What We Fund

 

What We Fund: Grants & Services

Over the past ten years, The Family Foundation has made over $750,000 in grants to individuals, families, schools, and programs working with children and families. These grants have focused primarily on making positive impacts on the lives of young people and have been awarded both to existing and new programs.

We are interested in programmatic activities that focus on education, mental health service, and family intervention and are particularly interested in activities that combine these three elements.

We are now expanding the reach of our assistance and grant making in four areas:

I. One-Time, Small Grants for Individuals and Families:

These grants range from $100 to $1000.

These small grants will be made to individuals or families for educational, mental health, medical, or other support in times of need or crisis. These grants will be made primarily in the DC, Maryland, and Virginia area.

Examples of previous grants in this category include:

  • Emergency medical, education, and mental health financial assistance for individuals and families in crisis

  • Awards to students and staff for outstanding work in the field of mental health

  • Scholarships for DC, MD, or VA area students to attend summer camp

  • Tuition assistance to special education teachers and counselors for furthering their education

  • Financial assistance for research and for attendance at professional conferences

II. Programmatic Grants:

These are $!,000-$10,000 grants which typically are given to a project, a school, or a program that provides services to children and their families. They are made to support educational, mental health, and family service needs.

Grants may be for a single year or spread over a period of two or three years. Primarily, we are looking to help individuals and programs ‘take the next step’ in responding to the needs, goals, and objectives of their unique programs for children, youth, and families.

Examples of some previous grants in this category include:

  • The Frost School - to assist in their mission of providing a therapeutic day school for emotionally troubled youth and their families

  • Learn-Serve International - to further their mission of working with youth in DC, VA, and MD establish projects in their schools and communities

  • Columbia River Cooperative/Rainforest Academy - to provide start up funding for an after school and a day school program in rural Belize

  • Camp St. Charles - to further their mission of providing quality summer programs to children from MD, VA, and DC

  • New Highland Academy - to support their library project

  • Connected Psychology - two institutional building grants to this training program that works with master and Ph.D. level students in the District of Columbia

  • Gbongbontor - to build the first elementary school in this small Sierra Leone village

  • Project Light - to support this literacy and adult education program

  • College Directions Inc. - to establish a mental health aspect to their college assistance program

  • Independent Grounds - to support the further development of this vocational training program for autistic students

  • Yeshiva Day School of Las Vegas - to support special education needs of its students and staff

  • National Alliance on Mental Illness - NAMI/DC - to support their education and advocacy programs for individuals and families with mental illness

  • Nationals Alliance on Mental Illness - NAMI/MC - to introduce two additional suicide prevention programs in the MC public schools

  • Breaking the Cycle - to support their efforts to help youth develop and “break the cycle” of events that have occurred in their lives

  • Bread & Roses - to support their summer programs for youth initiatives in the arts

  • Beyond the Spectrum - to support their development of the vocational aspect of their program for autistic students

  • ScholarCHIPS - to help this unique effort to further develop their program in support of college bound students of incarcerated parents

III. Counseling & Consultative Services:

The staff of The Family Foundation is available to assist you in a number of ways:

*Provide counseling and/or consulting services to individuals, professionals, schools, churches, hospitals, and community groups in the area of mental health

*Share what we've learned over our 47 years of working with children and families that may benefit your new, developing, or existing program

*Discuss your existing program and concerns you have about it

*Help manage crises, growth, and/or change in program delivery

*Make presentations relating to therapeutic communities and to group therapy with children, adolescents, and /or parents

*Conduct staff facilitations

These services are offered on a sliding scale and, in some instances, at no cost to the recipient(s).

IV. Large, One-Time Grants:

The Board of Directors of The Family Foundation is interested in discussing with individuals or groups who are considering creating and offering unique programs and services to youth and families.

We are looking for individuals and groups seeking to develop projects or programs that will make a positive difference in the lives of children and their families.

We are particularly looking to assist in the creation of programs that involve the integration of education, mental health, and family participation in the context of a therapeutic community.

No grants have yet been made in this newly established category.