Rhode Island Foundation Awards Grants to Newport County Nonprofits

The Rhode Island Foundation’s Newport County Fund (NCF) has awarded $182,183 in grants to 25 nonprofit organizations throughout Jamestown, Little Compton, Middletown, Newport, Portsmouth, and Tiverton.

“This year, as The Rhode Island Foundation celebrates the first decade of the NCF, we are proud to support these programs that make a difference every single day to the people of Newport County,” said Neil D. Steinberg, president and CEO of The Rhode Island Foundation. “We are grateful for our generous donors and for the volunteer advisory committee of residents and community leaders that guides the NCF, keeping it closely connected and informed about the community it serves.”

The recipients of the 2012 NCF grants are:

Best Buddies Rhode Island, $5,000
With this support, Best Buddies Rhode Island, which matches middle and high school students with students and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities for peer-to-peer friendships, will expand its Newport County programs and open a chapter at Thompson Middle School.

Conanicut Island Land Trust Corporation, $5,000
The project, “Making Room for Nature,” will help transform Godena Farm into an educational and recreational trail system for the public.

Chamber Education Foundation, $8,340
This grant will expand the Aquidneck Island Mentoring Program to Middletown, allowing up to 20 new mentors to be recruited, trained, and matched with disadvantaged Middletown youth.

Common Fence Music, $10,000
“Connecting the Beats: Bringing African and African-Caribbean Drumming to Youth of Newport County” will help expand this program that provides cross-cultural understanding through exposure to roots music traditions.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Center, $10,000
This grant will support the Newport Food Collaborative, an emerging consortium of nonprofit organizations and local businesses that are pooling resources to address Newport County’s food access problem for seniors, disabled, or homebound persons.

Friends of Little Compton Nursing Association, $8,140
This grant will be used to examine the transportation needs of Little Compton elders and adults with disabilities and to develop recommendations and plans for meeting those needs.

Island Moving Company, $9,000
The funds will be used to integrate Island Moving Company’s creative movement program for Newport County’s second and third graders into the schools’ anti-bullying initiatives.

Jamestown Community Chorus, $1,000
This grant will help Jamestown Community Chorus sustain its growth and ensure that membership fees and ticket prices do not exclude anyone who would like to sing with the group or attend its concerts.

Jamestown Education Foundation, Inc., $2,160
These funds will be used to enhance the After School Strings Program held in Jamestown Schools.

Jamestown Historical Society, $1,070
This grant will support a historic tourism project to develop brochures and signs for self-guided tours of Jamestown with the goal of expanding the historical knowledge of residents and visitors.

Junior Achievement of RI, Inc., $10,000
This grant will help expand Junior Achievement programming in Newport County from four classrooms to a minimum of 25 classrooms for the 2012-13 academic year, with the goal of inspiring and preparing young people to succeed in a global economy.

Looking Upwards, Inc., $9,995
Looking Upwards, which provides day enrichment services for adults with developmental disabilities such as cerebral palsy, intellectual disabilities, and autism, will use this grant to expand its on-site projects and capabilities.

Newport Community School, $10,000
The school will add targeted STEM-related (science, technology, engineering, and math) programs and activities to increase middle and high school science and math proficiency rates.

Newport Partnership for Families, $5,800
To address the “summer learning slump,” this initiative ensures all Newport children have access to books, literacy-boosting skills, and enrichment activities during the summer vacation.

Norman Bird Sanctuary, $10,000
This grant will enable the Sanctuary to expand programming for students to provide high quality environmental service learning, stewardship-based programs, and offer these programs at low or no cost options for low income residents of Newport County.

Portsmouth United Methodist Church/Methodist Community Gardens, $3,000
This grant will help Methodist Community Gardens construct a 2200 square foot high tunnel greenhouse to increase production of vegetables to distribute to the hungry on Aquidneck Island.

Preservation Society of Newport County, $9,750
This grant will support a planning phase of a project to develop a shared, web-based database of objects and archival materials related to the history and culture of Newport.

Save The Bay, $9,928
This grant will support a new dogfish exhibit and the creation of program curriculum to support this new addition to Save The Bay’s Exploration Center and Aquarium at Easton’s Beach in Newport.

The Nature Conservancy, $10,000
This grant will support Putting Nature First, A Guide for Residents, a resource intended to increase understanding of preserved natural areas, landscape ecology, property conservation, and wildlife in Tiverton and Little Compton.

Tiverton Land Trust, $10,000
These funds will support a master concept plan that will be the first step in developing specifications and construction designs for Highland Woods, a recently acquired 80-acre natural area.

Visiting Nurses Services of Newport and Bristol Counties, $4,000
With this support, the organization will offer programs to support the mental health needs of Hospice staff, reinforcing stress management and bereavement practices.

Washington Square Services Corporation, $10,000
This grant will help support an AmeriCorps position at the McKinney Cooperative Shelter in Newport to serve as a liaison between the chronically homeless and the shelter.

Women’s Resource Center of Newport, $5,000
This grant supports the new “Empowering Men to Support Violence Prevention Program,” which trains men who currently work with young men and boys in community programs, as well as community members, to become mentors and role models of healthy non-violent manhood.

YMCA of Newport County, $5,000 and $10,000
A $5,000 grant allow the Newport County YMCA to develop a new full-day summer camp program in the Town of Tiverton in partnership with Sandywoods Farm. A separate $10,000 grant will support an adapted physical activity program at the YMCA for adults with intellectual disabilities. 

Affiliated Foundation funds that helped provide support for these grants include the Anne and Peter Damon Fund for Newport County, the Peyton R. Hazard Fund, the Jamestown Community Fund, the Jamestown Fund for the Performing Arts, the Dominick J. Lepore Memorial Fund II, and the NSG Education Fund in Memory of Ellen S. Murphy.