United Way’s Summer Fund Seeking Applications

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As the warmer weather approaches, families across Greater New Bedford begin to plan for the summer. While some enjoy family vacations, others opt to stay home and send their children to camps or summer school programs. For many of our neighbors, however, summer can be a difficult time. Many parents struggle to hold a steady job and put food on the table each night, so sending their children to summer school or camp is out of reach. Consequently, these parents are left worrying about what their children will do while they are away at work, and often times, whether their children are safe.

United Way of Greater New Bedford’s Summer Fund was created to address this reality for many families across our community. Summer Fund helps to provide the financial resources for kids to have a meaningful summer through campership spots at organizations for children in need, cultural enrichment opportunities, such as free art programs in the community, and youth employment positions for teens and young adults ages 16-21. These programs help children and youth have an enriching, skill-building summer.

To that end, Summer Fund is currently seeking applications from non-profit agencies to provide disadvantaged youth in Greater New Bedford ages 6-21 with youth employment, camperships, and cultural enrichment experiences. Non-profits with a determined 501(c)(3) status are encouraged to apply for up to $5,000 in funding. Organizations must serve youth in Acushnet, Dartmouth, Fairhaven, Freetown, Marion, Mattapoisett, New Bedford, Rochester and Wareham. Organizations interested in applying should visit www.unitedwayofgnb.org to access the guidelines and online application. Applications are due by Friday, April 15, 2016.

“Summer Fund provides youth with experiences that they may not be able to have otherwise,” said Summer Fund Coordinator Victoria Grasela. “Not only will youth participating in these programs have fun, but they will also help to prevent summer learning loss which is common for kids of all ages while on summer break. In the past, we’ve received many applications that build summer learning into their programs and we hope that is a continuing trend for local programs.”

Last year, Summer Fund granted nearly $100,000 to summer programming for youth in our community. Summer Fund grants are made possible through a pooled fund of contributions from a number of local foundations.

For more information about Summer Fund, please contact Victoria Grasela at 508-994-9625 x10 or vgrasela@unitedwayofgnb.org.


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