United Way Provides Funding Opportunities for Evanston Youth Education

Local non-profits and schools will be seeing new funding opportunities thanks to a recent initiative from the United Way of Metropolitan Chicago.

The large community development group will be providing grants over the next two years for educational initiatives that are focused on what it sees as two vital phases of a child’s learning career: pre-kindergarten development and the transition to high-school. Of the $8 million in funds allotted to the Greater Chicago Area for the initiative, $450,000 will be available for the North Shore region including Evanston, Highland Park, and Highwood.

“This is an opportunity to give a fresh look and to instill some new energy into this important issue of education,” said City Manager Wally Bobkiewicz, who hosted a meeting at the civic center Tuesday morning for local non-profits, school district representatives, and representatives from the United Way to meet and discuss how they might collaborate.

 According to Elizabeth Cole, Vice President for Community Investment for UWMC, Evanston was targeted as an eligible community for grant funding based on economic need and also the ability to use the funding efficiently and in a positive way.

“We are certainly pleased that they recognized the strengths that are here in Evanston, that they’re willing to invest additional resources here to make those collaborations work even stronger, said Bobkiewicz”

Community organizations and non-profits will be encouraged by UWMC to collaborate in applying for the funds, which will be awarded in August 2011. Recipients of the grant funding will be responsible for reporting their progress to UWMC as well as following its guidelines of aiding youth specifically at the pre-k and junior-high levels. 

Bobkiewicz expressed optimism that Evanston would receive the "lion’s share" of the $450,000 in funds available for the region, and that this would be a boon to non-profits struggling in a time of tightening budgets.

“From a city perspective, we really embrace this," he said. "We don’t have the money, resources, and staff to do the kinds of things that maybe traditionally we have done, and so we see a partner like United Way and say this is important to us.”

The UWMC’s education initiative represents the start of three-part process that will also come to include local economic development and health projects, and that will affect the Greater Chicago Area over the course of the next 10 years.