Wrapping up a year of good work, on December 13, neighbors, friends, and program partners from the Northwest Dayton Community Investment Fund (CIF) gathered for an evening of reflection and celebration. Here is a spotlight on two of our grant recipients.
Recognizing that racial and ethnic minorities are incredibly
underrepresented in the architectural profession, Hatch Architects focuses on increasing hands-on experiences to students of color and female students across Dayton. The CIF grant helped the team expand their programming, with a focus on shifting the experience from design-only to a design/build program.
An example of the successful expansion is their newly launched 2-week long design/build summer camp for teens, hosted at the Northwest Branch Library. Students learned about design concepts, created their own solutions for issues within the library space, and worked with professional carpenters to build, paint, and install. Students overwhelming responded positively to the event -- unanimously stating they would recommend the experience to friends!
The team at On Purpose Academy originally intended CIF funding to expand access to mental and behavioral care -- they found they were able to do so much more. Leveraging their CIF grant to secure additional funding, they were able to hire a Clinical Director to oversee mental and behavioral health services and partners with The Wellness and Resilience Center for specialized services. They conducted CANS assessments for 30 preschoolers and parents received critical one-on-one support to ensure the high quality of support provided in the preschool can be reinforced at home. While the behavioral health work was the starting point of the work, the conversations helped the team to understand that the stress-inducing elements around housing, healthcare, and childcare, and in May they hired three Community Health Workers to address these challenges. Looking forward, they are expanding services, including a registered behavioral technician to support neuro-divergent students, introduction of home visits to provide comprehensive care, and enhanced interventions at school and home.
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