Cross-Sector Partnerships for Adolescents – Nov 4

Posted by Wallace Foundation on October 18, 2022

Wallace Foundation invites expressions of interest to advance cross-sector partnerships for adolescents

The Wallace Foundation works nationally to foster equity and improvements in learning and enrichment for young people and in the arts for everyone.

To that end, the foundation invites expressions of interest to advance cross-sector partnerships for adolescents. Through this one-year exploratory phase, the foundation intends to support and strengthen collaborative strategies communities use to promote youth development, help Wallace learn more about those strategies, and inform Wallace’s future efforts in the area.

The foundation seeks not individual organizations but groups of organizations working together in formal or informal partnerships to support adolescent youth development. For example, a partnership between a school district, the community’s office of health and human services, and an out-of-school time intermediary to work with community partners to support unhoused adolescent youth’s physical, mental and educational needs. In particular, the foundation is looking to fund projects over one year that are an element of a broader strategy or effort that would play out over a longer period.

Participants will use Wallace support to implement or improve their work, reflect on their progress, and identify the resources they need to meet their objectives. Independent researchers, youth development experts, and Wallace staff will study the work to help learn more about the kinds of partnerships that exist, the goals they hope to achieve, the strategies they employ to achieve them, the barriers they confront, and the support they need to make progress. Researchers will share their findings with Wallace and the partnerships selected to participate in the exploratory phase. Each group of selected organizations will receive grants averaging $200,000 for a year of work and access to other supports such as peer learning and technical assistance.

To be eligible, partnerships among organizations must work at the systems-level, (i.e., they work across sites or programs) in a cross-sector partnership that includes public or private entities such as county or municipal offices, business organizations or coalitions, nonprofit organizations, neighborhood development corporations, higher education institutions, community organizers, and school districts; have an existing or emergent strategy focused on adolescents, (defined roughly as youth aged 11 to 19), especially those who face systemic or structural challenges, such as poverty, homelessness, and physical, mental, or behavioral disabilities or others; focus on learning and development opportunities for youth beyond the traditional classroom; be already in place, not created for the purpose of applying for this grant opportunity; and work at the local level (e.g., neighborhood, town, city, or county) in the United States, District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, the Northern Mariana Islands, the U.S. Virgin Islands, or Guåhan (Guam).

Expressions of interest are due November 5, 2022, at 5:00 p.m ET, and selected applicants will be invited to submit a full proposal by mid-January 2023.

For complete program guidelines and application instructions, see the Wallace Foundation website.

Deadline: November 4, 2022 at 5:00 p.m. ET (Expressions of interest)