Featured News
The Community Foundation recently awarded $100,500 in workforce development and early literacy grants with funding from the Polaroid and Acushnet Foundation Funds. Nine local organizations received a total of $73,500 in grants from the Polaroid Fund for workforce development programs, with an emphasis on advocacy and capacity building, as well as English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), Adult Basic Education (ABE), and General Education Development (GED) classes. An additional $27,000 was awarded by the two funds to four Early Literacy Programs. For the full story
Other News
- The Community Foundation has awarded $225,000 from 33 scholarship funds to 2011 high school graduates and current college students throughout the region. This represents a significant increase from the $170,000 in scholarships awarded in 2010. CFSEMA manages a total of 75 educational funds, including an Early Literacy Initiative and an adult education grant program. CFSEMA is also host to the New Bedford Education Roundtable.
- Paul S. Grogran, President & CEO of the Boston Foundation, spoke at CFSEMA's 16th Annual Meeting on June 23, encouraging the Foundation in our efforts to take a "civic leadership role" along with our traditional roles as stewards of community philanthropy and grantmaking. His comments followed remarks explaining CFSEMA's new education advocacy project, the Education Roundtable, and how its sometimes controversial call for transformative change in the New Bedford Public Schools reflects CFSEMA's new civic leadership approach. Atty. Peter C Bogle of Fall River was elected as new chair; new Board Members are Carole Fiola, Gerry Kavanaugh, Joan Menard, and Leonard Sullivan. For the full story. Click the photo at left for more Annual Meeting photos.
Updates
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Teachers from the New Bedford Public Schools Sea Lab Program and BMC Durfee High School in Fall River were selected as 2011 Teachers of the Year by the Community Foundation in partnership with The Standard-Times and The Herald News. Simone Bourgeois was named Greater New Bedford Teacher of the Year for her 40 years of passionately teaching marine science to the children of New Bedford, and Durfee High School Sociology Teacher Jay Correia was named Greater Fall River Teacher of the Year for a teaching style that makes a lasting impact on his students. The winners were selected from among many nominations by a committee of parents and educators.
To reach the full stories about Simone Bourgeois and Jay Correia
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SouthCoast Signals, a collaboration between UMass Dartmouth and the Community Foundation, is an indicators project that measures social, economic, educational, and environmental indicators in the SouthCoast region of Massachusetts. In all, fifty-four indicators are tracked to determine where the region is and where it is going. Visit this link for the 2010 report: http://www.umassd.edu/media/umassdartmouth/seppce/centerforpolicyanalysis/signals_2010.pdf
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The Southeastern Environmental Education Alliance (SEEAL) recently launched its most ambitious initiative to date, the SouthCoast Energy Challenge, a 3-year, grassroots campaign to mobilize thousands of SouthCoast Massachusetts residents to take action to reduce fossil fuel-based energy consumption. Individuals and teams can register "to take the challenge" at www.SouthCoastEnergyChallenge.org, where they can also find ways to conserve energy while tracking their savings over time. For a full press release