At the fall meeting of the Daniels Foundation, the trustees voted to fund continuing work of the Edward Street Child Services to align its work to better serve children and families in Worcester.
“Our plan includes data sharing which will help us to learn what strategies work and what aspects of high quality programming are most important to give children the tools they need to excel in school and life.” Dianne Bruce Executive Director

At the spring meeting the Daniels Foundation voted to fund One Circle — an arts & leadership initiative, for three years.

One Circle is a collaborative program developed by the Worcester Youth Center, Community Builders at Plumley Village, and the Latino Education Institute at Worcester State University.

“As we (the agencies) went through the planning process, we were encouraged by the possibilities that became obvious where we could work together to serve a common population of girls at our agencies. We feel that we have come up with a program that expanded the capacity of all of our agencies and will increase our service to the 10-14 year old population of girls in Worcester. The combination of activities is innovative using the arts, Girls’ Circle, leadership development and community development strategies.” – Hilda Ramirez, Worcester Youth Center.

One Circle, an arts & leadership initiative serving 80 girls (ages 10-14) from the city of Worcester will provide girls with skills proven to enhance their self esteem, communication, education, healthy relationships and increased self confidence through self expression and creativity in the arts. The Girls Circle units will provide girls with a safe environment to explore elements of self identity, understand external factors that impact the girls’ vision of themselves and practice self confident behavior. The older girls will also increase self-esteem, school performance, and life skills through Community Service and Leadership Development.

The Daniels Foundation is extremely encouraged by the possibilities of this collaborative effort.

Daniels Foundation’s $15,000 grant to the Community Harvest Project yields big crop!

Our grant made it possible for Community Harvest Project to imporve their efforts of growing and donating fresh fruits and vegetables..

For more information about Community Harvest Project

Letter of Intent and RFP schedule for the Daniels Foundation

Overview
The Fred Harris Daniels Foundation will again ask for a letter of intent and then to those chosen, a RFP for programs for middle school girls designed to

INCREASE PROGRAMMING WHICH CONFRONTS AND OVERCOMES THE SELF ESTEEM ISSUES AFFECTING MIDDLE SCHOOL AGE GIRLS, AGES 10-14.

The Daniels Foundation has voted to support programs that assist girls to enhance their self esteem resulting in their making healthy decisions as they maneuver their way through girlhood into womanhood.

Support from the Daniels Foundation will help build programs that are integrated, sustainable, realistic, identifiable, measurable ,impactful replicable and cost effective.
The Daniels Foundation support will promote positive healthy behaviors in girls that encourage financial independence, remove barriers to learning, encourage healthy lifestyles and relationships, and offer possibilities for peer/mentor leadership and social change for the community.

Full LOI can be downloaded here.. www.danielsfoundation.org/files/FHD-LOI Notice-11-01-2010.doc

Deadline November 30th: Letter of Intent submitted via email to mwesby@earthlink.net

At the fall meeting, Oct 4th, the Daniels Foundation awarded a $50,000 capital gift to the Rainbow Child Development Center, 10 Edwards St., Worcester, Mass.

Rainbow provides care, education and therapeutic services to children and families in a safe and nurturing environment where children learn and grow to reach their individual potential and families receive encouragement and services to support their children’s development.
Rainbow Child Development Center

At the June Quarterly meeting of the foundation, the board voted to fund a grant to the Worcester Historical Museum for the purposes of strengthening the long term impact of Institution-wide development by maximizing the application and value of Sage 50. and to expand development – related market/audience outreach. Potentially this is a 2 year grant, with the first year grant being $45,000.

The foundation announced funding of a three year, $10,000 a year, grant, for The Casa Project’s Court Advocacy for Abused and Neglected Children.

The Foundation has awarded the Worcester Cultural Commission a $70,000 grant in support of the WOO Card program: WOO Card Website.

In 2007, the Fred H. Daniels  Foundation provided start up funds for the College WOO card. That original investment allowed the Worcester Cultural Coalition to grow the program into a model which supports the development of new earned income revenue streams. The goal is to reduce dependency on grants and philanthropic support and increase earned income. In addition, the Coalition is working to make Worcester County a premier cultural destination, supporting the creative communities.

This grant continues the support of the WOO program by the Foundation and will allow and aid further engagement of the residents, employees, visitors and college students in the cultural life of the city of Worcester.

The college WOO card will be marketed to 32,000 college students in the Worcester County area, and the publice WOO card will be made available to local residents and visitors.

At the March 2010 Board Meeting, the Daniels Foundation voted to fund the Boys & Girls Club of Worcester’s SMART Girls Plus program, as part of the Foundation’s Strategic Grants Program.

The SMART Girls Plus program promotes healthy lifestyles and success in adulthood by addressing gender-specific health and social issues and by providing education, career, fitness, cultural arts and financial literacy opportunities.

First year foundation funding level is $100,000. The total award is $225,000 over three years.

The Strategic Grants Program is given annually and is a one time major grant in areas designated by the Foundation, the current focus is at risk teenage girls.  Request for Proposals are issued as needed by the Foundation.

Use this email address for all electronic coorespondance info@danielsfoundation.org