The Jorge M. Pérez Family Foundation at The Miami Foundation aims to develop South Florida as a world-class urban center. The Foundation has awarded $1,750,000 in grants benefiting nonprofit organizations dedicated to promoting equitable education opportunities, addressing growing concerns of economic inequality and more.
Education
Future Bound Miami – $100,000
To support the launch of “Future Bound Miami,” a local Children’s Saving Accounts (CSAs) program – a college savings model – by investing in the key first-year outreach and engagement of parents of kindergarteners in the City of Miami. CSAs are strong predictors of college attendance: youth with a savings account in their name, even a small one, are about 6 times more likely to attend college. Scaling growth over the next five years would make the CSA program the largest in the country.
KIPP Miami – $100,000
To support expanded innovative programming at KIPP schools in Miami as they continue to grow and to add new grades and students.
Education/Health and Well-being
Miami Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired – $100,000
To support the Learning Center for Children™, a model of inclusive classrooms for sighted and visually impaired students, as the center grows from pre-kindergarten and kindergarten to adding classrooms for students moving to first and second grades. They will also expand on-campus workshops and seminars, and use digital technology to increase their ability to raise awareness of best practices and provide professional development locally, nationally, and internationally.
The Education Fund, Inc. – $100,000
To expand the Food Forests for Schools initiative to more public schools in Miami-Dade and design systems and flagship models needed to guide district-wide expansion. Food Forests for Schools is a first-in-the-nation effort to transform public schoolyards into large-scale, outdoor eco-classrooms planted with superfoods that are used to improve science learning and nutritional habits, and provide fresh foods for school meals and to send home to thousands of families.
Together for Children – $150,000
To increase grassroots family engagement and supports for youth in the communities served by its six Neighborhood Coalitions. The countywide, multi-partner collaboration aligns services and support for high-risk youth and has created a referral and family case management system that reaches more than 10,000 youth based upon data that identifies those at risk. The neighborhood-based work will continue to reduce chronic school absenteeism, youth arrests, and increase the number of youth participating in quality out of school programming and/or internships.
Health and Well-being
Voices For Children Foundation, Inc. – $100,000
To reduce the time children spend in foster care by adding a specialist focused exclusively on permanency and piloting the results of having one person systematically addressing the barriers that prevent permanency to minimize the number of children who languish in foster care. For children in foster care, the lack of permanency – a secure attachment to at least one adult – has significant implications for their health, educational, social needs, and prospects for success.
Economic Development
The Allapattah Collaborative CDC – $150,000
To scale the Main Street revitalization program in Allapattah by supporting the expansion of the Small Business Resilience Cohort and improving the Little Santo Domingo’s (17th Avenue) streetscape through public art to attract more visitors to the businesses in the area.
Catalyst Miami – $150,000
To support the RESET (Reviving & Evolving Small Enterprises Together) community economic development pilot that will help low-wealth communities recover from the pandemic-induced recession and prepare for a new economic era through 1) customized small business technical assistance, 2) a worker-owned enterprises academy and incubation program, and 3) a grassroots chamber-of-commerce-style organization for small and micro-businesses operating in low- to moderate-income communities.
Grameen America, Inc. – $200,000
To continue expanding the Miami branch of Grameen America, which provides low-income women with the business capital in the form of micro-loans, financial training, and community support needed to lift their families out of poverty and spearhead economic revitalization in their neighborhoods. Since opening in December 2017, Grameen Miami has quickly become the organization’s fastest-growing branch in the nation.
The Racial Equity Fund at The Miami Foundation – $300,000
To build a highly engaging investment process with leaders of black-led racial equity and justice work, focused on bringing together multiple groups in Greater Miami to solve systemic issues as a united force for change.
Environment
Miami Waterkeeper – $100,000
To support the continued growth of the “1,000 Eyes on the Water” program, MWK will develop a mobile application for pollution reporting in conjunction with Google developers, create online learning materials, implement more Spanish language outreach and outreach to high-needs areas. The mobile technology is designed to scale up the number of people reached, and the amount of pollution reported as MWK grows this program digitally and with in-person events.