Community Action Grants provide seed money to women, AAUW branches, AAUW state organizations, and local community-based nonprofit organizations for innovative programs or nondegree research projects that promote education and equity for women and girls. Recipients must be U.S. citizens or permanent residents.
SEARCH FOR RECIPIENTS
Since the inauguration of the Research & Projects Fund in 1972, AAUW has provided support to hundreds of communities around the United States to advance education and equity for women and girls. Early projects focused on public interest issues, including women's struggles to balance home and work life, the establishment of women's resource centers on college campuses, and the emergence of women's political involvement in the antinuclear movement.
As the program evolved and grew, AAUW explored ways to strengthen support for community-based programs that further its mission. Projects have become increasingly collaborative and girl-focused, bringing together AAUW branches and local community groups. In 2006, AAUW supported the Girls Excelling in Math and Science (GEMS) program, a partnership between the AAUW College Park MD Branch and the University of Maryland which focuses on hands-on science exploration and mentoring for D.C. area middle-school girls. Thanks to a 2007 Community Action Grant, the anti-bullying Ophelia Project of Southeast Wisconsin was able to expand its reach, creating new partnerships with schools, AAUW chapters, as well as the Girl Scouts of Wisconsin. And Let’s Read Math, a project funded in 2005 that works with AAUW branches to partner with local community organizations to offer math skill-building curriculum for young children, continues to grow and thrive.
The 2009 grant recipients are undertaking exciting projects, such as a 9 week intensive college preparatory program for young women who have completed their GED; an after school program that focuses on aviation career education for middle school girls; a summer science camp for low-income 11th & 12th grade female students; and an initiative to recruit women coaches for after school programs throughout California in order to help develop and encourage girls' participation in sports.
AAUW thanks the following 2009 Community Action Grant panelists: Julia Triplett (MO), chair, Mary Tyler Browne (NE), Christine K. Cavanaugh (DC), Margo Hamm (KY), Kathy Kremer (MI), and Debra Session (SC).
