While $1,500 may not seem like a lot of money, it means Womanspace will be able to buy new linens and some books for two housing facilities that it operates for victims of domestic violence.
That’s how much money Womanspace – which helps men, women and children who are the victims of domestic violence and sexual assault – received from the Lawrence Township Community Foundation.
Womanspace was among 13 nonprofit groups that were awarded grants totaling $25,085 by the Lawrence Township Community Foundation during its fall grant cycle. Since its inception in 2002, the foundation has awarded more than $1 million in grants to nonprofit groups in Lawrence and neighboring towns.
The Lawrence Township Community Foundation was the brainchild of Eleanor Horne of the Educational Testing Service, Becky Taylor of Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. and Pam Mount, co-owner of Terhune Orchards.
The three women realized that the needs of Lawrence Township residents could be met by a community foundation. The Educational Testing Service and Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. gave their support to the fledgling foundation, along with attorney Daniel Haggerty of the Stark & Stark law firm and Conrad Druker of the Mercadien Group.
The foundation gives money to nonprofit groups and organizations that help to serve the needs of Lawrence residents, and to support community improvement and development programs in the township.
The fall cycle grants ranged from as little as $300 to the Greater Eldridge Park Neighborhood Association for neighborhood beautification projects, to as much as $4,000, which is the amount awarded to PEI Kids Inc. for the Teen Child Assault Prevention program at the Lawrence Middle School.
For HomeFront, the $2,000 grant that it received means the nonprofit group can buy food for the food pantry at the Lawrence Community Center on Eggerts Crossing Road. HomeFront helps the homeless and the working poor.
Dress for Success, which received $1,965, will use the money to pay for workshops for Lawrence High School students as they prepare to enter the workforce, while a grant for $1820 to the English School at the Lawrence Road Presbyterian Church will cover the cost of student books for immigrants who are learning English.
A grant of $1,000 to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Mercer County will help to provide youth mentoring for 15 children at the Ben Franklin Elementary School on Princeton Pike.
People & Stories/Gente y Cuentos will use its $1,000 grant to provide a pair of eight-session literature reading and discussion programs for senior citizens at the Lawrence Senior Center and the Lawrence Plaza age-restricted apartment building.
A $1,500 grant to Interfaith Caregivers of Greater Mercer County will be used to support the Healthy Bones program at the Lawrence Senior Center, and a $2,500 grant to Camp Fire in New Jersey will pay for a youth development program for eight 3rd-grade classrooms.
Grants of $2,500 apiece to Lawrenceville Main Street and NAMI Mercer will be used to pay for the Music in the Park program and for a social support group for people who are recovering from mental illness, respectively.
And a $2,500 grant to Meals on Wheels of Mercer County will subsidize the cost of 833 meals for Lawrence Township residents who are enrolled in the program. Meals on Wheels provides a hot lunch to senior citizens who are home-bound and to persons suffering from a physical or mental disability who cannot leave home.
