The Winona Community Foundation recently awarded $35,000 to projects lead by local nonprofit organizations. Groups fully funded include: • Project FINE: Diversity Youth Quest, a program designed to help immigrant adolescent children deal with social and cultural challenges that result when their parents are not knowledgeable about their new community – received $7,500 • Home & Community Options: remote monitoring and video conferencing system, integrated into an automatic call software program to reduce staff monitoring and increase independent living options – received $7,500 • Winona MN Early Childhood Initiative: expansion of a pilot project providing toolkit backpacks for school readiness, convening early childhood stakeholders and increasing overall knowledge and materials for promoting school readiness success – received $7,000 • Winona Symphony Orchestra: operations support for sesquicentennial year – received $1,500 • Madison PTA: development of an accessible, educational outdoor learning center representing the diversity of MN's natural resources, for use by the school and community – asked $1,000 – received $1,000 Groups that received partial funding include: • Project GO, Park & Trails Council of MN: implementation of after school programs in regional schools (Goodhue, Wabasha, Winona, Houston, Fillmore and Olmsted counties) that would allow children to connect with adult mentors and explore, play and reflect in nature near their community – asked $7,500 - received $6,000 • Elder Network: providing the Chore Service program to area seniors – ask $3,000 – received $2,000 • Baseball Program WSHS: renovation of baseball field’s pitchers mound and dirt infield as well as fixing outfield settling – asked $7,500 - received $2,500 This competitive process for grant awards to community projects is funded by the Foundation’s Community General Fund and there are always several requests for support than they can grant. Original project requests through this community grant cycle totaled $87,400. The granting process begins with a letter of inquiry from groups seeking funding and ends with a full application in the hands of the grant committee. Using a ranking process, our grant committee narrows down proposals that best fit into our established guidelines for community giving. Marking its 20th anniversary this year the Foundation has granted a total of $64,375 to area non-profits and is now looking toward the future and evaluating ways to continue to effectively allocate assets and remain relevant to the ever changing needs of the community. Call the Foundation office at 507-454-6511 or check us out at winonacommuntyfoundation.org with questions, feedback or for further information on WCF granting. For full details on this grant program, please contact Foundation staff at 454-6511 or go to www.winonacommunityfoundation.org under Receive.