Molinaro: County Awards $900K to Non-Profits
Through Agency Partner Grant Program
Poughkeepsie …. Dutchess County Executive Marcus J. Molinaro has announced 24 grants, totaling $900,000 have been awarded to 16 non-profit community organizations through the County’s Agency Partner Grant program. This competitive grant program was implemented in 2013, establishing a process by which non-profit organizations can compete for funding to address specific community needs under three categories: Economic & Cultural Benefit, Health & Human Service, and Environmental & Agricultural Sustainability. A full list and description of the needs can be found here.
County Executive Molinaro said, “As Dutchess County strives to improve the quality of life for all residents, I am pleased to award funding to these 16 organizations, which will promote individual and community health. Community non-profit organizations have a long history of providing critical services to individuals and communities that are in the greatest need. This grant program, along with countless other Dutchess County initiatives, will help our residents and communities become the healthiest, most financially stable and sustainable in all of New York State.”
The 2017 Agency Partner Grant awards are as follows:
Economic & Cultural Benefit
Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County
Project award: $65,000
Project description: Continue supporting 4-H youth development programming that will prepare the next generation of agri-professionals in the areas of financial literacy, writing comprehension, public speaking and leadership.
Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County
Project award: $100,000
Project description: Continue supporting the Youth Vocational Training activities, which include the Green Teen Community Gardening in Beacon and Poughkeepsie’s No Child Left Inside Youth Vocational Training programs. These programs will broaden participants’ exposure to outdoor employment experiences, while promoting health and environmental science.
Literacy Connections
Project award: $27,000
Project description: Assist adults and children in building basic literacy skills. Adult learners will receive student-centered, one-on-one or small group tutoring lessons while children are assigned a one-on-one book buddy to promote basic reading and comprehension skills.
Northeast Community Council Inc.
Project award: $41,000
Project description: Continue the Community Partnership with Schools and Business program, a paid job skills training program for youths and young adults, in which they will gain transferable work readiness skills and training to promote their successful transition to adulthood.
Spark Media Project
Project award: $21,000
Project description: Support an after-school and summer media arts vocational development program for inner-city youth. Participants receive training and hands-on experience in media production, producing works of their own and contributing to Spark’s award-winning video series, DROP TV, as well as to Spark’s hour-long youth produced radio program, Radio Uprising.
Health & Human Service
Boys & Girls Club of Newburgh, Inc.
Project award: $100,000
Project description: Implement a comprehensive after-school program which will target the academic, social and behavioral development of youth in the City of Poughkeepsie.
Catholic Charities Community Services of Dutchess County
Project award: $25,000
Project description: Provide a Case Management Program, which will offer emergency rental assistance, financial literacy education, crisis intervention and comprehensive case management services which will promote long-term housing stability for low-income families.
Center for Prevention of Child Abuse
Project award: $14,000
Project description: Continue the implementation of the Personal Safety Program, which offers preventative sexual abuse education, including Internet safety education, to children throughout Dutchess County.
Center for Prevention of Child Abuse
Project award: $25,000
Project description: Expand the Teen Parent Program to additional communities throughout Dutchess County. The program enhancement will provide case management services and evidence-based curriculum to teen parents to develop their parenting skills and promote healthy child development.
Dutchess Outreach, Inc.
Project award: $23,000
Project description: Provide affordable and healthy locally produced fresh food options via the Poughkeepsie Plenty Mobile Market, increasing the accessibility of nutritional food options to City residents.
Family Services
Project award: $14,000
Project description: Provide an after-school Teen Resource Activity Center, providing healthy meals, recreational activities and a LifeSkills Training program. Participants will gain team-building skills, substance-abuse prevention education and emotion-regulation skills in a safe environment.
Family Services
Project award: $15,000
Project description: Hire an advocate to handle hotline calls from the expansion of the Domestic Violence Lethality Assessment Program (LAP). The advocate will handle hotline calls, conduct outreach and provide other comprehensive follow-up services to victims.
Friends of Seniors of Dutchess County Corp.
Project award: $41,000
Project description: Maintain its Senior Medical Transportation program, which will promote access to non-emergency medical care for seniors who lack other means of transportation.
Hudson River Housing, Inc.
Project award: $41,000
Project description: Financial Fitness programming to improve financial stability among participants by offering a four-hour group educational workshop on the importance of eliminating debt, building a credit history and increasing savings.
Hudson River Housing, Inc.
Project award: $34,000
Project description: Continue providing County residents with housing navigation and transition services, referrals and/or emergency rental assistance to prevent homelessness.
Hudson River Housing, Inc.
Project award: $21,000
Project description: Support the Youth LEAP Program, designed to provide work-readiness skills and training, financial literacy and leadership skills to low-income adolescents and young adults.
Mediation Center of Dutchess County
Project award: $38,000
Project description: Continue the implementation of an anti-bullying initiative in schools throughout the County and expand implementation to an inner-city youth program. The Olweus Bullying Prevention Program educates students and professionals on methods for reducing bullying while contributing to the improvement of peer relations.
Mediation Center of Dutchess County
Project award: $40,000
Project description: Fund an evidence-based Restorative Justice Initiative, which will work with schools and individuals in communities throughout Dutchess County to address conflict and behavioral matters in a diplomatic and non-punitive way in order to promote pro-social outcomes.
Mid-Hudson Children’s Museum
Project award: $20,000
Project description: Advance school-readiness skill development for at-risk children by providing the Empowering Parents as First Teachers initiative, which strives to promote early language and literacy skill development, as well as emotional and social skill development.
Northeast Community Council Inc.
Project award: $33,000
Project description: Provide a variety of nutritional food access programs, including two community gardens, a Summer Food Service Program and youth food-access internship opportunities.
Poughkeepsie Farm Project
Project award: $35,000
Project description: Support Farm Fresh Home Chefs, a food access and healthy-eating program for low-income Poughkeepsie families, teaching families how to prepare balanced healthy meals.
Poughkeepsie United Methodist Church
Project award: $10,000
Project description: Support the Harriet Tubman Academic Skills Center, which will provide academic and social support, to promote educational and behavioral outcomes of at-risk children in the City of Poughkeepsie.
The National Alliance on Mental Illness Mid-Hudson, Inc.
Project award: $27,000
Project description: Provide mental wellness and mental health literacy to individuals affected by mental illness. The Family-to-Family program educates participants on the biology of brain disorders, treatment options, crisis intervention techniques and other community support and referral options available.
Environmental & Agricultural Sustainability
Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County (CCEDC)
Project award: $90,000
Project description: Provide Dutchess County municipal officials and residents with the education, resources and support needed to make informed land-use planning decisions within their municipalities. Topics will include Greenway Concepts & Smart Land Use, Stormwater Management, Municipal Resource Mapping, Water Supply & Wellhead Protection, Renewable Energy.
Dale Borchert, Chairman of the Dutchess County Legislature, said, “By collaborating with non-profit organizations in our community through the Agency Partner Grant program, Dutchess County continues to ensure our residents receive the best services available in these important areas. We thank our partners for their participation in the Agency Partner Grant program, and look forward to the benefit they’ll bring to our residents.”
Nicole Fenichel-Hewitt, Executive Director of Spark Media Project, said, “We are so grateful for the Agency Partner Grant’s support in helping us provide media arts education and workforce readiness skills to underserved youth in our community. This County funding allows Spark to continue critical programming that provides local teens with safe and creative after-school programs and summer employment opportunities that have proven to encourage life-long learning.”
Tina Lee, Resource Development, Outreach and Program Coordinator of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Mid-Hudson, said, “NAMI Mid-Hudson is grateful for the County’s focus to continue to prioritize mental wellness and increase mental health literacy in our community. With our ongoing partnership, NAMI Mid-Hudson will be able to continue to provide our community with evidenced-based education, support and the ability to effectively advocate for families and individuals affected by mental health conditions. NAMI Mid-Hudson looks forward to continue working together with our community partners to be the healthiest county in the state of New York.”
Kevin White, Executive Director of the Boys & Girls Club of Newburgh, said, “We are appreciative of the $100,000 grant awarded for the implementation of The Afterschool Project (TAP), a comprehensive after-school program in the City of Poughkeepsie. We look forward to expanding our services to Dutchess County in order to provide a safe place where youth can develop the academic, social, emotional and behavioural skills needed for their successful transition to adulthood.”
The Agency Partner Grant Program establishes a process by which Dutchess County awards funding to non-profit agencies based on unmet resident needs and outcomes. This is a comprehensive effort to make the non-profit funding process more consistent with the County’s federal and state competitive grant processes. More information about the Agency Partner Grant Program is available here.
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