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Challenge for Change Competition

In 2008, the Dunham Fund issued a Challenge for Change to nonprofit organizations through a grant competition. The Fund sought the highest quality proposals that described programs which could effect positive change. To encourage the investment of time and resources to develop a program concept, the Fund offered financial awards for the three best proposals. The Challenge awards were for proposals that effectively expressed an innovative, collaborative and high-impact program concept, regardless of future implementation. Along with the financial awards, the Fund announced that the initiatives of the Challenge award recipients would automatically be considered for further funding in future grant making cycles if the organization planned to implement the program.

 

Challenge for Change Competition Awards Recipients

First Place Award Recipient

Institute for Collaboration's Mathematics and Science Education System

 


Aurora University Institute for Collaboration Community Leaders Committee members: (first row, left to right) Theresa Shoemaker, Communities In Schools; Esther Allen, SciTech Hands-On Museum; Danata Andrews, Quad County Urban League; Karen Harkness, Communities In Schools; Kathleen Burke, Robert Crown Center for Health Education; Cathy Veal, Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy; Margaret Truax, Packer Foundation Center for Applications Based Learning. (second row, left to right) Joe Henning, Greater Aurora Chamber of Commerce; Dan Barreiro, City of Aurora; Shawn Green, Aurora University Dunham School of Business; Jim Scarpace, Gateway Foundation; Sherry Eagle, Aurora University Institute for Collaboration; Roger Schnorr, Old Second National Bank; Marin Gonzalez, East Aurora School District 131; Don Wold, Aurora University College of Education; Cynthia Latimer, West Aurora School District 129.

 

The Dunham Fund named the Community Leaders Committee of Aurora University's Institute for Collaboration as the recipient of the $100,000 first place award. The committee’s project was developed by a thirteen partner collaborative of educational, government, business and social service organizations committed to the overall purpose of promoting excellence in education in the Aurora area. The Institute and its partners brought together a collaborative coalition with the goal of developing an Aurora Mathematics and Science Education System that would culminate in a Magnet Academy for East Aurora and West Aurora elementary and middle school students who are gifted and talented in math and science.

 

The System will consist of a number of programs that may be sponsored or managed by different members of the coalition, but which have a common goal of improving the science and mathematics abilities of students, teachers, parents, and the community. This program is a natural progression in the continued development of Aurora and a wonderful complement to the math and science curricula offered by the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy and Aurora University. With such an educational asset in our community, families, regardless of their socio-economic backgrounds, will find Aurora to be the welcome place to educate their gifted children. For a more detailed summary of the program and a list of the program collaborators, click AU's Institute Summary.

 

Second Place Award Recipient

Communities In Schools' Community Assessment Project

Communities In Schools’ Community Assessment Project was awarded the second place prize of $50,000. The program is a collaboration of CIS, the City of Aurora, East and West Aurora School Districts 131 and 129, the Kane County Health Department, and 708 Inc. Board, in cooperation with Northern Illinois University’s Office of Research, Evaluation and Policy Studies. It seeks to develop a comprehensive, centralized data warehousing system for use by agencies who apply for funding both inside and outside Aurora. The primary focus of the project is to develop and analyze data that will support education and school-based community initiatives.

 

Third Place Award Recipient

Rush Copley Medical Center's Binary Health Integration Project

The third place award of $15,000 was given to Rush Copley Medical Center’s Binary Health Integration (B-Hip) Project proposal. Rush Copley will enhance its Family Medicine Residency program to include training of its family practitioners to screen and identify children and teens with potential mental health issues. The goal of the program is to address the prevention, promotion, and especially, the early identification, intervention and treatment of mild to severe mental illness in children and teens. Working with their six B-Hip collaborative partners in behavioral health, psychiatry, the Aurora East School District, and local human service agencies, the Copley family practitioners will coordinate early care to strengthen the emotional well-being of Aurora’s youth and families.

 

 

At the completion of the first Challenge for Change, the Fund’s Board of Advisors evaluated the results of the competition and outlined the lessons that could be learned and applied by future applicants for all Dunham Fund grants. The grant criteria as defined in this “Lessons Learned” document have been incorporated into the general Dunham Fund grantmaking guidelines and application procedures and, if followed by a grant applicant, are most likely to insure the Fund’s consideration for a grant award.