The Women’s Fund of East Tennessee recently announced the 2015 grant awards of approximately $100,000 to nine regional organizations working to improve the lives of women and girls in East Tennessee.
The mission of the Women’s Fund is to be a catalyst to transform the lives of low-income women and girls in a 25-county area of East Tennessee.
The vision of the Women’s Fund is “every woman self-sustaining,” and to do that, the Fund is working to grow its endowment to $10M over the next seven years in order to make impactful and transformational grants. In just three years of granting, 18 grants have been made totaling over $240,250 to 15 organizations. The Women’s Fund commissioned a research study in East Tennessee working with UT Knoxville and ETSU to identify the barriers to self-sufficiency for women and girls in East Tennessee.
The resulting data led the Women’s Fund to focus its granting on life skills, work skills, and education, with an advocacy focus on domestic violence.
Organizations receiving 2015 grants were:
A Hand Up for Women
Serving four counties – A grant to provide self-sufficiency and healthier life situations for fifty women through providing training at The Restoration House of East Tennessee and The Salvation Army’s Joy Baker Center in Knoxville.
The Restoration House of East Tennessee
Serving all 25 counties – A gift in-kind grant. The Women’s Fund is funding A Hand Up For Women to enable their staff to work not only with their own organization but also to provide training programs for clients at The Restoration House.
The Salvation Army
Serving six counties – A gift in-kind grant. The Women’s Fund is funding A Hand Up For Women to enable their staff to work not only with their own organization but also to provide training programs for clients at The Salvation Army.
Boys and Girls Club of Elizabethton/Carter County
Serving Carter county – A grant to provide weekly summer sessions for girls for ten weeks with a focus on education, career preparation, financial literacy, relationship building and positive attitudes.
Branches of Monroe County, Inc.
Serving Blount, Loudon, McMinn, and Monroe Counties – A grant to support the development and publishing of a selftraining handbook titled “Why Just Survive When you Can Thrive?”
Centro Hispano
Serving eight counties – A grant to allow a minimum of forty women an individualized annual program of training to focus on academic preparation, vocational and technical training, and life skills building.
Red Legacy Recovery, Inc.
Serving six counties – A grant to increase the hours per week that the van purchased through a 2014 Women’s Fund grant is available to transport clients to court/attorney/probation appointments, GED training, job interviews, and Red Legacy workshops on computer skills, parenting, and recovery.
STAND
Serving Scott County – A grant to provide funding for two six-day, five-night summer institutes to be attended by girls who are rising seniors in high school designed to provide skills needed to go to college and thereby moving them out of the cycle of poverty.
Tusculum College
Serving all 25 counties – A grant to provide for 18 high school students to attend a five-day residential institute at Tusculum College. According to Maureen Dunn McBride, Women’s Fund Board Chair (2014-2015), “I encourage all women to join the Women’s Fund as it provides a unique opportunity for women throughout our region to be informed, engaged, and collectively move the philanthropic bar to break down barriers for women.”
To see more photos highlighting the 2015 Women’s Fund grant recipients, click here.
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