Early Childhood and Youth Development Grants 

Recent early childhood and youth development-related grants made by the Cleveland Foundation include:

• $501,400 to the Center for Community Solutions to help launch the Youth Development Initiative – a comprehensive initiative that will create a safe, stable environment for Cuyahoga County’s youth to attend school ready to learn marketable skills and positive behaviors. The Center for Community Solutions will develop a selection process to identify pilot neighborhoods in which the initiative will be implemented and conduct a six-month planning process to create a youth development strategic plan in each of those neighborhoods.
• $270,000 to Cuyahoga County Family and Children First Council to handle day-to-day management of the Youth Development Initiative.
• $250,000 to the Cuyahoga County Department of Workforce Development for the SmartStart summer youth employment project. SmartStart will provide nonprofit and private-sector employment opportunities for young adults ages 14 to 18 during the summer of 2008.
• $250,000 to Starting Point to establish “Out of School Time” services for at-risk youth in Cuyahoga County. Out of School Time programs around the country work with students during non-school hours to help them improve academically, behaviorally, emotionally, and socially. The grant will help to cover program and personnel expenses.
• $216,333 to fund core services of the Child Care Resource Center of Cuyahoga County (also known as Starting Point), which has developed a reputation as one of Ohio’s most effective child resource and referral agencies. The center links families to programs and services that meet their early child care and educational needs while strengthening the community’s ability to respond to them.
• $200,000 to Peace in the Hood, a youth violence prevention, gang intervention and educational program.  Its community empowerment project aims to decrease juvenile gang-related crimes and violence in Cleveland, engaging local youth and community leaders in a transformational process.
• $198,958 to the Cuyahoga County District Board of Health to implement programs that help children in the county more easily make a variety of transitions, such as the transition from home or childcare to kindergarten, elementary to middle school, middle to high school, and the yearly transition between school and the summer months.
• $11,621 to the Center for Community Solutions to gather data on the county’s youth.