YOUNGSTOWN/WARREN, Ohio – Donors and supporters of the Community Foundation of the Mahoning Valley’s Fund for Women & Girls awarded three micro-grants totaling $3,500 to local nonprofits working with young women in the Valley.
As a community-led fund, each shareholder in the Fund for Women & Girls has a say in how grants from the fund are awarded. After hearing presentations from three finalists, the roughly 30 attendees cast their vote and selected the winner of the $2,000 grand prize: United Returning Citizens for its Jumping Through Adversity double dutch summer program. Starting this summer with 36 teens, the program will use jumping rope as an entryway to providing participants support for their education and health, as well as a space to build friendships.
SWAG Sisters received the $1,000 prize for its Dream Beyond Big event – bringing in keynote speakers and workshops to expose young women to a wide range of career paths and empowerment topics. And Callie’s Confidence received the $500 prize for the Miss Crowned in Confidence pageant, which delivers self-esteem programs and other support to young women in foster and kinship care.
“All three presenters do great jobs in their work with young women and we couldn’t have asked for a better group as we bring back this centerpiece of the Fund for Women & Girls. We’re especially proud to be able to support three organizations led by Black women,” says Josh Medore, the CFMV staff liaison to the fund. “Even though it’s been a while since we’ve had an in-person event to bring Fund for Women & Girls shareholders together, we were excited to see such great interest in all the programs and the conversations that continued after the winners were announced.”
As a community-led fund, every donor to the Fund for Women & Girls – regardless of the size of their gift – gets a voice in making grant awards. For the Microfunding Event, the fund’s Guiding Circle selects finalists from all received applications, with the finalists then giving a brief presentation and answering audience questions about the program they’re seeking funding for.
For more information on the Fund for Women & Girls or to make a donation, visit CFMV.org/fund-for-women-girls.
Pictured: Carshara Bradley from United Returning Citizens, Honeya Price and Lanae Allen from SWAG Sisters, and Lovie Barnes and Domonique Williams from Callie’s Confidence represented the organizations selected as finalists for the Fund for Women & Girls’ Microfunding Event.