Strengthening Families Partners and Grants

TSF has invested more than $2.3 million to-date in its Strengthening Families partner programs. Our strategy is to build a continuum of integrated community resources that strengthen families.

Alzheimer’s Association - $15,000
The Association was awarded this grant for a program that provides education and support to caregivers and families of those suffering from Alzheimer’s.

Bigelow Corners Partnership - $60,000
The Bigelow Corners Partnership (BCP) is an ongoing collaborative effort to help children and families as they work toward success in school and within their homes and communities. Focusing on families using services on and around Bigelow Avenue, BCP partners are the Capital District Child Care Council, Parsons Child & Family Center Early Head Start, Schenectady City School District’s Keane and Lincoln Elementary Schools and the Schenectady Community Action Program (SCAP) Head Start.

Capital District Child Care Council, Family-Centered Child Care - $160,000
The family-centered model recognizes that many families need, in addition to quality child care, help accessing information and services in areas such as health care, literacy education and parenting skills.

Carver Community Center, Child Care Program Improvements - $28,000
New furnishings, equipment and toys as well as funding for technical assistance helped ensure a safe and healthy learning environment at this well-used child care program serving the Hamilton Hill and Vale neighborhoods.

Carver Community Center, Youth and Parent Outreach - $7,500
Community Outreach Center offering support to young people and their families in the Hamilton Hill neighborhoods.

Catholic Charities, Healthy Schenectady Families - $240,000
This successful home-visiting program supports families prenatally to kindergarten, focusing on developmental milestones and teaching families the skills to raise healthy, successful children. The TSF grant is enabling HSF to reach more families.

Community Human Services - $26,500
This grant will help fund Community Human Services Family Foundations program, which provides home-based mental health support for pre-school children and their families.

Ellis Medicine, Bellevue Women's Center - $1,000,000
Ellis is expanding the facility at Bellevue Woman's Center to provide the best possible OB/GYN services and pediatric care for the community, including: a new Labor-Delivery-Recovery room; expansion of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and Nursery; and new Imaging Center with mammography, bone density, ultrasound and stereotactic breast biopsy services.

Parsons Child & Family Center, Early Head Start Expansion Grant - $180,000
TSF’s commitment to Parsons Child & Family Center Early Head Start Program is being used to expand Early Head Start services to more families and improve nutrition, health and educational outcomes in young children.

SAFE Inc. of Schenectady - $100,000
SAFE Inc. provides emergency shelter and helps find placement, education and employment for homeless youths who are either runaways or throwaways, often living on the streets and forced into sexual exploitation. TSF’s grant is funding the upgrade and remodel of SAFE’s existing building and the construction of an addition.

St. Anthony’s Early Childhood Program - $10,000  With funding from TSF, St. Anthony’s built a new kitchen and developed a nutrition program benefiting the children in their early childhood program.

Salvation Army – $27,000
The Salvation Army received this grant to renovate the Evangeline Booth Home, its residence that provides shelter for women and their children.

Schenectady Bridges -- $22,000   The mission of Schenectady Bridges is to develop a common service culture among organizations in the community that helps people to move out of poverty.  Partner organizations in this pilot project are City Mission of Schenectady, Schenectady Community Action Program, Parsons Child & Family Center, Hometown Health Centers, Healthy Schenectady Families and Catholic Charities.

Samaritan Counseling Center, Project PASS - $160,000
Project PASS is an innovative community-based program providing individual and family therapy to students (ages 5-18) at risk of academic failure because of emotional and behavioral issues.

Samaritan Counseling Center: Working with Families Training Workshops - $33,500
Working with Families Workshop is an outgrowth of TSF’s Strengthening Families Advisory Council. The three-hour Workshop provides a learning experience for agency leaders and practitioners in the health and human services field on how to work more systemically – and effectively – to achieve better outcomes for families under stress.

Schenectady Community Action Program (SCAP), Bigelow Avenue Street Safety - $202,000
$35,000 was used to construct a sidewalk along the SCAP side of the street to improve safety for the many children and parents in the Bigelow Corners neighborhood. In conjunction with this project, SCAP also improved the bus and parking areas of their facility. A $167,000 grant was awarded to purchase two new school buses and to relocate one of their Head Start programs to the Yates Community Center.

Schenectady County Chamber Foundation: Certificate of Employability - $60,000
The COE project is teaching 1,000 of the area’s teens and young adults the soft employment skills necessary to secure and maintain employment.

Schenectady County Public Library -- $100,000.  TSF's grant will support expansion of the main branch of the library to provide for a new children's wing.

Schenectady Jewish Community Center -  $100,000
With a grant from TSF, the Schenectady Jewish Community Center was able to replace their building’s boiler and renovate cabinets and cubbies in their childcare and preschool program rooms.

UAlbany School of Social Welfare, Internships in Aging - $40,000
TSF is providing scholarships to two interns to work in one of the agencies that serves aging persons in Schenectady. The interns will not only work in the program but also assess how the program works and help agencies develop new policies of care.

Union Graduate College – Sponsor-a-Scholar - $15,000
This grant will help a Schenectady County student who has completed the Sponsor-a-Scholar program in high school, pursue a Master’s in Teaching degree at Union Graduate College. Grant recipients will demonstrate a commitment to living in and/or teaching in Schenectady.

Working Group on Girls, Girls Day Out - $13,000
For the second year, 150 7th and 8th grade girls from the Schenectady City School District will come together for a program on building healthy relationships and developing leadership skills. Student participants meet with mentors throughout the year.