The goal of this project is to foster a robust city center in Sturgis. Grant funding will support opportunities for residents and visitors to engage with their community through outdoor events and cultural experiences planned in downtown Sturgis.

For more than 50 years, the Sturges-Young Center for the Arts has served as a key cultural asset to local communities. As the Sturges-Young continues its “Road to Restoration”, grant funds from the Community Foundation will provide new acoustic panels that will improve the sound quality of future events in this beloved space.

Grant funding will support the installation of an outdoor public fireplace in downtown Sturgis and contribute to the overall goal of creating a “sense of place” in our community, including spaces that make people want to experience our downtown. The fireplace is part of a “Power of 10+” placemaking strategy. The idea behind this concept is that places thrive when users have a range of reasons (10+) to be there. These might include a place to sit, playgrounds to enjoy, art to touch, music to hear, food to eat, history to experience...or in this case, a fire to gather around.

For 11 years, Sturgis Helping Hands has helped meet some of the most basic needs of local children and families. Through its “Backpack Program”, Sturgis Helping Hands provides backpacks of food and essentials that ensure students in need have access to meals on weekends and over the holidays. The program is run by volunteers which ensures 100% of funds granted will directly support food for local children and their families.

There are currently 177 children in foster care throughout St. Joseph County. With grant funding for Court Appointed Special Advocates of Southwest Mich., we hope to improve outcomes and give some of our county’s most vulnerable children the support they need to thrive.

Research shows that children who have been assigned CASA volunteers are:

• more likely to be adopted permanently

• 50% less likely to re-enter the foster care system

• performing better in school

• spend, on average, 7.5 fewer months in foster care than those without a CASA

• 90% less likely to   have their own children in the foster care system

St. Joseph County Council for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect will receive funding to provide “Welcome Home" Baby Bags to new parents throughout our county. In collaboration with the Great Start Collaborative, these bags will provide new parents with children’s books aimed at promoting connections between babies and caregivers while also enforcing safety messaging and education with parents.

This grant will provide funding for the second annual "Resilience for Youth" summer program which features five full days of learning, connecting, practicing and applying concepts aimed at reducing patterns of negative behavior and providing at-risk students with the knowledge and practice needed to increase motivation and personal resilience. 

Funding for a community forum, including keynote speaker and discussion, focusing on sexual abuse and children, youth prevention, understanding sexual assault dynamics and local services available to victims. 

This grant will fund interactive, educational booklets for Sturgis youth who visit the Museum at the Depot as part of an effort to make the museum more attractive to local educators. Booklets were designed in partnership with local educators who contributed to the content, design and layout. 

Funding will provide program support for the Doyle Community Center's Summer Adventure Program. Summer Adventure provides area youth with eight full weeks of summer recreational activities at little to no cost. This grant will be used to expand summer field trips and provide supplemental supplies for activities. 

This award will provide program support for the Sturgis Helping Hands backpack program to provide bags of food on weekends to Sturgis Public School students in need throughout the year. Approximately 2/3 of SPS students qualified for the program last school year.

St. Joseph County currently has nearly 200 children and youth placed in foster care due to extreme abuse and neglect, a rate that is double the state average. This grant will provide seed money for the start of a CASA program in St. Joseph County. CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocates) will train local volunteers to serve area children in foster care due to abuse and neglect. CASA volunteers work with one child or sibling group to make sure that their best interests are served and that they find a loving, safe home (or are reunited safely with family) as soon as possible.

This grant will fund the launch a partnership between Sturgis Public Schools and Boys & Girls Clubs of Elkhart County to provide before- and after-school programming for Sturgis students in grades K-5. Feedback from SPS leadership and survey results from local families demonstrate a high need for affordable before- and after-school care options in Sturgis, especially among low-income and working families. Through this partnership, children and families will have access to Boys & Girls Clubs' KidsCare programming (https://www.greatfutures.club/kidscare), housed at Eastwood School, in the mornings starting at 5:00AM and after school until 6:00PM. SPS will provide transportation to school for morning participants and from school to the program for afternoon participants.

Suicide is the second leading cause of death for Michigan residents ages 15-34. In response to this epidemic, the Community Suicide Prevention Network of St. Joseph County is organizing programing in our county's public schools for suicide awareness and prevention programs. The total cost is $51,050. County superintendents have selected two programs to offer the schools based on their input and need. In addition to providing curriculum to area schools, this grant will also fund a county-wide series of school assemblies with an expert guest speaker and forum for parents.