Mardag Foundation Helps Finance Family Empowerment Program

The Mardag Foundation, St. Paul, helped finance the Children's Defense Fund Minnesota's Family Empowerment Program as part of its Nov. 2003 grants.

Children's Defense Fund Minnesota was established in 1985 to ensure that every child has a fair start in life and a successful passage to adulthood, with particular attention to the needs of poor and minority children and those with disabilities. The organization's Family Empowerment Project is a strategy for lifting Minnesota families out of poverty by utilizing volunteers to help families access all government work supports for which they are eligible, including health coverage, sliding fee child care programs, free or reduced school lunch, and income tax credits.

According to the Fund's March 2003 "Participation in Minnesota's Work Supports" report, full participation in existing work support programs by all eligible families would result in 22 percent fewer families living in poverty and 69 percent fewer families living below 50 percent of the federal poverty line. The entire state benefits when its families and children do not have to face the dire consequences of poverty, and are able to thrive and contribute to Minnesota's economy.

In other human services funding, Mardag awarded a $20,000 grant to the YWCA Duluth to help finance Spirit Valley Early Childhood Education Center. Spirit Valley is a licensed child-care and preschool program that opened on Oct. 1, 2003. This grant will help finance start-up expenses for Spirit Valley while it builds enrollment, and will provide $5,000 for a challenge grant to raise funds from other sources. The center expects to reach full enrollment by Oct. 2004.

In arts and culture funding, the foundation awarded $50,000 the Minnesota Historical Society to help finance the Cloudy Waters Exhibit, which is scheduled to open at the Minnesota History Center next June. Cloudy Waters will depict the Mississippi from the perspective of some of the river's original inhabitants - the Dakota people who lived there before 1854. A variety of approaches, such as storytelling, state of the art technology, sound effects and outdoor components are at the core of the exhibit. Award-winning Dakota video producer-director Mona Smith will develop this multimedia exhibition.

In total, the Mardag Foundation board of directors approved 15 grants totaling $540,650 in Nov. 2003. For a complete list of grants, visit the foundation's Web site.

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