Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation

Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation Makes Major Investment in Northwest Corner Nonprofits

November 3, 2010

SHEFFIELD, MA—Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation announced today at a press conference at the Interlaken Inn in Lakeville, Connecticut that thanks to the generosity of several anonymous donors, it has awarded $167,500 in grants to a dozen Northwest Corner nonprofit organizations this year. These grants bring the total amount that the foundation has awarded to the region this year to $1.1 million. Since 1987, when the foundation was founded in Salisbury, it has facilitated more than $11 million in donations to improve the quality of life for everyone living in the Northwest Corner.

Berkshire Taconic works with many donors, some of who wish to remain anonymous and draw on the foundation staff’s deep knowledge of the area. “Several years ago, these donors approached us because they wanted to support grassroots “worthy causes” that made a difference in peoples’ lives.” said Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation President Jennifer Dowley. “Like other donors with whom we work, they look to us to assess the needs of the community and advise them on where their donations will do the most good. We do the research and connect them to worthwhile causes that reflect their personal values and philanthropic priorities.”

Berkshire Taconic staff drew up a range of proposals from which the donors chose the ones they wished to support. The Northwest Corner grantees include organizations that address education, healthcare, poverty, families, domestic violence and housing. Highlights include a $30,000 donation to establish an educational enrichment fund for public school students in Kent, $25,000 to the Salisbury Winter Sports Association to build a new ski jump for the 2011 Junior Olympics and $20,000 for a new nursing training program at Northwest Connecticut Community College (NWCC). “People told us that it would be impossible to create a nursing program in rural Northwest Connecticut, but thanks to support from organizations such as Berkshire Taconic we’re able to fulfill a real need in our community,” said Barbara Berger, director of the Connecticut State Office of Rural Health, housed at NWCC. “Now institutions like Geer, Noble Horizons, Sharon Hospital, Winsted Health Center and Charlotte Hungerford Hospital have a significant training resource to help with their staffing needs.

The grants made possible by these anonymous donors include:

Regional

Neighbor to Neighbor Fund ($5,000)
This fund provides up to $500 and occasionally more in assistance to individuals/families in the Northwest Corner that are in crisis. Requests for funding are submitted by the town social workers, social service agencies and churches.

Housatonic Youth Services Bureau ($10,000)
Housatonic Youth Services Bureau serves the community through treatment and advocacy for the needs of youth and their families in the towns of Canaan, Cornwall, Kent, Salisbury and Sharon. This grant is for organizational support.

Chore Service ($5,000)
Chore Service provides affordable services at home to frail elderly and handicapped people in the towns of Canaan, Cornwall, Falls Village, Kent, Norfolk, Salisbury, Sharon, and Warren who might otherwise have to go to a nursing home. This funding is for a challenge grant to build the organization’s endowment fund at Berkshire Taconic.

Northwest Corner Fund ($15,000)
Northwest Corner Fund was formed in 2000 to improve the quality of life of residents in the Northwest Corner. The Fund developed the Nonprofit Learning Program to build the capacity of nonprofits. This grant is to be evenly split between an endowment challenge and expenses for the 2011 Nonprofit Learning Program.

Older Women’s League of Northwest Connecticut ($5,000)
As part of a national program to support legislation and programs that help meet basic needs, the Older Women’s League of Northwest Connecticut’s major service project has been OWL’s Kitchen, a food pantry located in Lakeville that provides free groceries and used clothing once a week and food on an emergency basis as needed throughout the week. The pantry’s clients come from the Northwest Corner, Northeast Dutchess and Southern Berkshire counties. This grant is to support the pantry’s operations.

Prime Time House ($5,000)
Located in Torrington, and serving Northwest Connecticut, this clubhouse serves over 300 people with serious long-term mental illnesses by providing a place in the community where individuals may participate in work services and social rehabilitation programs, transitional and permanent employment programs. This grant supports the Rural Mental Health Initiative in the Northwest Corner.

Susan B. Anthony Project ($5,000)
The Susan B. Anthony Project promotes the autonomy of women and the safety of all victims of domestic abuse/sexual assault in Northwest Connecticut as well as community action toward ending domestic violence and sexual abuse. This grant supports sexual assault services, shelter and transitional housing for domestic violence victims in the Northwest Corner.

Women’s Support Services ($5,000)
Women’s Support Services serves victims of domestic violence and abuse in the towns of Canaan, Cornwall, Kent, Salisbury and Sharon through counseling and support as they rebuild their lives. This grant is for program support.

Canaan

Canaan Loaves & Fishes Food Pantry ($5,000)
Canaan Loaves & Fishes Food Pantry is a weekly food pantry based at Pilgrim House of the Congregational Church in North Canaan that provides food for residents of North Canaan and the surrounding towns. This grant is for program support.

Visiting Nurse and Homecare Northwest ($5,000)
Collaborating with the Town of North Canaan social service office, the Visiting Nurse and Homecare Northwest provides coupons for food to families in need.

Salisbury

Salisbury Visiting Nurses Association ($5,000)
Salisbury Visiting Nurses Association provides public health nursing and other therapeutic health services to approximately 60 residents of Salisbury and surrounding towns in their homes on a part-time or intermittent basis, as well as provides daily health supervision at Salisbury Central School and promotes and conducts programs for the maintenance and improvement of the health of the townspeople. This grant is for program support.

Sharon

Drumm Scholarship Fund ($5,000)
Drumm Scholarship Fund provides scholarship support for Sharon youth in the pursuit of their post-secondary education. A committee of Sharon residents selects students who are highly motivated to succeed in college and for whom the award will have a significant impact both personally and financially. This grant is a challenge grant to continue to build the fund’s endowment.

The Educational Collaborative

Kent Educational Enrichment Fund ($30,000)
Kent Educational Enrichment Fund is a new fund to provide educational enrichment opportunities for students of the Kent Center School. This fund joins the six other educational enrichment funds at Berkshire Taconic serving public school students in Region One. (The others are: Arts Fund for Region One, Cornwall Consolidated School Fund for Excellence, Region One Athletic Fund, Salisbury Central School Educational Enrichment Fund, Sharon Center School Millennium Fund, and 21st Century Fund for Housatonic Valley Regional High School.) $20,000 of this grant is to be used as a 2:1 challenge grant to create the fund’s endowment and $10,000 is for immediate grantmaking over the next three years to allow the fund to begin to have an impact on the school community.

Housatonic Valley Regional High School Science and Agricultural Building ($10,000)
This high school initiative, housed at Berkshire Taconic, is creating a new state of the art “green” Science and Technology Center in the old Agricultural building on the Falls Village campus. This is unique in the state because significant funding will come from private philanthropy. This grant is a contribution to the capital campaign.

Northwest Connecticut

Northwest Connecticut Community College Nursing Program ($20,000)
The Northwest Connecticut Community College Nursing Program will be an Associate Degree Nursing Program starting in January 2011 to meet the needs of healthcare providers in the area and enable individuals to get training. This grant is to help fund the Nursing Director’s salary.

HousingUs ($7,500)
HousingUs is a tri–state collaborative effort of nonprofit organizations and community leaders to promote broad–based affordable housing options in towns throughout the northwest corner of Connecticut, northeast Dutchess and Columbia Counties in New York and southern Berkshire County in Massachusetts. This grant is for an expansion of the Accessory Apartment Initiative to Cornwall, Falls Village and Norfolk.

Salisbury Winter Sports Association ($25,000)
This grant was awarded to Salisbury Winter Sports Association to build a new ski jump for the Junior Olympics to be held in February 2011.

Berkshire Taconic Community Foundation was founded in Salisbury, CT in 1987. Since that time, Berkshire Taconic has distributed over $10 million to benefit residents of the Northwest Corner of Connecticut through scholarships and grants for programs in the arts and education, health and human services, and environmental protection. Berkshire Taconic is the community foundation for Northwest Litchfield County, CT, Northeast Dutchess County and Columbia County, NY, and Berkshire County, MA, building stronger communities and improving the quality of life for everyone in its region. Berkshire Taconic is a 501 (c)(3) charitable organization.

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