COLUMBIA—The Sisters of Charity Foundation of South Carolina recently awarded its community enrichment grants for 2017, totaling $420,000 to 22 organizations. The foundation’s mission to address poverty in all its forms is reflected in its decision-making around community enrichment grants. These grants are designed to provide financial support to organizations whose services go beyond meeting fundamental needs and will help lift people out of poverty.
The following organizations received funding:
Anderson Interfaith Ministries (AIM)
Funding will support AIM’s workforce and education programs, which will help clients gain the skills necessary to move from poverty to a livable wage. (Anderson, Oconee, Pickens, Abbeville Counties)
City of Rock Hill
Funding will support two core programs: 1) The Housing Development Corporation of Rock Hill’s rental assistance program through which residents facing eviction may request up to three months of assistance to alleviate the immediate threat of homelessness. 2) The Catawba Area Coalition for the Homeless (CACH) to support hiring two part-time staff to continue the implementation of the city’s 10 Year Plan to Respond to Homelessness through direct services and program management. (York County)
CommunityWorks
Funding will support CommunityWorks, which was formed in response to the growing community need for affordable financial products and services and alternatives to predatory lending. (South Carolina, Greenville and Spartanburg Counties)
Compass of Carolina
Funding will support the Domestic Violence Starts Small program. As children of domestic violence mature to adolescence, they are at risk of further adverse experiences including unhealthy relationships, coercion into risky sexual encounters and substance abuse, self-injurious behaviors, eating disorders, and suicide. (Greenville County)
EdVenture
Funding will support EdVenture’s Future Leaders program, which is designed to impact underserved students in sixth through eighth grades and inspire them to develop life and leadership skills to achieve their education, career, and life goals. EdVenture will work with the middle school’s principal and guidance counselors to select students for the program who are from poor, under-resourced households. (Barnwell County)
Florence Crittenton Programs of South Carolina
Funding will support the residential program that provides low-income young women ages 10-21 with safe housing, medical care, academic education, counseling, childbirth and parenting education, and job readiness skills. (Charleston County)
Foothills Family resources (FFR)
Foothills Family Resources’ exists to improve the quality of life in Northern Greenville County by providing residents a gateway to comprehensive services that support, educate and empower. Funding will help move those living in poverty throughout Northern Greenville County from crisis to self-sufficiency. (Greenville County)
Hope Center for Children
Funding will support Hope Center for Children’s transitional living program (TLP), which serves teens and young adults ages 16 to 22, including young parents, who are homeless or at-risk of homelessness. The program offers housing and living quarters and 24-hour support from staff who care about the youths’ future. (Spartanburg County)
Indian Waters Council, Boy Scouts of America
BSA prepares young people to make ethical choices over their lifetimes by instilling in them the values of the Scout Oath and Law. Indian Waters Council, BSA, provides Scouting programs in the Midlands of South Carolina. Funding will support Scoutreach and AmeriCorps: A Partnership for Social Capital, which provides affordable leaders to build partnerships, lead programs and train new volunteers. (Richland, Bamberg, Calhoun, Fairfield, Kershaw, Lexington, Orangeburg, Saluda Counties)
Know2
Funding will support bGEN (be-gin), a business incubator and entrepreneurship initiative started by the Economic Development Team at KNOW2. bGEN was born out of a concern for those in poverty in the area, with the desire to create jobs and industry diversity, and build community relationships. This environment encourages healthy cooperation, personal responsibility and a love for learning and sharing with others. (Cherokee County)
Middle Tyger Community Center
Funding will support Middle Tyger Community Center’s programming that is designed to break the cycle of generational poverty and improve the quality of life for the Spartanburg community. Funding will specifically support the Adolescent Family Life (AFL) Program, which is designed to break the cycle of generational poverty through early intervention in the lives of pregnant and parenting adolescents and their children. (Spartanburg County)
Midlands Housing Alliance (Transitions)
Funding will support the Transitions’ Youth Program, which serves homeless individuals 18-24 years of age. By developing custom programs and activities to appeal to and support older youth, Transitions can help divert them out of the cycle of homelessness to reduce homelessness overall. (Allendale, Richland, Aiken, Bamberg, Barnwell, Calhoun, Chester, Fairfield, Kershaw, Lancaster, Lexington, Newberry, Orangeburg, York Counties)
Miss Ruby’s Kids
Funding will support Miss Ruby’s Kids’ Parent-Child Home Program (PCHP). This program is an evidence based, early intervention literacy program that educates caregivers on how to use books and toys to strengthen their child’s expressive and receptive language skills. (Georgetown County)
New Directions of Horry County
Funding will support New Directions’ Back to Work/Back to Life program helping homeless men, women, and families with children in Horry County break free from the cycle of poverty and homelessness by helping them regain their financial footing, self-confidence, and self-worth and learn to live independently. (Horry County)
Palmetto Place Children’s Shelter
Funding will support the Palmetto Place Unaccompanied Youth program which provides shelter and services to teens who have been forced to leave their families and to teens who have never had a family support system. (Charleston, Richland, Sumter, Aiken, Bamberg, Calhoun, Clarendon, Fairfield, Florence, Greenville, Greenwood, Horry, Kershaw, Laurens, Lexington, Newberry, Orangeburg, Saluda, Spartanburg, and Beaufort Counties)
Teach My People
Funding will support the mission of Teach My People (TMP) to teach students from the Waccamaw schools in Georgetown County to overcome academic, economic and social challenges through the delivery of Christ-centered programs that promote spiritual, educational and emotional health. (Georgetown County)
Sustainability Institute
Funding will support the SI Energy Conservation Corps (“ECC”) program. The ECC program addresses two critical needs in the Charleston metro area: 1) Rehabilitation of existing, low-income homes that utilizes a dual focus on direct energy efficiency upgrades and homeowner empowerment in order to significantly reduce unaffordable energy costs for families. 2) Workforce training for economically disadvantaged or underserved populations that is focused on supplying certified workers for a burgeoning energy efficiency industry in South Carolina where specialized-labor is in demand. (Charleston County)
Turning Leaf Project
Funding will support efforts to serve adult men who are recently released from incarceration returning to Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester counties. The program is designed to provide participants with what they need to be successful after incarceration such as a network of support, the thinking skills to make good decisions, practice coping adaptively with life/work demands, soft work readiness skills, and ultimately a referral to a job and sustained employment in the competitive workforce. This funding will support services that are coordinated from one centralized location, including cognitive behavioral therapy classes, an in-house training class (screen printing), transitional employment, case management, job coaching and permanent job placement. The goal is to reduce recidivism for program participants. (Charleston, Berkeley and Dorchester Counties)
United Ministries
Funding will support the United Ministries-Interfaith Hospitality Network community, which is deeply committed to assisting congregations to help homeless families with children find home and hope in Greenville and the Upstate. (Greenville and Laurens Counties)
United Way of the Piedmont
Funding will support the United Way of the Piedmont’s transportation-to-work pilot program. The overall goal of the program is to provide affordable round-trips to work to low-income, transportation disadvantaged individuals in Spartanburg County. (Spartanburg County)
Village Group’s Plantersville Summer Academy
Funding will support the Plantersville Summer Academy (PSA), which provides remedial education and academic enrichment in largely low-income, single-parent families with students in grades 1-9 using certified teachers along with a host of other support staff, including teaching aids, bus drivers, janitors, food services and administrative support. (Georgetown County)
WINGS
Funding will support WINGS for Kids, which is a proven education program that teaches economically disadvantaged kids skills to improve behavior, decision-making, and healthy relationship building. With this grant, funds will support the WINGS program in three low-income schools in the Charleston area: Chicora School of Communications, Edmund A. Burns Elementary and North Charleston Elementary school. (Charleston County)
To read more about these grants, visit www.sistersofcharitysc.com.
About the Sisters of Charity Foundation of South Carolina
The Sisters of Charity Foundation of South Carolina, established in 1996, is a ministry of the Sisters of Charity Health System. The foundation is committed to addressing the needs of the poor and underserved in all 46 South Carolina counties, and strategically uses resources to reduce poverty through action, advocacy and leadership.
