Contact: Barbara Carlson, Director of Development Phone: 877-253-4380 ext 734
Willmar Women's Fund Grants Help Launch Two New Projects
Programs Serve Teenage Girls and Women age 55+
Willmar, Minn. – The Willmar Area Community Foundation announced today that it’s Women’s Fund awarded grants to launch two new community programs. Kandiyohi Family Services and will use it’s nearly $2,000 grant for a new mentor program for teenage girls. Faith Lutheran Church received more than $2,200 for a new photo project aimed at documenting poverty in the community.
The grants are part of an annual grant round focused on addressing an issue confronting teenage girls in Kandiyohi County or underserved women age 55+.
Kandiyohi Family Services received $1,930 for the "LINKS...Linking Youth to Positive Experiences" program. LINKS is designed to teach and mentor teenage girls about the value of being part of a community that works together to support one another.
LINKS provides a variety of activities and service projects initiated and planned by the students at the Willmar Area Learning Center with the assistance of the group facilitators. LINKS exposes young women to existing business, career and educational opportunities within the community. The group facilitators strive to be positive ambassadors by helping at risk teenage girls both informally and by becoming mentors.
Faith Lutheran Church’s Links Program received $2,216 for the “PhotoVoice” project. The project will help 8-12 local low-income women age 55+ produce photographs to document their daily experiences and define what it means to live in poverty in the New London-Spicer area and Northern Kandiyohi County.
Each participant will be given a digital camera to take pictures that represent her experiences of living in poverty, the barriers and the supports found in the community and the policies and programs she would like to change. A public exhibit will be developed at the end of the project. It is hoped that the photographs and words of the participants will become tools for social change, by providing resources to raise awareness and engagement around issues of local poverty and to influence policymakers.
The Willmar Area Community Foundation (WACF) is a public charity that attracts and administers charitable funds for the benefit of the local community. Since 1998, WACF has grown to nearly $7 million in assets and awarded $2 million in grants to local nonprofits. WACF is affiliated with the Central Minnesota Community Foundation, which administers more than 500 funds totaling more than $65 million. Learn more at CommunityGiving.org/Willmar.
