Nine organizations get grants to help serve children

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By Celine Klosterman

Nine organizations that serve children in the Davenport Diocese have been awarded a total of $39,390 from St. Vincent Home Corporation.

Grant recipients, chosen Nov. 14, were:

• Humility of Mary Housing, Inc. Davenport: $15,000. Last year the organization provided housing and services to 155 children in single-parent families. Five service coordinators with social-work degrees will work with families on parenting, housekeeping, meal planning, budgeting and time management.  Service coordinators also will work toward increasing earning potential. 

• Project Renewal, Davenport: $5,500 to support educational and recreational activities for at-risk youths and provide a stipend for three college students to plan, implement and supervise summer activities for the 2010 Project Renewal Summer Youth Program.  Project Renewal serves low-income children in Davenport.

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• Emma Cornelis Hospitality House, Fort Madison: $5,000 to purchase food, pay utilities and help fund the salary of a house manager and bookkeeper. The organization provides food, shelter and assistance for homeless families on a temporary basis in the Lee County, tri-state area.

• Heart of Iowa Big Brothers, Big Sisters, Marshalltown: $4,300 to start a program in Grinnell and recruit and train 40 volunteers. The organization serves youths who need a safe, secure and caring role model. 

• Safer Foundation, Davenport: $3,500 to cover the $100 fee for low-income students to get their GEDs and to cover transportation expenses, basic skills instruction, pre-employment training, job referral and placement, and oversight of community service hours. The organization focuses on youth who have had a brush with the criminal justice system.

• Hope Haven Area Development Center Corp, West Burlington: $2,090 to take children with disabilities on new educational outings and purchase a Nintendo Wii, games, craft supplies and fishing gear. The organization provides a summer respite camp for children with disabilities.

• Friendly House, Davenport: $2,000 to purchase milk and other sources of protein. The central-city neighborhood center provides after-school activities and assistance to 314 youths in the preschool, after-school, summer daycare, teen center and all-day care. 

• Camp Shalom, Inc., Davenport: $1,000. The Christ-centered outdoor ministry, cooperating with Madison Elementary School and J.B. Young Intermediate School, is offering camperships for lower income, inner-city youths.

• Information Referral & Assistance Services, Clinton: $1,000 to buy basic personal items for families who do not have household supplies, furnishings or other needed items. The Jericho Supportive Housing Program provides affordable housing and helps families achieve financial stability and develop self sufficiency.

Grant recipients will receive funds in early January.

In all, St. Vincent Home Corporation received 21 grant requests totaling $168,000. The grants are funded chiefly by St. Vincent Home Corporation investment income.

Funds go to organizations whose mission is consistent with that of the former St. Vincent Home in Davenport. Beginning in 1895 that home served as an orphanage, relocation center for displaced children, residential treatment center for teens and child-placing agency through Catholic Charities. 

Thirteen lay people, Sisters and priests and Bishop Martin Amos sit on the St. Vincent Home Corp. board. Kent Ferris, the diocese’s social action director, and Loxi Hopkins, a volunteer in the diocese’ social action department, staff the board.

Deadline to apply for spring grants is March 19. Grant criteria and an application form are available at www.davenportdiocese.org/socialaction/sastvincenthomecorporation.htm.


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