October 2020
Youth for Community Improvement Returns

GWCF’s Youth for Community Improvement program (YCI) is back for its 21st session. YCI is Worcester County’s only non-school based, youth grantmaking initiative. It’s dedicated to empowering young people to make important funding decisions for their community while developing philanthropic and leadership skills along the way. This year’s class of nine dedicated students meet each week to find creative initiatives designed to make the Worcester community more equitable and just. This year, they are requesting proposals for projects that address both racial equity and COVID-19 relief. Apply for funding by Nov. 9th.
 
Since its creation in 1999, YCI has engaged more than 200 high schoolers from diverse socio-economic backgrounds and awarded more than $300,000 to more than 75 nonprofit organizations in Worcester County.
Fields and Cavaioli 
Tackle Nonprofit Leadership During COVID-19

It was a special moment as one new-to-the-Woo female nonprofit leader, GWCF President and CEO Barbara Fields (left), spoke with veteran nonprofit expert, YWCA Executive Director Linda Cavaioli (right), in the latest installment of the Worcester Business Journal’s executive one-on-one interview series.

Fields has been on the job in Worcester for a little over a year while Cavaioli has headed the YWCA for nearly three decades. Interviewing each other, the pair touched on the many ways Worcester has changed and how their organizations are adapting. Both Fields and Cavaioli emphasized how important it has been for their organizations to amplify diverse voices and community needs.
 
“This country is now at a pivot point in our reckoning around racial inequality and our failures in this area,” noted Fields during the conversation. “Both of our organizations have made racial equity a priority.”
High School Students Donate Proceeds from Poetry Anthology to Worcester Together Fund

Gifts of all shapes and sizes helped the Greater Worcester Community Foundation and its partners raise more than $10 million from residents and organizations across Worcester County. Here is one story of a donation sparked by the writings of high school poetry students in the era of COVID-19.

Over the summer, the Foundation received a note from Aaron Stephenson, a teacher and academic partnership coordinator at Worcester Academy, accompanying a $400 donation to the Worcester Together fund. In April, national poetry month, inspired by Juan Matos, Worcester’s poet laureate, among other notable writers, the students composed prose in Spanish which Stephenson collected. “Poetry for a Cause” is a more-than-220-page collection of odes, remembrances, and reflections.
Notes on My One-Year Anniversary

In the Foundation’s latest blog post, President and CEO Barbara Fields describes how she immersed herself in “all things Central Mass” during her first year on the job.
 
As many milestones did this year, GWCF President and CEO Barbara Fields’s (right) one-year anniversary at the Greater Worcester Community Foundation came and went in the fog of the pandemic. Now, as the weather cools and we enter the busy fall season, she is taking a moment to reflect.
Long Read: Twitter’s Co-Founder is Giving on a Grand Scale

Now, more than ever, people across the country are turning to philanthropy to help their communities in this time of uncertainty. Like many of the generous donors who gave to Worcester Together, the co-founder of Twitter (left) is stepping up in a big way to assist those most in need due to COVID-19. Read about Jack Dorsey’s recent philanthropy, how he’s creating outlets for those who need immediate aid, and his support of organizations building lasting infrastructure to solve long-term equity issues.
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Greater Worcester Community Foundation