Bush Foundation Grants Focus on Education

The Bush Foundation, St. Paul, awarded 56 grants to support education needs of new arrivals and early childhood development programs in Minnesota and the Dakotas in July.

A $400,000 grant to the Minnesota Department of Education’s ESL program will allow expansion of services and reduce long waiting lists to accommodate more quickly the needs of new arrivals, including Hmong from the Wat Tham Krabok refugee camp in Thailand. The foundation granted $100,000 to Reuben Lindh Family Services to continue its developmental program for Hmong preschoolers and $100,000 over two years to A Chance to Grow in Minneapolis to adapt a skill-building program previously used with older children for preschoolers.

The South Dakota Coalition for Children and the Minnesota Department of Human Services received grants of $180,000 and $200,000, respectively, to continue their advocacy efforts in the field of early childhood development training. North Dakota’s Department of Human Services will use $585,008 to increase the number of trained infant/toddler caregivers and develop new training options, both for licensed day-care and home settings.

Saint Paul School District #625 received a grant of $1,190,220 over three years to continue its “Connected Counseling” approach to increase high school graduation rates. In higher education, the Collaboration for the Advancement of College Teaching and Learning in Saint Paul was granted $258,000 for its faculty development work. The University of Saint Thomas will use a $449,725 grant to continue faculty development work in inquiry-based learning, where exploration is the primary activity in learning.

The Bush Foundation also awarded grants to support human services and health, ecological health, and the arts. Some of the grant recipients:

• African American Family Services, Inc., $180,000 to launch a culturally specific adolescent division of mental and chemical health services

• Midtown Greenway Coalition, $70,000 to expand green spaces along the Midtown Greenway, the more than five-mile-long bicycle/pedestrian path through urban Minneapolis

• Minnesota Orchestral Association, $685,000 to increase educational initiatives for children in Twin Cities-area schools and programs for communities in Greater Minnesota

• Farmers’ Legal Action Group, Inc., $175,000 to help family farming remain a vibrant and significant piece of the economic landscape of the rural Upper Midwest

• Neighborhood Development Center, Inc., $300,000 toward a capital project to develop the Midtown Global Market in the Midtown Exchange complex (the former Sears Tower on Lake Street)

In total, the Bush Foundation awarded 56 grants adding to $12,138,894. For a complete list of grants, visit the Bush Foundation's Web site.

top