McKnight Supports Youth Development in Out-of-School Time

The McKnight Foundation, Minneapolis, supported youth development with grants totaling more than $1.4 million for 36 metro-area summer and after-school programs, as part of its second-quarter grantmaking. The funded programs serve a wide spectrum of Twin Cities youth, representative of the area's geographic and cultural diversity. It is estimated that these programs will provide enrichment opportunities for more than 9,000 children and youth.

"These grants represent a critical centerpiece of our youth work," says Noa Staryk, McKnight's board chair. "How young people spend time out of school has a tremendous bearing on their social, emotional and cognitive development. McKnight's support will help provide broader access for all to high-quality youth development programs, without limitations of poverty or circumstance."

After-school programming was identified as the most critically underfunded youth development program area by both nonprofits and grantmakers in Minnesota in a recent youth development funding report from the Minnesota Council on Foundations.

The foundation's second-quarter grants also include support for efforts to reduce pollution and increase riverside recreation through land conservation, awarding six grants totaling almost $1 million to organizations up and down the Mississippi River. The organizations receiving funding are Parks and Trails Council of Minnesota, St. Paul, and the University of Minnesota Foundation, Minneapolis; as well as the Coalition to Restore Coastal Louisiana in Baton Rouge, La.; Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement in Des Moines, Iowa; Tennessee Parks and Greenways Foundation in Nashville Tenn.; and Trailnet, Inc., in St. Louis, Mo.

In total, The McKnight Foundation awarded 121 grants totaling $14,240,321 in its second-quarter 2004 grantmaking. Grant highlights in each program area include the following:

Arts - 31 grants totaling $3,320,500:
In funding for the arts, McKnight's board of directors approved operating support of $110,000 over two years for Minneapolis's Jungle Theater. In St. Paul, COMPAS, Inc., received $264,000 over two years for the Community Art Program. For regranting in each of their various areas, the board also approved a total of $612,000 to Central Minnesota Arts Board, Elk River; Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, St. Paul; Southeastern Minnesota Arts Council, Rochester; and Southwest Minnesota Arts and Humanities Council, Marshall.

Children and Families - 55 grants totaling $2,967,250:
To expand parenting skills and increase community support of parenting, McKnight's board approved $200,000 over two years for Minnesota Early Learning and Design of Minneapolis. Minneapolis Crisis Nursery, Golden Valley, received $100,000 over two years to support the 4th Day Program, a home visiting service that offers transitional support to parents. Minneapolis's Centre for Asians and Pacific Islanders received $100,000 over two years to help employed people advance on the job or progress to a career-track employer.

Environment - 14 grants totaling $1,510,000:
A grant of $150,000 was approved for the Mississippi River Basin Alliance, Minneapolis, to continue its work to protect the Mississippi River. Grand Excursion, Inc., of St. Paul received $150,000 for programs and projects that support the Mississippi River corridor between Minnesota's Twin Cities and the Quad Cities of Moline and Rock Island, Ill., and Davenport and Bettendorf, Iowa. In Washington, D.C., Taxpayers for Common Sense received $200,000 over two years to assess and publicize wasteful federal water projects and farm policies.

Region and Communities - 11 Grants totaling $5,346,571:
McKnight's board approved $220,000 over two years for 1000 Friends of Minnesota in St. Paul to help communities plan using state-of-the-art visualization tools, and to promote collaborative planning in Minnesota's lakes region to encourage more sustainable development patterns. American Indian Neighborhood Development Corporation of Minneapolis received $100,000 over two years for a community development organization that works along Franklin Avenue in Minneapolis's Phillips neighborhood. Also approved was $120,000 over two years to Minneapolis Consortium of Nonprofit Developers for continuing community development work in Minneapolis and its surrounding suburbs.

International - 10 grants totaling $1,096,000:
The Synergos Institute of New York, N.Y., received $150,000 over three years in support of the Community Foundation for the Western Region of Zimbabwe, an effort to improve the economic conditions of women and their families in Zimbabwe. To help rehabilitate, educate and train disabled people who live in remote areas of Cambodia, The Cambodia Trust in Oxon, U.K., received $120,000 over two years. In Ho Chi Minh, Viêt Nam Plus received $71,000 over two years for a variety of community development projects serving residents of the Bihn Thuan province of Vietnam.

For a complete list of The McKnight Foundation's second-quarter grants, visit the foundation's Web site.

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