The Canyon City Foundation Board of Directors recently approved grants for nearly $200,000 to address the needs of Azusa residents. Foundation Board Treasurer Marilyn Grinsdale stated, “During this unprecedented time, we are pleased to be able to invest in the lives of Azusa residents.”
In an effort to alleviate some of the pandemic’s impact on Azusa’s youngest
residents, two organizations that will receive grant funds are the Azusa Unified School District (AUSD) and Neighborhood Homework House. A hallmark of the Foundations’ investment in the community has been in the area of education.
The Board of Directors continues to recognize the importance of educational attainment in increasing the overall health of the community. After learning of students’ lack of internet access, the Foundation awarded a grant of $35,000 to AUSD to ensure that all students in the district were able to access their classes online.
AUSD Superintendent Arturo Ortega responded, “Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Azusa Unified School District will begin the year in a distance learning format. This will require all students to be connected to the internet in order to access instruction. This generous donation from the Canyon City Foundation will provide internet connection for our AUSD families who lack access. The district will purchase internet connection from service providers, as well as hot spots for families who are unable to install internet in their homes.”
Neighborhood Homework House, a partner with the school district in supporting students and their families, received a grant of $55,000 from the Foundation. The majority of the funds will be used to continue their direct support work. A smaller portion will be used for a challenge grant to raise additional funds to prepare for resuming face-to-face instruction once that is possible.
Neighborhood Homework House has met the COVID challenge by offering online support to students and their families during the pandemic. At the same time, it looks forward to offering support in their traditional model in the future. Foundation Board President Miles Rosedale declared, “The Board of Directors holds the Neighborhood Homework House up as a model non-profit Azusa agency for its ability to offer services in the City of Azusa for more than two decades and, in doing so, to leverage the Foundations’ support to garner additional funding from many private donors and larger foundations.”
The Foundation Board also awarded $90,000 to the City of Azusa to support two key areas that will promote the overall health of the community. Part of the funds will enable staff to continue to offer important direct services to residents through programs such as English as a Second Language, Neighborhood Connections, and Citizenship classes.
The remainder of the funding will go to support the launch of the All in for Azusa Initiative for a second year. This initiative aims to create a broader safety net of programs and services for the residents. The City of Azusa has been identified as a “prototype” of Healthy San Gabriel Valley, a program that has worked for a decade to improve health and decrease violence in the region.
Healthy San Gabriel Valley has earned the distinction of being one of 13 sites across the State of California to transform the health of our communities, with funding from some of the largest private foundations in the state. The City, supported by the Foundation, will now be able to facilitate All in for Azusa, using evidence-based models that ensure “no wrong door” for social and health services for residents. The Director of Community Resources Dr. Miki Carpenter stated, “This work is crucial, as we must do much more work upstream to prevent poor health in our most vulnerable residents and to improve the quality of life of all Azusans.”
Canyon City Foundation was established in 2005 as an outcome of the sale of Monrovia Nursery property. The Foundation awarded its first grants in 2006 and continues to annually award grants to qualified organizations.
More information about the Foundation and its work can be found at
www.canyoncityfoundation.org or inquiries made to info@canyoncityfoundation.org.