Amazing New Grants - Arrive for Summer 2021

Friends of the Children – Lane County received some pivotal support at the beginning of summer helping sustain the organization’s early momentum.

Silver Family Foundation

Friends of the Children – Lane County is ecstatic to be included in the group of Friends of the Children chapters supported by the Silver Family Foundation. The Foundation awarded Friends – Lane County with an award of $120,000 which will provide 3 years of operational support for Friend’s professional mentorship program as the organization continues its goal of serving additional youth/families in new areas of Lane County suffering the impacts of intergenerational poverty and systemic inequities.

The grant acknowledges that Friend’s “2Gen” approach to serving the whole family is an important part of increasing opportunities to support family stability. In Friends 2Gen program, Friends staff also work with caregivers to identify potential barriers to their goals and connect them to existing community organizations that may be able to lend a hand.

The Silver Family Foundation is a long-time supporter of Friends of the Children chapters in the Greater Pacific Northwest. The organization aligns well with the Foundation’s focus on transformative youth development and academic preparation.

4J Summer Programming Grant

Friends of the Children received fantastic news in early June that the organization would be receiving a Summer Program Support Grant from Eugene School District 4J that the district received as a component of Federal COVID relief efforts.

The grant supports Friends -Lane County’s 4J students through structured one-on-one activities with youth to promote social/emotional learning and literacy throughout the summer. The grant allows Friends to provide up to four hours of direct service to youth every week helping get youth maintain academic and social gains throughout the summer. The grant also enables Friends’ mentors to support the success of the program’s youth in other structured programs, like that offered by Boys and Girls Club and the YMCA, allowing the organizations to be mutually supportive of these youth and families.

Friends was also able to rent a classroom from 4J at the Arts and Technology Middle School that is also implementing a supplemental food program throughout the summer, giving Friends of the Children an opportunity to supplement food access for some youth/families.

The grant is also enabling the Friends-Lane County organization to focus on building literacy skills with youth in a more structured manner. Friends’s mentors have participated in significant training sessions on literacy and are engaging youth in literacy-related activities on all their outings. Friends was also able to provide families with access to tablets and online literacy apps over the summer. The organization will also study which practices seem to best support youths’ progress to help inform future literacy-based endeavors.

OCF Summer Programming Grant

Friends of the Children received a grant similar to that received from 4J to serve the students that are not enrolled in 4J, particularly those that will be entering the Friends' program from the Bethel School District.

The grant supports Friends - Lane County students, primarily outside of Eugene, structured one-on-one activities with youth to promote social/emotional learning and literacy throughout the summer. The grant allows Friends to provide up to four hours of direct service to youth every week helping get youth maintain academic and social gains throughout the summer.

The grant is also enabling the Friends-Lane County organization to focus on building literacy skills with youth in a more structured manner. Friends’s mentors have participated in significant training sessions on literacy and are engaging youth in literacy-related activities on all their outings. Friends was also able to provide families with access to tablets and online literacy apps over the summer. The organization will also study which practices seem to best support youths’ progress to help inform future literacy-based endeavors.

Friends was also able to rent a classroom from 4J at the Arts and Technology Middle School that is also implementing a supplemental food program throughout the summer, giving Friends of the Children an opportunity to supplement food access for some youth/families.

Oregon Community Foundation (OCF) puts donated money to work in Oregon – more than $100 million in grants and scholarships support Oregonians annually. For more than 45 years, OCF grantmaking, research, advocacy and community-advised solutions have helped individuals, families, businesses and organizations create charitable funds to improve lives for all Oregonians. Impactful giving – time, talent and resources from many generous Oregonians – creates measurable change.