Nearly $200,000 in Year-End Grants Awarded by Community Foundation of Greater New Britain

The Community Foundation of Greater New Britain (CFGNB) has announced that it has made $198,233 in grants under its New Community Initiatives Grant Category in its final grants of 2017. The grants, the Foundation says, reflects a, “subtle but important enhancement of its mission, that of community leadership to complement its traditional and fundamental duties as grantmaker.”

“Our Foundation embraced being a community leader and partner as part of its mission several years back,” said the Foundation’s Community Initiatives Chairperson Rebecca Karabin-Ahern, co-president of New Britain-based Acme Monaco Corporation, “and since that time our Community Initiatives Committee has been responsible for not only identifying issues and opportunities where Foundation leadership could make a difference, but also for making grant awards to support these causes.”

Karabin-Ahern added, “It was time for us to group our grants in such a way that the community, and our supporters, could better and more easily grasp the depth and breadth of the impact we are making as a community leader and partner.”

The Foundation says that $145,000 of the grants being announced are to come from the Foundation’s First Years First Fund. The Foundation says that Fund is its signature early childhood development initiative. Other grants include initiatives such as Workforce Development and Leadership Training to Capacity Building for non-profits.

Grants announced by the Foundation include:

• The Coalition for New Britain’s Youth, receiving a $55,000 grant from the Foundation’s First Years First Fund for, “backbone support for the work of the Coalition”
• The Coalition for New Britain’s Youth, receiving another $20,000, also from the Foundation’s First Years First Fund, for its Parents and Voices Empowering New Britain (PAVE-NB) program, “a parenting group dedicated to empowering parents for the benefit of their children.”
• The Connecticut Early Childhood Alliance, which received a $10,000 grant from the Foundations’ First Years First Fund, “to support a project in the four towns served by the Community Foundation with two components, the provision of 1) Early childhood policy monitoring and mobilization and; 2) Infant/toddler data and stakeholder development.”
• Literacy Volunteers of Central Connecticut, which received a $40,000 grant from the Foundation’s First Years First Fund for its program, “combining ESL or GED classes with literacy playgroup for the children of adult education students under age 5.”
• The YWCA of New Britain received a $5,000 grant. That grant is, “to bring Columbia University psychiatrist and researcher Dr. Mindy Thompson Fullilove to New Britain for a day of learning and leadership training designed to increase city leader and resident understanding of how trauma is affecting New Britain, to offer solutions to move forward as a more ‘trauma-informed’ city.”

The Foundation also provides grants to organizations in Berlin, Plainville and Southington.

The Foundation also announced that is has committed funding to two initiatives:

• “$30,000 to support a new Capacity Building Initiative that will provide local non-profit organizations in-depth and hands-on training that will increase and strengthen their ability to achieve their missions.”
• “$7,500 to support events and activities in 2018 focused on Informing and Inspiring Younger People about Philanthropy and the Community Foundation.”

Community Foundation of Greater New Britain was established in 1941. It’s motto, “Where Good Begins” describes its mission, in New Britain, Berlin, Plainville and Southington, to ” inspire philanthropy, manage permanent charitable assets effectively, and partner to address key community issues through strategic leadership.”

Information about the Foundation and how to support its work is available on its website at www.cfgnb.org.