2019 – 2020 Community Assistance Grant Recipients

Each year, The Junior League of Houston, Inc. provides Community Assistance Grants to worthwhile organizations that do not receive ongoing volunteer support or financial assistance through the League’s Community Projects. The League’s Community Assistance Committee reviews the grant requests based on their alignment with member-determined impact areas and conducts site visits before making recommendations for funding. When selecting recipients, the committee considers whether an agency request would address a critical or basic need, fund a pilot project or expand a significant service to the community.

Community Assistance Grants are funded, in part, by the Barbara and Roy Adams Endowed Community Grant Fund held by the Junior League of Houston Foundation. This endowed fund was made possible through a generous estate gift from Barbara Beardmore Adams (1940 – 2014), a Junior League member from 1982 – 2014. The 2019 – 2020 fiscal year is the inaugural year of distribution for this endowed fund that focuses on children’s health and well-being initiatives and literacy/education enrichment.

For 2019 – 2020, the League awarded $125,000 in Community Assistance grants to the following agencies:

Cherish Our Children: To build infrastructure for the No More Victims program, a course elective in Worthing, Sterling and Furr high schools for children of incarcerated parents. The classes offer facilitated, peer-supported sessions, creating a trusting and safe environment for students.

Children At Risk: To expand and support four Human Trafficking Awareness Tours to raise awareness of the prevalence of trafficking in in our community. Tours are preceded by an in-depth presentation on human trafficking.

Clothed By Faith: To fund a week-long supply of gently-used clothing, shoes, socks and underwear for 500 Houston-area children in need. Garments are selected based on what is known about the child and are packaged in a new reusable shopping bag.

*Harris County Hospital District: To fund the purchase of new books for the Harris Health System’s Reach Out and Read program. The books are distributed to children at their well-visit checkups at Harris Health’s three Pediatric and Adolescent Health Centers – Bear Creek, C.E. Odom and Pasadena.

His Grace Foundation: To provide a seven-week, summer academic enrichment program for patients of Texas Children’s Hospital’s Bone Marrow Transplant Unit and their siblings. Funding will also support the purchase of backpacks filled with school supplies to help patients re-enter school on grade level, ready to succeed.

Houston: reVision: To support the one-time purchase of equipment and supplies for the reVision Community Center in the Gulfton/Sharpstown neighborhood. Specifically, funds will support the purchase of kitchen equipment, including pots, pans, cooking utensils and a freezer for an on-site kitchen used each night.

Mission of Yahweh: To pilot The Kreative Kingdom Clubs, a year-round, after-school education program for school-aged children at their campus. Activities will include cooking, arts, music, sports, science, drama and more.

Nehemiah Center, Inc.: To support the Food Program at Nehemiah, located in downtown Houston, near the Museum District. Each school day, the Nehemiah Center serves breakfast, lunch and dinner to more than 180 children.

Operation Homefront: To provide approximately 350 military children with backpacks filled with school supplies for the 2020 – 2021 school year distributed through Back-to-School Brigade events.

*Social Motion Skills, Inc.: To expand their social skills classes to pre-k- and kindergarten-age children with autism at their center in the Spring Valley area of Spring Branch and at Texas Children’s Hospital’s Meyer Center for Developmental Pediatrics. Currently, Social Motion only offers programing for children who are elementary age or older.

The Way Home Adoption, Inc.: To implement a new program, “Enrich and Engage,” that provides ten events throughout the year to allow older children and prospective adoptive families to meet and interact in a less formal setting.

Young Audiences: To fund a pilot program at Harper Disciplinary Alternative Education Program and Crossroads Alternative, two campuses that serve children from 6th to 12th grades. The year-round program teaches self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills and responsible decision-making using arts-integration training and support while also offering pre-vocational skills training.

 

*Funded through the Barbara and Roy Adams Endowed Community Grant Fund