CCF Responds to Critical Needs with Grants

Homepage archive, published 6/24/10

CCF recently awarded grants to 43 organizations, including the Watts Healthcare Corporation, pictured here.

The California Community Foundation (CCF) recently made grants to 43 nonprofit organizations serving low-income communities in Los Angeles County, among them grants to launch a new center at USC to support economic development through faith-based organizations and to provide legal foreclosure services to help those at risk of losing their homes. Grants totaled nearly $6 million.

“CCF is committed to making grants that will serve our communities in the midst of economic crisis right now and in the long term,” said Antonia Hernández, president and CEO at the foundation. “For the last four years, we have been making core operating support grants to nonprofits in our priority areas, to sustain them through these tough times.”

Of CCF’s priority grants in June 2010, 56 percent are for core operating support and 41 percent for project support to organizations including: Collage Dance Theatre, one of the only dance companies in L.A. that focuses on creating and exhibiting site-specific dance in public places and LINC Housing, to produce service-enriched, permanent supportive housing for families, seniors and people with special needs in L.A. County.

Additional grants of note include:

• $150,000 two-year core operating support to launch the Cecil Murray Center for Community Engagement (CMCCE) at the University of Southern California’s Center for Religion and Civic Culture (CRCC). Named after Reverend Cecil Murray who headed the First African Methodist Episcopal Church for 27 years, the CMCCE will draw on the social, spiritual and leadership capital of churches and the broader faith community to promote economic development in low-income neighborhoods.

• $375,000 one-year renewal grants to five organizations providing legal foreclosure services, including Public Counsel and Bet Tzedek Legal Services. During the previous two-year grant period, the five legal services groups provided outreach and education to nearly 6,000 residents and gave legal advice and counseling to nearly 5,000 homeowners. This led to filing lawsuits or litigating 69 foreclosure cases. The organizations’ combined efforts resulted in 130 positive resolutions for homeowners at risk of foreclosure.

View a complete list of grantees in our primary program areas.