PHENND Announces $67,000 in Grants to Assist with Economic Recovery

Posted by on January 04, 2010

PHENND Announces $67,000 in Grants to Benefit Local Colleges and Nonprofits

Philadelphia, PA – The Philadelphia Higher Education Network for Neighborhood Development (PHENND) today announced 12 grants totaling $67,000 to local colleges and universities to meet 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/

“As a long time supporter and broker of campus-community partnerships, we are really excited to be able to fund local campuses to be involved in economic recovery work,” said PHENND Director Hillary Kane.  “This is the first round of three years’ worth of funding so we’re hoping to see these projects grow and expand in the coming years.”

The grants to higher education institutions are part of a larger grant PHENND received this summer 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.

Earlier this fall PHENND announced $153,000 in grants to local nonprofits that will engage students in 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.