Dear Friends,
At the Leo Buscaglia Foundation we are proud to be carrying on the life principles of our founder by making grants to small but highly effective non-profit organizations that are filling essential needs in their community.
With many non-profit organizations struggling to make ends meet this year our Foundation has supported 17 organizations, many in the Southern California region, with grants totaling $105,000. Our grants are relatively small, but each grant is meaningful to an organization working on the ground with those who are in need.
Leo firmly believed in and lived by the principle of giving back. He felt his good fortune should be used to help others to improve the quality of life in their communities. Organizations with lean budgets and a core volunteer or mentoring component were of particular interest. We are proud to be associated with the organizations we helped fund this past year.
We invite you to join us in our mission with your tax-deductible gift to the Leo Buscaglia Foundation as you consider your year-end contributions
Thank you and warm wishes,
William R. Boyd, Jr.
President
Leo Buscaglia Foundation
2011 Grant Recipients
- The Center for Violence Free Relationships – Placerville, CA, awarded money to increase the capacity of their Community Education department to deliver their T.E.A.C.H. program to three additional elementary/middle schools. The Center for Violence Free Relationships is dedicated to building healthy relationships, families and communities free from domestic violence and sexual assault through education, advocacy and services in western Eldorado County.
- Foundation for Second Chances – Los Angeles, CA, awarded money to provide core program support and growth for The Second Chance After School Program at both 42nd Street and Sixth Avenue Elementary Schools. Funds would be allocated for supplies, partial salary support and healthy snacks. The mission of Foundation for Second Chances is to utilize hands on education, mentoring, health awareness and community service to maximize the potential of youth.
- Furnishing Hope – Newport Beach, CA, awarded money to provide furnishings for four homes used by the families of injured returning military. These families arrive in the area with nothing and the housing is used both before and after the patient is discharged from the hospital.
- Harmony Project – Los Angeles, CA, awarded money for their Peer Mentoring Program. Harmony Project targets at-risk you in underserved areas of Los Angeles. They promote positive youth development through on-going year-round music lessons and ensemble participation.
- The HeArt Project – Los Angeles, CA, awarded money to support teaching artist fees, program staff salaries, and art supplies for HeArt Project’s Level 1 Arts Workshops in Spring 2011 (Apr-June). These programs provide a thematic, project-based approach to arts education and gives alternative high school students the skills and confidence to work collaboratively and create art that is both connected to the community and relevant to their lives.
- International Association for Human Values/YES! For Schools – San Francisco, CA, awarded money for their Youth Empowerment Seminar for Schools program. IAHV is an educational and humanitarian Non-Governmental Organization committed to developing and promoting programs of personal development that encourage the practice of human values in everyday life. YES! for Schools empowers students to reach their full potential by teaching them concrete tools to clear their mind, sharpen their focus, expand their comfort zone and constructively confront challenges.
- Kids & Horses – Therapeutic Riding Center – Minden, NV, awarded money to fund the tuition of three students currently on the Kids & Horses waiting list. Kids and Horses provides safe and educational equine-assisted therapeutic riding to children and adults with disabilities.
- KYDS – Keep Youth Doing Something – Van Nuys, CA, awarded money to support their Student Stress & Anger Management Progam at an at-risk LAUSD school for one year. The funds would go for program administration, program management and program facilitation. Their mission is to empower underserved, low-income and at-risk youth to fulfill their individual potential and participate constructively in the community.
- Laurel House – Tustin, CA, awarded money to support their annual scholarship fund in the amount of $500 with the remaining $4500 to go towards outreach activities. The mission of Laurel House is to provide safe haven for abused women and their children, to raise public awareness about domestic violence and to advocate for social change against domestic violence.
- Long Beach BLAST – Long Beach, CA, awarded money to continue to bring mentoring, tutoring and their new “Bridge to College” programs to over 1,000 at-risk youth in the Long Beach area. The mission of Long Beach BLAST (Better Learning for All Students Today) is to improve success for at-risk students through collaboration and innovative approaches to mentoring and learning
- OUR HOUSE Grief Support Center – Los Angeles, CA, awarded money to be used for volunteer coordination, clinical supervision and training of over 180 volunteers who lead support groups and make educational presentations throughout Los Angeles County. The mission of OUR HOUSE is to provide the Los Angeles community with grief support services, ecucation, resources and hope. OUR HOUSE helps people people learn how to integrate death and acknowledge life.
- People Helping People – Salt Lake City, UT, awarded money to help with their Employment Program. Will help cover costs associated with managing volunteers, providing training manuals and other necessary items.
- Piece by Piece – Los Angeles, CA, awarded money to be applied towards the expenses of running their mosaic arts micro-enterprise program, “Recycled Art for A New Cycle of Life”. The grant will also enable them to continue to offer the workshops free of charge to the homeless and those transitioning out of homelessness.
- Shanti Orange County– Laguna Hills, CA, awarded money to support training and support to volunteers, who themselves live with HIV/AIDS, to assist other sufferers to live healthier, more satisfying lives despite their diagnosis.
- The Story Project – Culver City, CA, awarded money to implement their storytelling curriculum at three additional schools in the Los Angeles area. The overall purpose of The Story Project (TSP) is to improve literacy and communication skills in middle and high school at-risk and under-served youth. TSP provides various curricula rooted in the entertainment-arts that promotes creative learning, strengthens communication and literacy skills and fosters a journey through narrative storytelling that is vital to actualizing a positive future..
- Sweet Relief Musicians Fund – Huntington Beach, CA, awarded money to be allocated directly to program services for the community of cultural “national treasures” – some of the most respected musical talent of the last half century. The programs include assistance with medical expenses or financial assistance for shelter, food, utilities that arise as a result of extreme health care problems.
- Tru-Vista – Reno, NV, awarded money to be used for their Family Need Program. The program helps families by providing the basic needs, i.e., partial rent (one time), utilities (one time), household supplies, and special fees for work cards, driver’s license fees, GED fees and books and work clothes. It also pays for one time prescriptions and other medical and dental needs for those that do not have Medicaid or other third party insurance.