In the News

The MENTOR Network Announces FY17 Q1 Community Partner Grant Recipients

The MENTOR Network Charitable Foundation is pleased to announce that five organizations were awarded grants through the Foundation’s Community Partners program for the first quarter of fiscal year 2017.  Community Partners are change agents within human services that are either delivering innovative care or developing new ideas and models for doing so.  They are results oriented, leverage resources and knowledge to positively impact individuals and communities, and have the power to transform society’s vision of and approach to its most vulnerable members.

Children’s Museum of the Lowcountry (Charleston, SC)

SuperStars

The Children’s Museum of the Lowcountry (CML) is dedicated to enriching the lives of all children by fostering a love of learning and enabling each child to realize his or her highest potential. CML’s SuperStars program invites children with special needs and their families to explore at their own pace without the overstimulation of a crowded environment. Held on the second and fourth Sundays of every month, CML opens two hours early and welcomes SuperStars guests at no costs to their families.  Funding from The MENTOR Network Charitable Foundation will allow CML to purchase the rights to pilot an application that will improve the museum experience for children with special needs and their families.  The application helps ease anxiety and set expectations for visiting CML through customizable schedules, behind-the-scenes videos and storybook guides that explain the experience, visual communication icons to aid individuals with limited or no verbal communication skills, and sensory maps to help identify loud vs. quiet areas, gross motor opportunities.

Domestic Abuse Services, Inc. (Newton, NJ)

DASIKids: Planting the Seeds of Change

Domestic Abuse Services (DASI) is a non-profit organization providing comprehensive services to survivors of domestic and sexual violence and their families in Sussex County. The DASIKids program provides children who have lived with domestic violence and their parent with advocacy, education, individual and group supportive counseling, trauma informed art therapy and recreational activities to help the children heal and to reduce the risk of their becoming victims or abusers as adults.  The program serves approximately 30 children each year in its domestic violence shelter and transitional living programs.  Funding from The MENTOR Network Charitable Foundation will provide approximately 155 hours of services from a child advocate to parents who have faced abuse and their children.

Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts (Boston, MA)

FaB Factor

Girls age 6-13 enrolled in FaB Factor, a program through the Girl Scouts of Eastern Massachusetts (GSEM), participate in a series of program modules throughout the academic year focusing on four themes: health and wellness; finance and business; science, technology, engineering and math (STEM); and leadership development. An estimated 600 girls from  communities deemed at-risk will participate at approximately 25 FaB Factor program sites in Boston during the 2016-2017 academic year.  Funding from The MENTOR Network Charitable Foundation will be used to underwrite costs associated with FaB Factor program implementation and execution, including program supplies and costs associated with field trips.

Goodwill of KYOWVA Area, Inc. (Huntington, WV)

The Road to Self Sufficiency

Goodwill of KYOWVA Area, Inc., is a nonprofit human services agency and network of not-for-profit businesses serving five West Virginia counties and four Kentucky counties, whose mission is to empower people to overcome employment barriers and to help strengthen individuals, families and communities- specifically those with intellectual and developmental disabilities.  Goodwill’s outreach and job training plan embodies strategies to positively affect the employment rate of individuals with disabilities, and links clients to innovative avenues of holistic job training, internships and placement.  Funding from The MENTOR Network Charitable Foundation will support instructional costs and allow Goodwill to increase outreach to train individuals to attain skills, develop careers, and strengthen their financial and mental well-being.

Vista Del Mar Child and Family Services (Los Angeles, CA)

Arts Enrichment Program

Vista Del Mar Child and Family Services provides comprehensive, family-centered social, educational, and behavioral health services, which encourage children, adolescents and their families to lead self-reliant, stable, and productive lives. The non-profit’s Arts Enrichment program offers a wide variety of therapeutic arts classes.   Offered as a part of their accredited, K-12 non-public school curriculum, the program includes elective classes in: Theater Arts, Performing Arts Production, Music/Instrument Workshop, Fine Arts, and Ceramics.   Many children at Vista have a history of trauma including neglect and/or physical and emotional abuse.  For them, arts classes become a critical adjunct to their therapy by providing them with a safe and creative environment to express emotions that may have previously been dormant.  The grant from The MENTOR Network Charitable Foundation will support Vista’s mission to ensure that all the children with special needs they serve will continue to have access to quality arts enrichment programming.

About the Community Partners Program
For more information, visit the Community Partners section of our Charitable Foundation website.