Success Stories - 2009
- Codman Academy Foundation
- Community Preparatory School
- Hopeworks ‘N Camden
- Legacy of Learning
- Motivating Our Students Through Experience (MOSTE)
- Open Doors After School Enrichment Program
Six grants were awarded in 2009, to Codman Academy Foundation in Massachusetts, Community Preparatory School in Rhode Island, Hopeworks 'N Camden in New Jersey, Legacy of Learning in Colorado, MOSTE in California and Open Doors After School Enrichment Program in Ohio.
Codman Academy Foundation
www.codmanacademy.orgThe Codman Academy Foundation is located in Dorchester, Massachusetts, and is part of The Codman Academy Charter Public School. Codman Academy serves 120 students from low-income families with an extended six-day school program. Once in college, Codman graduates invariably experience some degree of social isolation as well as academic challenges and financial worries beyond those of most college students. As part of its efforts to help alumni stay in college, Codman established its Alumni Emergency Fund. Codman uses this fund to help alumni pay for college textbooks, supplies and transportation costs to and from college.
They were awarded $5,000 in support of their “Alumni Emergency Fund”. In commenting on this grant award Antonoff stated, “The Foundation is proud to help replenish the Codman Alumni Emergency Fund so that their students will enter and persist in college with the resources they need to meet with success.”
Community Preparatory School
www.communityprep.org
Community Preparatory School was founded in 1983 with the mission to challenge minority and low-income children to succeed in college-preparatory high school programs and become community leaders. Celebrating its 25th year, Community Preparatory School is an independent middle school (grades 3 – 8) located in the heart of the inner city in Providence, Rhode Island.
Past Foundation grants to Community Prep have helped fund SummerPrep and TestPrep programs. TestPrep is a two-week summer program that helps seventh and eighth graders prepare for the standardized tests necessary for admission into competitive college-prep high-school programs. The program serves 60 students during the last two weeks of June.
SummerPrep provides academic support and safe recreational activities for 120 low-income student of color during the month of July. With its high academic expectations and strong recreational component, the program provides a consistent focus on learning and a nurturing environment that fosters student achievement.
The Foundation is impressed with the valuable work that Community Prep is doing, and awarded them $4,000.
Hopeworks 'N Camden
Hopeworks.orgHopeworks received a $5,000 grant for the “Hope Through School” program. Hopeworks provides learning opportunities for inner-city Camden, New Jersey youth, through job and technical training in high demand skills in a safe and respectful environment. Hope Through School (HTS) provides specific training in computer languages for web design and instruction in graphic design software programs, followed by job placement training.
About HTS, Steve Antonoff remarked, “Create, Support and Empower are the hallmarks of the IECA Foundation, and it is clear that these resonate with the mission of Hope Through School and are not just words, but demonstrated outcomes of their strong programming for Camden youth.”
Legacy of Learning
www.thelegacyoflearning.com
For the past ten years, Legacy of Learning has successfully provided educational services to under-served, economically challenged, at-risk students in Boulder County, Colorado. This program gives discouraged students hope, encouragement and enrichment, along with academic support, making a lasting difference in the lives of those students.
Legacy of Learning believes that difficulty in school often leads to difficulty in life – and offers a solution by teaching reading, spelling, writing, math, critical thinking and study skills, both one-to-one or in small groups. Learners of all ages from economically challenged families are welcome to enroll in this program, regardless of their diverse learning differences and histories. Legacy of Learning guarantees success by employing a research-proven, learner-verified curriculum known as Direct Instruction. Designed in the early 1960’s, Direct Instruction has been the subject of over 3,000 studies worldwide that validate its efficacy.
Legacy of Learning has strong community alliances and a reputation for delivering. Their program boasts a high retention level with comprehensive, measurable results, and has been accepted by many professionals in their district. Results for each of their students are typically an increase of two or more grade levels for every 50 to 60 hours of instruction.
Legacy of Learning has experienced tremendous growth and has students waiting for services. The Foundation granted this organization $4,000 to support their efforts to help children for the upcoming year.
Motivating Our Students Through Experience (MOSTE)
www.moste.org
MOSTE (Motivating Our Students Through Experience) is a mentoring, scholarship and college-access program for underserved Los Angeles girls who dream of going to college. MOSTE partners with middle schools and a university to provide a unique program that begins in 7th grade and continues through high school.
MOSTE is seeking funding for More MOSTE, a college-incentive and scholarship program for high school girls that partners with Occidental College in Los Angeles. The goal is to remove traditional barriers among underserved girls to prepare and help fund all of their students to attend a four-year college. More MOSTE stresses personal development as well as academic achievement, because they believe personal growth and understanding contribute to developing the “whole” college woman, one whose confidence level increases with her academic abilities.
The IECA Foundation awarded MOSTE a previous grant in 2008, and approved a renewal grant to them in the amount of $4,000.
Open Doors After School Enrichment Program
Open Doors from Shaker Heights, Ohio received the Jan A. Scott Memorial Grant, named for the revered educator and founding trustee of the Foundation. The $3,500 award is to help serve the needs of academically underperforming students from Shaker Middle School for the 2009-2010 school year. They received previous support from the Foundation in 2006 and 2008.
Open Doors provides programming to support positive socialization with peers and adults, for up to 25 students in after school activities. The IECA grant will support the development of workshops focused on conflict management and will also help to expand the college access programming. Chair of the IECA Foundation, Steve Antonoff recognized the goals of Open Doors as a perfect fit with the Foundation objectives: “Their goal to empower students and their families to make positive choices for themselves is a great match for our mission.”