The Community Foundation for Mississippi announces eighteen grant recipients through its Community Impact Grants to support projects aligned with CFM’s focus areas: children and families, community partnerships and placemaking. This grant program supports project grants up to $5,000 for organizations within CFM’s 22 county service area. Community Impact Grants are primarily supported through its donor-supported Community Trust Fund.
Community Impact Grant Awards will support the work of grantees working in the following areas:
Children and Families:
- United Way of the Capital Area to support the Youth Health Symposium, a one-day conference for youth from Hinds, Rankin, and Madison counties to share information about overall health and wellness, provide resources, dispel myths, and improve lives.
- CASA of Hinds County to support the expansion of training to ensure that all court-appointed child advocates are prepared to handle the challenges they face and to improve the outcomes for the children they serve.
- Global Gateways to support their Cultural & Language Enrichment Project which seeks to bring together both English-speaking students and those who speak other languages in Hinds County, providing a unique opportunity for students to learn about and appreciate a diverse understanding of different cultures, traditions, and languages.
- Midtown Partners, Inc. to support “The Art of Wellbeing”, a community collaboration dedicated to enhancing wellness for families in the Midtown community of Jackson by integrating creative expression with physical and mental health practices.
- Bridge Builders Leadership Initiative to support the “Future Leaders Mentorship Initiative,” to engage middle and high school students in Pearl, Miss., in a series of leadership workshops and group mentoring sessions with community leaders over five months. The project aims to develop critical leadership skills, enhance career readiness and empower students to contribute positively to their community.
- Southwest Mississippi Multiplex for Early Innovative Intervention Studies to support “The Jackie Project” (“We Lit” Literary Festival and “Jackie’s Readers”), an immersive literacy solution in southwest Mississippi that aims to reduce educational barriers and transform communities in spaces that are culturally affirming.
- Grant Me Justice – Jackson Leadership Foundation to support “The Endzone- A Day of Support for Men Affected by Homicide,” a sports-themed event that will provide a day of support, connection, and healing for underserved men who have lost loved ones to homicide and assisting in the challenges of coping with grief and trauma.
- Jackson Public Schools to support the “Checkmate Champions II,” an effort to support the second year of the effort to grow JPS High School Chess Clubs at six high schools in Jackson.
- Jackson Medical Mall Foundation to support the “JMMF Young Futurists Project (YFP),” an innovation hub that builds youth as innovators while also focusing on parent engagement and providing intergenerational resources to parents and children.
- The Center for Children & Families to support “The Christmas Project,” which ensures children in southwest Mississippi, served by The Center for Children & Families, will receive at least one full outfit of clothing and a toy to open on Christmas morning.
Community Partnerships:
- Extra Table FEEDS to support its “Extra Full Packing Party” where 100 volunteers assemble over 10,000 healthy meals to distribute to partner food pantries across Mississippi.
- Church Triumphant Global to support “Jackson Community Concrete Farmers Market Project 2.0,” a project that will utilize vacant lots and parking lots to provide city residents access to free, nutritious foods. They will also work with Jackson Hinds Comprehensive Health Center to provide onsite free health screenings and linkages to ongoing health care.
- Mississippi Humanities Council to support the “Luciérnagas Reading Programs,” a seven-week Spanish-English program as part of its ongoing Family Reading Project.
- Art for All Mississippi to support art training and art making for participants accessing services for the homeless and underserved at Galloway United Methodist Church’s “Grace Place,” in downtown Jackson.
Placemaking:
- Mississippi Baptist Seminary to support the “Legacy Courtyard Project,” an area for reflection on social justice and community transformation and a testimonial to civil rights activism for the Lynch Street community.
- Center for Social Entrepreneurship to support the “Community Roots” garden project. This grant will help transform an unused plot of land owned by CSE into a vibrant, green, and productive space.
- Main Street Chamber of Leake County to support The Square County’s Rebranding Rodeo, a placemaking project that will use unique wayfinding to showcase the community’s identity as the former self-proclaimed “Rodeo Capital of Mississippi,” agricultural hub for our state, and culturally diverse heart of Mississippi.
- Greater Belhaven Foundation to connect Jackson’s Museum Trail to the Keith Haring Fitness Court at Belhaven Heights park. This project will also improve accessibility to Belhaven Heights Park and the Keith Haring Fitness Court by connecting these amenities through a cleared entrance where the Museum Trail connects to the park.
“The Community Foundation for Mississippi’s Community Impact Grant is the anchor of our Community Trust Fund competitive grant opportunities, which allow grantees across our 22-county service area to gain support for innovative projects,” said Melody Moody-Thortis, CFM’s Director of Strategic Impact and Programs. “These grantees represent a wide swath of projects that support our focus areas of placemaking, children and families and community partnerships. As a place-based funder, CFM is committed to the communities we serve, and we use our Community Impact grants as another way to lift up the ideas of local charitable organizations and empower them with needed funds to see their impactful ideas come to fruition.”