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.)