Call for Applications in Box Butte County
November 7, 2024
Last week a Box Butte County-specific Youth Grantmaking Project Call for Applications was released by Snow-Redfern Foundation, who has committed $30,000 over two grant cycles ($15k each): one launching in late 2024 and the other in early 2025. A small group of community members and young people have formed the Box Butte County Giving Circle and will come together to collectively decide how grant dollars will be used to impact youth in Box Butte County. The Call for Applications will be open through December 13, 2024.
The pilot project marks the second year of a three-year commitment that Snow-Redfern Foundation made to supporting Box Butte County, which comprised of $85,000 for capacity development and youth engagement in partnership with youth-serving community organizations, including the Alliance Recreation Center, Box Butte (UNL) Extension, and Panhandle Public Health District.
Snow-Redfern Foundation, an Alliance-based private foundation dedicated to elevating youth voice, advancing community impact, and enhancing systems of care for young people, has been transforming their approach to grantmaking, which is deeply rooted in participatory philanthropy, and its purpose is for youth to have a permanent seat at the decision-making table.
For years, the foundation has been known for providing supportive funding directly to youth and youth serving organizations across Nebraska. Now, the foundation is actively exploring ways to improve grantmaking practices through collective learning experiences and a commitment to equity. A marked transition from a traditional grantmaking approach to intentional collaboration with nonprofit partners, community members with lived experience, local stakeholders, and most importantly- young people-is intended to redistribute decision-making to the youth and community, recognizing local people best understand local needs.
This works builds upon an environmental scan that Snow-Redfern commissioned in 2022 to help identify the needs of young people across the Panhandle (https://www.snowredfern.org/helping-kids/). This was followed by a Teen Opportunity Survey completed by nearly 4,000 sixth-12th graders in the 23 Panhandle School Districts through a project funded in part by Snow-Redfern Foundation with the Snow-Redfern founded program, Career Connections of Western Nebraska, which is managed by Twin Cities Development as the backbone entity. Themes among survey participants were that young people would like more community activities for youth and families to come together, additional job opportunities, including jobs for teens, safe places to hang out with positive fun activities, and more places to eat and shop locally. Respondents were also interested in improvements to parks, roads and
infrastructure including housing, schools, and healthcare facilities. (read the full report at https://www.snowredfern.org/helping-kids/). The data from this survey will help guide the Giving Circle in making grant decisions.
Snow-Redfern Foundation encourages community partners that are interested in supporting youth residing in Box Butte County to apply at: https://www.snowredfern.org/bbc/ or by emailing Snow-Redfern at [email protected] for more information.