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Impact Stories
Achievement Institute for STEM Scholars
The Achievement Institute for STEM Scholars (AISS) assists high-achieving, low-income students in Orange County to gain acceptance to major colleges and universities in STEM fields of study.
Ceres Foundation funding has provided core support for AISS’ College to Career Readiness STEM Program. In addition to financial support, Ceres has provided feedback that has helped AISS communicate its outcomes more effectively.
Ada Developers Academy
Ada Developers Academy is a coding training program working to address gender and racial gaps in tech by preparing women and gender expansive people, mostly people of color, to become software developers.
Ceres funding supports the outreach and recruitment in the greater DC area to grow the pipeline of prospective students and corporate partners for its coding training program. Ada’s programs provide an innovative and equitable model for workforce development, diversifying the tech workforce, and shifting the overarching culture of tech towards inclusivity.
BEST Kids
BEST Kids connects with youth who are in foster care and at-risk in the Washington, DC area to build healthy and successful futures mentoring, college and career readiness and life skills programs.
Ceres Foundation funding has supported BEST Kids’ work to equip foster and at-risk youth in Washington, DC with high-quality mentoring services. Ceres has helped BEST Kids to expand its programming to provide college and career readiness skills to this marginalized population and has provided access to positive learning experiences and opportunities.
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Bishop John T. Walker School for Boys
Bishop Walker School is an Episcopal school with full tuition support, devoted to the education of K-5 boys in the Washington, DC area. Working in partnership with students and families, the school creates an environment where each boy is challenged to reach his full academic potential.
Ceres Foundation funding supports the Director of Outplacement's continued engagement with graduates, guiding them through middle school, high school, and college -- assisting the students in meeting their education goals long after they leave.
CASA of Los Angeles
CASA of Los Angeles organizes the community to take action and advocate for children and families in LA County’s overburdened child welfare and juvenile justice systems.
Ceres Foundation funding provided much needed operating costs for CASA’s general advocacy program that recruits and trains community volunteers to advocate for children and families in LA County's child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Ceres’ funding also supported CASA’s expansion plan to serve an additional 12K LA County youth over 10 years.
CASA of San Bernardino County
CASA of San Bernardino County improves the quality of life for youth in foster and juvenile care and foster care alumni by providing them with stable and consistent mentoring, advocacy, and supportive services.
Ceres Foundation funding has helped CASA positively impact the lives of thousands of youth in foster care through intensive individualized advocacy and mentoring. Ceres support has helped CASA expand from serving 100 of the highest need foster youth to 200 and growing.
Caroline Center
Caroline Center provides 15 weeks of allied health training (Certified Nursing Assistant and Pharmacy Technician) to women ages 20-50 combined with the delivery of essential skills designed to remove barriers to workplace success.
Ceres Foundation funding allows Caroline Center to offer tuition-free training, serving as a critical resource and opportunity for those with limited household income. Ceres support has provided much needed flexibility, particularly in the challenging funding environment experienced during the COVID pandemic.
College Bound
College Bound’s mission is to prepare public and public charter school students in the metropolitan D.C. area to enter college, earn a degree, and achieve their personal and professional goals.
Ceres Foundation funding has assisted College Bound achieve its goals of preparing students to matriculate and graduate from college, allowing them to positively contribute to society. Ceres support has also helped College Bound gain access to additional opportunities to strengthen its leadership and program delivery.
College Tribe
College Tribe cultivates the character, scholarship, and social competence of third to eighth grade boys living in Washington, DC, by providing mentoring and STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and math) programming.
Ceres Foundation funding has supported College Tribe’s work to equip Black youth in DC’s wards 7 and 8 with high-quality, research-backed mentorship and tutoring services. Ceres support has enabled College Tribe to weather fundraising challenges without any gap in programming.
Collegiate Directions, Inc.
Collegiate Directions, Inc. works to close the education, achievement, and opportunity gap for primarily first-generation-to-college students from low-income households through a series of programs designed to put them on a path toward college graduation, workforce success, and economic mobility.
Ceres Foundation funding has provided capacity building support with a focus on the continued growth of the mental health and career mentoring components of the Scholars Program that works with students from 8 Greater DC partner high schools.
Compass
Compass forges lasting ties between local nonprofits and local business professionals to empower thriving, equitable, resilient communities.
Ceres Foundation funding has underwritten Compass’ pro bono consulting services for Ceres’ Washington, DC grantees. This enables Ceres partners to leverage this cost-effective capacity-building solution providing expert multidisciplinary consulting services, as well as board matching and board education programs.
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Covenant House California
Covenant House California (CHC) provides sanctuary and support for youth experiencing homelessness. CHC offers a continuum of services to meet the physical, emotional, educational, vocational, and spiritual needs of young people.
Ceres Foundation funding helped CHC to launch its Career & Education services for youth in LA and to create its Alumni Services program. Ceres investment has enabled CHC to extend its "after-care" support services (case management, clinical services, food, and love) to all LA youth.
DC Special Education Cooperative
The DC Special Education Cooperative (the Co-op) is deeply rooted in the DC community, dedicating its work to improving educational outcomes for all students, particularly those with disabilities.
Ceres Foundation support will accelerate the Co-op's ability to transform career readiness and attainment outcomes for students with disabilities in Washington, D.C.
DC Volunteer Lawyers Project
DC Volunteer Lawyers Project (DCVLP) utilizes well-trained volunteer lawyers to provide legal and support services to victims of domestic violence and other forms of gender-based violence, and vulnerable children in DC.
Ceres Foundation funding has helped DCVLP to deliver comprehensive, high-quality pro bono legal and support services to more than 2,100 individuals annually. With Ceres support, DCVLP has expanded its network of free legal clinics, established immigration and policy/appellate practices, and added advocacy services to support clients’ long-term safety and stability.
Eastside College Preparatory School
Eastside College Preparatory School is committed to supporting first-generation college-bound students on their journeys to and through college, and into professional careers.
Ceres Foundation funding has supported Eastside since it was a young organization, still defining its model and approach, and serving less than 100 students. Today it serves nearly 300 students, operates a year-round model, a boarding program, and an alumni college and career program.
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Friends of the Children-Los Angeles
Friends of the Children-Los Angeles commits salaried, professional mentors to children facing the greatest obstacles from kindergarten through high school graduation –for 12+ years, no matter what – in order to break cycles of child welfare system involvement and generational poverty.
Ceres Foundation funding has supported FOC's phased approach to a larger scaling effort, which will eventually reach every SPA in Los Angeles County by 2026, more than doubling its current enrollment of 163 youth.
Friendship Shelter
Friendship Shelter operates three core programs (street outreach, housing-focused shelter, and permanent supportive housing) all toward a vision of ending homelessness in Southern Orange County.
Ceres Foundation funding has bolstered Friendship Shelter’s existing shelter programs and fueled the launch and growth of its Permanent Supportive Housing program. Ceres was a founding partner of Henderson House, a transitional living program for youth who’ve experienced homelessness with serious and persistent mental health challenges.
Future Link Inc.
Future Link closes the opportunity divide for first generation-to-college, low-income young adults by providing the tools, skills, and resources needed to achieve lasting self-sufficiency.
Ceres Foundation funding has been instrumental in Future Link’s growth, benefitting staff and program development, enhanced outcomes measurement, and overall strategic direction. Future Link is more intentional, effective, and focused as a result of Ceres partnership and its thoughtful site visits and feedback.
Harmony Project
Harmony Project harnesses the transformative power of music to increase access to higher education for underserved students by removing the systemic barriers to achievement through academic and social support.
Ceres Foundation funding supported Harmony Project’s core music education programming along with supplemental academic resources and social support services. Ceres values Harmony’s ultimate goal of utilizing the arts to nurture the positive development of youth through high school graduation and into college.
Hope Builders
Hope Builders moves young adults from poverty to prosperity by empowering them with the mentorship, life skills and job skills training that meets the needs of employers.
Ceres Foundation funding is helping Hope Builders advance multiple strategic goals, including expanding the number of young adults that connect to and retain employment in career pathways and increasing its sustainability through social enterprise income.
HopeWell Inc
HopeWell enriches the lives and expands the opportunities of individuals and families in need of love, support, and safe places to grow and thrive, including youth experiencing and aging out of foster care in Massachusetts.
Ceres Foundation funding has helped HopeWell grow its services in Western MA by providing capacity building and operating support. This includes the expansion of My First Place which provides stable housing combined with educational, employment, and case management support so youth who age out of foster care can transition to self-sufficiency.
JHP, Incorporated
JHP, Incorporated (JHP) is a community-based, nonprofit social service organization that helps people who are homeless or at-risk of becoming homeless seek, obtain, and retain employment and secure housing.
Ceres Foundation funding has been instrumental in the longevity and success of JHP’s work to create employment and housing opportunities for individuals in Greater DC. Ceres long-term support has been essential in fortifying the agency’s core programs and supporting the growth of its TANF Employment & Training Program and Rapid Re-housing Program.
Jovenes, Inc.
Jovenes provides a range of housing and supportive services to youth and college students experiencing homelessness, using housing as a tool to help them stabilize and achieve their goals.
Ceres Foundation funding helped Jovenes remain focused on their mission and continue to create innovative solutions for youth experiencing homelessness. Jovenes leverages Ceres support to meet the individual needs and challenge of the youth it serves while building the organization’s capacity for growth and sustainability.
Kid Power, Inc.
Kid Power inspires youth leadership by promoting academic advancement, physical and emotional wellness, and positive civic engagement in underserved communities throughout DC.
Ceres Foundation funding originally provided support to Mentors Inc., which was acquired by Kid Power in 2019. Most recently, Ceres funding helped Kid Power align with the National Quality Mentoring System’s standards and procedures for operation of a high-quality mentoring program.
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Kitchen of Purpose
Kitchen of Purpose uses the power of food for socio-economic change in under-resourced communities in the Washington, D.C. metro area. It works to improve the community's quality of life through bilingual culinary job training and placement, a small food business incubator, and food assistance.
Ceres Foundation funding has been critical for sustaining Kitchen of Purpose’s transformative impact as it expands its programs, and for improving outcomes for individuals from under-resourced communities in the Washington, D.C. metro area, who are at the heart of its mission.
Lost Angels Children's Project, Inc.
Lost Angels Children's Project (LACP) is a non-profit organization with the mission to serve disadvantaged youth, families, and distressed communities through innovative vocational training, social enterprise, and outreach programs. LACP empowers and employs transitional age youth (TAY) within the Antelope Valley community and Greater Los Angeles area by offering a paid vocational training program that provides a direct path to sustainable job placement.
Ceres Foundation funding has enhanced and supported LACP's “Work Program” – a 12-week intensive industrial arts vocational training and skill development program. Youth develop hands-on transferable skills in the aerospace industry to achieve living wage employment in high growth sectors within the Antelope Valley community.
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MENTOR Maryland | DC
MENTOR Maryland | DC aims to increase both the quality and quantity of mentoring relationships and to close the mentoring gap. This is accomplished through support of mentoring programs to improve their quality, effectiveness and scale, while coalescing local stakeholders to expand engagement and investment.
Ceres Foundation funding has supported the expansion of MENTOR’s footprint and service provision into the Washington, DC region, as well as its strategic plan goal of creating 500,000 mentor relationships and ensuring $100M is invested in local mentoring programs over five years.
ManifestWorks
Through immersive learning, real-world work experience, and a network of supportive professional mentors, ManifestWorks connects those impacted by foster care, homelessness and incarceration with job opportunities and provides ongoing life and professional skills to support long-term success.
Ceres Foundation is funding is supporting ManifestWorks recent addition of a 3rd annual cohort which will grow the number of participants and graduates by 50%. It will enroll 120 participants annually (from 70-80) and graduate 75 (from 40).
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Massachusetts Alliance for Early College (MA4EC)
The Massachusetts Alliance for Early College is a collective impact organization anchored on a bold goal: to close one-quarter of the college success equity gap through scaling high-quality Early College in Massachusetts.
Ceres Foundation funding has supported MA4EC as early college in Massachusetts reaches a critical inflection point that leverages learnings from a pilot phase into a scaled solution explicitly focused on college success equity for Black and Latino students and those who face economic challenges.
Monument Academy Public Charter School
Monument Academy is a weekday boarding, public charter middle school with a mission to empower students, particularly those who’ve experienced significant adversity, with the academic, social, emotional, and life skills to be successful in college, career, and community.
Ceres Foundation funding has allowed Monument to deliver comprehensive supports as it continues to grow enrollment and scale its impact. Ceres has also served as a thought partner in its work and mission, providing continued encouragement and support.
More Than Words
More Than Words is a nonprofit social enterprise that empowers system-involved youth to take charge of their lives by taking charge of a business. It works with youth, ages 16-24, who are in the foster care system, court-involved, homeless, out of school, parenting, or involved with the Department of Mental Health.
Ceres Foundation funding supported More Than Words (MTW) advocacy work and the youth-led Power Is Yours team that advances key policy priorities designed to address systemic hurdles faced by MTW youth. This work benefits not only the young people at MTW, but youth throughout the state.
New Directions For Women, Inc.
New Directions for Women (NDFW) is committed to saving the lives of women of all ages, women with children, and pregnant women affected by alcoholism, other addictions, and related issues.
Ceres Foundation funding has underwritten partial scholarships for treatment and helped support thousands of women who’ve received NDFW’s lifesaving recovery services. Ceres funding had a tremendous impact, particularly during the COVID pandemic, which drove significant increases in substance use.
New Village Girls Academy
New Village Girls Academy provides a high quality, engaging educational opportunity with integrated support services for young women ages 14-22, especially those for whom the challenging circumstances of their lives have led to previous school failure and alienation.
Ceres Foundation funding has helped New Village to provide individualized real-world learning and student support services to maximize its impact on the lives of young women. Ceres support helps students develop new leadership and life skills, strive for physical and mental wellness, and prepare for post-secondary study, career training and/or well-paying employment.
Northwest Education Access
Northwest Education Access (NWEA) provides college access and retention support to low-income students in nontraditional education pathways, those who either left high school prior to completion or did not transfer directly to college.
Ceres Foundation funding has provided long-term, foundational support providing stability as NWEA has grown to serve increasingly more students. Ceres feedback led NWEA to look more deeply at its data and to ultimately build more internal data and evaluation capacity to ensure it continues to provide high-quality student services.
Orangewood Foundation
Orangewood Foundation provides innovative services that uplift and empower youth across Orange County with the goal of helping young people create the lives they envision.
Ceres Foundation funding provided support for Orangewood's education and workforce development services for foster and transitional-aged youth, ages 16-24, in Orange County. Youth develop the skills and are able to access the resources they need to meet their educational goals, achieve employment stability, and earn a living wage through meaningful careers.
Propel America
Propel America provides high school graduates with a guided, quick, and affordable path to a meaningful career in healthcare (jobs first higher education) while providing employers with a diverse, trained talent pool.
Ceres Foundation funding helped launch a new RBT+ (registered behavior technician) Fellowship that will launch in Los Angeles in 2023. The 27-week RBT+ Fellowship is a collaboration with higher education partner National Louis University (NLU) and employer partner LEARN Behavioral.
Roca, Inc.
Roca’s mission is to be a relentless force in disrupting incarceration, poverty, and racism by engaging the young adults, police, and systems at the center of urban violence in relationships to address trauma, find hope, and drive change. Roca’s CBT-based Intervention Model helps deeply disengaged young men learn to put down their guns, leave the streets, and go to work; and through an award-winning, two-generation program, helps isolated, traumatized young mothers overcome violence, go to work, and care for their children.
Ceres Foundation funding will help Roca deliver its Young Mothers intervention to at least 100 highest-risk young mothers ages 16-24 and their children ages 0-5 in Hampden County.
STEM Advantage
STEM Advantage mentors, prepares, and inspires women and underserved communities to pursue STEM careers through paid internships, one-to-one mentors, scholarships, professional and career development, and community.
Ceres Foundation funding will enable STEM Advantage to establish a dedicated program team to help grow and scale this proven model. Ceres significant, three-year grant will help STEM Advantage serve more women and underserved communities, while maintaining its high-impact program, building quality mentorship and internship programs, and developing strategic partnerships.
San Miguel School
San Miguel School is a tuition-free middle school dedicated to helping low-income Latino boys in the Washington, D.C. area excel academically and get to college. The school’s mission is to transform lives and break the cycle of poverty through education.
Ceres Foundation funding supports San Miguel’s mission to provide life-changing social mobility for students by working to get its graduates to college. San Miguel’s graduate support services help ensure that alumni graduate high school with plans for college, including college counseling, college entrance exam preparation and opportunities to visit colleges.
Sanctuary Art Center
The Sanctuary Art Center is a collection of art studios designed to connect homeless and underserved youth with employment internships and artistic programs in a variety of creative disciplines.
Ceres Foundation funding has been instrumental in helping the Sanctuary Art Center grow from a small drop-in art center to a fully realized arts program with top-notch employment training programs. In addition to grants, Ceres has provided valuable feedback to guide the organization’s program development and reporting.
SchoolHouse Connection
SchoolHouse Connection (SHC) is the leading national advocate for children and youth experiencing homelessness to have full access to quality learning, birth through higher education, so they will never be homeless again.
Ceres Foundation funding has long supported its Youth Leadership & Scholarship, first during its previous iteration and then as a founding funder when SHC launched in 2019. Ceres has been an essential partner in SHC’s direct support of young adults who’ve experienced homelessness, helping them overcome obstacles to college and beyond.
Service Workers Training and Education Partnership (STEP Fund)
STEP Fund supports sustainable jobs in the hospitality industry by working with UNITE HERE and its employer partners to invest in the skills and education of service workers and their families. STEP provides free entry level hospitality job training, certification classes, upskilling opportunities, and educational support, to those seeking initial employment and upward career mobility.
Ceres Foundation's support is helping STEP increase its capacity to meet the needs of its participants: lower wage service workers, immigrants, and people of color. With Ceres funding it is adding to its instructional abilities and strengthening its internal systems.
Sierra House
Sierra House improves the prospects of individual achievement for the homeless, youth with developmental disabilities, and low- to moderate-income individuals and families through housing, education, life skills, and community services.
Ceres Foundation funding has been instrumental in helping Sierra House sustain operations, secure additional financial support, and provide housing to over 580 individuals and families. Additionally, Ceres annual site visits have provided valuable experiences for Sierra House residents and staff.
Southern California College Attainment Network (SoCal CAN)
Southern California College Attainment Network is an alliance of 118 organizations working together to increase the rate at which students from underserved communities access and complete post-secondary education. Its members provide direct support to more than 250,000 students and families in Los Angeles County with the goal of ensuring they are prepared academically, financially, and socially for success in college and beyond.
Ceres Foundation funding is playing a role in the expansion of SoCal CAN's nationally renowned program that supports the college and career aspirations of residents living in public housing. As a result of Ceres funding, Project SOAR will expand to the Jordan Downs housing development in South Los Angeles in 2024 resulting in an additional 2000 families served.
Spark the Journey
Spark the Journey mentors high school and college students in the academic middle from low-income Washington, DC, households and provides them with the skills and experiences to successfully complete college and excel in the workforce.
Ceres Foundation funding has enhanced STJ’s capacity to match more students with adult mentors and provide them with holistic support services through high school to college graduation. The partnership has helped STJ increase its overall sustainability and create a stronger community of support for the students it serves.
Springfield Empowerment Zone Partnership
Springfield Empowerment Zone Partnership (SEZP) is a partnership among the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, Springfield Public Schools, and the Springfield Education Association – an initiative in which a network of 16 schools operate with autonomous conditions designed to accelerate innovative solutions to the perennial challenges that these school face.
Ceres Foundation funding will help spur greater innovation in its schools - in particular, its dual language and Early College (EC) school models - to ensure that its students are on the path to a living, sustainable wage. SEZP is developing a wall-to-wall Early College model across all seven of its high schools.
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Springfield WORKS Collaborative
Springfield WORKS applies a collaborative approach to addressing and removing systemic and racial barriers to employment, and creates equitable pathways to economic opportunity and well-being.
Ceres Foundation funding will allow Springfield WORKS to test and measure the impact of novel approaches to support economic mobility. Ceres has provided resources to fund the evaluation of the Cliff Effect Pilot program, and provided funds to increase the flexibility of financial supports offered to Pilot participants and their families to overcome the benefits cliff.
Tech Foundry
Tech Foundry is a Springfield, Massachusetts-based nonprofit organization with a mission to help people realize economic stability through equitable, accessible, and inclusive opportunities in the tech workforce.
Ceres Foundation funding is allowing Tech Foundry to strengthen the coaching and wraparound services available to its IT workforce students, connecting its students to service-learning opportunities and supporting program operations and capacity improvements at the organization.
The Care Center
The Care Center helps low-income young women, most of whom are parenting, get to and through college by pairing high-quality academics with supports like child care, transportation, and meals.
Ceres Foundation funding has supported its college preparation programs for low-income young mothers, primarily women of color. Ceres also provided seed funding to launch and then endow its Bard Microcollege Holyoke, the nation’s first college for young mothers and low-income women.
The Wooden Floor
The Wooden Floor is one of the foremost creative youth development nonprofit organizations in the country. It inspires and transforms the lives of young people through the power of dance and access to higher education.
Ceres Foundation funding is helping The Wooden Floor foster the confidence and gifts within each student served, to innovate, communicate, and collaborate – skills necessary for success in school and in life. Its students become change agents and beacons of hope within their own families, their neighborhoods, its community, and our world.
Thrive Scholars
Thrive Scholars provides high-achieving students of color from economically disadvantaged communities the opportunities they need to thrive at top colleges and in meaningful careers.
Ceres Foundation funding has generously supported Thrive Scholars for 20 years and provided nearly $3M in grants. Ceres was one of Thrive’s earliest supporters and has been integral in its evolution from a small LA-focused organization to a national entity poised to serve nearly 1,000 Scholars this year.
Triangle Family Services
Triangle Family Services is an 85-year-old human service agency that provides wrap around services for families in crisis including family safety, financial stability, and mental health.
Ceres Foundation funding has crossed all functional areas and has been instrumental in helping Triangle Family Services to develop systems, structure, and processes for long-term stability. Ceres has also provided thought leadership through site visits and conversations that have been enlightening, challenging, and rewarding.
Washington Latin Public Charter School
Washington Latin Public Charter School is a small network of schools providing a rigorous, classical education to public middle and high school students from across D.C. with the goal of developing students who will become thoughtful citizens and leaders contributing to the public good in their lifelong quest towards a fuller humanity.
Ceres Foundation funding supports Washington Latin’s capacity-building campaign to expand access to its high-quality education for an additional 750 students of which at least 30% of seats will be designated for STARS - Students Targeted for Additional Resources.
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Youth Guidance
Youth Guidance creates and implements school-based programs that enable children to overcome obstacles, focus on their education and, ultimately, to succeed in school and in life.
Ceres Foundation funding has enabled Youth Guidance to provide social-emotional learning, workforce development, and post-secondary preparation activities for young men of color in the DC public high schools.
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