MENLO PARK, Calif. – From supporting work to clean up California’s air to training a brigade of musicians to teach in public schools, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation Board approved $1.2 million in grants this past November for 54 organizations serving diverse and disadvantaged communities in California.
Across the state, organizations received grants in the Foundation’s four areas of California grantmaking: the environment, population, performing arts, and education. Among highlights of the grants awarded are:
Environment – Working for Better Air Quality
Among its priorities, the Environment Program makes grants to support California organizations that address environmental issues in the state’s most economically disadvantaged communities.
A $250,000 grant to the Coalition for Clean Air in Los Angeles will be used in part to support efforts to reduce air pollution in the Central Valley and Los Angeles. The grant also will support efforts to have a portion of any revenues the state earns by curbing global warming be used to help poor communities in these regions to improve the quality of air.
Population – Preventing Teen Pregnancy in San Francisco
As part of its goal to promote voluntary family planning and good reproductive health for all, Hewlett’s Population Program makes grants to reduce teen and unplanned pregnancies and enhance reproductive rights, particularly in disadvantaged communities.
A $150,000 grant went to the Bayview Hunters Point Foundation in San Francisco for the 3rd Street Youth Center and Clinic, which offers teen pregnancy prevention and mental health and behavioral health services in the Bayview district. In part, this grant will help the Center cope with the difficult economic environment and increased demand for mental health services.
A $100,000 grant to the New Generation Health Center at the University of California, San Francisco, will help it provide teen-friendly reproductive health care in a clinic for young people aged twelve through twenty-four in a neighborhood with high rates of teen pregnancy.
Performing Arts – Promoting Theater and Music that Serves the Community
As part of its mission to support artistic expression and encourage public participation in the arts, the Performing Arts Program makes grants to organizations that engage low-income and diverse communities in the Bay Area. The Program’s grantmaking in this area supports organizations that often work at the intersection of arts and youth development, civic engagement, and economic development.
Among award highlights are a $100,000 grant to the EXIT Theatre in San Francisco for the expansion of its downtown Theatreplex, and a $250,000 grant to the Music National Service Initiative in San Francisco for general support of the Bay Area pilot of MusicianCorps. MusicianCorps Fellows are placed as national service volunteers to teach music at schools in the Bay Area, Seattle, New Orleans, and Chicago.
Education – Working to Ensure Community College Students Succeed
The Education Program works to raise educational achievement both in California and across the nation.
Among the Program’s most recent grants in California is $300,000 to the Career Ladders Project of the Foundation for California Community Colleges. The project will use the funds to add ten community colleges to its Community College Pathways for Foster Youth program, which works to increase the success of former foster youth in the community college system and to help ensure they enter careers that offer both wages that will sustain a family and opportunities to advance.
A $200,000 planning grant went to the Silver Giving Foundation in San Francisco. This foundation, which makes a range of grants to local youth organizations, will use these funds to research how to garner support for comprehensive school finance reform in California.
A full list of Hewlett Foundation grantees, along with links to their Web sites, is available online.
About The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation
The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation has been making grants since 1967 to help solve social and environmental problems at home and around the world. The Foundation concentrates its resources on activities in education, the environment, global development, performing arts, philanthropy, and population, and makes grants to support disadvantaged communities in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Contact:
Jack Fischer
Hewlett Foundation Communications Officer
(650) 234-4500 ext. 5744
jfischer@hewlett.org