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Yampa Valley Community Foundation awards $218K

Teresa Ristow
Dancer Kathleen Dunckley, middle, watches choreographer Yin Yue during a class of pre-professional dancers at the Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School and Camp in July 2015. Perry Mansfield was awarded $9,000 from the Yampa Valley Community Foundation as part of its 2016 grants cycle.
Courtesy Photo

— The Yampa Valley Community Foundation is awarding 50 local nonprofits a combined $218,000 — the highest amount ever — as part of the organization’s 2016 Community Grant Cycle.

The grants, which range in size from $1,000 to $10,000, will support organizations impacting arts and culture, education, environment, health and human services and recreation.

The money for grants comes from $85,000 in foundation funds, $72,050 in donor-advised funds and $61,500 from a partnership with the Steamboat Ski and Resort Corp., which raises funds through the sale of Passport Club memberships.



“Our partnership with (Ski Corp.) helps push funding back into the community,” said Susan Petersen, Yampa Valley Community Foundation community impact manager.

Petersen said the organization received 57 applications this year, including a handful of Impact Grant requests, which are applications seeking more than $5,000 and demonstrating far-reaching community impacts.



A $9,000 Impact Grant was awarded to the Steamboat Springs nonprofit Integrated Community, which helps English language learners integrate into the local community, including through school programs for children and interpretation and translation services.

The grant will help Integrated Community continue 24-hour interpretation services to support law enforcement and social services organizations seeking translation services during time-sensitive or emergency situations.

“We’re the on-call people for 911, the police, the sheriff’s department, basically local law enforcement and emergency crisis entities such as Mind Springs, Advocates Building Peaceful Communities and REPS,” said Integrated Community Executive Director Sheila Henderson. “None of those entities have bilingual capacity.”

Henderson said the program was launched in July with three months of secured funding, but the Yampa Valley Community Foundation will pay for the on-call interpreter and allow the program to continue for another nine months.

“They’re finding more and more the need to provide (interpretation) on the spot, in emergency-type situations,” Petersen said. “If the police need to pull someone over, they would call and be able to get an interpreter on the spot.”

Other significant grants awarded include $10,000 to Rocky Mountain Youth Corps for continued expansion efforts, $9,000 to Perry-Mansfield Performing Arts School and Camp to expand the organization’s school initiatives and for general operations and $6,500 to Advocates Building Peaceful Communities to promote community awareness about domestic violence-related murders.

A volunteer committee that included community foundation board members and community members vetted the grants.

“We really thank them for the time and effort that they put into it,” Petersen said.

This year, the foundation also held a focus group with select applicants to receive input on the grant process.

“It really helped to streamline the process,” Petersen said.

A list of all the organizations that received grants is on the community foundation’s website at yvcf.org/non-profits/grants.

To reach Teresa Ristow, call 970-871-4206, email tristow@SteamboatToday.com or follow her on Twitter @TeresaRistow


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