BCG Seed Funding Grant News: First Quarter Grantees Announced!

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In December of last year I announced the installment of the BCG Seed Funding Grants, a self-made commitment, I put my very own money up to help empower, inspire and impact others as it relates to giving. Our grants range between $250 – $1,000 and will be awarded four times per year. It was undoubtedly a hard decision making process our our first quarter grant applications yielded more than 300 deserving organizations fighting for our limited funding. Our selection committee had a very tough job of selecting unique programs or organizations to support who best matched our mantra for 2012 Inspire, Empower, Impact! It gives me great pleasure to announce our first quarter grantees!

Grantee: Purple Project State: Ohio Cause: Foster Care
BCG will be supporting the 3rd Annual Foster Care Youth Conference, in Cleveland Ohio. This event has been heavily supported by Darryl “DMC” McDaniels, of RUN DMC, for the past 3 years. The goal of the conference is to educate foster youth, across the country on the realities of “aging out” of foster care; and to change the negative outcomes, by preparing the foster youth for a successful exit from foster care. This is done through: workshops, panel discussions, hands on activities, celebrity involvement and more! BCG is proud to support this great event, the grant will be used to provide conference materials, food and resources.

Grantee: Opportunities PA State: Pennsylvania Cause: Homeless Youth
OPPORTUNITIES-PA is a nonprofit organization that educates, equips, empowers, and encourages homeless and other at-risk youth and young adults to achieve their academic potential and professional goals by offering them supportive services and stable housing. Their mission helping homeless young adults become self-sufficient. Since it’s inception in 2008, OPPORTUNITIES-PA mentored105 homeless teens residing in a local shelter through our Speed Mentoring Game series. Out of the attendees, 15 of the residents attended a one-on-one session with a Life Coach to set realistic short term and long term goals, identify resources to help them to reach their career aspirations and connect them with organizations that can assist them with immediate needs, like, housing and employment. From the sessions two clients enrolled into a GED program, two clients completed the Center for Male Engagement summer enrichment and college readiness program, four clients enrolled into college, two clients moved into independent living and three clients reached their savings goal to afford security deposit and two months of rent. The BCG Seed Funding Grant will be used to further mentoring programs and workshops throughout 2012 and 2013.

Grantee: Polished Girlz, Inc. State: Nationwide Cause: Healthcare
Polished Girlz Inc. a 501c3 organization founded by Alanna Wall when she was 10 years old as a way to teach children with special needs or frequent hospitalizations the importance of hand washing and peer to peer support. Alanna and her volunteers use fancy nail polishing as a way to incorporate that message into the children’s daily lives. Alanna selected this issue because at a young age she wanted to serve others but was often told that she was too young. Instead of giving up on her idea to serve her community she combined her love or art, nail polish and glitter and discovered her own way to motivate girls with special needs. The BCG Seed Funding Grant will be used to help Alanna establish satellite chapters of Polished Girlz, Inc. across the country.

Grantee: Eve’s Circle State: Alabama Cause: Mentoring
Eve’s Circle, My Sister’s Keeper Mentoring Program seeks to create a culture of trust and respect teaching girls the value in developing and maintaining healthy female friendships. My Sister’s Keeper project will support girls’ ages 10-17 living in socially and economically disadvantaged communities. Mentors for My Sister’s Keeper will create a structured, safe, supportive environment whereby girls will build trusting relationship with other positive females. The project is a yearlong commitment between mentor and mentee. Each week, mentors and mantes will spend 3 hours together, participating in various activities and events. Mentors will share their wisdom, life lessons and resources to assist our girls in setting goals relevant to their lives and specific situations. Mentees will be given the opportunity to practice leadership skills, learn the value and appreciation of furthering their education, learn life skills they need to be positive, contributing members of society and to enhance and expose them to various cultures. My Sister\’s Keeper will host quarterly workshops open to girls, their mothers and/or caregivers as we seek to increase parental involvement. In line with our overall mission, it is our goal to expose girls living in underserved communities to various opportunities and cultural experiences that will further enrich their lives. We seek to create a culture of trust and respect that teaches girls how to form healthy female friendships. My Sister’s Keeper will support girls living in underserved communities to reach their full potential through success in school, avoiding involvement in the juvenile justice system and encouraging them to become successful adults contributing to their communities in positive ways. The BCG Seed Funding Grant will help support the launch of this program.

Grantee: Atlantic Impact State: Michigan Cause: Youth
Atlantic Impact empowers at-risk youth through globally and locally relevant stories from the past to build and inspire their futures. This is done through hands-on experiences based around the American legacy of the slave trade and its impact on each individual and their communities. A greater understanding of this nationally significant and globally shared experience will provide youth with fresh perspectives for self-evaluation. Providing a free program for urban high school students. On Saturdays during the course of an academic year, youth engage in chronological lessons connecting the legacy of the slave trade to their communities. Through experiential learning and critical thinking activities, youth explore how local and global events shaped their living space and are shown historical examples of others overcoming challenges. The learning experience is relevant to their lives, making it powerful. There is then is a two week summer trip to a country with ties to the slave trade. This provides a global context to their experiences from the year, allows youth to reflect on their lives from afar, and upon return, the impact continues through an alumni network. The BCG grant will be used to support six weeks of community-specific programming in one city for the Atlantic Impact domestic component.

Grantee: The Fellaz Youth 2012 Youth Empowerment Conference State: Maryland Cause: Black Male Youth
The Fellaz Youth Foundation 2012 Youth Empowerment Conference; The purpose of this event is to Empower and Uplift young men, grades 8th -12th. We want to encourage teens to “Reach for the Stars” and to overcome any obstacles or challenges they will face in life. This conference will give young men an opportunity to take advantage of local community members that want to share information on various topics from the importance of higher education to financial empowerment. Nowadays, with so many of the youth feeling powerless and without direction, this sort of event becomes particularly relevant as it gives them an outlet to not only be motivated, but also challenged. This day promises to provide our youth with a variety of information that they can put into use now and carry with them for the rest of their lives. The BCG Seed Funding grant will be used to provide free lunch, printed materials and pay for janitorial fees.