We’re kicking off the new year with $2.1 million in grants to organizations serving Lake, Geauga and Cuyahoga county residents! Learn about a few of the organizations and efforts we’re supporting this month:

Employment opportunities for individuals with developmental disabilities

Our January support includes a $25,000 grant to the Two Foundation to increase employment opportunities for individuals with developmental disabilities. Two Foundation provides individual coaching and instruction, training and work experience at its Two Café and Boutique in Chagrin Falls and also works to connect adults with outside employment. This grant will help increase the number of job seekers served in Geauga and Cuyahoga counties.

Suicide prevention efforts in our schools

Suicide is the leading cause of preventable death, after accidents, for youth ages 10-19. Our $22,500 grant to LifeAct will broaden the organization’s suicide prevention efforts in Lake and Geauga county schools. Each year, LifeAct’s team reaches more than 25,000 area middle and high school students with programming aimed at teaching young people how to recognize the warning signs of depression and to seek professional help for themselves and others. To learn more about LifeAct and its CEO Jack Binder, watch this short video.

Shoes, clothes and school supplies for kids in need

Our $100,000 grant will help Shoes and Clothes for Kids, Inc. merge with the local chapter of Cleveland Kids in Need. Shoes and Clothes for Kids has been serving Northeast Ohio for almost 50 years, providing nearly $2 million in new clothes and gift cards each year to children impacted by poverty. Our grant will help the organization take over the mission of Kids in Need, which collects $3 million in donations of school supplies annually from retailers and distributes them to teachers serving low-income students. More than 2,700 local teachers received supplies from Cleveland Kids in Need last year alone.

Legal services for individuals with limited English proficiency

We’re continuing our support for Legal Aid Society of Cleveland’s efforts to expand its legal services to community members with limited English proficiency (LEP) with a $115,000 grant. We provided a grant for these efforts last year, which allowed Legal Aid Society to serve more than 800 LEP clients. Our grant this month will support the agency’s goal to reach nearly twice as many LEP clients in the coming year through legal representation, legal advice clinics and outreach and education activities.

Community engagement at the LGBT Community Center

As The Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) Community Center prepares to relocate to a new space, our $125,000 grant will help the center expand its community engagement efforts and create a business plan to best utilize its soon-to-be-constructed new building. The Center hopes to increase the number of volunteers to assist with social and educational events and to expand the number of community members participating in programming that addresses and enhances the overall well-being of Northeast Ohio’s LGBTQ community.

Musical discovery for our youngest students

Our $20,000 grant to Piano International Association of Northern Ohio will promote the organization’s student engagement efforts. Specifically, our grant will connect Cleveland Institute of Music students with up to 1,200 Cleveland Metropolitan School District pre-K and kindergarten students for hands-on musical discovery and learning opportunities.  

Stay tuned! We’ll be taking a deeper look at a few of these grants in upcoming blog posts. Sign up for our monthly e-newsletter to follow our grantmaking throughout the year!