Over the past year, Jennifer Madden (CWR ’93; MNO ’95; GRS ’15, management), adjunct professor in the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences, successfully wrote more than $8.7 million in funded grants for local nonprofit organizations in Cleveland and Youngstown. Government and federal organizations awarded most of the grants.
Madden wrote the following grants:
Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp.
Department of Health and Human Services, Community Economic Development
$420,000
This grant will develop the REVITALIZE Construction Company to actualize an innovative business model to cultivate, hire and retain low-income individuals across construction occupations from Youngstown to meet the both the long-term regional needs of the in-demand construction industry and the short-term demands of the city of Youngstown.
Famicos Foundation
United States Department of Agriculture
$100,000
This grant funds the Glenville Food Vendor Readiness Program to provide training, marketing and social media technical assistance, mentoring/coaching and funding for Farmer’s Market Booth rent. In this way, based upon actual barriers, Famicos will work with food vendors to increase domestic consumption of and access to locally and regionally produced agricultural products.
The Centers for Families and Children
Ohio Jobs and Family Services
$762,539
This grant will improve the economic well being and quality of life for Ohio Works First cash recipients to provide job readiness, job placement and job retention activities to transition at-risk and hard to employ Cuyahoga County residents from unemployment and a dependency upon public assistance to employment and economic self-sufficiency.
Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority
U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development
$3 million
This Jobs Plus grant represents an evidence-based strategy for advancing employment outcomes and increasing earning for public housing residents to address acute joblessness and poverty in public housing developments. For the Jobs Plus Pilot, a .25-mile radius targets two public housing developments to provide employment services at an on-site job center, changes in rent rules provide financial incentives to work, and community support for work through “community weavers” involved in neighbor-to-neighbor conversations.
NewBridge Cleveland
Cleveland Foundation
$2 million
This grant trains unemployed, underemployed and difficult to employ (e.g., low skill, high barriers to employment) adults for in-demand careers in the healthcare sector. This economically viable, market driven, and scalable business model also exposes youth to the digital arts and ceramics with after-school programs as an evidence-based strategy utilizing the arts to re-engage youth with education. This program creates renewed energy and urgency, making the promise of a brighter future a reality for economically disadvantaged persons in the City of Cleveland.
Famicos Foundation
City of Cleveland
$916,000
This grant will fund the rehabilitation of the East Side Market. In partnership with Famicos Foundations, Evergreen Cooperative will establish its fourth cooperative—Evergreen Creamery & Evergreen Bakery—to serve as the flagship tenant and fulfill a significant contract from University Hospitals to provide rolls and butter. Known nationally as “The Cleveland Model” worker-owned businesses called the Evergreen Cooperatives are building community wealth. The Evergreen Cooperatives create living wage jobs in low-income neighborhoods. Famicos and Evergreen are guiding neighborhood transformation for residents and businesses in the City of Cleveland.
St. Clair Superior Development Corp.
Department of Health and Human Services, Community Economic Development Healthy Food Financing Initiative
$800,000
This grant will address food insecurity in its community by establishing Hub 55, a food hub, farmers market, café and brewery. Located in a food desert, Hub 55 will spark the essential commercial vitality that will improve Cleveland’s east side neighborhoods and help the local economy flourish. This food hub will create a distribution opportunity for food suppliers and entrepreneurs, thus simultaneously ensuring employment for low-income individuals and bringing healthy food choices to low access and low-income areas.
Burten, Bell, Carr Development
Department of Health and Human Services, Community Economic Development
$741,000
This grant will develop the Iceberg Project, a venture to support low-income construction workers and entrepreneurs in the construction industry. The first component of the project, the worker pipeline, will manage the intake of job seekers, conduct skills and needs assessments, channel individuals to and through programs and services, and support job readiness. Then, through the entrepreneurial support services component, BBC will provide government contract compliance services to contractors responsible for hiring low-income and minority workers. This part of the Iceberg Project will serve as a stabilizer and launch pad for different businesses. Finally, the project pipeline will be actualized through a construction business, which will sustain the growth created through the other arms of the project.