Farmington Bank Community Foundation awarded $129,500 in grants through its third quarterly grant cycle. This round of grants was focused on entrepreneurship, financial literacy and availability of permanent affordable housing.
Grants were awarded to the following organizations:
Bedrock Credit America, Inc. – For credit seminars and credit counseling services for Financial Opportunity Center staff and clients.
Catholic Charities Inc. – Archdiocese of Hartford – For the Economic Development and Entrepreneurship Initiative which offers extremely low-income, previously unemployed, and underemployed individuals an integrated approach to employment, financial coaching and entrepreneurial services.
Chrysalis Center Inc. – For Community Supportive Housing which provides housing and case management services to individuals and families coming from homelessness.
First Church of Christ Simsbury – As fiscal agent for the Simsbury DEI Council’s Housing Subcommittee. For work to educate community members on housing issues.
Greater Bristol Homes – For construction costs at two houses on Gridley Street in Bristol which will be built to support homeownership for low-to-moderate income families.
Hands On Hartford – For the shared kitchen which helps clients develop the capacity to create, manage, and grow their start-up culinary businesses. The licensed commercial kitchen provides participants with the space and equipment to prepare, test, and produce their products.
HEDCO, Inc. – For interns from local colleges who will provide small business support in the organization’s Business Resource Center and work alongside other HEDCO departments.
International Hartford – For assistance to immigrant owned businesses to help them become bankable and grow their business.
Jewish Family Services of Greater Hartford – For its comprehensive community supports that uses a three-pronged approach to help low-to-moderate income clients by providing case management, volunteer support, and safety net resources.
Local Initiatives Support Corporation – For financial and technical assistance to community development corporations to revitalize neighborhoods, build wealth for low- and moderate-income families, and produce quality affordable housing.
Minority Construction Council – To enhance its services to businesses in New Britain, Bloomfield and Bristol including the MBE Capacity Building Bootcamp, and technical assistance to businesses seeking to obtain their MBE certification, loans and small business grants.
Social Enterprise Trust, Inc. – For the Hartford Culinary Collaborative which grows the skills and capacity of moderate-income individuals who have the idea and recipe(s) for a food business, but not the entrepreneurial know-how.
The Village for Families & Children – For the Financial Opportunity Center which provides financial literacy education, benefits assessment, and job readiness support, through workshops and one-on-one coaching.
URISE Ventures, Inc. – For the “Up Your Hustle” youth business accelerator which gives youth and young adults the opportunity to start or scale their own micro-enterprises and learn critical academic, business and life skills in the process
YWCA New Britain – For the Childcare Business Incubator, which trains individuals in the operation of their own family childcare business; supports the establishment of that business for a period of years; and helps them move to an independent location once their tenure in this project is completed.