Through the Community Response Grants program, the Community Foundation is able to respond to community needs not only today but forever.  The Community Response Grants Committee reviewed twenty-eight grant requests totaling $69,596.  The current focus of these grants is to build the capacity of organizations and the community by providing funding for projects that improve the effectiveness and efficiency of nonprofits. Sixteen grants totaling $32,999 were awarded this spring.

Spring 2007 Awards

Beacon Community Center
$3,000

To support the costs of technology hardware, web hosting, design services, instructional fees, class supplies and curricula for computer classes.

Catharine Street Community Center
$3,000

To establish a Safety Net Program for families in need of emergency after school services.  The program will target working and work-ready parents who need help paying for after school care while they stabilize their employment.

Children's Media Project
$1,500

To purchase new video cameras and microphones that will enable Children’s Media Project to remain a state-of-the-art technology center for the community.

Council on Addiction Prevention and Education of Dutchess County
$3,000

To pay for transportation of all local Marathon Project events.  The Marathon Project: Empowering Youth Through Running, is an innovative student/mentor running program that will help youth make better life choices.

Down Syndrome Association of the Hudson Valley
$936

To purchase two complete sets of a speech-improvement learning tool to aid families in early intervention for their children who have Down’s Syndrome.

Dutchess County Community Action Agency, Inc.
$3,000

To purchase a network server and hard drive that will provide a secure VPN connection through the internet.  The result will connect all of the offices to one database and allow case managers and other administrators to provide their services more effectively.

Eleanor Roosevelt Center at Val-Kill
$2,000

To purchase a new server that will allow the organization's central database to be accessed by all staff for programmatic, organizational and development needs.

Family Services, Inc.
$1,643

To purchase two TTY machines to ensure that women who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can access telephone hotlines for emergency services provided by Battered Women's Services and the Crime Victims Assistance Program.

Locust Grove, The Samuel Morse Historic Site
$1,200

To purchase a 40" LCD TV/DVD to show visitors to the site an orientation film about Locust Grove, the families who lived there, as well as information about Samuel Morse.

Martin Luther King Cultural Center, Inc.
$1,900 

To purchase a multimedia projector, table top presentation screen and a camcorder that will enhance presentation effectiveness in the after school and summer programs, and the teen work and life skill training workshops.

NorthEast-Millerton Library
$370

To pay for 2 staff members to attend the Bureau of Education and Research seminar entitled "The Best Children's Books of the Decade".

Pawling Free Library
$2,450

To purchase four thin client computer stations and one server that will bring more effective technology to the residents of Pawling.  This program will serve as a pilot program for all libraries in Dutchess County and provide an outreach effort to teach other Dutchess County libraries the benefits of this new technology.

Poughkeepsie Farm Project
$2,000

To purchase equipment to improve seasonal office, program, and meeting space at the Poughkeepsie Farm Project (PFP), increasing the capacity of the PFP to host and manage programs about food and farming for the greater Poughkeepsie community.

Salvation Army of Greater New York
$3,000

To purchase an arcade-style video game to help attract students to the Youth Drop-In Center which provides a fun, safe and supervised program to keep youth and adolescents off the streets during the out-of-school hours.

Stanford Free Library
$3,000

To purchase an Early Literacy Station that would include a computer with 26 preloaded software activities for children preschool through third grade that offers learning experiences in seven curriculum areas.

Susie Reizod Foundation
$1,000

To purchase new shoes for children in need who reside in Dutchess County.