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Organizations the Fund Supported in 2011

The Dunham Fund supports both programs and capital projects that respond to community needs primarily in the areas of Education and Community Development. The following organizations have received grant and scholarship funding for 2011:

 

Dunham Fund 2011 Grants

 

Provena Mercy Medical Center/$205,000
As part of the Medical Center's Century of Powerful Healing Room Privatization and Renovation Project, this Dunham Fund lead gift will provide a state-of-the-art, technologically-advanced delivery system of hardware and software for televised educational programming that will be easily accessible twenty-four hours a day to the patient in his private room and to health care providers throughout the hospital. This educational software will be used to orient, educate and discharge the patient with information specific to his medical condition and will be an integral part of the physician's treatment protocol for individual patients, with a direct link to their electronic medical records. The TGER-7 system will also be utilized for the ongoing education and training of the hospital's health care professionals.

 

Friends of Aurora's After-School Reading Mentor Program/$150,000 ($75,000 in 2011; $75,000 in 2012)
This Dunham Fund grant will expand and enhance the Communities In Schools administered Friends of Aurora's After-School Reading Mentor Program which currently provides reading instruction by trained high school and college mentors to over 250 elementary school children with little or no knowledge of the English language for 25 weeks after school during the school year and 6 weeks during the summer. These mentors live in the same neighborhoods as the children they instruct and utilize specialized reading materials and offer take-home books during extended hours in area school libraries. This program is in partnership with East and West Aurora School Districts to help bring children in second grade, to grade level in reading before they enter the third grade. The program has plans to expand to other sites and will also provide scholarship support for new and seasoned reading mentors in the Peer to Peer Mentoring Program.

 

North Central College Teach First Program/$100,000
Teach First was developed by North Central College to recruit and retain first-generation students who aspire to be teachers and to provide the mentorship and resources to launch these students into a successful teaching career. This multi-faceted mission is fulfilled through partnerships with high-need elementary and secondary schools in Aurora, where Teach First students engage in educational outreach projects, obtain field experience and complete teaching internships, and, in some cases, are hired as full-time teachers. This program is in partnership with East Aurora School District 131 to encourage East graduates to pursue the field of teaching with the hope they will return to the home school district as teachers. North Central College will match this Dunham Fund grant to expand this program well into the Dunham Fund Service area. $75,000 of this grant will be allocated to establish North Central College's Dunham Scholarship Fund for First-Generation Students within the Fund's service area.

 

Joseph Corporation/$50,000
Joseph Corporation is a community-based nonprofit organization that focuses on affordable housing and counseling programs for homeowners. This grant was given specifically to provide JoCo clients with home foreclosure counseling.

 

SciTech Hands On Museum/$50,000
SciTech's proposes to expand its educational reach by creating an Early Learning Education Center for children between the ages of three and five to encourage and develop an interest in math and science. Programming, offered five days a week with full- or half-day sessions, will focus on academic studies including language, reading development, and early math skills, accompanied by activities that promote science, art, music, second language, and character building skills.

 

The First Tee of Aurora and Fox River Valley/$50,000
The First Tee impacts the lives of young people with character education and the application of life enhancing values through access to the game of golf. This Dunham Fund grant will expand First Tee's school outreach program to the economically disadvantaged students in grades 4 through 8 in the Dunham Fund service area. Each year, ten full scholarships for disadvantaged students to attend First Tee's summer programs are offered to each of 40 schools in Aurora Districts 129, 131, 203, 204 and Oswego District 308.

 

CASA Kane County Healthy Child Program/$34,000 matching grant awarded by the Dunham Fund for the first 2011 grant cycle (CASA was awarded a $100,000 outright grant from the Dunham Fund in 2010 to help launch this initiative. The challenge is a $400,000 match of 40 cents on every additional $1 received by CASA for this project by December 31, 2011)

This Dunham Fund grant could provide up to one-fifth of the campaign goal that CASA has set to support the agency's Grow a Healthy Child Program and Operational Endowment Fund. This program will offer the human support and educational tools to CASA clients who "age out" of the child welfare system at 18 to 21 and must transition into the adult world. The funds raised for this program initiative will be held in an Endowment Fund at the Community Foundation of the Fox River Valley and the interest will be used to support the ongoing operational needs of this program.

 

Rebuilding Together Aurora/$30,000
Rebuilding Together Aurora brings volunteers and communities together to improve the homes of low-income homeowners so that they may live in warmth, safety, and independence. This grant was awarded for RTA's Year-Round Repair Program which will provide smaller scale, more immediate repairs to an additional 12 to 18 low-income seniors and disabled homeowners, focusing on ADA modifications and fall prevention services. For the Repair program, RTA has partnered with Quad County Urban League's YouthBuild program that teaches youth, ages 16 to 24, construction trade skills in a classroom and real life setting.

 

Peaceful Schools/$25,000
The Dunham Fund grant will provide staffing and materials for expanded school sites for this Community Foundation of the Fox River Valley sponsored anti-bullying program.

 

Fox Valley Volunteer Hospice/$20,000
Fox Valley Volunteer Hospice is the only hospice in the Aurora area that trains and utilizes volunteers to assist patients through end-of-life issues, and bereaved individuals through the extraordinary pain of loss. This Dunham Fund grant will provide one year of support for the hospice's Direct Service Volunteer Training program which incorporates volunteer screening, training, placement and follow-up with clients and the bereaved.

 

United Way of Fox Valley/$20,000
This Dunham Fund grant will provide the funding for a United Way initiated, three-day Diversity-Centered Leadership class conducted by Guardian Quest for strategically selected community representatives who will agree to serve on a task force whose mission will be to design and oversee a community-wide campaign to promote the philosophy and benefits of diversity recognition as imperative to growth, prosperity and wellness in the Aurora area. This training is envisioned as a prelude to further opportunities for community dialogue and ongoing educational programming on diversity.

 

Rosary High School Scholarships/$17,100 matching grant
This Dunham Fund grant will provide an emergency assistance scholarship to an outstanding, minority woman student from the Aurora area currently attending Rosary High School. This grant will help this young woman complete her high school education and will be matched dollar for dollar by the Dominican Sisters' Minority Fund.

 

Aurora Historical Society/$10,000
The Aurora Historical Society will present "The Civil War in Aurora", a living history weekend scheduled just prior to Independence Day in 2011. The event will feature the 33rd Illinois Regimental Band, a nationally-known re-enactor band, playing an interactive educational concert on antique instruments. The Dunham grant will help to fund the weekend's events.

 

Community Foundation of the Fox River Valley/$10,000
This Dunham Fund grant provides administrative support for the Community Foundation's maintenance of Dunham Fund scholarship, grant and endowment funds held by the Community Foundation.

 

Kaneland Community Fine Arts Festival/$10,000
The Kaneland Foundation sponsors an annual arts festival for the educational benefit of area school children, their families, and the community-at-large. This grant will provide funding for the 2011 Kaneland Fine Arts Festival.

 

Serenity House/$10,000
Serenity House provides housing for individuals with substance abuse issues who must be in a recovery program, be employed and able to pay rent. The residents maintain the home and cooperatively share household duties until they can relocate to their own independent living arrangements. This grant is to provide funding for needed capital improvements to the Dunham Serenity House.

 

Aurora Hispanic Heritage/$7,000
This grant will provide the start-up funding for the City of Aurora appointed Hispanic Heritage Advisory Board to establish legal status as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. The vision of Aurora Hispanic Heritage is to educate the community about the history of Hispanics who helped shape the City of Aurora and to support and sponsor activities and educational opportunities for the Hispanic community. The ultimate goal of the organization is to raise funds to provide scholarships for students of Hispanic descent living or going to school in the City of Aurora.

 

Gridiron Alliance/$5,000

This grant partially funded a public awareness program, Safe Football Clinic, in July 2011, offered free of charge to 200 student athletes and 20 coaches in the Chicago area. In collaboration with Position Tech, a producer of safe athletic equipment for children, Gridiron Alliance provided instruction on the prevention of serious injuries in youth sports to ensure that sport safety remains an important part of school athletic programs.

 

Nonprofit Leadership Training/$5,000

This grant will provide individual awards up to $500 to Aurora area nonprofit organizations eligible to send management staff and/or board members to The Illinois Nonprofit Conference in Springfield on October 19, 2011. This conference, sponsored by the Donors Forum and Good Works Connect, will feature Steven D. Zimmerman, co-author of Nonprofit Sustainability, and will address "Integrating Impact, Finance, and Leadership for a Healthy Organization". Twelve nonprofit leaders from AID, Aurora Area Interfaith Food Pantry, Aurora Public Library, Communities In Schools, Fox Valley Habitat For Humanity, Mutual Ground and Wayside Cross Ministries will attend from the Aurora area.

Click here to view the Organizations the Fund Supported in prior years.