The Lancaster County Community Foundation has awarded $274,000 to eight nonprofits to support education, childcare, workforce development, leadership development and the public understanding of history.
The grants constitute the third of four rounds in the foundation’s “Shaping Tomorrow” initiative, through which it is distributing more than $1 million in competitive grants as part of its 100th anniversary celebration. They are as follows:
| Nonprofit | Grant | Project |
|---|---|---|
| Milagro House | $50,000 | “Bridging Cultures, Leveraging Strengths,” helping mothers and their children through childcare and job training. |
| Thaddeus Stevens College | $50,000 | The college’s home-building program, which provides hands-on education in the construction trades and adds to local affordable housing stock. |
| Bench Mark Program | $38,000 | “Recruiting from Within,” a mentoring program to train and certify recent School District of Lancaster as school district Building Leaders. |
| Rock Ford Foundation | $36,000 | “The Lancaster City Witness Stones Project,” a community education initiative to restore the history of slavery in early Lancaster and the individual people who were enslaved here. |
| Touchstone Foundation | $35,000 | “Rise Above,” a youth mentorship program to eliminate the stigma of mental illness in youth ages 12-26. |
| Lancaster Recreation Commission | $25,000 | The renovation and repurposing of Price Elementary School as the Rec’s new headquarters. |
| LancasterHistory | $20,000 | Creation of a “History and Democracy Student Advisory Group” to develop student-led educational programs on the historical roots of racism and injustice. |
| Schreiber Center for Pediatric Development | $20,000 | Expansion of a program that teaches life skills to Schreiber patients to prepare them for adulthood. |
They were announced at a Sept. 28 reception at Millersville University.
“We know that caring for and emboldening children and young adults impacts us all,” Sam Bressi, the foundation’s president and CEO, said in a statement.
This spring, the foundation announced its Shaping Tomorrow awards for the arts and for health and wellbeing.
The foundation will announce the fourth and final round of grants at a reception at 6 p.m. Thursday, Oct. 17, at The Farm at Eagle’s Ridge. (Attendance is free; to register, click here.) Titled “Our Planet,” it is focused on environmental and sustainability initiatives.
