2007 Grants
In 2007, the Women's Giving Alliance made grants totaling $346,350 to 8 organizations in the First Coast region. The grants were funded with $246,350 from the members' pooled grant fund, which was supplemented by an additional $100,000 from the Jessie Ball duPont Fund, The Community Foundation, and Women's Giving Alliance Founders and Presidents.
Initiative Grants
AGING OUT: Jewish Family and Community Services - $40,000
- "Building Bridges" is a one-year pilot program offering individual and group counseling, life skills training/practice, guidance from a female caregiver or mentor, transportation, transition planning and ongoing competency assessment. The 40 girls (13-18) served will include clients from Jewish Family & Community Services and other agencies.
- More than 100 youth in Duval turn 18 and age out of foster care each year without ongoing emotional support, guidance, job skills and often no high school diploma or further education plans. Over half are girls, who are at risk for early pregnancy, STDs, depression, crime and "survival sex."
- The hope (and the expectation) is that the pilot—once it is evaluated and revised as appropriate—will be expanded to include all teenage girls in foster care in Duval and have the potential for replication in other counties. With this grant, WGA will take a big step toward facilitating creative solutions. We also will be setting the stage to reform the county's entire system of providing transition services to girls aging out of foster care.
INFANT MORTALITY: Northeast Florida Healthy Start Coalition - $38,050
- Azalea offers preconceptual and pregnant women long-term, intensive services, including one-on-one counseling and group activities focused on health, life skills development, decision-making and goal-setting. Reaching women at highest risk requires specialized outreach staff who find, engage and link potential participants to case management and risk reduction services. Due to funding issues, this critical component was cut from the original three-year, highly successful federally funded demonstration project.
- The infant mortality rate for the U. S. and for Florida is 7 per 1,000—compared with 11 per 1,000 for Duval County. For African-Americans in Duval, the rate is 16 per 1,000. Prematurity, including low birth weight, is a leading cause of infant mortality and accounts for 80% of the racial disparity. Substance abuse and related risk-taking behavior are key factors in poor outcomes.
- Through this grant, WGA supports a creative solution to a critical problem through direct service to individual women. But we also could have a greater impact by helping change the paradigm for addressing infant mortality, as this project provides a new angle of vision on where and how to intervene in the cycle from preconception to neonatal care, in order to improve the odds that babies born in Duval County will live and thrive. It can move us toward influencing the community's agenda regarding infant mortality and reforming the system of prevention and intervention.
JUSTICE FOR GIRLS: Children's Campaign, Inc. - $80,000 (over two years)
- Led and coordinated by the Children's Campaign, a statewide nonprofit advocacy group, this initiative will produce Florida's first comprehensive countywide plan to stem the tide of girls entering the justice system and improve outcomes. The effort will work in conjunction with the new state Juvenile Justice Blueprint Commission. WGA members will help identify members of and participate in a local citizen-driven Leadership Council to understand the issues and develop innovative solutions, including policy and system changes. A local Advisory Board will include stakeholders from law enforcement, schools, health care and agencies serving girls. Expected outcomes include identifying essential services for justice-involved girls, raising community awareness and involving Duval's legislators in policy and appropriations issues.
- Florida commits 1,000 girls a day to secure residential facilities—the highest rate in the nation—and Duval ranks first in the state in the number of girls committed for misdemeanors and status offenses: 43% vs. 29% for the state. Girls' pathways into the system are paved by prior victimization, trauma and abuse: 79% have emotional/mental health issues; 70%, a history of family conflict; 46%, substance abuse issues; and 34% have attempted suicide.
- This grant meets all three of the strategic grantmaking goals. Unlike grants for direct service, the impact on the lives of individual girls will be a little farther down the road. But the potential is here for having significant impact, not just on those girls participating in one program or served by one provider, but on the entire target population in Duval County. And one of the expected outcomes will be to loop back to direct service. This grant will set the stage for future programs, perhaps ones WGA will want to fund, that serve individual girls directly.
Continuation Funding
A hallmark of WGA grantmaking is the willingness to support programs over several years—sometimes from research through a pilot and then implementation—to give promising ideas a chance to succeed and show impact. Continuation grants made in 2007 are:
Cathedral Arts Project - $10,000
Field of Interest: Pre-K through 12 Public Education
Grant History: $20,000 for dance program (2004-06)
- The WGA grant provides a free, all-girls, after-school dance program at two elementary schools in disadvantaged areas of Jacksonville: Arlington Heights and Ruth Upson. It is the project's only all-girls offering (among arts programs for 1,200 students at 15 Jacksonville schools), and the documented benefits for its 60 participants each year include higher grades, better physical fitness and higher self-esteem.
Jacksonville Women's Business Center - $15,000
Field of Interest: Economic Empowerment
Grant History: $25,000 for Mentoring Matters (2005-06)
- WGA has supported the Jacksonville Women's Business Center's launch and growth of Mentoring Matters, a program for local women entrepreneurs. The program links participants with experienced business people who serve as coaches in planning, finance and marketing. Participants also attend monthly peer-to-peer mentoring roundtables. This grant would support the continued growth of Mentoring Matters, facilitating an increase in the number of participants and expansion into the five-county area.
Betty Griffin House Rape Crisis Unit - $20,000
Field of Interest: Violence and Crime Intervention/Prevention
Grant History: $2,000 for Rape Crisis Unit (2006)
$65,000 for grants for other programs at Betty Griffin House (2004-06)
- Last year's discretionary grant helped with start-up costs for the Rape Crisis Unit staffed by Betty Griffin House at Flagler Hospital in St. Johns County. There, in a private area, rape victims receive medical and forensic exams by specially trained nurses, personal items and access to a shower. An advocate from Betty Griffin helps them deal with the trauma of rape and supports them throughout the process of prosecution, if the victim chooses to bring charges. This grant covers the salary of a coordinator for the Sexual Assault Nurse Examiners and partial cost of an around-the-clock hotline for victims.
Women's Center of Jacksonville Expanded Horizons - $20,000
Field of Interest: Economic Empowerment
Grant History: $114,520 for Expanded Horizons (2002-06)
$57,050 for grants for other programs at Women's Center of Jacksonville (2002-06)
- Expanded Horizons is a gender-specific literacy program based on WGA-funded research in 2002 (part of a collaborative grant). The basic education it provides is customized for the unique needs and abilities of women. Small classes, flexibility, transportation, child care and life skills development are among the support services that help make this program's retention and completion rates significantly higher than the average for adult literacy programs. This grant funds the salary of a part-time classroom instructor. The additional staff would allow the program to reach more students, both at the Women's Center and through partnerships with Head Start and Hubbard House, and develop a health literacy component.
Child Partnership Watch of Jacksonville, Negro Council of Negro Women, Reed Educational Campus - $23,300
Field of Interest: Pre-K through 12 Public Education
Grant History: $41,810 for after-school and summer program
(2004-06)
- Reed is an after-school and summer program for disadvantaged girls between the ages of 9 and 12, a project of the Child Watch Partnership of Jacksonville, National Council of Negro Women. It is located in the heart of Northwest Jacksonville. The 15 girls served in the after-school program receive customized, structured learning experiences in reading, computer skills, health, nutrition and physical fitness.
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