2012 – 2013 Community Assistance Grant Recipients

For 2012 – 2013, the League awarded Community Assistance Grants to 10 agencies:

Archway Academy

Archway Academy offers high school students recovering from substance abuse and addiction a sober alternative to continue their education. Archway encourages the recovery process and promotes spiritual growth. This grant will fund financial assistance support for students in the traditional program at Archway Academy and the newly created Passageway Program. The Passageway Program focuses on students recently released from treatment who are ready to start the journey of receiving an education while focusing on their recovery.

Elves & More

Elves & More is dedicated to changing lives – one bike at a time! The program focuses on at-risk children living in the Greater Houston Area, an eight-county area where 330,000 children live in poverty. Elves & More made a systematic program change and implemented a very successful contract system that allows that same demographic of children to earn their bicycle through hard work in school. The League grant will assist Elves & More with bicycles for students at Bonham Elementary, located in the Sharpstown area of Houston.

Gracewood

Gracewood assists single mothers experiencing a temporary crisis that leaves them on the brink of poverty, homelessness or separation from their children. Gracewood fills a critical gap in the community by offering a structured, safe home while families build the life skills and resources needed for successful, independent living. The dedicated personnel, who live in the home, provide mentoring and serve as role models. Free professional counseling services are available to provide the mothers and children with the strength to move forward. Funding from the League will support childcare for the mothers of Gracewood as they seek further education or work.

The Nehemiah Center

The Nehemiah Center is an organization that offers academic, emotional, cultural, social and spiritual enrichment for at-risk children and their families in Houston’s Third Ward and beyond. The Nehemiah Center’s Academic Enrichment Program (AEP) is an after-school program that has been in operation for more than 13 years. The League’s funds will focus on enhancing the Academic Enrichment Program’s after-school services.

SpringSpirit Baseball

SpringSpirit Baseball offers mentoring, education programs, and physical development to youth in the northern Spring Branch community. The program incorporates after-school programming with homework, reading proficiency in English, life lessons, and physical fitness. In addition to the physical fitness activities, the physical development program teaches athletic skill through practice and league play. The League funds will specifically provide for a Volunteer Coordinator to organize, recruit and manage the community volunteers, which are the essential component of the program.

The Joy School

The Joy School offers developmentally appropriate and individualized education for children with significant learning disabilities that are academically behind their peers. The learning disabilities include speech and language development delays, dyslexia, ADD/ADHD, and auditory processing disorders. The mission of The Joy School is to prepare students with learning differences to return to traditional classroom settings by enabling them to reach their academic and social potential in a safe, supportive environment. The League grant will specifically fund classroom educational technology for the students.

The Woods Project

The Woods Project makes a difference in the lives of economically challenged Houston area youth through outdoor programming that expands their world vision and fosters the development of leadership and life skills that will be required to carry them to college and beyond. The League funding will directly support expansion of this after-school program to four area high schools (East College High School, Galena Park High School, Milby High School and Sharpstown International High School).

Theater Under the Stars (TUTS) – The River

Through The River, TUTS provides accessible and affordable fine arts education to children and their siblings, ages 2 to 19, who live with disabilities, chronic illnesses, or are economically disadvantaged. The River also serves young adults and adults with developmental disabilities at The Center. The Junior League grant will directly support The River’s outreach program in both the Houston Area Women’s Center (HAWC) and The Center. The River’s outreach program at the HAWC’s residential facility focuses on children, ages 4 to 16, affected by domestic violence.

Westside Homeless Partnership

The Westside Homeless Partnership has developed the Hand-Up Program designed to address the root problems that keep a family in poverty. This program helps clients secure or restore their housing situation and develop

a nine-month plan that includes employment goals and educational achievements. The primary mission of the Westside Homeless Partnership is to prevent homelessness for families with children and empower them to achieve self-sufficiency and a stable home environment through personal effort and responsibility, education, and growth. The League grant will impact the life of one family in the Hand-Up Housing Program.

Young Audiences of Houston

Young Audiences of Houston (YAH) educates and inspires children through the arts. The organization aspires to make the arts an integral part of the school curriculum and advance the field of arts in education through teacher professional development training and community partnerships. The League grant will provide arts-integrated lessons, focusing on English language arts and reading comprehension.