Past & Present Philanthropic Projects

2012

At its April meeting, The Spirit of Construction (SOC) Foundation board of directors awarded total funding for 2012 in the amount of $110,000 to the following grant recipients:

 • Ace Mentor Program – Cincinnati

ACE Mentor Cincinnati provides architectural, engineering, and construction management mentors to high school students. This is a national program with affiliates that serve youth teams within designated cities or regions. Teams are composed of 15-25 students and their industry mentors.

 SOC funding for ACE will be used for operations, construction materials, transportation to building sites, and scholarships.

 • Betts House

Funding provided to the Bond at the Betts summer program. The program offers young people, ages 8 to 16, enrolled in urban recreation center summer programs, a hands-on introduction to the building trades. Activities have included mixing mortar and laying brick, house painting, roofing, blacksmithing, and an introduction to architecture.

• Butler Tech/Northwest Construction Tech/Management

SOC will provide support of Butler Tech’s construction program initiatives, including construction career counseling and building materials. Butler Tech provides education to more than 27,000 high school and adult students. Butler Tech is the largest career-technical school district in the state of Ohio.

• Construction Advocate

The Spirit provided continued funding to The Southwest Ohio Region Workforce Investment Board (SWORWIB) for a construction advocate, Ann Mitchell. The advocate supports efforts to engage middle school students, encouraging them to stay in school, succeed in math, science, and language classes, and consider all the options for a career in construction.

 Ms. Mitchell engages students through summer camps and construction clubs (a free, eight-week after-school program run by local volunteers to introduce students to various aspects of construction). 

 Students who join construction clubs meet each week for two hours. The curriculum includes sessions on site plans, concrete, carpentry, masonry, drywall, electric, plumbing, and paint; local contractors come to the school each week to teach children their specialties.

• Construction Career Days

Spirit’s grant will fund this hands-on event designed to engage and excite high school students about careers in construction. It puts both traditional and non-traditional students in the seat of heavy equipment and in front of engineering software as well as introducing them to various trade opportunities.

• Dan Beard Council, Boy Scouts of America

Grant funding is provided to Camp Friedlander’s merit badge instruction for vocational skills. The program will introduce scouts ages 11 to 18 to the skilled trades. There are 11 merit badges that relate directly to the construction industry. The program will bring the youth into contact with adults that work in specific construction fields.

 • Rosie’s Girls/YWCA

Spirit supports this unique summer program for 11-13 year old girls designed to build self-esteem, physical confidence, interpersonal cooperation, and leadership skills through learning and applying basic skills in carpentry and other technical trades. 

 

2011

Spirit of Construction Foundation provides funding for a Construction Advocate (Anne Mitchell) who works with middle school students to encourage careers in construction.

Anne kept a journal during a summer of 2011 playhouse build that middle school students undertook and completed. Read more...

The playhouse will be auctioned off at the Spirit’s 2011 Gala (Saturday, October 22).

2009

Funding and support continued towards the Spirit's $160,000 Construction Advocate program. Partial scholarship funding supported students at the following institutions of higher learning: Cincinnati State Technical & Community College, Northern Kentucky University, and University of Cincinnati. Rosie's Girls received funding of $10,000 in support of their camp for adolescent girls who are taught skilled trades as way of building confidence, self-esteem, and leadership.

2008

$160,000 grant to pilot the Construction Advocate program. The purpose of the program is to begin the development of a "workforce pipeline” by targeting middle school students and their parents and marketing the construction industry as a favorable career option for diverse candidates.

2007

$50,000 donated as a matching grant toward minority and women scholarships at the University of Cincinnati's College of Engineering and Applied Science.

2006

  $4,000 awarded to college scholars studying towards completion of construction related degrees. 

2005

Donated $2500 to the Associated Schools of Construction for the annual conference held in Cincinnati. 

2003, 2004

Donated $2500 to the CWDC career day event. Awarded two $1000 scholarships to students at the University of Cincinnati’s College of Applied Science in 2003 and awarded four $1000 scholarships in 2004.

2004, 2005

Provided funding of $1500 each year to the Betts House Research Foundation in Cincinnati to support programs to attract inner-city youths to the building trades.

2001

Pledged $2500 in a collaborative venture with the Cincinnati Chapter of the AIA to fund a project to provide for the Beautification of Downtown Cincinnati.

2001, 2000 & 1999

Provided funding of $1000 each year to the Betts House Research Foundation in Cincinnati to support programs to attract inner-city youths to the building trades.

2000 & 1999

Funded students in the University of Cincinnati Dept. of Construction Sciences to participate in both regional and national construction management and design/build competitions. Total of $2500 provided; the students received several regional and national awards.

2000

Provided $700 to partially fund a Seminar linking the Design and Construction aspects of a project, in collaboration with the Cincinnati AIA Chapter.

2000

Donated $2000 towards the funding of the Robert W. Dorsey Endowed Scholarship (retired Chair of the U.C. Dept. of Construction Science and one of the Spirit of Construction founding members) which provides for scholarships for students in the University of Cincinnati's Dept. of Construction Science.

1998

Sponsored and organized the $300,000 fund drive for the Construction Exhibit in the Children's Museum at the Cincinnati Museum Center. (Companies made pledges directly to the Museum Center and the Museum staff did the follow-up.)