Published May 29, 2019
By Erica Moser
e.moser@theday.com

The Community Foundation of Eastern Connecticut announced Wednesday it has awarded $1,943,371 to 145 local nonprofits addressing issues such as homelessness, domestic violence, job training, youth empowerment and wildlife care and rehabilitation.

Many grants were aimed at supporting efforts toward policy change.

"We believe that awarding advocacy grants to support strategic systemic changes, in addition to our annual one-year grants that address the challenges we are encountering today, will help to increase equity in our region now and in the future," CFECT President and CEO Maryam Elahi said in a news release.

The $1.9 million includes $435,000 in multiyear grants. Always Home, Safe Futures, Connecticut Humane Society, High Hopes Therapeutic Riding, Denison Pequotsepos Nature Center and Three Rivers Community College each will get a grant spread across three years, while The Nature Conservancy in Connecticut is getting a two-year grant. The total for each ranges from $30,000 to $75,000.

Examples of one-time grants include $10,000 to the New England Innocence Project to work with New London Superior Court to prevent wrongful convictions, and $7,500 to the Connecticut Roundtable on Climate and Jobs to connect low-income people with green energy jobs.

The purposes of some other grants are to help manage cases of immigrants in New London, teach Norwich middle schoolers on Project Oceanology's floating classroom, and increase animal control adoptions.

The grants fall into nine categories: Norwich youth, Southeast general, Windham/Northeast area, environmental, animal welfare, and women and girls for each of four regions of eastern Connecticut.

CFECT has awarded more than $56 million in grants and scholarships since 1983, according to its website. View all 2019 grant recipients