Callahan Foundation Announces 2019 Spring Grant Recipients

The Callahan Foundation is pleased to announce it has awarded $222,500 to 16 Northeast Ohio nonprofits and initiatives in its Spring 2019 grant cycle. These organizations embody the Callahan Foundation’s mission, demonstrating superior leadership and creating value for those in need through programs in higher education, the arts and social services.

Beck Center for the Arts: Serving more than 60,000 people annually, the Beck Center was awarded $10,000 in continued support of their capital campaign, Creating Our Future. The campaign is designed to ensure the future of the Center’s vibrant community, provide updates to its campus, as well as support the Center’s future programming.

Boys and Girls Club of Cleveland: The Boys and Girls Club of Cleveland’s (BGCC) mission is to inspire and enable youth who are most in need to reach their full potential as productive, responsible and caring citizens. In 2019, BGCC was awarded $5,000 in continued support for their after-school dance programming, which has grown and expanded programming because of member demand and excitement.

Cleveland Orchestra: Each year, the Cleveland Orchestra’s Friday Morning Concerts grow in popularity, bringing 1,600 Cleveland-area high school students to Severance Hall. The Orchestra was awarded $25,000 for subsidization of tickets for high school students to attend the concert series, inspiring and enriching lives through extraordinary musical experiences.

Cuyahoga County Public Library: As the busiest public library in the nation, the Cuyahoga County Public Library (CCPL) serves nearly 620,000 residents annually. CCPL was awarded $10,000 to support programs that help struggling young readers get on track during the school year, and stay on track through summer via free grade level reading, summer camp, and family engagement programming.

CWRU School of Engineering Callahan Fellowship: The Case School of Engineering was awarded $50,000 towards the creation of the new Callahan Fellowship. The Fellowship is a competitive award established to attract and retain the most qualified doctoral students to pursue postgraduate studies, focus on cutting-edge research in engineering, and solve the world’s most urgent problems.

CWRU Inamori Ethics Prize Events: The Callahan Foundation supports the Inamori Ethics Prize events by awarding $20,000 and honoring this year’s recipient: actor, director, producer, writer and change agent LeVar Burton.

Downtown Cleveland Alliance: The Downtown Cleveland Alliance’s (DCA) mission is to make Downtown Cleveland the most compelling place to live, work, and play in the region. DCA was awarded $7,500 towards their SEEDS Workforce Readiness Program, allowing the organization to provide training and work hours for a growing number of participants, as well as expand the program to not only benefit individuals of the men’s shelter, but also women and children in our community.

Great Lakes Science Center: The Great Lakes Science Center (GLSC) was awarded $10,000 for their Cleveland Creates program for 6th and 7th grade students in the Cleveland Metropolitan School District. The Cleveland Creates program is a strategic priority built on GLSC’s STEM expertise, which uses Inquiry-Based Learning and interactive projects to challenge students and encourage creativity, experimentation, perseverance, and self-efficacy.

Intermuseum Conservation Association: The Intermuseum Conservation Association (ICA) is the nation’s first regional nonprofit art conservation center providing professional and cost-effective art conservation services. ICA was awarded $30,000 to support its conservators and the Director of Education and Outreach as they work together to provide expertise and opportunities to those who seek to preserve art and material culture.

Kinnect: As the leading child welfare agency for promoting and implementing practices that create better outcomes for children and families, the demand for Kinnect’s services increasingly exceeds its capacity to meet it. Kinnect was awarded $5,000 towards the development of a new strategic plan that will aid in building partnerships that help realign existing infrastructure to better serve families.

Lake Erie Ink: Lake Erie Ink (LEI) was awarded $5,000 for general operating support to aid their mission of providing creative expression opportunities and academic support to youth in the Greater Cleveland community. LEI facilitates high-quality, out-of-school creative writing workshops and in-school project-based programs to improve youth’s access to the arts.

Legal Aid Society: The Legal Aid Society was awarded $20,000 to assist low-income children through their “Access to Education” program, which helps to remove barriers to success for low-income students by solving legal problems within and outside the school setting.

Nature Center of Shaker Lakes: The Nature Center was awarded $7,500 for their Applied Science for Kids (ASK!) program, an educational initiative launched in partnership with the Cleveland Metropolitan School District to help connect children to nature while improving their academic performance. 

Positive Education Program in honor of William Grimberg: The Callahan Foundation honors the life of William Grimberg, who made countless contributions to the Foundation and the Cleveland community at large, through a $5,000 grant towards the Cleveland-based Positive Education Program (PEP). 

Scranton Road Ministries: Scranton Road Ministries was awarded $7,500 for their Youth Jobs Partnership. In 2019, the program aims to transform 640 traditionally under-served Cleveland youth into a competent workforce with marketable skills through collaborative and best-practice training, and to place them in sustainable career and education pathways.

Shooting Without Bullets: A first-time grant recipient, Shooting Without Bullets is a for-impact organization that works to eliminate systemic barriers that prevent young black and brown artists from thriving. The organization was awarded $5,000 towards the formalization and professional development of the artist collective and their art as activism model that elevates the youth artistic voice.