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Wean Foundation Awards $384,542 in June Grants
WARREN, Ohio -- The Raymond John Wean Foundation has awarded a total of up to $384,542 in its June 2012 round of grants to organizations involved in a variety of efforts in Warren, Youngstown and across the Mahoning Valley. Projects range from building children’s skills before entering school to energizing support of the arts as an economic driver and narrowing the skills gap for manufacturing jobs.
In the area of early childhood development, the foundation will provide $60,307 to the Community Solutions Association of Warren to develop a strategy and business plan to publish and market its groundbreaking Project KIND regionally and nationally, said Jeffrey M. Glebocki, Foundation president. Project KIND (Keys to Improvement for Necessary Development) is an educational life skills program that teaches social and behavioral skills. It is being used in the Warren, Youngstown, Campbell and Girard school districts. The foundation has supported the development and implementation of Project KIND since 2003. This new venture will allow the project to position itself successfully in the marketplace, diversify its funding sources and sustain itself in the long run, Glebocki said.
The foundation also decided to provide further support to the Power of the Arts initiative for its work on the role of the arts in revitalizing communities in the Mahoning Valley. The $40,000 award will help support three initiatives: Completion and promotion of an economic impact study, being conducted with Americans for the Arts of the Mahoning Valley; pursuit of public funding of the arts in Trumbull and Mahoning counties through ballot initiatives; and greater public outreach and community awareness of the arts as an economic driver.
Power of the Arts is an endeavor that the foundation helped launch because of the great impact that it can achieve, Glebocki said, noting that the initiative has, in a relatively short period of time, galvanized an increasing amount of community understanding and support for the role that the arts play in boosting the Mahoning Valley’s economy.
The foundation also awarded a $20,000 grant to the Mahoning Valley Manufacturers Coalition for its efforts to provide opportunities for students, the unemployed and under-employed in the Mahoning Valley to advance to careers in manufacturing and earn a livable wage.
The largest of the June grants, of up to $134,235, was earmarked for the Youngstown Schools Community Engagement Process, an effort by the Harwood Institute to assist the schools in emerging from academic emergency.
Other June 2012 grant awards include:
- Community Solutions Association, Warren, to support continuation of Warren SPARK in the city’s Willard and Jefferson neighborhoods, $65,000.
- Help Hotline Crisis Hotline, Hotline Crisis Center Inc., Youngstown, to underwrite costs for merging Trumbull 2-1-1 with Help Hotline Crisis Center, $20,000.
- Policy Matter Ohio Ohio CASH Coalition, $20,000.
- YMCA of Trumbull County, to support the salary of an inteim director and strategic planning activities in 2012, $25,000.
In 1949, Raymond John Wean, after achieving success in the flat-rolled steel processing industry, created the foundation that bears his name in Warren. It has made more than $100 million in grants to a broad variety of non-profit organizations.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.