Connections provides information about Foundation initiatives and new programs and continuing needs of local charities.

Listed within this issue are those organizations that received a discretionary grant during the last discretionary grant cycle. All of these organizations have been researched by our Grants Department, and a summary of their grant proposals is included. As you may see, for many of these requests, we were able to fund only to a certain level. The organizations may still have needs associated with their specified programs.

If you would like additional information about these programs, please feel free to contact the charities directly.

Aullwood Audubon Center and Farm - Rooted in the Future Farm Initiative, Phase II
$7,000,000 Total Project Budget
$50,000 Granted (over two years)

Since 1957 Aullwood Audubon Center and Farm and its 200 acres of hiking trails, prairie, for­ests, ponds, farmland and meadows have hosted thousands of school children for educational programs. Funds will aid in the construction of a new Farm Discovery Center, which will pro­vide hands-on learning and a gathering place for the community. The Center will include a large entry, multipurpose room, kitchen, classroom, offices and a maintenance shop. In addition, a new Farm/Nature Play Preschool will be created and operated by Miami Valley Child Develop­ment Centers in collaboration with Aullwood. Scheduled to open in August 2012, it will be the first farm-based Head Start Preschool in the country.

Culture Works - Community Cultural Assessment and Plan
$100,000 Total Project Budget
$25,000 Granted

Culture Works is developing a Community Cultural Plan that will help local arts organizations think strategically about how resources can best be used to achieve civic and economic goals. Funds will be used to hire a consultant, who will create this plan by reviewing existing strategic plans, market research and studies of cultural organizations conducted on the Dayton region’s arts sector. The final plan will identify recommendations and action steps over the next ten years to help sustain and enliven the community’s culture.

Dayton Contemporary Dance Company - Director of University Initiatives
$151,500 Total Project Budget
$20,000 Granted

Funds will help create a new staff position that will enhance Dayton Contemporary Dance Company’s (DCDC) partnership with three area universities, Central State University, University of Dayton and Wright State University, and develop new partnerships with other universities and colleges. The new position will be responsible for creating a university dance program that will feature brown bag lectures, a miniseries of on-campus concerts and summer initiatives, as well as coordinate DCDC artists teaching courses at the different universities and DCDC performances at special functions. These efforts will help DCDC increase its revenue, while providing partner organizations with arts-integrated educational opportunities for their students.

Dayton Opera Association -The Tragedy of Carmen
$204,175 Total Project Budget
$20,000 Granted

The Tragedy of Carmen is an intense and intimate English adaptation of Georges Bizet’s celebrated opera, Carmen. It is performed with only four singers, three actors and an orchestra of 15 play­ers. It was developed to introduce and engage a younger audience to opera. Dayton Opera Asso­ciation will use the funds to market the opera to regional young professional groups and college students, including sending e-mails and text messages and producing blogs designed to educate and prepare participants. The Opera also is implementing “Tweet Seats,” a designated, reduced-price seating area for guests who wish to use mobile devices and social media outlets to comment on the production during the performance. Special receptions, informal Artist and Director “Talk Backs,” and other events are planned.

Dayton Playhouse - Equipment Replacement
$150,000 Total Project Budget
$20,000 Granted

Since 1959 the Dayton Playhouse, a volunteer community theater organization, has been pro­viding low-cost, high-quality dramatic and musical theatre productions in the Greater Dayton Region. The Playhouse season includes six productions each year and is the home of the nation­ally renowned annual FutureFest—providing playwrights and local residents the opportunity to see new theatrical works produced during their early stages of development. New York theater critic and Fest adjudicator Peter Filichia has called FutureFest “the best deal around for budding playwrights.” Funds will be used to make improvements to the Playhouse’s nearly 25-year-old building, including installing a new air conditioner, stage floor, main curtain and roof, as well as developing handicapped accessible areas.

Dayton Society of Natural History - Planetarium Project
$1,208,000 Total Project Budget
$50,000 Granted (over two years)

Funds will help provide necessary renovations to the planetarium at Dayton Society of Natural History’s Boonshoft Museum of Discovery, including replacing the facility’s Digistar 2 planetarium instrument with a state-of-the-art Digistar 4. The Digistar 4 enhances astronomy instruction by providing brighter star fields with color and the ability to incorporate full-color, 3-D modeled graphics with motion into astronomy programs. A new educational component will include a full-dome video feature, which will allow the museum to expand its astronomy programs, espe­cially for STEM learning opportunities for Pre-K through grade 12 students.

Greater Dayton Public Television (Think^TV) - Super Why! and Raising Readers Program
$95,800 Total Project Budget
$10,000 Granted

Think^TV will use the funds to offer a literacy-rich environment for children and families by creat­ing a new program, the Raising Readers initiative, in partnership with Dayton Promise Neighbor­hoods (Ruskin and Fairview schools) and Ready Set Soar!. Leveraging PBS resources, Think^TV education staff also will offer Super Why! reading camps, family events, library corners and broadcast messages designed to help young children learn to read and improve their literacy skills.

Homefull (formerly known as The Other Place) - Gettysburg Gateway Micro-Farm
$158,050 Total Project Budget
$10,000 Granted

Homefull’s Gettysburg Gateway Micro-Farm offers employment, education and skill building opportunities for the growing number of unemployed, homeless men in the Gateway shelter. The Micro-Farm produces fresh, affordable, locally grown produce utilizing a Master Sustainable Micro-Farmer educational curriculum. The produce is sold in areas where such produce is in short supply, as well as to the larger community, including four farm stands weekly across Mont­gomery County. Food stamps are accepted. Homefull will use the funds to expand the program so that it can employ additional homeless individuals.

Kettering Children's Choir - Boys and the Blue Danube
$63,525 Total Project Budget
$10,000 Granted

Funds will help support the Kettering Children’s Choir (KCC) special projects during its winter/spring session, including commissioning an arrangement of the Blue Danube Waltz by Johann Strauss for KCC’s spring concert, with choreography provided by the Dayton Ballet II Youth Company. Ad­ditionally, a clinician will be hired to work specifically with KCC boys and others in the region on how to handle their changing voices, as well as to conduct the boys in a performance at the KCC spring concert.

The Linda Vista, Inc. - Women's Training Center for Self-Sufficiency
$70,000 Total Project Budget
$15,000 Granted

Funds will assist Linda Vista, a transitional housing program for homeless women and their children, to establish the Linda Vista Women’s Training Center for Self-Sufficiency. The Center will offer Linda Vista residents and female residents of partner organizations GED test prepara­tion classes, first year college courses, job readiness and self-sufficiency training. Elements IV and Messer Construction is providing in-kind support for some of the furniture and the Center’s construction. The Dayton Foundation’s discretionary grant and additional funds will be used to purchase computer equipment, software and Internet technology.

Mary Scott Nursing Center - Specialized Dementia Care Unit
$118,000 Total Project Budget
$20,000 Granted

In recent months, Mary Scott Nursing Center (MSNC) has received an overwhelming number of admission referrals for patients suffering with dementia. Because it lacks the appropriate, secured environment to accommodate these patients with special needs, MSNC has not been able to ac­cept them. In order to accommodate these patients, the organization has made plans to establish a specialized Dementia Care Unit. Funds will help create a 22-bed unit that will provide a secure environment and allow for freedom of mobility and access within it. Renovations will include appropriate flooring, environment enhancements, central unit showers and furniture.

Mentoring Collaborative of Montgomery County - AmeriCorps Matching Grant
$416,598 Total Project Budget
$25,000 Granted

In an effort to help youth succeed in school and prevent them from dropping out, the Mentoring Collaborative of Montgomery County (MCMC) was awarded a $259,993 one-year operational grant from AmeriCorps to expand and enhance mentoring programs in Montgomery County. MCMC coordinates a network of agencies that provide mentoring services for youth and trains and certifies partner agencies and individual mentors. MCMC will use the AmeriCorps grant to serve at-risk, K-12 youth through 11 partner host sites utilizing the support of 20 Americorps members who will serve as service coordinators. As a condition of the AmeriCorps grant, MCMC is required to raise matching funds. The Dayton Foundation discretionary grant and additional funds will help the organization meet the match requirement.

St. Vincent de Paul Social Services, Inc. - Emergency Funding Support
$2,706,262,000 Total Project Budget
$25,000 Granted

Funds will aid St. Vincent de Paul in providing shelter and other basic and essential human services during a historic year of record-high demand for services and a significant decrease in revenue from private sources. In the last two years, the number of men seeking shelter has increased approximately 5 percent, the number of single women has increased by 26 percent and the number of families has increased by 20 percent, with 17 percent more children. St. Vincent de Paul Gateway Shelters are the only two shelters available to the general population, and as the number of homeless guests has increased, so has the cost to serve them safely and provide for their basic needs.

United Rehabilitation Services of Greater Dayton - URS Playground Project
$180,000 Total Project Budget
$25,000 Granted

United Rehabilitation Services of Greater Dayton (URS) has served children and adults with dis­abilities throughout the Dayton region for 55 years. Funding will be used to deconstruct aging and deteriorated playground structures at the URS Childcare Center and replace them with safe, accessible and developmentally appropriate equipment. Plans also include expanding the play­ground area and correcting a severe drainage problem, allowing for children to have a consistent play routine.