Western Colorado Community Foundation (WCCF) Community Grants for 2021 are now open and the focus is on helping youth regain skills and build resilience. WCCF recognizes the clear need to help our youth recover academic and social emotional skills lost during the past year of disruption and isolation due to the pandemic.  Our communities also see the need to help youth manage their emotional responses and inability to focus caused by the increased use of social media. This funding seeks to help youth and families get “back on track” through programs that develop coping, confidence-building, and self-regulation skills for youth K-12, while offering academic and/or extracurricular activities.

WCCF’s Community Grants for Recovery and Resilience for Youth! funding opportunity is available to organizations that operate within the seven counties we serve (Delta, Eagle, Garfield, Mesa, Montrose, Ouray, and Rio Blanco).  Funding is made possible through WCCF’s community grants endowment and generous donors across western Colorado.

Goal of 2021 Community Grants for Recovery and Resilience for Youth! To fund projects that help youth recover and rebuild academic, coping, and resilience skills to come through COVID stronger and more successful.

Primary areas of focus are projects that address one or more of the following:

  • Programs that teach coping and confidence-building skills while offering academic and/or extracurricular activities to youth K-12.
  • Programs that offer families activities and resources to help develop and increase self-regulation and other strategies to deal with challenging and difficult situations.
  • Programs that help youth and parents understand the impact of social media on how we see and respond to each other and the wider world and how to “go in” and stay strong while using social media.

Additional guidance and programs that may be eligible include:

  • After-school and school break programs that target social emotional skill building.
  • School and church-led programs that specifically work on helping youth develop tools to manage their emotional responses and the challenges of anxiety, isolation, and depression.
  • Youth mentoring and tutoring programs that include the specific skill development outlined above.
  • Programs that offer curriculum and support to school staff for teaching skills to help youth focus, and that includes take-home and parent resources to support the learning.
  • Parenting programs that teach family-based strategies for self-regulation and resilience.
  • Grants will not support marketing or sponsorship of an event.

Funding Range: Grants will be awarded in the $2,500 – $10,000 range.  A total of up to $100,000 will be available.

Criteria:  Eligible organizations must be a 501 (c) (3) or other qualified charitable entity (school, church, govt.), recognized by the IRS and working within WCCF’s seven county region. Organizations should be registered with the Colorado Secretary of State and be in good standing.

Process: To apply, visit https://wc-cf.org/nonprofits/grantmaking/.  Deadline to apply is July 8, 2021, 5pm MT. Organizations must first be registered in WCCF’s Online Grants Center.  Applicants will be notified of their status by early September 2021.  For more information, contact Tedi Gillespie, Director of Grants and Community Outreach at tgillespie@wc-cf.org.