Cascades Academy students to award $4,000 in grants

Cascades Academy high school students have spent the year raising funds and learning about philanthropy and grantmaking in a class entitled Community 101, a program of Oregon Community Foundation.

The students chose to focus on organizations who address mental health in their community, and will be awarding $4,000 in grants to KIDS Center and New Priorities Family Services at an awards ceremony on Friday at 1 p.m. on the Cascades Academy campus.

Community 101 is a classroom-based program that gives students the opportunity to get involved in their communities through grantmaking and volunteering. It’s an innovative collaboration of schools, businesses, and charitable organizations that gives students the tools to bring about positive change in their communities.

Used by teachers throughout Oregon, Community 101 lends itself to instructional use in civic engagement, global literacy, critical thinking, public speaking, use of technology, and community involvement. A class receives an allocation for grantmaking, identifies community needs, decides where to focus, and then implements a grant program. At the end of the term, they present their grant awards and the entire allocation goes to the community.

“Our hope is that Community 101 students take this experience with them throughout high school, college and their adult lives. We’d like them to look back and remember what it felt like to give time and/or money to causes they care about and in turn, continue to support their community through charitable giving and volunteering. Whether it’s $5 or 5 hours, students can make a difference,” said Cheryl Puddy, Program Officer for Oregon Community Foundation.

Cascades Academy students started with a $2,500 allocation for grantmaking from OCF and raised an additional $1,500 on their own. This year, Cascades Academy’s students chose to focus on organizations in Central Oregon who are helping to address mental health in the community. They received grant applications from 8 organizations and ultimately decided to fund KIDS Center and New Priorities Family Services because of their thorough applications and effective communication about their programs.

“This event is the culmination of a year long process in which students have been empowered as decision makers in their community,” said Joshua Klaus, Upper School Head. “Students have learned about the key role nonprofits play in providing mental health services, while also gaining an understanding of the critical need for grant funding and philanthropy.”

In the words of one Cascades Academy high school student: “These grants will change peoples lives in our community and that is something which is really powerful and important.” The awards ceremony is open to the public.

About Cascades Academy

Cascades Academy is a pre-kindergarten through twelfth grade independent school located in Bend, Oregon that weaves challenging academics with experiential learning. For questions or press inquiries, please contact Barb Cartmell, Director of Admission at 541.382.0699, extension 132.

About Oregon Community Foundation

The mission of Oregon Community Foundation is to improve lives for all Oregonians through the power of philanthropy. We work with individuals, families, businesses and organizations to create charitable funds — more than 2,800 of them — that support the community causes they care about. These funds support the critical work that nonprofits are doing across Oregon. Through these funds, OCF awarded more than $118 million in grants and scholarships in 2017. For press inquiries, please contact Cheryl Puddy, Program Officer, Oregon Community Foundation: 541.382.1170 or CPuddy@oregoncf.org.

About KIDS Center

KIDS Center is a medical model child abuse intervention center in Bend, Oregon providing child abuse evaluations that include a head-to-toe medical exam, child-friendly forensic interview and family support services to help connect families with community resources to minimize life stressors and reduce future opportunities for abuse to occur. We also offer therapeutic services to help children and families begin to process and overcome the trauma of abuse. In addition, our services include prevention programs to help teach adults in our community how to better protect children from abuse.

About New Priorities Family Services

New Priorities Family Services is a non-profit Mental Health and Alcohol and Drug Outpatient Treatment Program locally operated by dedicated staff and clinicians in Redmond. Our organization is dedicated to the rights of children, adolescents and adults to grow and develop as healthy, happy, successful and contributing individuals.