Grants Awarded: 2005  

In September 2005, the Women’s Fund of Rhode Island awarded its fourth round of grants to help level the playing field for women and girls in the state. With $75,000 to give away against $982,675 in total requests, it was a challenge to select from many worthy projects.

The Women’s Fund received 45 Letters of Intent this February. From these requests, 16 were invited to submit formal proposals; fifteen proposals were submitted. After a thorough review by the Grants Review Team of the Women’s Fund, seven proposals totaling $75,100 were selected as projects that best reflect its grantmaking criteria.

Direct Action for Rights and Equality (DARE): A $15,000 grant to continue support for the Women at Work project, originally funded by Women’s Fund. Women at Work participants engage in a leadership training program to become active leaders in the broader labor and economic justice movement.

English for Action: VozMujer!: A $10,000 grant to continue support for ¡Voz Mujer!, an educational empowerment program for Latina immigrants. The program was originally funded by the Women’s Fund, and helps Latinas transform their lives and advocate for their communities through language acquisition and leadership skills.

Rhode Island KIDS COUNT: A $15,000 grant to undertake a policy research and advocacy project designed to improve the education of Latino women and girls in Rhode Island. The project will issue a set of recommendations to be issued to the Rhode Island Department of Higher Education and the Rhode Island Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Rhode Island Parents for Progress (RIPfP): A $12,500 grant to launch the Peer Advocate Program. The project will create a speakers bureau designed to inform welfare recipients of their rights and benefits.

SOAR Sisters Overcoming Abusive Relationships: A $7,300 grant to continue support for the Project STRIVE leadership program, originally funded by the Women’s Fund. Project STRIVE provides a leadership and empowerment program for survivors of abuse to become advocates for social change via traditional and less conventional policy-making forums.

Southside Community Land Trust: A $10,000 grant to continue the Garden Supply Buying Club, originally funded by the Women’s Fund. The project will engage young women in developing a micro-business concentrating on environmentally-safe gardening supplies.

The Poverty Institute at Rhode Island College: A $8,300 grant to research and publish a policy brief regarding the Family Independence Program (FIP). The research will focus on what should be done, restructuring what did not work and expanding what works well. The policy brief will be used to educate legislators and influence the articulation of the program.