Cox Charities has announced its selection of Phoenix-area nonprofit organizations to receive nearly $350,000 in grant funding. Free Arts for Abused Children of Arizona, Homeless Youth Connection and Arizona Friends of Foster Children are among the 55 recipients.
Since the program’s inception in 1996, Cox Charities has awarded more than $6 million to local Arizona nonprofits that support youth and education.
“Local nonprofits, devoted to lifting up, supporting and educating youth − particularly those in crisis – are the lifeblood of our community and Cox is proud to support them,” said John Wolfe, Cox Senior Vice President and Southwest Region Manager.
Free Arts for Abused Children of Arizona
Free Arts for Abused Children of Arizona (Free Arts) brings the healing powers of the creative arts to abused, neglected and homeless children, building self-esteem, reducing anxiety and developing resiliency. Cox Charities supports the organization in its mission to give children a way to identify their emotions and express feelings through a positive social medium.
The Cox Charities grant of $5,000 will fund the Free Arts Professional Artist Series where professional teaching artists will conduct 16 classroom-based workshops for 300 homeless and abused K−12 children during the 2015−16 school year
“Creativity is an outlet for expressing stories and emotions. That’s what we do here for kids who feel disconnected from those who are supposed to care for them. Financial and marketing support from Cox increases the capacity for Free Arts to share these healing stories with the community and serve more of our community’s most vulnerable children,” explains Alicia Sutton Campbell, executive director of Free Arts.
Homeless Youth Connection (HYC) provides for the basic needs of the nearly forgotten population of homeless teens in the West Valley so they can stay in high school and graduate. Cox Charities supports HYC as it provides a lifeline to homeless teens so they can make positive, life-affirming choices toward becoming responsible, productive adults.
HYC plans to use the $5,000 grant from Cox Charities to help fund a new case manager position overseeing the provision of basic necessities, housing, counseling, life skills training and mentoring provided by HYC to 260 students in West Valley high schools.
“HYC has grown from serving one West Valley high school to serving 34 schools. Last year, we provided support for 109 high school seniors and 74 graduated! Support from organizations like Cox Charities helps increase our awareness in the community, ensures the longevity of programs and services for homeless teens, and assists our agency in providing a healthy future for our next generation,” says Dawn Bogart, executive director of HYC.
Arizona Friends of Foster Children
There are 16,000 kids in Arizona’s foster care system. These children are society’s most fragile population and the population is steadily increasing as more than 34 children come in to foster care each day. Many of these children have critical emotional and physical setbacks due to their unfortunate and often chaotic circumstances. That’s why Cox Charities supports the Arizona Friends of Foster Children Foundation’s tutoring program. This program serves children in foster care in Arizona who have fallen behind grade level and need tutoring services to catch them back up with their peers.
Tutoring to help catch a child back up to grade level is often too expensive for a foster family to fund, and the lack of resources available can cause a child to fall further behind if no help is found. There is no other organization in Arizona that provides this type of assistance for children in foster care. Thanks to support from Cox Charities, this program identifies children in foster care who are behind grade level at a young age in order to get them the tutoring services they desperately need to help them thrive academically. One-on-one tutoring services provided at a discounted rate for children in foster care will provide the help they need and deserve.
Phoenix organizations that were awarded grant funds this year include:
|
Act One |
$5,000.00 |
|
Arizona Council on Economic Education |
$10,000.00 |
|
Arizona Friends of Foster Children |
$4,000.00 |
|
Arizona Town Hall |
$5,000.00 |
|
ASU Preparatory Academy |
$5,000.00 |
|
Back to School Clothing Drive Association |
$5,000.00 |
|
Banner Health Foundation of Arizona |
$10,000.00 |
|
Be a Leader Foundation |
$5,000.00 |
|
Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Arizona (BBBSAZ) |
$5,000.00 |
|
Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Scottsdale |
$10,000.00 |
|
Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Phoenix |
$10,000.00 |
|
Boys & Girls Clubs of the Casa Grande Valley |
$5,000.00 |
|
Boys & Girls Clubs of the East Valley |
$10,000.00 |
|
Challenger Learning Center of Arizona |
$5,000.00 |
|
Chicanos Por La Causa |
$5,000.00 |
|
Children’s Museum of Phoenix |
$5,000.00 |
|
Deer Valley Education Foundation |
$6,000.00 |
|
Free Arts for Abused Children of Arizona |
$5,000.00 |
|
Fresh Start Women’s Foundation |
$10,000.00 |
|
Friendly House |
$10,000.00 |
|
Future for Kids |
$2,650.00 |
|
Gabriel’s Angels |
$7,500.00 |
|
Girl Scouts − Arizona Cactus-Pine Council |
$5,000.00 |
|
Girl Scouts of Southern Arizona (Casa Grande Program) |
$5,000.00 |
|
Homeless Youth Connection |
$5,000.00 |
|
Hope and a Future, Inc. |
$5,000.00 |
|
ICAN |
$5,000.00 |
|
John Jay and Rich Care for Kids Foundation |
$5,000.00 |
|
Junior Achievement of Arizona, Inc. |
$10,000.00 |
|
Kids Need to Read |
$6,000.00 |
|
Make-A-Wish Arizona |
$5,000.00 |
|
Mesa United Way |
$5,000.00 |
|
Musical Instrument Museum |
$10,000.00 |
|
New Pathways for Youth Inc. |
$5,000.00 |
|
NorthBridge College Success Program |
$3,000.00 |
|
notMYkid, Inc. |
$3,500.00 |
|
OCJ Kids |
$2,125.00 |
|
Phoenix Center Arts Association |
$5,000.00 |
|
Phoenix Children’s Hospital Foundation |
$7,140.00 |
|
Phoenix Film Foundation |
$5,000.00 |
|
Phoenix Indian Center |
$7,500.00 |
|
Phoenix Symphony Association/The Phoenix Symphony |
$7,000.00 |
|
Release the Fear |
$3,000.00 |
|
Ryan House |
$10,000.00 |
|
Save the Family Foundation of Arizona |
$5,000.00 |
|
Scottsdale Training and Rehabilitation Services (STARS) |
$5,000.00 |
|
Southwest Autism Research & Resource Center |
$10,000.00 |
|
Southwest Center for HIV/AIDS |
$5,000.00 |
|
Treasures 4 Teachers, Inc. |
$6,000.00 |
|
Tumbleweed Center for Youth Development |
$7,500.00 |
|
UMOM New Day Centers |
$7,500.00 |
|
United Cerebral Palsy of Central Arizona |
$5,000.00 |
|
USA BMX Foundation, Inc. |
$4,000.00 |
|
Valle del Sol, Inc. |
$10,000.00 |
|
Young Arts Arizona, LTD: Phoenix Arizona |
$5,000.00 |
Total Phoenix Grant Funds: $339,415
