March 17, 2023
The board of directors at the Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland recently approved $375,000 in grants for the first quarter of 2023. This funding will support longstanding partnerships in our efforts to end homelessness as well as collaborative initiatives across Cuyahoga County.
SOCF Cleveland is investing
$100,000 in Enterprise Community Partners, which has been a close collaborator with the foundation for nearly two decades. This funding will support continued convening and coordination among community partners to make positive change for individuals and families facing housing instability in Cuyahoga County. Enterprise leads the Housing First Initiative to end chronic homelessness, which has established more than 800 units of permanent supportive housing across the county and reduced chronic homelessness by more than 80 percent. The first permanent supportive housing development focused on young people ages 18-24 (transition-aged youth or TAY) broke ground in 2022 with Enterprise’s collaborative leadership.
Read more about the TAY development here.
To meet the unique needs of young people seeking housing stability,
SOCF is investing $140,000 in the A Place 4 Me Collaborative (fiscal: YWCA Greater Cleveland). A Place 4 Me focuses on developing and advocating for systemic solutions to youth homelessness while also providing direct support to those young people in Cuyahoga County seeking housing. A Place 4 Me also houses the county’s REACH Youth Action Board, a steering committee of young people with lived experience in homelessness who inform the countywide approach to meeting the unique needs of people ages 15 to 24. A Place 4 Me is currently leading the effort to establish Cuyahoga County’s first drop-in center for young people facing housing instability. The county remains the only urban center in Ohio without this essential resource.
Learn more about the drop-in center here.
SOCF Cleveland is also part of the
Funders Together to End Homelessness national network, and this quarter invests $40,000 in this vital advocacy and learning group. Funders Together is the only national network of grantmakers who support strategic, innovative and effective solutions to homelessness. Its vision involves providing the resources necessary that all in the housing and homelessness fields understand the legacy of racism in its practices and policies and with that knowledge transform systems to achieve housing justice.
A civically engaged community is essential to advocating for needed policy and systems change to promote a more equitable and inclusive society.
SOCF Cleveland is investing $25,000 in Cleveland VOTES (fiscal: The Greater Cleveland Neighborhood Centers Association) to ensure local nonprofits working with historically marginalized and disenfranchised populations have the tools and resources needed to mobilize their constituencies for civic involvement and action. With a long history of service in Cleveland’s Ward 5, SOCF Cleveland and its investment will help Cleveland VOTES better connect with the community, which has the lowest voter turnout of any other ward in the City of Cleveland.
SOCF Cleveland also invested $50,000 in Enterprise Community Partners this quarter to continue facilitation and management of the
Lead Safe Cleveland Coalition. Now with more than 500 members, the Coalition has made significant progress since 2018 with the passage of groundbreaking city legislation to create a mandatory Lead Safe Certificate process for applicable rental units, now recognized as a national model. In addition, the Coalition created and capitalized the innovative Lead Safe Home Fund, which has received more than $115 million in commitments. Lead-based paint and leaded dust are the primary causes of lead poisoning in Ohio. In Cleveland, more than 90 percent of the housing stock was built before 1978, when residential lead-based paint was outlawed. The Coalition aims to make Cleveland lead-safe within the next decade by merging smart, adaptable public policies, knowledgeable agencies willing to collaborate, proven community programs, and public and private sector accountability.
To create more equitable opportunities for residents of the Central neighborhood,
SOCF Cleveland is investing $20,000 in Youth Opportunities Unlimited (YOU) to recruit youth and employers from Central to participate in its Summer Youth Employment Program. The goals of the Summer Youth Employment Program are to ensure that young people stay in high school and graduate, find meaningful work experiences, and have access to the tools, resources, and opportunities needed to break generational cycles of poverty. The program specifically supports young people of color (90% of participants) and youth from low-income families (99% of participants). A study by Case Western Reserve University shows the benefits of summer employment extend beyond wages, including mitigating risks for criminal justice involvement and promoting the likelihood of school attendance and graduation.