The HOPE Fund Awards $20,000 in Grants

DETROIT – The Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan (CFSEM) has announced three grants totaling $20,000 from the Foundation's HOPE Fund to nonprofit organizations serving southeast Michigan's LGBT communities. The grants will support three new initiatives, including informational programs on the needs of LGBT youth and a program to assist lesbian and gay victims of domestic violence.
The Hope Fund awarded a $9500 grant to the National Conference for Community and Justice to help expand a school-based diversity initiative to increase awareness of the concerns, needs and gaps in education, policies and procedures and services for LGBT youth in Wayne, Oakland and Macomb county schools. Leadership in the New Century is NCCJ's youth strategy, through which it provides a variety of learning experiences for metro Detroit high school students to develop and expand their understanding of religious, racial, ethnic and cultural diversity as well as develop their ability to function effectively in a pluralistic society.
An additional $9500 grant was awarded to Lakeshore Legal Aid for support to assist LGBT victims of domestic violence in Macomb and Oakland Counties. With grant funding, Lakeshore will conduct training programs for police, lawyers, judges and staff focused on dispelling myths about the LGBT population, educating on LGBT domestic violence dynamics, and identifying societal and systems barriers to LGBT intimate partner's safety. In collaboration with Turning Point, the largest domestic violence shelter in Macomb County, Lakeshore will also conduct outreach activities to increase the number of LGBT clients served.
The Skillman Center for Children at Wayne State University was awarded a $1000 grant to expand its resource center to include information on the needs of LGBT youth. The Center staff has reported a rise in the number of social service providers and parents requesting assistance on how to be supportive of LGBT youth. The grant will assist in the purchase of book and video collections to provide information to social service agency workers and parents of LGBT children on how to respond to LGBT youth in helpful and appropriate ways.
The HOPE Fund of the Community Foundation for Southeastern Michigan exists to strengthen and empower organizations that serve the LGBT communities by supporting important charitable activities in southeast Michigan and by encouraging individuals to consider what they can do with their personal philanthropy. To assist LGBT persons region-wide the Fund works to increase the capacity and strength of nonprofit organizations serving the LGBT community, awareness of and positive responses to their needs, and available services. Since its inception in 1994, more than $770,000 in grants has been made through the Foundation's HOPE Fund. The HOPE Fund also helps people carry out their charitable wishes to benefit the LGBT communities.