Tag Archive for: culinary arts

CTI Cummings Grant Pic
CTI Cummings Grant Pic

Community Teamwork awarded $100,000 Cummings Grant

/0 Comments/in , /by

Lowell Nonprofit receives 3 years of funding from Cummings Foundation

Lowell, May 27, 2021 – Community Teamwork is one of 140 local nonprofits to receive grants of $100,000 to $500,000 each through Cummings Foundation’s $25 Million Grant Program. The Lowell-based organization was chosen from a total of 590 applicants, during a competitive review process.

As a Community Action Agency, a Regional Housing Agency, and a Community Development Corporation, CTI helps nearly more than 54,000 individuals from 64 cities and towns in northeastern Massachusetts gain greater economic independence.

“We are beyond thrilled to receive this grant from the Cummings foundation. These funds will enable our YouthBuild organization to continue to train at-risk youth in the culinary arts and prepare them for future careers in the local hospitality industry, which is experiencing a serious labor shortage. We could not carry out our mission without the generosity of people like Joyce and Bill Cummings.”, stated Karen Frederick, Chief Executive Officer.

Community Teamwork will use the funding from the Cummings Foundation, to support its Culinary Arts Vocational Tract for at-risk youth interested in entering the hospitality industry. After a recent successful capital campaign, Community Teamwork was able to install a new state of the art commercial kitchen at its Youth Opportunity Center at 167 Dutton Street. Using the new funding Community Teamwork will be able to expand and solidify its catering program, with the goal of creating a YouthBuild Lowell Social Enterprise Catering Business, which will build on the solid customer base YouthBuild has created over the past couple of years. In addition, the creation of a YouthBuild Lowell Catering Business will offer additional work experience for its participants, provide financial education, and increased technical and soft skills to help increase their ability to be thrive and work in the private sector, once ready.

The Cummings $25Million Grant Program supports Massachusetts nonprofits that are based in and primarily serve Middlesex, Essex, and Suffolk counties.

Through this place-based initiative, Cummings Foundation aims to give back in the area where it owns commercial buildings, all of which are managed, at no cost to the Foundation, by its affiliate Cummings Properties. This Woburn-based commercial real estate firm leases and manages 10 million square feet of debt-free space, the majority of which exclusively benefits the Foundation.

“We aim to help meet the needs of people in all segments of our local community,” said Joel Swets, Cummings Foundation’s Executive Director. “It is the incredible organizations we fund, however, that do the actual daily work to empower our neighbors, educate our children, fight for equity, and so much more.”

With the help of about 80 volunteers, the Foundation first identified 140 organizations to receive grants of at least $100,000 each. Among the winners were first-time recipients as well as nonprofits that had previously received Cummings Foundation grants.

“We have adopted a democratic approach to philanthropy, which empowers and impressive roster of dedicated volunteers to decide more than half of all our grant winners each year,” said Swets. “We benefit from their diverse backgrounds and perspectives; they benefit from a meaningful and fulfilling experience; and the nonprofits often benefit from increased exposure and new advocates.”

This year’s grant recipients represent a wide variety of causes, including social justice, homelessness prevention, affordable housing, education, violence prevention, and food insecurity. The nonprofits are spread across 43 different cities and towns. The following Lowell-based organizations received $100,000 grants from the Cummings Foundation: Community Teamwork, Inc., Merrimack Valley Food Bank, and Middlesex Community College Foundation. Mill City Grows is the only Lowell-based organization to receive a 10-year grant.

The complete list of 140 grant winners, plus more than 800 previous recipients, is available at www.CummingsFoundation.org.

Cummings Foundation has now awarded more than $300 million to greater Boston nonprofits.

About Community Teamwork

Community Teamwork is a catalyst for social change. Our driving mission is to help people help themselves with child care, family supports, nutrition, fuel assistance, housing, skills training, employment, financial education, and individual asset and small business development. As a Community Action Agency, a Regional Housing Agency, and a Community Development Corporation, Community Teamwork helps nearly 54,000 individuals from 71 cities and towns in northeastern Massachusetts gain greater economic independence.

About Cummings Foundation

Woburn-based Cummings Foundation, Inc. was established in 1986 by Joyce and Bill Cummings and has grown to be one of the three largest private foundations in New England. The Foundation directly operates its own charitable subsidiaries, including New Horizons retirement communities in Marlborough and Woburn, and Veterinary School at Tufts, LLC in North Grafton. Additional information is available at www.CummingsFoundation.org.

###

 

For Immediate Release

May 27, 2021

Media Contact:

Alison Harding Cummings Foundation 781-932-7093

aeh@cummings.com

Media Contact:

Julia Ripa

978-654-5628

jripa@commteam.org

 

yb grant ged
yb grant ged

Grant boosts job training and GED program for struggling youths

/0 Comments/in , /by

YouthBuild, a Lowell-based organization will be able to continue and expand its work helping troubled young people continue their education and prepare for jobs, as a result of new federal funding.

By John Laidler Globe Correspondent,Updated January 17, 2020, 7:49 a.m.

Students enrolled in Community Teamwork’s YouthBuild program work in the kitchen.

LOWELL – Community Teamwork was awarded $1.44 million by the US Department of Labor to support its YouthBuild initiative, the largest of three 40-month grants announced in Massachusetts to organizations offering the federal program.

YouthBuild provides job training and education toward a GED for students who have either dropped out of high school or were at risk of doing so. Those completing the nine months of training and classes also receive job placement and retention help.

“We are extremely excited,” said Carl Howell, division director for housing and homeless services for Community Teamwork, an anti-poverty agency that has served nearly 400 students in its YouthBuild program since taking it over from another organization 12 years ago.

Howell said it is notable that the new grant came just as Community Teamwork’s previous YouthBuild grant — in 2017 — was expiring. He said agencies typically have to wait a year or more for new funding.

“It shows what we are doing is appreciated and well-regarded in the federal eyes,” he said.

The fresh funding will enable his agency to enroll a new cohort of students in February, and to increase the number of participants from 64 to 80.

Community Teamwork, which assists about 50,000 people annually with services ranging from emergency fuel assistance to early education, runs its YouthBuild program out of its Youth Opportunities Center in downtown Lowell.

Participating students can choose between hospitality/culinary arts and construction for their job training, which is offered on alternating weeks with their GED classroom instruction.

A spacious workshop at the Lowell building provides room for construction students to frame walls and other training work, and for the culinary/hospitality students to learn cooking and other skills.

Students earn a $125-per-week stipend to help cover their living expenses and are not charged fees. But each week they take part in community service projects, from repairing fences to assisting with Habitat for Humanity home building projects. (Students learning construction also work at other times on Habitat projects as part of their training).

About 85 percent of students in the nine month-period achieve the goals of completing their job training — which earns them certificates to work their fields — and earning or moving toward receiving their GEDs. After they graduate, students remain in the program up to two more years for help in finding and keeping a job, and other services as needed.

“I think it’s the non-traditional setting that really helps,” Howell said of the program’s good results, noting that the more intimate setting discourages the kind of disruptive behavior students might exhibit in a large high school. He said their hands-on work, the services available to them, and the fact that the program is voluntary are also factors.

Rafael Cotto, 21, had been expelled from two area high schools when he enrolled in the program in 2018. Through his job training and the help of YouthBuild staff, he was hired as a cook at a local restaurant, and later as a school bus driver. That led to his current employment as a construction trainer in the YouthBuild program.

Calling it his “dream job,” Cotto said, “I love working with kids” and using the example of his own experience to motivate them. “I strive for excellence every day and to show them it is possible to do what they want to do.” Meanwhile Cotto has earned his GED and now attends classes nights at Middlesex Community College.

Cotto credits YouthBuild for the strides he has made.

“It’s a life-changing experience,” he said of the program.

John Laidler can be reached at laidler@globe.com.

https://www.commteam.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Grant-boosts-job-training-and-GED-program-for-struggling-youths-1-17-2020.docx

https://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/globelocal/2020/01/17/grant-boosts-job-training-and-ged-program-for-struggling-youths/QUdpkdoN90V1RNU36GbyNJ/story.html