During Barnes & Noble’s annual holiday book drive, customers will have the option to purchase books in the checkout line to benefit children served by the Police Athletic League of Jacksonville.
The books will be given to nearly 400 children who attend the Youth Education and Success after-school program.
In addition, a portion of the books will be added to libraries at JaxPAL’s four community centers.
Each year, Barnes & Noble stores donate books to hundreds of charities.
During the 2015 book drive, the company donated nearly 1.5 million books to more than 650 charities in the U.S. that provide services to disadvantaged children.
$311,000 grant for PACE Center for Girls
PACE Center for Girls received a $311,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to prepare more girls to succeed in life.
The nonprofit is a statewide network of 19 centers that has changed the life-trajectory of more than 39,000 at risk girls.
The grant will be used to improve community-based responses to girls at-risk of juvenile delinquency, a population PACE has served for more than 30 years.
The nonprofit will develop, implement and improve the academic component of its program model, which includes counseling, therapy, career and college exploration and family-based case management.
5 charities get Walmart grants to fight hunger
More than 50 Florida nonprofits, including five in Northeast Florida, shared $1.2 million in grants from Walmart and the Walmart Foundation.
The grants support hunger relief, healthy eating and other critical local programs. Local recipients are:
• Florida’s First Coast YMCA, $55,000
• Lutheran Social Services of Northeast Florida, $25,000
• St. Vincent’s HealthCare, $25,000
• Jacksonville Humane Society. $25,000
• Urban Jacksonville, $25,000
The money awarded in Florida is a combination of grant funding to national nonprofit organizations that redistributed the grants to local affiliates, as well as grants awarded by the Walmart Foundation’s State Giving Program.
National grant funding is more than $33 million and will provide about 57 million meals to 1.5 million people in communities throughout the U.S.
Women’s Giving Alliance awards $432,000
At its annual meeting Oct. 26, the Women’s Giving Alliance approved $432,000 in grants to six Northeast Florida organizations that provide mental health services to women and girls in the region.
The grants were the culmination of a five-year, research-based focus on creating sustainable programs, during which the organization made nearly $2 million in grants to 17 area agencies that have helped more than 2,250 women and girls.
The grantees, whose funding will span two years and include consultation and impact assessment opportunities with the alliance, are:
• Betty Griffin Center, $100,000 for the Hope in Recovery program that provides services combining treatment for substance abuse with assistance related to domestic and sexual abuse
• Delores Barr Weaver Policy Center, $100,000 to create a girl-centered practice collaborative that develops a continuity of care model to reduce the use of the juvenile justice system as a mental health provider for girls
• Hubbard House RISE! Program, $100,000 for individual and group mental health counseling for women accessing Hubbard House domestic violence support services
• Jewish Family & Community Services, $100,000 for sliding fee scale mental health counseling that will provide individual and family treatment for women and girls, both at the center and in women’s homes
• Volunteers in Medicine, $22,000 for the Healing the Mind, Body, Heart and Soul program that combines mental health screening, counseling, medication and psychiatric services to working uninsured women in Duval County
• Nonprofit Center of Northeast Florida, $10,000 for an evaluation report for WGA grantees. Baptist Health is matching WGA funding with an additional $10,000 for the research and findings.
The alliance also unveiled its next five-year focus area, “Breaking the Cycle of Female Poverty: Intervention and Prevention,” which will form the foundation for the organization’s future grant-making and education initiatives.
For more information about the alliance's Delores Barr Weaver Fellows program, contact Joanne Cohen at [email protected] or (904) 356-4483.
Receive a $10 gift card for a lifesaving gift
To boost the community’s blood supply, some Walmart stores are hosting blood drives Nov. 14.
People can donate blood and receive a $10 Walmart gift card.
All donors also will receive a wellness checkup of blood pressure, pulse, temperature, iron count and cholesterol screening.
Generally healthy people age 16 or older who weigh at least 110 pounds can donate blood. Photo ID is required.
To learn more about times and locations for the Walmart promotion, visit oneblood.org/Walmart or call (888) 936-6283.
New program to develop data for nonprofits
The Nonprofit Center of Northeast Florida and the University of North Florida have formed a partnership establishing the Florida Data Science for Social Good program.
The Nonprofit Center is providing startup funding.
Modeled after programs in Chicago and Atlanta, the initiative will provide students an opportunity to pursue their professional goals while providing local organizations expertise in data collection, predictive analysis and information visualization.
Only members of the Nonprofit Center are eligible in the first year of the program.