Impact100 Essex Awards $120000 Grant to Schools That Can – Baristanet

Impact100 Essex awarded its second annual grant to Schools That Can, a nonprofit that reimagines education to provide real-world, hands-on, industry-specific STEM education and experience for high school students in Newark. Schools That Can was voted the awardee by the Impact100 Essex membership at their annual meeting after each of the four finalists for the grant presented a proposed project.

The Impact100 Essex Steering Committee (in green) with Tiffany Jackson, Manager of School Programs, Erin Sweeney, Executive Director and Stephanie Baker, Advisory Board Chair of Schools That Can Newark.

Erin Sweeney, executive director at Schools That Can received the award,” This is a transformational grant for us, supporting our Career Skills Program where we work with Newark high schools to expand high-quality, middle-skill career and technical education programs, preparing students for successful careers throughout our region. Because of this grant, we will hire a Career Skills Manager to build out our program, from a one-school pilot to an expanded multi-school model. We are thrilled!”

“It’s a great pleasure to award the second Impact100 Essex grant to Schools That Can” said Helen Mazarakis, co-founder of Impact100 Essex. Impact100 Essex is a collective giving organization that funds annual grants for transformational projects in Essex County. “Our members were moved by the opportunity to support Newark students in their dreams to thrive professionally. It’s important that Newark youth are well-positioned to succeed as the local economy grows.”

Schools That Can was a finalist with three other nonprofits that proposed projects, including The Community Food Bank of New Jersey’s project to distribute monthly menstrual supplies to low-income women and girls, Imagine: A Center for Coping with Loss project to support and foster resiliency in children and families grieving a loss, and NJ Tree Foundation to fund tree planting in urban neighborhoods in Essex County.

“As heartwarming as it is to award this grant to Schools That Can, it’s also heartbreaking to see these other incredibly worthy projects go unfunded. All of these organizations presented compelling, impactful and well-designed projects for our membership to consider. We wish we could fund them all,” stated Margo Greenfield, co-founder of Impact100 Essex.

The Impact100 Essex grant pool is funded by gifts of $1000 per member, per year.

“Our goal is to increase our membership from 120 to over 200 in the weeks ahead so we can fund two grants in 2019,” says Greenfield. “We invite more women from across the county to join us in supporting these transformational local programs.”

Impact100 Essex is holding members night out January 30 at Papillion 25 in South Orange from 6-8pm and welcomes prospective members interested in learning more to join in.