Spring 2014 Grants Announcement

THE NEW YORK WOMEN’S FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES
$2,515,000 IN GRANTS FOR SPRING 2014
Awards 40 Organizations Working To Promote Economic Security and Justice for Women & Families Across NYC
New York, NY – The New York Women’s Foundation (NYWF) today announced a total of $2,515,000 in grants awarded to 40 organizations across New York City as a part of The Foundation’s 2014 Spring funding.
These awards reflect The Foundation’s dedication to supporting women and girls across their lifespan, expanding  NYWF’s mission to promote economic justice for women and families in New York City. The Foundation awarded grants to 40 organizations for General Operating and Program Support in the following focus areas:

• Economic Security – 24 grants totaling $1,500,000
• Anti-Violence and Safety – 10 grants totaling $645,000
• Health, Sexual Rights, and Reproductive Justice – 6 grants totaling $370,000

These grants emphasize the complexity of addressing the multi-dimensional needs of economically insecure women, girls, and families and the myriad of barriers that they face to achieve and maintain safe, healthy, and economically secure lives. Since 1987, NYWF has funded $44.9 million to 308 grantee partners working in all five boroughs of NYC, benefitting an estimated 5.7 million women and girls. NYWF funds community-based solutions across NYC and invests in innovative and effective approaches that create meaningful and life-long opportunities for under-invested women and girls.
The complete list of grants follows:
Anti-Violence and Safety
CONNECT $60,000
To provide services that prevent interpersonal violence and promote gender justice.
Edwin Gould Services for Children and Families/STEPS $60,000
To expand their reentry services for incarcerated women who are survivors of domestic violence to prepare them for re-integration into society through individual and group counseling, preparation for parole board hearings, intensive case management, and employment readiness service.
Families for Freedom $70,000
To building the capacity of low-income families of color who are disproportionately targeted by the criminal justice and deportation systems to fight back and to advocate for changes in immigration law.
Girl Be Heard $60,000
To create a fearless space for girls to find their own voice, develop trust, write and perform personal pieces to give their anger, fear, interests, and dreams and to raise awareness on gender-based violence through performances, curricula and workshops.
The Hetrick-Martin Institute $60,000
To continue support of its Anti-Violence Social Media Campaign, HMI WOMEN SPEAK, a youth-led social media initiative designed to address violence against young lesbian women, queer-identified women and transwomen and to educate other community based organizations about violence facing young, low-income LGBTQ youth.
Hollaback! $60,000
To build on the “I’ve Got Your Back” campaign which strives for improved public safety on the streets for women and anyone who identifies as lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans or queer; in addition to reporting harassment through 311; and researching for social change.
New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault $70,000
To spearhead citywide efforts to prevent sexual violence, and engage in research, analysis, and participatory problem solving to ensure that survivors of sexual assault have access to the best acute and long-term care.
Service Women’s Action Network $75,000
To address institutional discrimination and gender-based violence experienced by service women veterans in New York City through advocacy/public education, litigation, community organizing and outreach, legislation, coalition building and direct support. SWAN will also establish a pilot program, Fellowship in Leadership and Policy, for women veterans in New York City where fellows will be advocates for change within the New York City area and beyond, giving specialized SWAN trainings to other stakeholders on issues relevant to women veterans.
Voices UnBroken $70,000
To maintain and expand its creative writing workshops for girls and young women who are currently in or transitioning out of the foster care system and/or detention throughout New York City.
Economic Security
buildOn $70,000
To continue their After-School Program, which provides a safe and positive environment where high school students in New York City’s most under resourced high schools tackle critical community needs and develop skills for a lifetime of success through community service, school break and summer programming, community and global education, and volunteer and leadership opportunities.
Chhaya Community Development Corporation $60,000
To provide financial education and skills training, through its Saathi Women’s Empowerment Program, for South Asian immigrant women which empowers them to play an active role in their household’s financial matters and in their own lives.
Cidãdao Global/Global Citizen $60,000
To continue offering community-based workforce development workshops and leadership development trainings for low-income, female Brazilian immigrants in New York City and to ensure representation of the Brazilian community in the larger struggle for social justice in New York City around issues such as domestic worker rights.
The Financial Clinic $60,000
To improve the financial security of women in New York City through direct services, capacity building for their community-based partners, and informing local and state policies.
Footsteps $60,000
To support their community building and peer support programs for individuals who have left or are contemplating leaving the ultra-Orthodox Jewish community.
Girls Write Now $60,000
To support their core programming, for young women in NYC, designed to empower girls and young women as writers by expanding their talent, developing independent, creative voices, and gaining confidence to make healthy school, career, and life choices.
Grace Outreach $70,000
To improve the long-term financial opportunities and economic security of women in the South Bronx by providing them with opportunities to access quality adult, postsecondary education, or workforce development and job readiness services.
Grand Street Settlement $70,000
To support the IMPACT program, which provides individualized services as well as group support and peer-based leadership training to low-income mothers in Bushwick to enhance the economic security and overall empowerment of the women in their community.
Hot Bread Kitchen $70,000
To improve economic security for foreign-born and low-income women and their families through on-the-job artisanal baking training and its food business incubator and professional development program for minority entrepreneurs.
Hudson Link for Higher Education in Prison, Inc. $60,000
To support its college preparatory and college program for incarcerated women (many of whom are from NYC) at the Taconic Correctional Facility, a medium security prison in Taconic, New York.
Legal Information for Families Today $60,000
To continue its Women’s Program, which provides one-on-one legal information and support for unrepresented litigants (often a mother or grandmother or guardian of children) in child support, custody and visitation cases in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx and Queens Family Courts. In addition to legal services, the Women’s Program provides crisis intervention and counseling, support groups, mentoring, a parenting curriculum, and resource referral and coordination.
Latino Justice PRLDEF $60,000
To support LATIN@S At Work (LAW), which defends the rights of Latina immigrants who are vulnerable to exploitation in the workplace.
Lexington Vocational Services $60,000
To strengthen core services and expand its Deaf Women for Economic Independence (DeafWEI) program, which provides pre-employment services, job placement, and post-employment services to help deaf women maintain successful job placements and achieve financial independence.
Literacy Partners $60,000
To fund its English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) for Immigrant Women Program, which helps women, many of whom have recently immigrated to the United States, to achieve the spoken and written fluency in English to compete in the job market while providing guidance on parental responsibilities.
Movement for Justice in El Barrio $60,000
To continue pursuing the core activities and campaign of its main organizational program, Housing Justice Program (HJP) in East Harlem, which integrates community organizing, leadership development, and political education programs to build a grassroots, majority-women social justice organization and to enhance women’s leadership in the organization through its “Liderazgo de Mujeres (Women’s Leadership)” training initiative.
Per Scholas $60,000
To support their Women in Tech (WIT) Program, an all-women’s cohort of its professional Information Technology training program, which increases the representation of women within their graduates and among New York City’s IT workforce through recruiting all-female classes, focusing attention to women’s issues and service needs, and offering more flexibility in response to completion challenges that disproportionately affect female students.
Red Umbrella Project $60,000
To combat the stigma and discrimination experienced by adult women involved in the sex industry through training and storytelling programs that equip sex workers with communication skills and transferable job skills so that they can engage in advocacy about issues that affect them and exit the sex industry on their own terms.
Sanctuary for Families $70,000
To continue its Domestic Violence Workforce Initiative, which provides intensive job readiness, career development, basic office skills training for women survivors of domestic violence, and helps them obtain sustainable, living-wage employment in the service sector economy with potential for wage growth and career advancement.
Sapna (formerly Westchester Square Partnership) $70,000
To address the needs of the New York City South Asian community through health education, financial empowerment training and coordination of social and health-related services.
Soledad O’Brien & Brad Raymond Starfish Foundation $60,000
To provide for its Scholars Institute, an enrichment program that provides education and life skills to support low-income, young women of color so they can better navigate their educational and personal development.
Start Small. Think Big. $60,000
To provide financial and legal services to low-income women and minority entrepreneurs in New York City’s most underserved communities and to launch the Entrepreneurship Pipeline Program, a business leadership development program that offers opportunities for low-income entrepreneurs to scale their businesses.
Union Settlement Association $60,000
To continue its El Camino Health Pathways: Home Health Aide Training and Job Placement program, which improves the literacy and English levels of primarily immigrant women with low literacy who lack a GED by increasing their access to educational opportunities and preparing them for higher paying jobs in the high-growth, high-demand healthcare sector.
United Community Centers $60,000
To continue funding its agriculture project, East New York Farms. This program promotes community-led economic development through which youth and local gardeners (primarily older women of color) work collaboratively to sell their harvest and increase access to affordable urban-grown food for local residents (primarily senior citizens and low-income, single female heads of houses) while stimulating the local economy and building a stronger, more cohesive community.
Year Up New York, $60,000
To provide a range of gender-specific workshops, networking events, and support services, for young women (ages 18-24), in their core training and internship program through its Young Women’s Initiative.
Health, Sexual Rights and Reproductive Justice
BOOM! Health (formerly Bronx AIDS Services) $60,000
To operate its Inside Out Program, which works to decrease HIV-associated behaviors among young women of color in the Bronx by addressing the underlying issues that serve as barriers to maintaining optimal health, while adding a college readiness component.
Callen-Lorde Community Health Center $60,000
To continue its Transgender Care Management Program, which addresses the need for targeted and sensitive medical care coordination services for transgender and gender nonconforming patients.
The Committee for Hispanic Children and Families, Inc. $70,000
To support a new advocacy training program, the Latina Advocacy Project (LAP). The goal of this project is to empower participants to learn leadership and advocacy skills, gain a deeper understanding of policy and decision making in the city, and the skills to effectively lead change in their communities.
Community Health Action of Staten Island $60,000
To fund its Young Women’s Task Force, which seeks to prevent/decrease unintended pregnancies, HIV, and other sexually transmitted infections among the low-income adolescent girls of color of Staten Island.
SPARKS (Serving Pre and Post natal women and families with Awareness, Relief, Knowledge and Support) $60,000
To continue providing education/outreach counseling, hotline support, weekly parenting groups, and mental health referrals for women and their families in low-income, Orthodox Jewish communities in Brooklyn suffering from Post-Partum Depression (PPD).
The POINT Community Development Corporation $60,000
To continue The W.O.M.E.N. Project, which increases awareness of HIV/STIs and teen pregnancy among young African American/black and Latina/Hispanic women (ages 13-21) from Hunts Point.