Wean Foundation awards $729,400 in community investment grants

Staff report

WARREN

The Raymond John Wean Foundation approved grants totaling nearly $729,400 at its June meeting to organizations committed to its strategic priorities of community revitalization and educational opportunity, including early childhood for children through age 5.

Funding included $115,000 for Western Reserve Land Conservancy, which along with Trumbull Neighborhood Partnership and Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp., will support the education of residents in tree-stewarding practices and enhance technology for an accurate accounting of the housing stock.

The work will use the previous property inventories of the Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative, TNP and YNDC.

The Cleveland Neighborhood Progress was awarded $20,000 in support of a study that seeks to understand and thus compare the impact of residential rehabilitation to demolition in strengthening neighborhood revitalization.

Educational grants demonstrating the foundation’s continued support to achieve school, college and career readiness are:

Eastern Ohio Education Partnership, $200,000 a year for two years to strengthen the organization that seeks to serve as the center of community collaboration around education.

Inspiring Minds, $75,000 a year for two years for its after-school and college and career readiness Warren programming for eighth- to 12th-grade students.

Invent Now Inc., $13,750 to provide full scholarships for 50 Youngstown Chaney middle-school students to participate in its Invention Project STEM program.

Warren City School District, $30,649 to build on the success of its 2015 pilot that transitions students from primary to intermediate grades and middle to high school with intentional yearlong engagement of both youth and their families.