Two from Build-A-Bear: Literacy & Education grants and Children's Health & Wellness grants

Build A Bear Workshop Literacy and Education Grants provide direct support for children in literacy and education programs such as summer reading programs, early childhood education programs and literacy programs for children with special needs. Deadline: 10/31/2013. See the program site for complete information. 

Literacy and Education :BaB provides direct support for children in literacy and education programs such as summer reading programs, early childhood education programs and literacy programs for children with special needs.

Specific guidelines for literacy and education grants.

Children's Health & Wellness

BaB provides direct support for children in the areas of health and wellness such as organizations that serve children with special needs. The goal is to provide grants to help many programs that are working hard to make the world a healthier and happier place for kids.
Specific guidelines for children's health and wellness grants.

Aetna Foundation Regional Grants

The Aetna Foundation’s Regional Grants fund community wellness initiatives that serve those who are most at risk for poor health -- low-income, underserved or minority populations.

Grants target communities where healthy food can be difficult to buy, and where social and environmental factors may limit individuals’ ability to be physically active. Projects of interest include: school based or after-school nutrition and fitness programs, community-based nutrition education programs for children and families, community gardening and urban farming activities for children and families and efforts to increase the availability or affordability of fresh fruits and vegetables in communities.

Grants ranging from $25,000 to $40,000 are available.

Deadline: September 15, 2013

Please contact The Aetna Foundation’s for more information and to apply for this funding: http://www.aetna-foundation.org/foundation/apply-for-a-grant/regional-grants/index.html

Community Conversations About Education

CommunityConversations About Education is accepting applications to fund and organize local community conversations in fall 2013 through spring 2014. Application deadline is August 1, 2013. For 17 years Conversations About Education in Connecticut have been funded by the William Caspar Graustein Memorial Fund.

• Past topics have included: 
• Bullying
• School Climate
• Skills for the 21st Century
• Parental Involvement
• School Safety

The conversations bring together diverse groups of local citizens to discuss issues of importance to them. 

Those interested in using the single topic: "Looking for Answers Together: How Should We Nurture Children to be Healthy and Make Better Choices?" may apply for a $1500 grant designed to get communities talking about parent access to information. They are seeking 10 communities to conduct conversations specific to this topic using an "Issues Guide" available at (http://www.discovery.wcgmf.org/lookingforanswerstogether). Five communities' conversations will occur this fall and part of ongoing research. The other five would be held in the spring of 2014 and after the data collection is completed. 

FOR MORE INFO: See http://www.ctconversations.org/

Communities organize the event themselves with technical assistance from Community Mediation consultants. Local sponsors from throughout Connecticut compete for first time awards of up to $2,500. The award covers the conversation expenses including a light supper or breakfast for 100. This large group of 100 divides into small, manageable discussion groups. The individual groups, led by a local, trained moderator and recorder team, all discuss a single education topic that may be created for a specific community issue or drawn from examples. 

WHO ATTENDS THESE CONVERSATIONS?

Planners work hard to bring together diverse groups of people. The richer the diversity, the richer the conversation. Each small group has a mixture of ages, stages in life, economic status, ethnicity, and gender. Parents and students attend, as do school administrators and teachers. But it is essential that the larger community be involved. So we see employers, non-parents, the clergy, home schoolers, college students and school dropouts. Everyone is represented. When this happens a broad spectrum of opinion emerges. It's an opportunity to see some new faces and hear some new voices speak out on important issues. 

Kellogg Foundation’s Youth and Community Engagement Grants

The Kellogg Foundation seeks to fund organizations working to promote new ideas about how to engage children and youth in learning and ways to bring together community-based systems that promote learning. The foundation will consider grants in four priority areas: Educated Kids, Healthy Kids, Secure Families, and Civic Engagement.

Deadline: Rolling

Check out the Kellogg program site for all the information, but there are several educative aspects that libraries could spearhead or participate in.The three main areas - with links - are:

Educated kids e.g., success by the Third Grade: Increase the number of children who are reading and math proficient by third grade. 

Healthy kids e.g., healthy birth weight and optimal development: Increase the number of children born at a healthy birth weight and who receive the care and nutrition they need for optimal development. 

Secure families e.g., children and Families at 200% above poverty: Increase the number of children and families living at least 200% above the poverty level.