Wean Foundation gets $200,000 grant

STAFF REPORT

YOUNGSTOWN — The Convergence Partnership, a collaboration of six of the nation’s leading funders plus the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, has awarded the Raymond J. Wean Foundation $200,000 for its work in Youngstown and Warren neighborhoods.

Half of the money will go to a program to hold neighborhood markets more accountable and half will go toward new efforts to grow and sell food in urban areas, said Joel Ratner, president of the Wean Foundation.

The foundation was required to provide matching funds of $400,000 to receive the grant.

Ratner said the foundation is assisting the Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative with its efforts in organizing urban residents. The group is working to encourage neighborhood markets to monitor what is happening around their stores and to sell less alcohol and more healthful foods.

Also, the foundation is aiding the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. and a new group that is being formed in Warren. These groups are planning programs that will encourage people to grow food in urban areas and sell that food at neighborhood markets.

The foundation enhances community well-being in the Mahoning Valley through grant-making, advocacy and leadership with a focus on economically disadvantaged communities and an emphasis on raising capacity of recipients to perform their mission.

The Convergency Partnership awards honor new innovative projects that help ensure all Americans can live, work and play in healthy communities. Fifteen foundations and nonprofits across America received the grants, totaling more than $1.8 million.

“Innovative projects like these are at the vanguard of a national effort to create healthier communities for all people,” said Judith Bell, president of PolicyLink and the Partnership’s program director. “By investing in the local foundations that know their regions best, the Convergence Partnership hopes to encourage new risk-taking and create a sustainable, long-term impact in communities across America.”

The awards provide as much as $200,000 over two years to each recipient to support innovation new local and regional initiatives and projects. Foundations were required to provide a $2 match for every $1 they were awarded. Earlier this year, the Partnership invited local and regional grant- making foundations to request funds to support their efforts to improve the built environment and/or expand food access to improve health and equity.

Among other awardees are: Chicago Community Trust (Chicago, Ill.), Community Foundation of Greater Buffalo (Buffalo, N.Y.), Community Foundation of Greater Memphis (Memphis, Tenn.), Consumer Health Foundation (Washington, D.C.), Humboldt Area Foundation (Humboldt, Calif.), St. Christopher’s Foundation for Children (Philadelphia) and Whatcom Community Foundation (Bellingham, Wash.)

The Convergence Innovation Fund – the Partnership’s initiative that awarded these grants – supports place-based efforts focused on promising and innovative strategies and works to build connections across multiple fields, including public health, transportation, urban planning, sustainable agriculture and more.

The Convergence Partnership is a collaboration of funders who have come together with the shared goal of changing policies and environments to better achieve the vision of healthy people living in healthy places.

Its members include The California Endowment, Kaiser Permanente, The Kresge Foundation, Nemours, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the WK Kellogg Foundation. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention serves as technical advisers.