Contact Peter Helt at [email protected] – for more information on how to apply for a Community Grant

2025 Community Grant Awards

It is with great pride that we share our Community Giving Grant Committee’s Board-approved list of award winners for 2025. A total of 46 organizations will receive $285,000 in grants. This is another record amount of funding resulting from our very successful LobsterFest!

Life Skills for Low-Income Adults, Primarily Immigrants

Burroughs Community Center – Bridgeport

Caroline House – Bridgeport

Connecticut Institute for Refugees and Immigrants – Bridgeport

Mercy Learning Center – Bridgeport

Formal Education for Children from Low-Income Families

A Better Chance – Westport

Adam J. Lewis Academy – Bridgeport

Park City Prep Charter School – Bridgeport

College Scholarships for Students with Income Constraints or Health Issues

Norwalk Housing Foundation – Norwalk

Staples Tuition Grants – Westport

The Susan Fund – Westport

Services for Victims of Domestic or Sexual Violence

Domestic Violence Crisis Center – Stamford

The Rowan Center – Stamford

Services for Senior Citizens

ElderHouse – Norwalk

Friends of the Westport Senior Center – Westport

Counseling for Children and Young Adults with Legal Issues

Catalyst CT – Bridgeport

Center for Children’s Advocacy – Bridgeport

Medical Services

Westport Volunteer EMS – Westport

Job Training and Life Skills To Address Recidivism

HomeBridge Ventures – Bridgeport

Environmental Issues

Sustainable Westport – Westport

2025 Grant Winners Mission Statements

A Better Chance of Westport

A Better Chance is a national program that refers academically talented inner-city students to some of the nation’s finest independent and public schools.  Since opening their doors in 2002, A Better Chance of Westport has been transforming lives through educational opportunity.

Adam J. Lewis Academy

Founded in 2013, Adam J. Lewis Academy operates an independent, non-profit, co-educational day school in Bridgeport.  Families only pay as much as they can afford with tuition covering 5% of operating expenses.  The goal is to provide an enriching educational environment setting a foundation of future educational success for students that would not otherwise have such an opportunity.

Bridgeport Caribe Youth Leaders 

BCYL provides under-served youth with sports, educational and civic direction to help them build the self-esteem and character need to reach their full potential.  The goal is provide sufficient support necessary to help them remain in school and graduate from High School.

Bridgeport Rescue Mission

To fight poverty from the inside out by embracing people with the compassion of Christ, offering hope and healing for a changed life.

To excel in providing food, safe housing, clothing, education, job training and counseling to neighbors in need.

We provide vital services to men, women, and children facing hunger, homelessness, and addiction, offering help to heal and return to the community whole.

Builders Beyond Borders 

B3 provides an opportunity for high school students to build character, responsibility and leadership by participating in local and global community service.  B3 allows students to work along-side residents both domestically and internationally to build facilities that provide essential services.

Burroughs Community Center

The Burroughs Community Center offers affordable space to non-for-profit organizations with socially focused missions.  Burroughs works with their partners to promote education, civic engagement, employment preparation and English language skills.

Caroline House

The mission of Caroline House is to enable women and children to reach their full potential through education in English language and life skills.  Programs educate and encourage children from inner-city Bridgeport households.  One special focus is providing preschoolers with sufficient English skills to allow them to thrive in English only kindergarten.

Carver Foundation of Norwalk

Carver strives to close opportunity gaps for children by providing after school and summer activities and by collaborating with school districts, community organizations and parents.  In 2020, Carver serves more than 2500 children in 17 Norwalk public schools, Carver Community Center and Classical Studies Magnet Academy in Bridgeport.

Catalyst CT

Together, we work diligently to be a part of the solution to reduce youth and gun violence, advocate for healthier communities, and create a positive impact that extends far beyond today for the underserved and marginalized youth, families, and neighborhoods throughout Southwestern CT and beyond.

Center for Children’s Advocacy 

CCA was established to protect the legal rights of vulnerable children including their right to appropriate services from education, health, DCF and juvenile justice systems.  CCA attorneys are available at schools, hospitals and in the community.  CCA advocates both for individual rights and for reforms to protect the most vulnerable.

CLASP Homes

CLASP serves adults with autism and related developmental disabilities in group homes and apartment settings.  Over 80 men and women are served in Westport, Fairfield, Wilton, Norwalk, Trumbull, Shelton and Stratford.  The primary mission to provide of the residential program is to establish long-term situations where people can feel safe, enjoy life and establish meaningful relationships.

Club 203

Club 203’s mission is to provide fun, engaging, social and recreational activities for adults (18+) with disabilities. It was established in 2022 as a project of Westport Uiman Services Commission for People with Disabilities.

Connect Institute for Refugees and Immigrants

The Connecticut Institute for Refugees and Immigrants, Inc. (CIRI) is a statewide nonprofit organization that assists refugees and immigrants resolve legal, economic, linguistic and social barriers so that they become self-sufficient, integrated and contributing members of the community. CIRI achieves this mission by providing a compassionate array of high-quality legal, social and educational programming and by promoting cross cultural understanding and decent treatment for all.

Connect Us

Connect Us  brings together suburban and urban neighbors to improve the quality of outcomes for young people living in communities of concentrated poverty.  Youth programs include performing arts, preparation of older teens for the workforce and training high school students in leadership skills.

Domestic Violence Crisis Center

DVCC advocates for individuals who are experiencing abuse in personal relationships.  Services and staff support those experiencing domestic abuse by assisting them in building a safer environment for wellbeing of themselves and their families.  DVCC serves the communities of Stamford, Norwalk, Darien, New Canaan, Weston, Westport and Wilton.

Earthplace

Earthplace is a nature discovery and environmental learning center and home to the largest open space and nature sanctuary in Westport.  The 74 contiguous acres offer children and families opportunities for nature discovery, exploration and outdoor fun.  The site includes 2.5 miles of trails.

ElderHouse

ElderHouse enhances the quality of life for aging adults and their caregivers through a broad range of trusted, compassionate, and enriching day services and home-based support.

Experience Camp 

Experience Camps, founded in 2009, is a national, no-cost program for grieving children who have experienced the death of a parent, sibling or primary caregiver. Our one-week, overnight summer grief camps, year-round programs, and content help to reframe the experience of grief, and empower kids with the necessary coping skills to move forward with their lives. Through compassion, connection, and play, Experience Camps allows grieving children to embody a life full of hope and possibility.

First Serve Bridgeport

FSB’s mission is to provide a path to success for Bridgeport’s underserved youth through education and tennis. It provides comprehensive tennis and education programming year-round free of charge.

Food Rescue US 

Founded in 2011 in Fairfield County, Food Rescue is dedicated to eliminating hunger and food waste, keeping food out of landfills and reducing greenhouse gasses. It engages volunteer and food donors through a proprietary app to directly transfer nutritious excess food to social agencies serving the food insecure.

Friends of the Westport  Center for Senior Activities

 The Friends of the Westport Center for Senior Activities (FWCSA) supports the Westport Center for Senior Activities’ mission of providing an activity-based “home away from home” for our senior community. FWCSA augments the programs offered at the Center with exciting speakers, programs, and events throughout the year. We hope you will join in and experience all that the Center has to offer.

Homesbridge Ventures 

Homebridge Ventures seeds to break the cycle of recidivism hrough transformative relationships, trama-responsive job training and placement, and a supportive community for justice-involved people that leads to the opporunity to heal and obtain gainful employment.

Homes for the Brave

Homes for the Brave provides housing, vocational training, and life skills coaching to help individuals leave homelessness behind. To date, we have worked with over 1,450 men and women, most of whom are Veterans.

Homes with Hope

Homes with Hope is devoted to addressing the special needs and problems of homeless families and individuals and people at risk of becoming homeless in Fairfield County.  Programs include a food pantry and soup kitchen, two emergency shelters and 47 units of permanent supportive housing for the chronically homeless.  Support services  are provided to provide life skills critical to preventing homelessness.

Horizons at  Green’s Farms Academy 

Horizon’s GFA partners with Bridgport public school students impacted by educational inequity to help them develop strong academic and social-emotional skills to succedd in school and pursue a purposeful, choice-filled life. The program at GFA was established in 2000 with 26 students in kindergarten and 1st grade, and now serves over 330 students in three component programs: Pre K – 8th grade, high school and college and career launch.

Horizons at Norwalk Community College

The program advances educational equity by building long-term partnerships with students, familites and schools to create experiences outside of school that inspire the joy of learning.

Horizons at Sacred Heart University

 The program advances educational equity by building long-term partnerships with students, familites and schools to create experiences outside of school that inspire the joy of learning.

Kids In Crisis

Kids in Crisis’ mission is to build healthy communities where children and families thrive through prevention, counseling andd crisis services available 24 hours every day. Kids in Crisis has provided critical crisis prevention and ontervention services to 164,000 children, newborn to age 18, and their families since 1978. Kids in crisis serves any child and their family, without regard to race, religion, ethnicity, gender identity, socio-economic statusm community of origin or sexual orientation.

Mercy Learning Center 

Mercy provides basic literacy and life skills training women with low income using a holistic approach with a supportive environment.  Mercy provides a variety of programming for women including part-time tutoring, full-time classroom instruction, technology education. Holistic support services include childcare, nursing, citizen application assistance as well as providing food and diapers to all program participants.

Mid-Fairfield Child Guidance Center

Mid-Fairfield serves as a safety net for lower- and middle-income families across the greater Norwalk region who cannot access or afford private mental/behavioral health services for their children.  Mid-Fairfield helps children and adolescents who suffer from severe behavioral health disorders due to stressful life events or traumatic experiences.

My Team Triumph

My Team Triumph is a non-profit athletic mentoring program created for children, teens, adults and veterans with disabilities who would normally not be able to experience endurance events such as triathlons or road races.

Norwalk Housing Foundation

Founded in 2000, Norwalk Housing Foundation was established to raise funds for college scholarships and other educational services for families that live in public housing in Norwalk.  The goal is to help resident students get into college, stay in college and earn a degree.  The program is administered by Norwalk Housing Authority staff and as such all funds raised go directly to the students.

Open Doors

Open Doors is committed to ending homelessness in the Greater Norwalk area. It provides street outreach, shelter case management and affordable housing opportunities to help those most in need get on a path toward housing stability.

Park City Prep Charter School

Park City Prep Charter School is a middle school designed to prepare students for admission to and success at, selective college preparatory high schools.  Park City Prep uses donations to support scholarships for students of strong academic potential but without the means to accept placement at top quality area High Schools.

 Positive Directions

Positive Directions provides behavioral health treatment and counseling to adults, adolescents, children and families experiencing mental health issues, substance abuse or other addictive behaviors. Positive Directions also spearheads programs designed to prevent under-age drinking in Westport, Weston and Wilton.

Saint Catherine Center for Special Needs

 Saint Catherine Center for Special Needs fosters the educational, spiritual, and social well-being of young people with disabilities through a continuum of direct services in our Adult Services Program and Saint Catherine Academy. We also provide support for faith formation and inclusion in local parishes and Catholic schools.

Staples Tuition Grants

Staples Tuition Grants provides college scholarships to Staples High School graduates that need financial assistance to attend college.  Originally established in 1943, Staples Tuition Grants helps close the gap between cost what students and their families can afford.

Sustainable Westport 

The mission of Sustainable Westport is to inspire, support, and connect residents, organizations, and the Town of Westport in making both small changes and big commitments toward a healthier, more sustainable future.

Through innovative programs, educational initiatives, and collaborative partnerships, we empower Westporters to reduce their environmental footprint, adopt clean energy solutions, and cultivate a greener, more resilient town.

Team Woofgang & Co.

Team Woofgang was founded in 2017 by three Fairfield mothers of young adults with disabilities. Their mission is to provide meaningful job skills and vocational training for disabled individuals who have aged out of public schoo; system support.

The Rowan Center

We counsel victims and survivors as they process their experiences of sexual violence from the past, we advocate for them as they navigate the circumstances of the present, and we educate our communities to prevent sexual violence in the future.

The Susan Fund

For 42 years, The Susan Fund has provided educational scholorships to Fairfield County students who have been diagnosed with cancer. It has grown significantly since 1982 in both the number of grants awards and the total amount bestowed, which now exceeds $2 million.

Urban Impact of Black Rock

Urban Impact is a organization of volunteers that mentor and tutor at-risk youth in Bridgeport.   The mission is to offer at-risk youth educational, mentoring and perspective-expanding opportunities through in school and after school activities.  Often, simply encouraging and helping a student with homework can greatly increase a student’s ability to learn.

Westport Book Sales Ventures

 Westport Library Book Sales are a long-standing community tradition, powered by a dedicated team of over 70 volunteers year-round, and over 200 additional volunteers who support our periodic book sale events. ​The book sales’ mission includes providing meaningful competitive employment and volunteer opportunities for adults with disabilities.

Westport Country Playhouse

Through the art of theatr, Westport Country Playhouse brings stories to life that re-examine our own experiences, shine a light on those that have been ignored and ensure a space for those yet to be told.

Westport Dept of Human Services

This program provides funding for summer camps based on need.  Camp Mahackeno and sleep away camps are two examples of places at which camperships have been provided.

Westport Volunteer EMS

Westport Volunteer Emergency Medical Service provides ambulance service for the town of Westport.  The service is funded by a combination of user fees and donations from service organizations and individuals.