The Jackson EMC Foundation board of directors awarded a total $90,815 in grants during its October meeting, including $71,950 to agencies serving area residents.
$15,000 to Support Adoption & Foster Families Together (SAFFT), a non-profit serving abused and neglected children in Gwinnett, Hall, Jackson and Lumpkin counties through its Family Life Center in Gainesville, to provide access to five months of supervised visitation, case management, parenting training and coaching to four families in crisis who are currently on a waiting list.
$15,000 to Rainbow Village, a Duluth long-term, transformational housing program that provides fully furnished apartments and comprehensive support for homeless families with children in North Metro Atlanta, to help provide rent for its early childhood development center facility.
$15,000 to the YMCA – Georgia Mountains in Gainesville to help underprivileged Elementary School children attend the Kids Time Afterschool Program, which provides a safe environment with homework assistance, enrichment activities, relationship building, sports, games and arts and crafts on site at Hall County and Gainesville City elementary schools.
$15,000 to the J.M. Tull-Gwinnett Family YMCA for its Afterschool Enrichment Program that will use Kindle Fire tablets and STEM project packs in various subjects and various grade levels, along with education-based field trips to help children from low income families keep pace with science and math learning outside of school.
$10,950 to I Am, Inc. in Buford, for the Helping Others Pursue Excellence (HOPE) program which helps girls ages 6-18 meet the challenges of adolescence and adulthood through a coordinated, progressive series of activities and experiences that help them become socially, academically, emotionally, economically and physically competent.
$1,000 to the Lawrenceville Woman’s Club to purchase supplies and establish a sustainable community garden in the Glenn Edge neighborhood that will provide an opportunity for residents to connect with nature and each other, and have access to fresh healthy food in exchange for time spent learning and working in the garden.
Jackson EMC Foundation grants are made possible by the more than 183,200 participating cooperative members who have their monthly electric bills rounded to the next dollar amount through the Operation Round Up program. Their “spare change” has funded 1,130 grants to organizations and 338 grants to individuals, putting nearly $11.5 million back into local communities since the program began in 2005.
Any individual or charitable organization in the 10 counties served by Jackson EMC (Clarke, Banks, Barrow, Franklin, Gwinnett, Hall, Jackson, Lumpkin, Madison and Oglethorpe) may apply for a Foundation grant by completing an application, available online at http://www.jacksonemc.com/foundation-guidelines or at local Jackson EMC offices. Applicants do not need to be a member of Jackson EMC.
