SAVE lands $ 30K to help train leaders
Perrin Family Foundation grant to aid nonprofit in helping youths
By ROBERT KOCH
HOUR STAFF WRITER
NORWALK — A local nonprofit organization whose mission includes reducing gang- related violence has landed a $ 30,000 grant to train youth leaders.
Saving All Vessels Equally, Inc., ( SAVE) received the grant from the Perrin Family Foundation.
SAVE will use the money to further develop its Youth Council for Justice ( YC4J) program, which has identified “school push- out” and relations between police and youth as priority issues.
“We are so pleased to have this grant from the Perrin Family Foundation to support YC4J’s work on behalf of youth- led social change in Norwalk”, SAVE Executive Director Albert Ray Dancy said in a statement announcing the grant award.
“ We fully embrace the Perrin Foundation’s core values of ‘cultivating the capacity of youth to act as agents of social change,’ which not only builds lasting, transferrable skills, it also paves the way for life- long participation and leadership in the civic sphere,” he added.
SAVE will use the grant to train 10 to 15 youth leaders, conduct research to help YC4J analyze issues related to the “school- toprison pipeline” as well as facilitate meetings, events and retreats, and implement follow- up activities, according to the statement.
YC4J is a youth- led, adult-supported social justice organization that empowers young people ages 8 to 12 to take appropriate civic action on issues affecting their lives. Forums are held at a schools and advocacy campaigns are initiated to bring concerns to life, according to SAVE. The Perrin Family Foundation, which is based in New Haven and Ridgefield, partners with organizations in under- resourced communities across Connecticut to support youth as leaders. The foundation issued the grant as part of its Building Leadership and Organizing Capacity (BLOC) Initiative.
“ This funding will enable YC4J to grow its base and better position the group for youth- led community organizing,” Dancy said.