Enrichment Programs

Project: Enrichment

The New Haven Schools Foundation was originally formed for the main purpose of providing funds to extra-curricular activities in our schools. This has been an important part of our mission since 1981.

In 2008, the Foundation reaffirmed its commitment by launching “Project: Enrichment” as a way to bring new attention to these efforts to support both co-curricular and extra-curricular programs.

Project: Enrichment makes grants available to all grade levels in varied academic and extra-curricular areas. Each year, the Foundation provides guidelines for grant proposals, along with instructions for submitting an online request. Grant proposals may generally be submitted in the spring of each year, and are announced in the New Haven E-News and via social media.

A subcommittee made up of Foundation Board members reviews the applications in the early spring and the winners are selected. The final step of the process is to deliver the funds to the classrooms, as winning a grant is a very exciting event for the student beneficiaries.

For inspiration, please take a look at some of the programs that have received grants in the past.

Historic Milestone

During the 2011 – 2012 and 2012 – 2013 school years, budget cuts by the State of California forced us to suspend awarding “Project: Enrichment” grants in order to focus on the greater need. This huge annual funding shortfall meant that many co- and extra-curricular programs in our schools would be drastically cut or discontinued altogether. These cuts affected programs such as athletics and music, as well as any other program outside normal classroom hours.

The Foundation got to work to bridge the gap. Working in partnership with the New Haven Boosters Association, we pledged to raise $100,000 to keep these wonderful programs going during the recession. It has been one of our proudest accomplishments that we were able to meet this pledge in BOTH 2012 – 2012 and 2012 – 2013!

The impact of this pledge can be seen with this great example: in the first year of the pledge, 48 coaching and assistant coaching positions were saved. Students at all levels were able to continue their after-school activities.