partnership with youth, their families, and the community to meet, master, and embrace the challenges of adolescence. The agency fulfills this mission through three primary program areas dedicated to providing youth with safety, hope and healing, and opportunities for growth. The Oasis Center Emergency Shelter, which is the linchpin of all program areas, provides a haven for teens who have run away from home, have no home, or don't feel safe in their home. The Oasis Center Emergency Shelter is the only program in Middle Tennessee providing temporary, voluntary residential services for teenagers in crisis
Ocean’s Harbor House
https://www.oceansharborhouse.orgChildren & Families
Serving runaway, homeless and abused adolescents ages 10-17, Ocean’s Harbor House has started to bring intervention and education to the streets of its community. Young people who are often no longer connected with school systems are able to learn of nonjudgmental services that are available to them at no cost. Group sessions of drug abuse education, anger management and sexual abuse as well as health services and shelter are made accessible to these youth. The goal of OHH is to meet their immediate needs, and through individual and family counseling and appropriate referrals for long term support, to return them to their hoes or advocate for other, safe living arrangements.
Ohio Family Care Association
https://www.ofcaonline.orgChildren & Families
The Ohio Family Care Association (OFCA)’s goal is to represent a united voice for foster/adoptive families in order to influence political decisions being made in Columbus that have a direct impact on the lives of their children. For all families and people involved with children being raised outside their birth home, OFCA provides professional and collaborative advocacy, education and support. Traditionally OFCA has conducted four annual educational conferences each year. In the past few years, OFCA’s goal has shifted to being a catalyst for changing the issues that affect foster and adoptive children and families: permanence for children, managed care, understanding and valuing racial and cultural differences, and changing the negative and inaccurate images of adoptive and foster families. By encouraging formation of affiliate groups in each county, OFCA is working to ensure the strength of each grassroots organization as well as offering necessary support to families.
PAIRS International/PEERS - Youth Leadership Against Violence
https://www.sandyhookpromise.org/our-programs/save-promise-club/Children & Families
PEERS was developed in 1994 by the PAIRS Foundation, as an initiative for enhancing relationships and reducing violence in America's schools. The PAIRS Foundation’s mission is, "To design, develop and promote programs for the prevention of marital and family breakdown, on behalf of a safer, saner, more loving world." PEERS - Youth Leadership Against Violence is a collaborative effort between the PAIRS Foundation, Leadership Broward (a community leadership training program) and local law enforcement officials. Its goal is to train Youth Leadership students to identify the underlying sources of anger and conflict, and teach them safe, alternative approaches to these feelings such as creative problem solving and role-playing. The students then apply the skills that they learned by serving as role models for at-risk middle school students by establishing goals; enhancing personal pride, teamwork, and communications; and giving back to their community.
Palm Beach County Literacy Coalition®
https://www.literacypbc.orgChildren & Families
The mission of the Literacy Coalition is to promote and achieve literacy, thereby improving the quality of life in the Palm Beach community. The Coalition acts as an information, networking and referral center; develops highly visible literacy programs; serves as a leading advocate for literacy and a catalyst for innovative strategies and programs; and leads and unifies the community in literacy efforts. SFC supports the America Reads Program, which recruits, trains and matches volunteers to become Learning Partners. These Learning Partners are matched with a school site where they provide one-to-one reading enrichment activities for children. The goal is to interest children in reading and to help them believe that even though they may have experienced failure in school, they can begin to read and enjoy it. At present the Literacy Coalition has 100 Learning Partners at work and are constantly recruiting others
Palmer Drug Abuse Program
https://pdapmcallen.orgChildren & Families
It is estimated that approximately 250,000 young people in the Houston area use drugs and alcohol regularly. Palmer answer is an outreach effort. Its drug intervention and education work is designed to reduce youth drug use, gang activity and school dropouts, raise the community’s awareness of youth substance abuse and give concerned parents and employers the tools they need to help their children and employees. Workshops on understanding addiction, “family stress versus distress,” healthy boundaries and logical consequences, the importance of school, reducing high-risk behaviors, sex and the teenager and safe driving are offered to a mix of parents and students at each of Palmer’s three centers and on-site at schools, businesses and organizations.
Parents and Children Together (PACT)
https://pacthawaii.orgChildren & Families
Children & Families
Peace Games imagines a world where every child has the skills, knowledge, supportive relationships, and opportunities to prevent violence and build safer communities. A world where individuals and institutions believe in the power of young people and that violence – in all its forms – can be prevented. Peace Games believes that this goal is best achieved by building the capacity of schools and community groups to implement holistic, peace and justice education programs. Its mission is to empower students to create their own safe classrooms and communities by forming partnerships with elementary schools, families, and young adult volunteers. Its goals are to empower children with the skills, knowledge, relationships and opportunities to be peacemakers, to engage all community members (students, families, teachers, volunteers, organizations and businesses) to support children as peacemakers, to inspire a new generation of educators and activists, and to change how society thinks about violence and young people.
Pee Dee Healthy Start
https://pdhs.orgChildren & Families
Singing for Change enabled Pee Dee Healthy Start to expand its work with absent fathers in an effort called the Male Outreach Program, in which staff visit with men in barber shops, on basketball courts and other local establishments to encourage their participation in their children’s lives. The program helps fathers become active role models in the lives of their young children. It requires their input in planning workshop sessions, and following up with their peers after the program is completed. Reducing infant mortality is the goal of this organization, which works with parents and children in six rural counties of the Pee Dee River Region. It also addresses factors related to infant mortality, such as teen pregnancy, substance abuse, crime, unemployment and the absence of fathers
Peter Pan Children’s Fund
https://peterpanfoundation.orgChildren & Families
From Julie Hart, Founder: “On my 10th birthday, I visited the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London where James M. Barrie willed the rights to his Peter Pan story. Earlier that day, my grandmother had taken me shopping for a birthday present - just one - even though I expected the whole store. The last thing that I wanted to do that day was tour a hospital, but when we walked in the door, I was greeted by hundreds of happy faces - smiling and laughing despite being ill. And there I was perfectly healthy, yet I was miserable about a toy. Their courage inspired me to action. I asked myself, “What if every child gave up one birthday, just one? How many kids could we help?” After my trip to London, I asked friends to make donations to a Children’s Hospital instead of buying me birthday presents. We raised quite a bit of birthday money that first year -- and we’re still going strong ten years later. I don’t remember the toy I wanted so badly on my 10th birthday, but I do remember each face and each smile of every child I met that day. Knowing that I could make a difference in their lives is the best birthday present I could ever receive. Neverland is a place where dreams are born, and every day is nicely crammed between one awfully big adventure and another. The Peter Pan Birthday Club is all about an awfully big adventure. You can make a difference. Believe it!” The Peter Pan Birthday Club was the inspiration for The Order of Pan, a program for teenage birthday parties and school fundraisers. More and more young people are following Julia Hart’s lead and becoming philanthropists for Children’s Hospitals across the country.
Philadelphia Early Childhood Collaborative
https://www.phlcollab.orgChildren & Families
This organization is a partnership of three neighborhood-based early childhood resource programs serving at-risk communities. In the absence of any child care “system” in Philadelphia, the Collaborative provides resources, training and support necessary to foster learning-enriched child care settings in neighborhoods throughout the city. Business management for child care center Directors, extended services for young children through the Philadelphia Department of Recreation and training focusing on the use of educational television in early childhood programs are three new opportunities created by the Collaborative.
Philadelphians Concerned About Housing
https://pathwaystohousingpa.org/news/philadelphia-affordable-housing-challengesChildren & Families
PCAH is organized to help single parent, low income and homeless families live self-sufficient lives. The agency is genuinely focused on helping families reach self-sufficiency. It provides a comprehensive social service support platform, including the service of housing, to help each family individually. It balances compassion for each family with high expectations of responsibility and performance. Using carefully planned, objective measures, PCAH holds its client families and itself accountable to the goal of self-sufficiency via a process that is measurable, verifiable and cost-effective. Singing for Change is funding the Study Buddy program. In collaboration with volunteers from Philadelphia Cares (another Singing for Change grantee), tutoring and mentoring by the Study Buddy reinforces the learning process, the development of critical thinking skills, and the value of education while helping build self-esteem and confidence in parents and children. PCAH is focused in a way that is essential to overcome the multiple issues facing the disenfranchised.
Pitzer College/LEEP
https://www.pitzer.edu/communications/2021/04/22/growing-sustainability-at-pitzers-student-garden/Children & Families
In an innovative strategy to reach out to homeless children, this school district partnered with the YWCA and other community groups to provide an on-site educational program for children staying in local homeless shelters. Homeless children frequently show a decline in academic skills, especially verbal skills, during their shelter experience. Educational opportunities beyond the school day and into the summer help counteract this decline. The program meets Monday through Friday following the regular school day and continues into the summer, when school activities are conducted for three hours in the afternoon Monday through Friday. Classes and activities are conducted on-site at the shelters by an elementary school teacher, certified in the state of Iowa, with help from volunteers. Because two of the four area shelters which host children require their residents to leave the shelter during the day, having educational activities on-site gives these children a constructive outlet during the summer months. Traditional summer school programs, even those provided to parents at no cost, were previously inaccessible to shelter residents due to transportation issues. School-age children at all four shelters in Cedar Rapids are eligible to attend. Since shelter students frequently have academic deficits, daily class size is limited to fifteen children or fewer, and priority is given to elementary age students.
Project Advancing Literacy (PAL) ®
https://www.pointsoflight.orgChildren & Families
PAL operates a family reading program that unites children and their families through “book events” nurturing
Ronald McDonald House
https://rmhc.org/Children & Families
The Ronald McDonald House of Mobile is a temporary home-away-from-home for families whose children are receiving treatment for serious illnesses, injuries or birth defects at any Mobile area hospital. The House provides a warm, comforting atmosphere where parents and children alike can relax, sleep, cook their own meals and regain their emotional composure, drawing strength from others who understand what it is like to have a seriously ill or injured child. Founded in February 2000, the House has welcomed more than 100 families from Alabama, southeastern Mississippi, Louisiana and western Florida in its first nine months. It features 10 bedrooms, two dayrooms, a fully stocked kitchen, dining room, family lounges, children’s playroom, library, computer room and exercise area, in addition to an outdoor playground patios and landscaped gardens.
Ronald McDonald House Charities of Charleston, Inc.
https://www.rmhcharleston.orgChildren & Families
The mission of the Ronald McDonald House of Charleston is to provide a “home away from home” for families of seriously ill children being treated at nearby hospitals. Each year, hundreds of families from South Carolina and beyond travel to Charleston to receive treatment at the Medical University of South Carolina Children’s Hospital and other local facilities. The project sponsored by Singing for Change is the “Changes in Attitude” second-story balcony in The House that Love Keeps Building Capital Campaign. It will be here that moms and dads can go outside, look over a small piece of the Charleston harbor, and reflect on their child’s progress. The Lowcountry Parrothead Club of Charleston has graciously promised the painting campaign to paint ceiling fans, rockers, Adirondack chairs, and porch railings within various shades of Key West paradise using Jimmy’s clever lyrics about life
Children & Families
Rosalie Manor provides innovative leadership in the field of pregnancy and planning services in the Milwaukee area. It helps many single parents overcome problems of poverty, lack of support from peers, family members and other adults, and limited educational and career opportunities. Support services are provided during pregnancy and after delivery to enhance parent-child relationships and help the parents identify and pursue career goals. Based on its commitment to intact families, Rosalie Manor offers a value-based educational program for adolescent pregnancy prevention, which includes children, teens and their family members around the important subject of human sexuality
Ruth Dykeman Children’s Center
https://www.ruthdykeman.orgChildren & Families
RDCC provides in-home crisis intervention and counseling, long-term intensive treatment for severely emotionally and behaviorally impaired children and their families, parenting information for young and first-time parents and a variety of prevention programs addressing teen pregnancy, alcohol and other drug use, youth violence, gang involvement and school dropouts. Founded in 1921, it currently serves more than 5,500 individuals each year throughout the Seattle metropolitan area and its suburban cities. Its Cambodian Family Support Services assists non-English-speaking refugees/immigrants and their children who are living in poverty with linguistically appropriate, culturally sensitive counseling, school-linked services, language lessons and access to community supports.
S.W.I.M.S. Foundation, Inc./Swim Central
https://fspa.com/safety/florida-swims-foundation/Children & Families
Drowning is the number one killer of children under the age of five in South Florida. In September 1998 a committee was formed to address Broward County’s alarming drowning and near-drowning statistics for young children. Given the magnitude of the problem, it was the consensus of the committee to formulate and seek funding for a countywide water safety program involving the public and private sector entities. Swim Central now provides water safety instruction for all Broward children, raises parental awareness of the importance of teaching basic water safety skills to children, and provides access to both public and private swimming facilities. Swim Central is the first Broward County program in which every agency in the county and city, including local government, is participating. This program has helped over 3,000 children learn to swim. The fundraising arm of Swim Central is S.W.I.M.S. Foundation, which stands for “Safe Water Instruction Means Safety.”
Children & Families
The SAFE Center is designed to provide an alternative for children of low-income families who might otherwise be left alone in the afternoons and during the days in summer. The SAFE Center’s mission is to help children and families to improve the quality of life in their communities. SAFE is a product of a joint venture initiated by twenty agencies called the Kershaw County At-Risk Collaborative, created to share ideas and develop solutions to school and community problems such as expulsions, school dropouts, teen crime, teen violence, substance abuse and dysfunctional families. The Collaborative’s focus is on partnership interventions between schools and outside agencies, because its proponents believe the most effective way to accomplish the above goals is through a coordinated, broad-based community services coalition.
Saturday Academy ®
https://www.saturdayacademy.orgChildren & Families
Saturday Academy is a pre-college, community-based education center of the Oregon Graduate Institute of Science & Technology, serving students and teachers in the four-county Portland/Vancouver area and through six other centers in Oregon and southern Washington. It creates meaningful, challenging experiences for inquiring young minds, by placing students in direct contact with accomplished and successful professionals in the students’ own community, and by giving them the opportunity to investigate real-life problems and issues. The Student Watershed Research Project (SWRP) is a research-based education and monitoring program. This program strives to foster stewardship through the education of students and teachers, in watershed health data collection and interpretation. It is the mission of the SWRP to develop awareness, knowledge, skills and commitment leading to responsible behavior and constructive actions with regard to water quality and watershed resources
Seattle Works
https://seattleworks.orgChildren & Families
Seattle Works is dedicated to channeling the talents and energies of people in the Puget Sound region toward community service. It is part of the CityCares network. It has grown from a handful of twenty-something founders in 1989 to over 6,000 members working with 500 nonprofit agencies that depend on the help of volunteers to feed, clothe, tutor, mentor, and entertain people in need of all ages. Seattle Works organizes special community events such as Halloween in Seattle elementary schools (providing a safe place to trick or treat) and is collaborating to set up a Family Reading Room to promote literacy and a love of reading among at-risk youth. In its competitive EXCEED program, volunteers are selected to serve as apprentices on the boards of venerable nonprofit organizations in Seattle and mentored by more experienced members of the business community to develop civic leadership skills.
Second Start
Children & FamiliesSecond Start provides literacy and training programs for low-income and educationally disadvantaged adolescents and adults in the central New Hampshire area. The agency was organized for the purpose of assisting low-income and disadvantaged persons to improve their educational qualifications and living conditions by providing an integrated education program, including but not limited to adult basic education, special education, child care services, job training, career counseling, and related support services. Toward that end, Second Start has developed an array of programs, all aimed at developing an individual's self-confidence, self-worth, and economic independence.
Sewall Child Development Center, Inc.
https://sewall.orgChildren & Families
Sewall’s nine programs serve more than 500 children every year and are designed to assure that children enter school ready to succeed. Children at Sewall have special needs associated with disadvantages, disabilities, or developmental delays but participate with “typical” children in preschool and childcare programs. The special need can also arise from the fact that the child lives in extreme poverty or is homeless, whose parents have a drug or alcohol addition or are abusive and neglectful. Sewall’s mission is to assist these children and their families to achieve their highest potential, by providing early intervention programs and companion services at more than 65 community sites. Sewall’s family-centered services give children a better start on a brighter future.
Children & Families
Sharing & Caring Hands is a compassionate response to the needs of the inner-city poor, set up to be a safety net organization “to help with whatever needs are not being met.” This includes providing meals, clothing, showers, shelter, transportation help, rent deposits, rent help, medical referrals, dental care, furniture assistance, school expenses, funeral assistance, etc. Having served hundreds of children and parents each day for years, the organization is building a Teen Center to provide youth with a clean, safe environment where they can meet and interact with other young people who also shun the street scene. Staff assures youth that they will not feel threatened or coerced by denying association with street gangs. A day care center is also being built to answer the overwhelming need for a safe, comfortable place for children of working parents. “Government cuts in the welfare program will place many more parents in the workforce, but without adequate day care, these parents will be unable to pursue employment, throwing themselves and their children deeper into poverty.”
Shawnee State University
https://info.online.shawnee.eduChildren & Families
A discovery spirometer was purchased to teach elementary school children about the dangers of smoking. School nurses, teachers, and youth workers in the adolescent tobacco prevention program in the county-wide school region praise this program and its impact on younger children, who are made aware of the grave physical debilitation and cosmetic ill effects of using cigarettes and snuff
Sinopah House
https://www.freerehabcenters.net/montana/kalispell/western-montana-mental-health-center-sinopah-house/Children & Families
Sinopah House is a therapeutic group home in Kalispell, Montana that serves emotionally disturbed adolescent girls, ages 13-18, who are dealing with issues of abuse, neglect, and/or family difficulties. Because Sinopah House is one of only two such programs in the entire state of Montana (the other being 600 miles away on the eastern border of the state), the program serves girls throughout the entire western half of the state. The goal of Sinopah House is to provide a safe and structured home setting that meets individual treatment needs and to promote healing in a therapeutic environment. The program provides counseling in a safe, structured therapeutic milieu with the goal of family reunification, independent living or placement in foster care.
Sojourner Truth House
https://sojournertruthhouse.orgChildren & Families
The mission of Sojourner Truth House is to prevent and eliminate violence in a family setting. It runs an intervention program for abusers called “Batterers Anonymous – Beyond Abuse” and coordinates Victim Advocates in the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office, who assist victims of domestic abuse through the legal system. Other programs include a community education program and support groups for victims of domestic violence. Singing for Change supports programming for children exposed to violence who are now attending the shelter with their mothers - afterschool homework sessions, outings, structured child care, peer support groups, and family support groups.
Solar Youth
https://solaryouth.orgChildren & Families
SOLAR YOUTH, INC. was founded in 2000 as a youth development and urban environmental education organization based in New Haven, Connecticut. Our mission is to provide young people opportunities to develop a positive sense of self and connection and commitment to others through programs that incorporate environmental exploration, leadership, and community service. We work in collaboration with community-based organizations and schools in neighborhoods where children are faced with several challenges due to low income and high crime rates. Programs include after-school Neighborhood Steward Teams, a summer Citywide Steward Program and Youth Advisory Group (YAG). With youth leadership as a major part of our vision, members of the YAG serve on our Board of Directors, with all the rights and responsibilities of adult members
Special Olympics Massachusetts
https://www.specialolympicsma.orgChildren & Families
Spina Bifida Association of Georgia
https://www.spinabifidaassociation.org/Children & Families
Promoting the achievement of full potential for people born with spina bifida is this group’s mission, while emphasizing prevention of the birth defect. Spina bifida is the most frequently occurring, permanently disabling birth defect – affecting more children than muscular dystrophy and cystic fibrosis combined. However, scientists have proven that if women of childbearing age consume 400 micrograms of folic acid daily prior to and during the first three months of pregnancy, 50-75% of spina bifida births could be prevented. Singing for Change supports the Spina Bifida Association’s outreach to Spanish-speaking women (“Tu Eres Mujer, Tu Necesitas Acido”). Its goal is to increase awareness of folic acid’s role in preventing the birth defect and to promote a higher level of folic acid intake among Hispanic women. Outreach efforts are non-traditional but community-based, taking place in clinics, churches with Spanish services, work sites with large numbers of Hispanic employees, and Hispanic-owned hair salons and restaurants
Springboard
https://www.springboardchildcare.orgChildren & Families
Springboard is a combination day care and teen service program designed to meet the following goals: On-time graduation for all participants; adequate preparation for post-secondary education or jobs; high-quality, state-licensed child care in a safe, affordable, nurturing environment; parenting skills education; encouragement and bolstering of self-esteem for both parents and their infants and toddlers; information, education and counseling with regard to relationships, sexuality and family planning, with the goal of preventing additional pregnancies before the students complete their education.
St. David’s School for Child Development and Family Services
https://www.stdavidscenter.orgChildren & Families
St. David’s is a non-sectarian, multi-service agency with three areas of focus: 1) early childhood education, 2) service that help children with disabilities and their families and 3) prevention of child abuse and neglect. Working with children and their families throughout the Twin Cities, St. David’s is a recognized leader in providing services that prepare children of all abilities for the future. The cornerstone of its vision is the commitment to strengthening parent-child relationships, partnering with parents and integrating children with and without disabilities into society. St. David’s is a nurturing place where help, hope and healing are available for children and families who have lived in crisis, emotional trauma and the risk of child abuse and neglect.
St. Mary’s Hospital (Baby Bucks Program)
https://www.trinityhealthma.orgChildren & Families
St. Mary’s mission is to extend care to all people with dignity, respect and compassion with particular concern for the poor and other vulnerable persons. Baby Bucks is an incentive program that provides low income, pregnant women with the necessities of life for their newborns, such as cribs, clothing, strollers, car seats, blankets, bottles and diapers. All items are offered at no cost but must be “purchased” by the women using Baby Bucks credits earned by attending parenting and childbirth classes, keeping doctor and WIC appointments, and for making healthy lifestyle choices. By reinforcing healthy behaviors during pregnancy, this program helps to produce healthy infants, healthy moms and empowered parents.
St. Vincent de Paul
https://ssvpusa.orgChildren & Families
St. Vincent de Paul provides a variety of resources to children and families in downtown Chicago: day and after school care, summer day camps, foster grandparenting, outreach to the homeless via a mobile unit, gym activities for teens, senior companions for other seniors, an emergency food pantry and regular food distribution to the poor and much more.
Teenage Pregnancy and Prevention
https://felton.org/Children & Families
TAPP seeks to provide a confidential support system to all pregnant teens, teen parents and their families residing in Fairfield County by working with existing county agencies which provide health care, counseling and education. Its educational programs are directed toward prevention. TAPP offers RSVP (Responsible Social Values Program) for middle school students and MYOB (Mind Your Own Business) for high school students. These combine principals of goal orientation, self-esteem building and education, and stresses abstinence. For older students the classes expand the concept of refusal skills to assist teens in building relationships based on common goals rather than sexual pressure. TAPP also offers free legal assistance, medical care, transportation, home/hospital visits, material needs and adoption support.
The Boggy Creek Gang
https://rarediseases.org/Children & Families
The Boggy Creek Gang, started by Norman Schwarzkopf and Paul Newman, is a 232-acre lakeside camp equipped with its own medical center for children with special health care needs. Volunteer doctors, nurses and counselors are on staff for campers from across the United States who suffer from chronic illnesses such as: cancer, asthma, sickle cell anemia, craniofacial disorders, kidney disease, diabetes, cystic fibrosis, HIV/AIDS, hemophilia, heart disease and arthritis. Sick children will be able to experience camp without feeling different, left out or isolated from medical care. They will be with other children who have experienced serious illnesses, learning how to better cope with the day to day challenges of their illness in a safe, camping environment.
The Books for Kids Foundation®
https://www.booksforkids.orgChildren & Families
Headquartered in New York City, the Books for Kids Foundation promotes early literacy by expanding the access of disadvantaged children to high-quality new books and encouraging them to read. BFK places large donations of good, new children’s books with social service and educational institutions that care for children. It also establishes and stocks permanent libraries in agencies with active literacy programs. In 1997-98, it distributed approximately 600,000 books, with a retail value of $7 million, to some 200 agencies and schools serving children from economically distressed communities. SFC’s grant is enabling this small, young foundation move to a new plateau in organizational development and to expand the literacy assistance it provides. The grant has funded a strategic planning Board retreat, provided stipends for volunteers to help in the book distribution effort, and provided seed money to develop a technical assistance package in literacy for agency staffs
The Bridge School
https://www.bridgeschool.orgChildren & Families
The Carying Place
https://www.thecaryingplace.orgChildren & Families
Under the umbrella of Christian Community in Action, this is a transitional housing program that assists families to develop plans and build skills allowing them to attain and maintain adequate, affordable housing. Since its inception in 1993, The Carying Place has helped more than 33 families either move from homelessness to permanent housing or be able to keep the housing they were on the verge of losing. Families accepted into a three-to-five month program are paired with a team of volunteers that works with them to develop a personalized plan for self-sufficiency. Families learn life skills, such as budgeting, time management and setting and attaining goals, so that they have a grasp of what it takes to overcome and avoid future homelessness.
The Children’s Museum of Indianapolis
https://www.childrensmuseum.orgChildren & Families
This is the world’s largest children’s museum, whose galleries explore science, history, world culture, children’s toys and it features a planetarium, a 350-seat performing arts center and a theater. It also owns and runs a 180-acre nature preserve and recreational facility in Fishers, IN. Concerned community members can work with the museum to enhance the quality of family life in the museum’s neighborhood, called “The Core Area” by locals -- the downtown, poverty-stricken core of urban Indianapolis. The museum staff and volunteers offer free admission to residents of the Core, began a neighborhood gardening project for urban youth, organize African American cultural activities, dance, music, arts and crafts and run a volunteer-led evening program that teaches youth, by example, about intellectual exploration and creative expression.
The Children’s Place & Connor’s Nursery, Inc.
https://www.helphomesafe.org/homesafe-history-2/Children & Families
Begun in 1979 as a day care for six abused and neglected children, The Children’s Place and Connor’s Nursery is now a multi-service agency. It operates three shelters, a preschool, a family support program (outreach) and parental support and educational programs focusing on the prevention of child abuse and neglect. In addition to its family strengthening services, The Children’s Place provides families with a temporary safe and nurturing home for their infants and children until the family stabilizes and is able to care for them. Each year it serves approximately 450 clients throughout Palm Beach County.
The Children’s Place at Home Safe
https://www.helphomesafe.orgChildren & Families
The Children's Place at Home Safe, a United Way Member Agency, provides 24-hour residential and community based services to children and families impacted by child abuse, neglect, substance abuse and HIV/AIDS. Shelter is provided to children newborn to age 18 from locations throughout Palm Beach County.
The CityKids Foundation
https://www.citykids.comChildren & Families
The CityKids Foundation is a multi-cultural youth foundation using peer-to-peer education to develop the leadership potential of youth. Its mission is to engage and develop young people to have a positive impact on their own lives, their communities and the world in an atmosphere of “safe space” – an environment for frank, open and honest discussion based on mutual respect. “Safe space” rules at all CityKids programs. In Coalition, the core program of CityKids, youth meet weekly to discuss issues of importance to them including school, family relationships, racism, sexual identity, and violence. In CityKids In Action, another program sponsored by the organization, young people learn community organizing and workshop facilitation
The Dignity Project now Dignity Project Second Generation
https://www.resourcehouse.com/Children & Families
Providing Alachua County high school students with job skills training, refurbished computers, and teaches participants to refurbish cars.
The Family Center
https://www.familycentertn.orgChildren & Families
Family Center is the only organization in its county entirely dedicated to child abuse prevention and treatment. Last year, 7,906 cases of abuse and neglect were reported to county authorities, which equals one child every 66 minutes. While statistics define the scope of the problem, they do not describe the pain and trauma of child abuse and neglect. In a perfect world we would live without violence in a place where all parents protect their children and tend to their needs, but we do not. Violence against children happens daily. Family Center protects children and teaches families how to live together safely
The Georgia Center for Children
https://georgiacenterforchildadvocacy.orgChildren & Families
The Center’s mission is to help sexually abused children overcome their experience and rebuild their lives, thereby breaking the cycle of abuse which frequently occurs with victimization. The Center provides evaluation and treatment for sexually abused children and their families and supports the joint investigation of child abuse. One of ten model centers designated by the National Children’s Alliance, the Georgia Center for Children also provides educational seminars, conferences and resources to other child health professionals across the state.
The Joey Pizzano Memorial Fund
https://jpmf.orgChildren & Families
The Joey Pizzano Memorial Fund was established in loving memory of a six-year-old boy who died in a drowning accident. Aside from having a wonderful smile and a hearty laugh, Joey was mentally retarded with developmental disabilities. This grant from Singing for Change will enable the Joey Pizzano Memorial Fund to grow and enhance its programs aimed at providing swimming and water safety lessons to children and teens with developmental disabilities. These programs not only bring important water safety instruction to these individuals but also provides a fun, physical outlet for them in their communities. To date, the JPMF organized and enabled swimming and water safety lessons for more than 150 children and teens in Fairfax County, VA. The JPMF is also currently working with the Arlington County, VA school district to incorporate swimming and water safety into their Special Education program for the 2002-2003 school year. The gift from Singing for Change will be used to expand this program to neighboring communities and schools in the greater Washington DC area.
The Kids Fund
https://thekidsfund.orgChildren & Families
The Department of Pediatrics routinely offers families resources to combat illiteracy, to prevent malnutrition, to cope with violence, and to avoid preventable obstacles to children’s well-being. The Kids Fund works in collaboration with the Department of Pediatrics to provide for individual needs of children and to support the Department’s programs or initiate new ones. A survey in the Department revealed troubling statistics concerning car seat use: 98% of young children arriving by taxi to an urban pediatric emergency room were unrestrained, 60% of children arriving in a non-family car were unrestrained, 39% of children arriving in a family car were unrestrained, and 98% of families arriving by taxi do not own a car seat. The Car Seat Program offers car seats to families who have been in a car crash in which their children were unrestrained and requires a one and one-half hour training session – including video and hands-on training – detailing the use of air bags, Massachusetts Law, and correct seat position. By any means possible, the Pediatric Emergency Department is pro-active in avoiding accidents and the injury or death of children who were unable to protect themselves
The Lion & Lamb Project
https://lionlamb.orgChildren & Families
The mission of The Lion & Lamb Project is to stop the marketing of violence to children. We do this by helping parents, industry and government officials recognize that violence is not child’s play –and by galvanizing concerned adults to act. Lion & Lamb works to reduce the marketing of violent toys, games and entertainment to children in two distinct ways. It works with parents and other concerned adults to reduce the demand for violent "entertainment" products, and with industry and government to reduce the supply of such products. Its founders believe that attitudes about violence as "entertainment" can be changed over time. Just as attitudes about drunk driving and smoking have changed, they believe that Lion & Lamb can help forge a national consensus that violence is not child’s play. Just as it has become "uncool" to pollute and to litter, Lion & Lamb is working to change the tolerance level for violence as a "cool" theme for toys and other entertainment products for children
The National Organization on Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (NOFAS)
https://fasdunited.orgChildren & Families
NOFAS is the only organization dedicated exclusively to eliminating fetal alcohol syndrome and helping children and families already touched by alcohol-related birth defects. Its public awareness campaign is a collaborative effort among diverse health, education and religious groups, and targets teenagers and community outreach workers. Teen advisors receive credit from DC public schools for their role as planners, marketers and recruiters for the campaign.
Children & Families
The Pendulum Project is a non-profit humanitarian organization through which compassionate communities committed to providing support and resources are linked with communities caring for orphans and other vulnerable children in regions severely affected by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The Pendulum Project serves families and communities who care for, support, and protect orphans and other vulnerable children of the AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa. Currently, the AIDS epidemic is killing many men and women between the ages of 15 and 55. As a result the elderly and the very young are being left to care for each other in the face of severe material and emotional hardships. Struggling to survive, the children left behind are highly vulnerable to exploitation, abandonment, HIV infection, and premature death. Their needs are simple to meet: shelter in a family setting, food and basic clothing, access to school, and primary health care.
The Shade Tree
https://theshadetree.orgChildren & Families
The Shade Tree is Las Vegas’ primary twenty-four-hour emergency shelter for women and children. It is the only shelter in metro Las Vegas that does not require identification or have entrance criteria to access services. As such, the Shade Tree serves numerous victims of violence and abuse, i.e. women and children who have been victimized on the street, exiled from their homes by abusive partners or who have newly arrived in the area seeking employment. Many people who come to Las Vegas for a better life, a better job or the climate find they’ve bee misled by advertisements. They are ignorant of the tenant laws, unskilled in the unique jobs the market has to offer and unable to support families on minimum wage. The Shade Tree’s mission is to assist women who access their services in returning to a state of independence and self-sufficiency.
The Whale’s Tale
https://www.homelessnessinamerica.comChildren & Families
The Whale’s Tale operates the only two shelters in Pennsylvania for under-21 year old runaway and homeless youth, including mothers with children, and served over 37,000 youth and family members last year alone. Its “Kids Between the Cracks” campaign focuses on under-21 year old youth in the form of crisis intervention and counseling, transitional housing, life skills training, family support services and day care. Outreach and counseling services are available 24 hours a day through the shelter facilities and the crisis intervention unit, enabling youth to access professional youth and family specialists that act as a crisis intervention response team to meet immediate needs of the youth. In addition to numerous job readiness and parenting skills programs and support services for teenage mothers and their children, the Whale’s Tale organized a consortium of local agencies to establish a Father’s Group to address the growing absence of fathers from their children’s homes, to help sensitize agencies to include fathers in their assessment process, to develop support groups for fathers and to teach the knowledge and skills to be good and involved fathers.
Children & Families
Thompson Children’s Home has provided services to children and families in North Carolina for over 100 years. Over the years needs have changed from simple residential care for orphans to the complex treatment of children with special needs. Today, Thompson is a statewide organization that offers residential treatment for 40 children ages 6-12, a foster care program, weekend respite care, an after school program and summer camp. It also has two group homes for boys ages 8-18, located in Fletcher and Goldsboro, NC. The newest Thompson program, the Thompson Child Development Center, serves approximately 90 children ages 6 weeks to 5 years, many of whom are from at-risk environments.
Tierra Lucero (under New Visions School)
https://www.newvisions.orgChildren & Families
Turning Point Youth Services
https://turningpoint.caChildren & Families
Turning Point has provided services to street youth aged 16-24 for nearly twenty-five years. Its innovative programs include a drop-in center at a local mall, where youth were a cause of concern to merchants and mall managers. Today, the organization has redirected hundreds of youths, placing some of them as retail apprentices, to the point where they are highly-sought-after employees in mall stores. “Street Smart” is a mobile, funky thrift store selling clothes chosen, merchandised and sold by street youth employees from a converted school bus. “Brewing Point,” a fundraising coffee kiosk located in a government office high-rise, offers cookies and muffins made in the kitchen of Turning Point’s residential treatment center. The kiosk is managed by an adult who provides several months of training and employment to a succession of street youth employees.
United Community Ministries/The Bassett Center
https://unitedcommunityministries.org/bassett-center-information/Children & Families
The Bassett Center has a dual-purpose. Tt is a residential housing facility serving homeless families with children; (b) it is a Neighborhood Resource Center serving the needs of the residential families and the needs of community. This center offers programs that address life skills, educational opportunities, health issues and others. On average over one thousand individuals each quarter use the Bassett Center. Our goal for the Bassett Center is to truly make a difference helping people as they move toward wholeness. Joseph’s Hope (formerly Casita de San Jose) has been providing services to abused children in Orange County for over 15 years. Due to recent changes in California legislation, Orange County is experiencing a severe shortage of services for young children who are now residing with foster parents. Due to emotional trauma these children are often unable to succeed in community pre-schools, kindergartens and after school programs. This program the first of its kind in Southern California, is in Santa Ana and will serve as a statewide model. The three cornerstones of the program are the morning pre-school program (ages 3-6), an afternoon enrichment program (ages 3-12) and extensive family support services. With the combination of education, therapeutic services, recreation, performing and creative arts children are free to safely express and explore their individual skills and talents. As children stabilize emotionally and begin to heal and grow their long-term success is ensured.
University Park Elementary School
https://www.brevardschools.org/o/upemChildren & Families
University Park Elementary School in south Denver serves 365 students, many of whom come from foreign countries: 18 different languages are spoken there every day. The Library Committee at this elementary school has worked for years to raise enough money for a new library. Singing for Change is pleased to announce that the committee is now working hard to spend this money by replacing carpeting, creating a reading nook, helping students paint artwork to brighten the walls. The Singing for Change grant will be used to purchase new books
West End Center for Youth
https://www.westendcenter.orgChildren & Families
The West End Center is a support system for working families whose incomes fall below the poverty level or low income range. The criterion for admission to the program is residence in the neighborhood. The children who attend the Center are at risk for drug abuse, juvenile crime, teenage pregnancy and academic failure. Many of the children have special needs, and a large number have emotional disabilities. The Center maintains an enrollment of about 150 children and works with them to provide stability and continuity from the early public school years through high school. Its after school program, parenting classes, recreational summer school, tutoring program and special summer program for 12-18 year olds are all provided at no cost to the families.
WINGS for Girls and Boys
https://wingsforkids.org/sel/programs/wings-afterschoolChildren & Families
Wings is all about helping kids develop their emotional intelligence, their heart smarts (includes self-awareness, managing emotions, motivating oneself, empathy, handling relationships.) Wings runs an afterschool program where kids do their homework, play basketball and baseball, do art, drama and Taekwando, swim, dance and join the computer, reading and math & science Explorers clubs. Today, Wings is at Memminger Elementary School in downtown Charleston, serving kids from low-income families. Each school day, 120 children come to Wings from 3:00 to 6:00. In the 2001-02 school year, Wings hopes to replicate the after-school program at one or more public schools. This replication experience will prepare Wings to move across the state and eventually the nation. During this time period, we will also work to increase public sector support for the program, so that we become less dependent upon philanthropy
Women’s Bean Project
https://www.serrv.org/Children & Families
The Women’s Bean Project is a nonprofit organization created to provide an environment in which women who are homeless or living in poverty can choose to maximize their personal, economic and/or social potential. It employs women to produce and distribute economically viable products and services as well as providing training and education opportunities. The Women’s Bean Project addresses the root causes of homelessness and poverty by helping the women it employs to create permanent, practical changes in their lives.
WRRS/RADPRIN Radio Reading Service
https://www.guidestar.org/Profile/23-2073332Children & Families
WRRS/RADPRIN is a radio reading service that provides print-handicapped individuals of all ages living in the Greater Lehigh Valley with access to educational and daily community information. These listeners are print handicapped, that is, blind or visually impaired, or may suffer from muscular dystrophy, cerebral palsy, stroke, arthritis or any other condition that makes holding reading material difficult or impossible. They are also individuals who may suffer from a learning disability such as dyslexia. WRRS/RADPRIN broadcasts 24 hours a day, seven days a week, with two full-time employees who are print handicapped themselves. More than 200 dedicated volunteers read and record the local news and information for this radio station. There is no paid sighted employee in the WRRS studio. RADPRIN’s on-going service has the following goals: Enable independence through access to information, help combat isolation that results from a disability, and provide immediate and convenient access to local printed material
YMCA of San Diego County Shelter Services
https://www.ymcasd.orgChildren & Families
The YMCA’s Turning Point Transitional Housing Program is an 18-month plan designed to help homeless youth ages 16-21 live self-sufficient, independent lives. Turning Point provides both supervised apartment living and supportive services to 24 residents. On-site adult staff conducts weekly case management, counseling, educational and job-development assistance. Residents are empowered to get jobs, set and pursue their education goals, and save 20% of their earned monthly income. Ultimately, Turning Point graduates emerge with the ability to maintain permanent housing and employment while leading productive lives.
Youth for Environmental Sanity/YES! Camps
https://www.culturalsurvival.org/publications/cultural-survival-quarterly/yes-youth-environmental-sanityChildren & Families
Youth for Environmental Sanity (YES!) educates, inspires and empowers young people to take positive action for healthy people and a healthy planet. Started in 1990 by two teens, YES!’s widely heralded environmental training camps help diverse youth ages 15-25 to make a meaningful difference in their schools, their communities, and their world. Since its beginning, YES! has held 43 one, two, and three-week-long YES! Action Camps in 7 countries. A grant from Singing for Change enabled the organization to hold 11 YES! Action Camps in six states in the summer of 1999, providing support and practical skills to 275 of the next century’s social and environmental leaders. YES! also produces and distributes books, videos, action guides, organizing manuals, fact sheets, a newsletter, and a website to give youth concerned about environmental and social issues information, inspiration, and practical support.
Youth Service Charleston
https://www.lowcountryyouth.orgChildren & Families
More than 1,000 students from 25 schools and after-school programs will participate in the Earth Force “Community Action and Problem-Solving” (CAPS) program. In addition, between 40-60 educators will receive professional development workshops on environmental sustainability and teaching those concepts in the classroom. CAPS is an environmental problem-solving course through which middle-school aged youth and their adult leaders identify local environmental issues and work to create sustainable solutions to these problems. They then create action projects that benefit the environment through changes in local policies or community practices. This program provides the structure needed for young people to make positive, lasting changes on behalf of the environment. It doesn’t teach participants what to think about environmental issues; rather, it teaches them how to think about them and how to think about solutions. As young people make measurable impacts on their communities, they gain confidence that they can have a positive effect on the world, and that their voices and actions make a difference