The Gloucester Community Foundation recently announced it will be distributing $114,350 in grant funding to local nonprofit organizations throughout Gloucester County.
Made possible by donor funds, GCF will provide its 2023 Community Impact grants to 24 organizations. Community Impact grants are awarded through a competitive process and support local nonprofits whose strategies align with the GCF’s four focus areas: community vibrancy, economic prosperity, educational success and health and wellness.
“Our grants process is always centered on how we can create a community where everyone has the opportunity to thrive. Throughout our community, charitable organizations and volunteers are expanding existing services or developing new ones to meet the needs of children, seniors, persons with disabilities, and other vulnerable groups, while also improving our quality of life in Gloucester,” said Robert G. Crockett, chair of GCF’s local advisory board.
GCF was established in 2000 to preserve and enhance the quality of life in Gloucester through philanthropy and volunteerism. GCF provides a mechanism for charitable donations to work here in our local community. GCF is one of three affiliates supported by the Community Foundation for a greater Richmond. The affiliate program was developed to help smaller, rural communities encourage local giving to address their own unique needs.
The GCF grants committee, chaired this year by Ron Duke, reviews the applications for impact and ensures that funding is provided to meet the needs of the community. GCF provides stewardship of donor contributions by ensuring donor intent and nonprofit programs are aligned.
This year’s Community Impact grant recipients include:
—T.C. Walker and Woodville Rosenwald School Foundation: To prepare the schoolroom for public/homeschooled children to learn the history of Black education in Gloucester.
—Bay School Community Arts Center: To support the Bay School’s community arts outreach program with the Lewis B. Puller Center, providing funding for teacher pay and art materials for one year. This program provides hands-on visual arts and crafts experiences.
—Gloucester Housing Partnership, Inc.: To support home repair needs for qualified low-income homeowners of Gloucester County, designed to ensure each resident’s home is habitable and remains warm, safe, dry and accessible and to prevent homelessness.
—Helping the Homeless Ministry: To support the Driving Out Hunger Mobile Food Bus program.
—Gloucester United Emergency Shelter Team: To support shelter expenses for the Motel Voucher Program to provide overnight shelter for persons and families experiencing homelessness in the Gloucester community.
—Rappahannock Community College Educational Foundation: To support an RCC High School Navigator at Gloucester High School.
—Gloucester Arts on Main: To support the “Palette Pals” program to local elementary, middle and home-schooled students, where learning meets creativity through Virginia’s Standard of Learning-inspired art lessons in the classroom.
—The Fairfield Foundation: To support programs that enrich student curriculum STEM and humanities subjects, inspire appreciation of past lives, and increase respect for historic resources in the community through hands-on archaeology and history.
—Concerts by the Bay: To support the continuation of the Concerts by the Bay youth program by the presentation of a musical or theatrical performance that encourages the performing arts to elementary students in Gloucester County
—Gloucester County Public Schools Educational Foundation: To support the 2023 Summer Skilled Trades Career Cohort; a paid work-based learning experience for high school students interested in pursuing employment in the skilled trades through local Gloucester business partners.
—Samaritan Group: To support the J. D. Briggs Fund, expanded to cover grades K-12 in Gloucester County with providing funding for various school activities and fees, and a nursing scholarship to provide two 3-4 year nursing students with funding to support their education.
—YMCA of the Virginia Peninsulas: To provide back-to-school clothing and gear to 55 Gloucester County children, ages 5-17, whose families are struggling due to ongoing impacts of the pandemic, high food and housing costs, physical and mental health concerns.
—Rappahannock Area Health Education Center: To support the Health Science STEM camp, providing a hands-on interdisciplinary experience for high school youth interested in STEM, with an emphasis on health.
—Boys & Girls Clubs of the Virginia Peninsula: To support Project Learn, an educational enhancement program that transforms the entire Club into a learning environment.
—The DoGood Foundation: To support the expansion of Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library to Gloucester County, an early-literacy program to inspire a love of books, reading, and learning in Gloucester’s children.
—VersAbility Resources: To support day programs, training, and skill building for Gloucester County residents with disabilities at the Lewis B. Puller Center.
—County of Gloucester: To support the Community Strides program, providing assistance for mandatory counseling programs aimed at reducing recidivism rates among residents of Gloucester County.
—Heartfelt Community: To support those in the senior community who may be aging alone or who lack financial resources to obtain healthy compassionate, therapeutic touch in the form of massage therapy, hand massage or visits from volunteers.
—Rx Partnership: To support distribution of medication for Virginia’s uninsured through collaboration with Gloucester Mathews Care Clinic.
—Gloucester Mathews Care Clinic: To support the Dental Safety Net Clinic program, continuing critical dental care for medical patients of the clinic.
—Bread for Life Community Food Pantry: To support the pantry’s work by helping purchase food from the Virginia Peninsula Foodbank and other food suppliers as well as support fuel expenses incurred to pick up food.
—Fear 2 Freedom: To support survivors of trauma and sexual violence on their healing journeys in the Gloucester region with 100 Fear2Freedom iCare Kits.
—Bay Aging: To support older adults in gaining access to healthy nutritious meals as well as socialization in Gloucester County.
—The Salvation Army, Gloucester Center: To provide emergency assistance through utility, rent/mortgage, food packages, and case management to low-income individuals and families in Gloucester County.
For more information and for grant eligibility and application details, visit www.gloucestercf.org.