United Way of Champaign County, in partnership with the University of Illinois, Busey, Carle Health, Christie Clinic, and OSF Healthcare recently donated $300,000 to the Victory Over Violence campaign, and now some of those funds are available for grants. The Investment for Impact Grants are meant for programs or projects that are achieving one or more of these goals:
- Stop Violence and Promote Safety – Especially violence prevention services, including street-based violence interruption work, emotional or trauma-related therapy, housing, employment, job training/placement, family engagement, and wrap-around support services.
- Support Children, Youth and Families by Emphasizing Programs that Foster Social Connectedness and Belonging – Especially youth development programs, including after school and summer programming to increase school attendance and school performance, reduce criminal justice system involvement and build social-emotional persistence and intelligence.
- Support Health – Especially trauma recovery services for young people to heal from chronic exposure to firearm violence.
- Promote Collaboration Across State, Municipal and Community-Based Agencies -Especially high-risk youth intervention programs that have been proven to reduce involvement in the criminal or juvenile justice system, referrals of teens into therapeutic programs that address trauma recovery, and other mental health services.
Grants will be $10,000 to $75,000. The grant portal is open now, and the deadline for submission is August 16th at noon. Grant awardees will be notified September 1st. Full program requriements can be found at United Way’s website.
Top photo from United Way of Champaign County Facebook page.