ESL Awarded $8.8 Million to Local Community Organizations

ESL Federal Credit Union, awarded more than $8 million to 119 local organizations that provide services and programs for children, youth, and families.

The grants are awarded by the ESL Community Impact team, who look for organizations who are expanding individual opportunity through quality education and employment, building strong neighborhoods that are affordable and connected, and strengthening organizations.

“At ESL we are committed to helping our community thrive and prosper and a key way we live up to that is to support nonprofit organizations that work to lift people up to achieve their goals,” said Ajamu Kitwana, Vice President and Director of Community Impact.

“These organizations are helping to improve the quality of life for thousands, and we look forward to the results that will come from their hard work,” he said.

Below are a few of the organizations receiving the ESL grant commitments:

Organization: Rochester Housing Development Fund Corporation ($400,000):

Project Title: HOME Rochester and Make Monroe Home 2023 will support ten properties, help reduce the vacant housing stock, convert low quality single-family structures into high quality homes, and make homeownership available to low- and moderate-income qualified families.

Organization: Children’s Institute ($375,000):

Project Title: Enhanced Parent Engagement and Longitudinal Evaluation to Promote the Wellbeing of Young Children, which aims to increase family education and engagement to promote school readiness, social emotional development, and family adjustment through supportive relationships for their young children and their families.

Organization: Encompass Resources for Learning ($375,000):

Project Title: The Youth Workforce Consortium will provide equitable access to the quality education, life skills, career development, job placement, and behavioral health services youth need to graduate from high school, enter careers, participate in the local economy, and become a skilled workforce.

Organization: Father Tracy Advocacy Center (FTAC) ($50,000):

The walk-in community-based information and referral center empowers grassroots community members to navigate complex systems to improve their quality of life and overcome social and economic barriers to success. The funding will support the increase in the number of people who need assistance, including direct outreach of staff members and partners.

Organization: Dress for Success ($48,475):

Dress for Success will continue to support and expand its workforce development program. In partnership with Rochester’s Hope Service Rodeo, Dress for Success will market, recruit and serve 100 women with coaching and suiting services.

Organization: Clyde-Savannah Central School District ($25,000):

Project Title: Growing and Thriving Outside of School Program (one of several programs in Wayne County funded by ESL) provides a safe, enriching environment for youth to grow after school hours and during summer and break vacations.

Organization: One Soldier at a Time ($7,000):

Project Title: Hygiene Packages of Hope for Veterans to show veterans they are valued by boosting their self-esteem and confidence with essentials that are needed for daily living. Clothing is provided to veterans to help them feel confident when they go to work, job interviews, and/or meet with their family.

Organization: Turkish Society of Rochester ($10,000):

General Support for Earthquake Relief in Turkey to help the families who have been impacted by the earthquake that hit Turkey (and Syria) where more than 56,000 people died in the two countries.

“ESL’s generous funding and continued collaboration daily lifts our way of life,” said Mark Miller, Finger Lakes Community Action, Community Schools Sustainability Specialist. “More families now live in safe and warm homes, young at-risk adults have self-sustaining work and career skills, youth across the county are more resilient to poverty, trauma, and stress, our children have safe havens in outside of school time programming, literacy rates have increased amongst our youth and adults, and we have been able to reduce equity gaps.”

More information can be found online at www.esl.org/community/community-impact or www.esl.org.