The Board of Directors of the United Way of Bemidji Area recently awarded $8,491 to four organizations seeking funding through its United Way Venture Grant program.  The programs/projects selected represent a broad spectrum of community needs in the areas of sexual assault, youth and families.

The Venture Grant program was created to help area nonprofit health and human service organizations develop new and/or expand programs that address unmet needs in our community.  Grants are awarded as one-time projects or new programs within existing agencies or for start-up funds within a new agency.  Venture Grant applications are accepted and reviewed annually.

The following programs and projects will receive United Way Venture Grant funding in 2008:

Arc Headwaters $1000 -
Recreation and Gift Fund
Arc Headwaters recognizes that many adults with developmental disabilities have extremely limited personal funds and may have no involvement with family members.  The Recreational and Gift Fund project seeks to provide just a small part of what a family would typically provide these individuals.  The project will provide funding for clients to participate in community activities, such as going to the movies, attending plays or concerts, paying for registration fees for special events and camps.  Additionally, with little or no family involvement these individuals receive few gifts, if any, for birthdays and holidays.  The project will fill the gap.  Volunteers will be utilized to shop for gifts and to deliver them to individuals.

Boys & Girls Club of the Bemidji Area $2491 -
Equipment for Teen Nights at the Club
In addressing the need to provide Bemidji area teens with a safe, cool, chemical-free place to hang out, the Boys & Girls Club of the Bemidji Area will purchase sound equipment and gaming systems which will be used to attract teens to the Club’s daily activities, teen nights which are held twice a month, as well as large-scale teen events.   The large-scale teen events held throughout the year feature bands, gaming systems and physical fitness activities such as volleyball or dodge ball in the Club’s gymnasium. 

Evergreen House - $2,500 – Bemidji Rock Sober Community Youth Events
Evergreen House is expanding Rock Sober to include community-wide alcohol and drug-free youth events.  The goal is to have safe, sober community events for youth the on the Fourth of July, Halloween and New Year’s Eve, as well as an additional summer youth concert.   These are occasions when youth are especially attempted to celebrate using alcohol and/or drugs.  Rock Sober is a youth-focused sober support and activity group for teens who are dealing with chemical dependency with the goal of being drug free.  The group, facilitated by an adult, will meet twice each week, once for sober support and once for sober activities. 

Sexual Assault Program $2500 - Teens Engaged in Ending Violence Overall (TEEVO)
The Sexual Assault Program finds that, while most youth are receptive to their message, they are more receptive when the messages are presented by their peers.  The TEEVO project will help organize and coordinate a group of active teens to create an effective peer education program that the teen group will then present in the schools and local groups with the Bemidji School District.  Some of the TEEVO youth will attend this year’s Teen Leadership Summit and Girls Rock! The Capitol, held in St. Paul.  At this summit, the youth will learn how to organize other youth in their communities, hear about activities and events that youth in other areas of the state have organized, and will spend half of one day meeting their state senators and representatives. 

Venture Grant applications are available throughout the year and are due December 31^st of each year, with funding available the following March.   For more information about the Venture Grant process or for an application, please call the United Way office at 444-8929.