CLEVELAND, March 16, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Dominion
East Ohio today presented
$110,000 in grants to 15 winning
community organizations in its 21st annual Community Impact Awards
competition, co-sponsored with Cleveland Magazine.
A panel of community judges chose the winners from among more
than 70 entries, submitted by organizations throughout the region.
The award recognizes organizations that have made an impact in the
community. The Dominion Foundation, the philanthropic arm of
Dominion East Ohio's parent company, Dominion Resources Inc., funds
the Community Impact grants. The Dominion Foundation is dedicated
to the economic, physical and social health of the communities the
company serves.
"As we have come to expect, this year's Community Impact Award
honorees devised and executed some very ambitious and creative
projects, which really wowed our judges," notes Jeff Murphy, Dominion East Ohio vice president
and general manager. "These projects demonstrate the major role
that our region's non-profit and economic development agencies play
in improving their local communities."
Since 1996, Dominion East Ohio has distributed more than
$1.4 million in Community Impact
Awards to organizations throughout its service area.
This year's Community Impact Award winners are:
- Slavic Village Development of Cleveland received $12,500 for its Slavic Village Recovery Project,
which used public/private partnerships to improve the neighborhood
which had nation's highest home foreclosure rate. The project
rehabilitated 28 structurally sound vacant homes and sold them to
new owner occupants. The program also conducted 155 strategic
demolitions of structures that could not be rehabbed. The program
also helped owner occupants of 25 other homes make necessary
repairs.
- Campus District, Inc., and the St. Clair-Superior Development
Corp., received $12,500 for their
NightMarket Cleveland collaboration. NightMarket presented a series
of open air market evenings that featured local artists,
restaurateurs and other entrepreneurs. NightMarket Cleveland
attracted thousands of shoppers and diners to an urban neighborhood
and fostered growth among minority and/women-owned vendors.
- Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry of Cleveland received a $10,000 Special Workforce Development Impact
Award grant for its Central Kitchen program. The project provides
culinary industry training and on-the-job experience to homeless
shelter residents and other participants, as they help prepare
400,000 meals annually for area homeless shelters.
- Trumbull Neighborhood
Partnership received $8,000 for its
Warren Enriched program, which combined targeted rehabilitation and
sales of formerly vacant homes to new owner occupants with
demolitions of other derelict buildings. The demolitions freed up
space for construction of community parks, gardens, arts spaces and
other public uses.
- Cleveland's Domestic Violence
& Child Advocacy Center received $8,000 for its Safe & Sound Supervised
Visitation Center. The facility, the only one of its kind in
Cuyahoga County, provides a safe
place for supervised visits for families in which domestic
violence, substance abuse, and other challenges are an issue,
putting the child at risk.
- Towards Employment of Cleveland received $8,000 for its program that provides low-income,
under-employed and unemployed individuals with the necessary
training, placement assistance and support to enter and advance in
manufacturing and health care careers. In 2014, Toward Employment
graduates earned an average wage of $10/12 per hour, compared with the Ohio minimum wage of $7.85 per hour.
- Western Reserve Historical Society of Cleveland received $8,000 for its Euclid Beach Park Grand Carousel
restoration. The project restored the 1910 vintage carousel, which
operated at the former Euclid Beach Park until the park closed in
1969, placing the renewed attraction in a new pavilion at the
society's Cleveland History Center. The restored carousel, which
was made handicapped accessible, is now entertaining a new
generation of riders.
- Seeds of Literacy of Cleveland
received $8,000 for its Adult Basic
Education and GED Preparation program, which relies on one-to-one
tutoring and individualized curricula to help students who did not
succeed in traditional school settings. The program enlisted 200
volunteer tutors to serve nearly 1,000 students.
- EDWINS Second Chance Life Skills Center of Cleveland received $5,000 for its six-month residential program that
prepares former prisoners for culinary and hospitality industry
careers through classroom training and hands-on work experience at
a fine dining French restaurant in Cleveland's Shaker Square district. The
program also teaches participants budgeting and other necessary
life skills to succeed.
- Cleveland's Care Alliance
Health Center received $5,000 for its
Central Neighborhood Clinic. The 30,000-square-foot facility
provides medical, dental, optometry and behavioral health care and
pharmacy service for some of the region's most medically
underserved communities. At full capacity, the facility will
increase health care access to more than 12,000 Clevelanders.
- Fairfax Renaissance Development Corporation received
$5,000 for Griot Village, a 40-unit
multi-family townhouse developed specifically for persons aged 55
and older with legal custody of grandchildren, nieces and nephews
and other minor children. The $12.7
million project, built in partnership with the Cuyahoga
Metropolitan Housing Authority is the first in Ohio to target this demographic.
- Youngstown Neighborhood
Development Association received $5,000 for its Better Blocks program, an effort
to revitalize underutilized sections of two of the city's primary
neighborhood commercial corridors, Mahoning Avenue and Midlothian
Boulevard. The project, involving neighborhood resident and
property owners, and businesses and city officials, resulted in
building improvements and cleanup of sidewalks and vacant
lots.
- Beatitude House, which provided transitional housing to
homeless families in Youngstown,
Warren and Ashtabula, received $5,000 for its "Over the Edge for Beatitude
House" urban rappelling fundraiser. The two-day event attracted 86
participants, who rappelled down Youngstown's 18-story Metropolitan Tower,
generating more than $160,000 in
sponsorship monies and donated services, netting $110,000 in cash donations.
- Canton's Stark Community Food
Access and Renovation Corporation received $5,000 for its StarkFresh program. StarkFresh
encourages local residents' consumption of fresh, locally-produced
foods by operating a "Veggie Mobile" mobile produce market and
expanding the number and capacity of urban garden sites. The
program also made local produce more accessible through accepting
SNAP benefits, WIC and Senior Farmers Market Nutrition Vouchers at
all locations.
- Opportunity Parish Ecumenical Neighborhood Ministry (OPEN M) of
Akron received $5,000 for its Community Works Connection (CWC)
program. CWC helps low-income individuals reduce barriers to
employment and job retention and advancement. Support services
include temporary transportation and assistance with food, housing,
clothing utilities, child care and health services, all designed to
help participants retain and advance in their jobs.
Dominion is one of the nation's largest producers and
transporters of energy, with a portfolio of approximately 24,300
megawatts of generation, 12,200 miles of natural gas transmission,
gathering and storage pipeline, and 6,500 miles of electric
transmission lines. Dominion operates one of the nation's largest
natural gas storage systems with 933 billion cubic feet of storage
capacity and serves utility and retail energy customers in 14
states. For more information about Dominion visit the company's
website at
www.dom.com.
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SOURCE Dominion East Ohio