PHENND Announces $157,755 in Grants to Assist with Economic Recovery

Posted by on September 10, 2010

PHENND Announces $157,755 in Grants to Assist with Economic Recovery

Grants to Benefit Local Colleges and Nonprofits

Philadelphia, PA – The Philadelphia Higher Education Network for Neighborhood Development (PHENND) recently announced 19 grants totaling $157,755 to local colleges and universities to meet community needs related to the economic crisis.

The grants will support student leadership connected to community service and student internships at nonprofit organizations working on economic recovery. Some colleges were also funded to offer skill-building workshops to nonprofits as well. For a complete list of grants, see: https://phennd.org/index.php/initiatives/initiatives/credit_path/

“Last year we kicked off a new initiative to focus area colleges’ outreach efforts on economic recovery. After a good first year, we are really excited to expand the program to more campuses and communities,” said PHENND Director Hillary Kane.

The grants to higher education institutions are part of a larger grant PHENND received last year from the Corporation for National Service’s Learn and Serve America Higher Education program. Learn and Serve funds service-learning programs at K-12 schools as well as colleges and universities.

PHENND also continued to over $150,000 in grants to local nonprofits that will engage students in additional service activities related to economic recovery. Students will be working with the Food Stamp Enrollment Campaign, volunteer income tax assistance programs, financial education programs, and micro-entrepreneurship training.

“Since partnership is a two-way street, we felt it was important to fund both the community organizations and the colleges working to make these programs happen,” said Kane.

Drexel University is the lead institution for this project and will handle the contracts and awards to the other participating colleges.

PHENND is a consortium of 36 colleges and universities in the greater Philadelphia area. PHENND works to build the capacity of its member institutions to develop mutually beneficial, sustained, and democratic community-based service-learning partnerships. The consortium actively seeks to revitalize local communities and schools and foster civic responsibility among the region’s colleges and universities.