Loyalty Foundation: Ambassador Grant Spotlight #4

The Loyalty Foundation is a nonprofit based out of NYC that “provides funding and programming for STEM and Technology-based educational opportunities to underserved K-12 youth populations.” The Loyalty Foundation views technology to be “the great opportunity equalizer of the future” and values the way education “creates pathways for positive change and rising futures.” In pursuit of narrowing the digital divide, they run four programs: Gaming4Good, Open Minds, Learn2Code, and Devices4All. “By inspiring and instilling a love of technology…” their website reads, “…we help students develop the knowledge, skills and self-esteem they need to succeed in today and tomorrow’s economy.” Devices4All was created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and how the pandemic has exacerbated already existing disparities in access to education and technology. Devices4All provides refurbished computers to students living in poverty across the country, making sure they can participate fully in online learning. In 2020, the Ascienzo Family Foundation worked with ambassador Jonni Mills to grant the Loyalty Foundation $7,500, which will help the program deliver 50 computers to 50 students in 11 weeks. The Ascienzo Family Foundation is thrilled to be able to partner with them in a time of great need.

Read more about the Loyalty Foundation’s work here!

Red Hook Public Library: Partnership Spotlight #3

As a hub of the Red Hook community, the Red Hook Public Library has seen up close the problems of inadequate internet access in the community. The RHPL explained: “The digital divide isn't just a phrase sociologists and politicians throw around. It’s school children unable to attend class regularly; it’s senior citizens disconnected from their families; it’s small business owners struggling to adapt to the changed marketplace.” The RHPL identified three major obstacles Red Hook residents face when it comes to digital equity: education, cost, and location. They will tackle this obstacles by expanding the library’s circulating devices and hotspots collection, creating a paid position of Digital Access Specialist, and by boosting the library’s internet service such that it can be used as a public wifi access point. The Ascienzo Family Foundation provided a grant of $25,000, over two years, so that the RHPL can accomplish this impressive plan. As the RHPL put it, “public libraries exist to democratize information; addressing the gaps a lack of internet access creates in a community is fundamental to a public library’s mission.”

Read more about our work with the Red Hook Public Library here and here!

Sunflower Bakery: Ambassador Grant Spotlight #3

Sunflower Bakery is a located in Maryland and “dedicated to providing skilled job training and employment opportunities in the baking and hospitality industries for adults 18+ with learning differences.” Sunflower Bakery is the only bakery in Maryland that does this work, operating multiple programs including the Pastry Arts Training, Hospitality Employment Training Program, and Teen Exposure Program. Since Sunflower Bakery reopened its programs in June, applications for the Employment Training Programs have increased by 30%. To meet the need, Sunflower anticipates serving an additional 10-12 young adults in their programs in the next year.

Sunflower Bakery first came on the The Ascienzo Family Foundation’s radar in 2015, when Tom Triebwasser (RHHS ‘01) from the inaugural ambassador class applied for a grant for their Pastry Arts Employment Training Program. Sunflower has received grants from the AFF since 2015, and this year has worked with Sunflower Bakery for four of the last five years, and this year Tom Triebwasser and Executive Director Daphna Raskas applied for a grant, that was approved, for $10,000. This grant will also support the Pastry Arts Program, now in its 10th year! The Pastry Arts program serves culturally diverse young adults with developmental or other cognitive disabilities, and is nearly 6 months program that includes “formal pastry and baking instruction; employee preparedness including strategies for workplace communication, job responsibility, resume-writing, interviewing and ServSafe training; supervised on-the-job training including a customer service rotation; a paid internship at Sunflower Bakery; direct employment matching assistance; and guidance with job onboarding at the start of employment.” As Sunflower describes, these programs are extremely important considering the “dire lack of opportunities for specific career training for transitioning young adults with disabilities from schools to work.” The AFF is very happy to have partnered with Sunflower Bakery for another year!

Read more about Tom Triebwasser and Sunflower Bakery on our blog here!

Red Hook Community Center: Partnership Grant Spotlight #2

The Red Hook Community Center (RHCC) has been a growing partner in the Red Hook community since it was established in 2017, providing programming “that serves to stabilize and enrich the lives of people who are at-risk and/or vulnerable in any way.” The RHCC provides a variety of programming, workshops, and events, including No-Cost markets, Teen Groups, Senior exercise classes, computer labs, and much more. In the past, the AFF has provided grants to support the Teen Program and the Makerspace. This year, the Ascienzo Family Foundation worked with executive director Sara Ugolini to provide a two year grant to the RHCC a for a total of $25,000! This support will help sustain, and in some cases expand, several important programs: the Teen Group, social programming for people with disabilities, the Client Advocacy and Crisis Intervention program, . Funding for the Teen Group will allow the group to split into a middle school and a high school group, with each enrolling sixteen youth annually and providing service projects opportunities, life-skills, recreational, health-centered, and other activities. Funding for the RHCC’s peer group for adults with disabilities and their caregivers will allow the program to become significantly more accessible and sustainable and remove barriers for family participation, and funding is also provided to allow the RHCC to great a teen group for teens with disabilities and their caregivers. The Client Advocacy and Crisis Intervention program is focused on providing “participants with increased economic and social stability.” The AFF grant will continue to enable the RHCC to help people who are in crisis. Since July 2020, the RHCC has been able to assist people “through the distribution of gas cards, grocery cards, utility vouchers, and 1x payments of larger expenses.” Lastly, the AFF rant will help RHCC to create a small budget to “sustain and increase the reach and productivity” of its flagship program, the Free Community Clothes Cost (which is volunteer led), and the Bags of Kindness program. Both provide much needed clothing, hygiene products, and other basics to hundreds of community members.

We are happy to partner again with the RHCC to support such great programs!

The Home for Little Wanderers: Ambassador Grant Spotlight #2

Alex Parks joined the Ascienzo Family Foundation in the 2015 inaugural class of ambassadors and has been active every year since! Throughout his time as an ambassador, Alex has advocated for The Home for Little Wanderers, a multi-faceted human services non-profit, started over a hundred years ago, that works “to ensure the healthy behavioral, emotional, social and education development and physical well-being of children and families living in at-risk circumstances.” The Home works with children who have been directly affected by trauma, and provides different programs, including therapeutic residential schools, group homes, and preschool programs (which the AFF has funded twice in the past). Covid-19 has disproportionately affected children without stability in their homes, and increased need for students, and parents, to access mental health services. The Home’s grant application explained that most students do not receive the mental health services they need to to stigma and lack of access to services. A $10,000 grant from the AFF will help the Home meet the costs of providing school-based mental health services to school children in Boston. It is essential, especially now, for at-risk children to receive counseling, whether in person or through online video sessions, and to be put in communication with resources such as pediatricians, psychiatrists, and/or social service agencies. With this grant, the Home expects to be able to provide 125 hours of valuable services in schools in the coming year. The AFF has been working with Alex and The Home in grant-funding for the last five years, and we are very excited about this great partnership!

We have previously featured Alex on our blog, and written about the Nick Ascienzo’s visit to The Home!