NobleCause funds will support Activate Good's 2017 Triangle Teen Day of Service, in Raleigh / Durham, NC (the "Triangle"). The day of service will include a multitude of service projects designed, executed, and led by teens with training and support from Activate Good staff mentors. Service projects will benefit a number of local causes the teens themselves have learned about and expressed interest in supporting. The teens will gain leadership training they can apply to future efforts, both academically and in their careers. Funds will help teens purchase supplies for the service day projects, as well as conduct outreach and marketing to rally volunteers to sign up to participate.

Alabama Possible wants to boost Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) completion in Birmingham City Schools from 36% in 2013 to 70% in 2020.They plan to accomplish their goal through the Cash for College FAFSA Completion Campaign. Cash for College volunteers work with students to complete their FAFSA applications. Alabama Possible will also use learnings from direct service to boost FAFSA completion across the state through local collaborative efforts and AP's systems leadership.

Strong Mom is a Service Learning program at Albany Medical College that provides mentoring and education to pregnant and parenting teenagers. The aim of this program is that each adolescent mother or mother-to-be will set and achieve goals related to a healthy pregnancy, education, employment, and establishing a safe and healthy home for her child. Additionally, the medical student mentors receive training and experience in relationship-building, setting boundaries, assessing social determinants of health, and assisting at-risk individuals in navigating the healthcare system.

Funds from the NobleCause grant will be used to support the Senior Fellows Program and All-School Service Days at Amy Biehl High School. Their mission is for all students to graduate as civic-minded, career-ready, and college-bound scholars. All students participate in volunteer service activities in each of their four years at school, culminating in a 100-hour, self-designed capstone Senior Fellows service-year project. Service is woven into the curriculum at all grade levels, drawing connections between academic and professional success and the importance of giving back to one's community. The Senior Fellows Program is a graduation requirement for every senior at Amy Biehl High School. Each senior selects and works with a local nonprofit partner to design and volunteer a minimum of 100 hours on a project that addresses a community need about which they are passionate. This approach teaches students project planning and career skills, as well as awareness of social and community needs. Contributions to service begin as soon as a student enters Amy Biehl, with All-School Service Days. Once a month, the entire school spends an afternoon volunteering in the community, exposing students to a variety of organizations and the social needs they address.

Through its Senior Fellows and All-School Service Days, Amy Biehl students work with over 140 diverse local nonprofits (typically about 50 per year through Senior Fellows and another 15-20 through All-School Service Days) serving thousands of residents. Amy Biehl's programming serves people in the Albuquerque metro area with a variety of needs, including assistance with hunger and homelessness, community gardening, free bike repair, and providing low-income students with access to the arts. Many of the non-profits return year after year to partner as mentors to seniors or to participate as service sites for All-School Service Days because of the high quality of our training and strong work ethic, a testament to the dedicated work of these students. Amy Biehl High School volunteer hours benefit thousands of high-need residents in the community.

Autism Empowerment offers innovative and inspiring programs, training and services, and opportunities for leadership and volunteerism for those within and supporting the Autism and Asperger community. The nonprofit serves all ages and abilities and promotes four Foundational Pillars of Positivity: Accept Enrich Inspire Empower. The NobleCause grant will support the Autism Serves Kids Care Club, which was created to support youth on the autism spectrum from kindergarten through eighth grade. The club is part of a network of generationOns Kids Care Clubs, groups of young people who volunteer together and perform meaningful hands-on service projects to help others in their communities and around the world.

The grant will provide funding for many of their service projects and activities from April 2016 to March 2017. Funds will be used to assist with training, support, and recognition of club members, as well as their youth and adult volunteers. Additional sensory tools that promote body regulation, increase focus, and lead to more effective learning will be purchased for the club. The grant will also help increase and improve the way program results are tracked and reported.

The Baltimore Community ToolBank will use the NobleCause support to amplify volunteerism in Baltimore and the Mid-Atlantic region by hosting on-site projects, providing tools for partners for off-site projects, hosting intentional networking sessions to connect partners, and providing professional development for core staff. Every dollar of support will echo throughout a network of more than 450 organizations in the region!

The Benedict College Service-Learning and Leadership Development (SLLD) Program will be expanding Preparation for Leadership and Unity through Service (PLUS) Day, the College's annual day of community service that has been celebrated for over 20 years, into PLUS Week, a weeklong service experience. PLUS Week will launch during the spring 2017 semester and culminate on Global Youth Service Day 2017, a weekend of service that is recognized globally. During PLUS week, the staff of SLLD, in collaboration with partnering agencies and student leaders, will develop and coordinate service projects to be implemented by participating Benedict College volunteers that include students, faculty, staff, alumni, and other College constituents. Based on previous data from the number of people served on PLUS Day, we anticipate being able to impact over 30,000 individuals through the services provided during PLUS Week. The demographic makeup of the participants will range in ages from 15 - 70 and consist of predominately African American students at Benedict College along with participants from partnering agencies.

Camp Horizon has provided year-round, no-cost programs to Metro Atlanta's youth in foster care since 1982. We work to break the cycle of abuse and restore dignity and hope to children, teens, and young adults who have been abused and neglected. Camp Horizon helps them heal and empowers them to make good decisions and lead healthy, productive lives. The funds awarded from NobleCause will be used for volunteer support for our largest and most intense-focused program, Summer Camp 2016. This weeklong overnight camp is for foster children ages 8-11. What makes this camp unique is that we pair each child with their own camp counselor for the week resulting in the most effective mentoring relationship.

Camp Noah will utilize the NobleCause funds to help support our current volunteers in Texas and Oklahoma, as well as assist in recruiting additional volunteers in those states. In addition, we will provide in-person training for our volunteers. Camp Noah volunteers are individuals from all over the United States who respond to kids living in communities that have been impacted by trauma and disaster.

Campus Compact of Oregon's Racial Equity Across College and High School project (REACH) focuses on improving outcomes for students of color and students who will be the first in their family to attend college. REACH provides financial support to 22 colleges and universities and two culturally specific nonprofits to encourage new and support existing partnerships to bring college and high school students together to work on shared volunteer projects that address locally determined needs. Additionally, REACH identifies, trains, and provides ongoing support for a cadre of 65 college students who will serve as lead organizers on their campuses. Training and support will focus on providing students with an equity lens by which to address individual, institutional, and systemic racism which limits educational success for all students and perpetuates educational inequities.

CASA of New Hampshire strives to protect the right of our state's most vulnerable children to live, learn, and grow in the embrace of a loving family. Our purpose is to provide well-trained and caring Guardians ad Litem (GALs) for abused and neglected children who come to the attention of NH's courts through no fault of their own. Generous funds provided by NobleCause will help support the recruitment, training, and supervision of additional volunteer advocates so that every child victim has a strong, compassionate voice.

CASA of Trinity Valley provides an advocate in court for every child in Anderson, Cherokee, and Henderson Counties who has been removed from his or her home because of abuse / neglect and placed in the custody of Child Protection Services. We are an independent voice speaking for the child's best interests so he or she may be placed in a safe, forever home, as soon as possible. The NobleCause grant will allow CASA to raise awareness about their mission, recruit and train 25-30 volunteers across three counties, and diversify the racial and ethnic mix of CASA child advocates.

Mille Lacs Food Effort (Rural Life Leadership Development Initiative, Phase 3)In the ongoing work of Catholic Charities in the Onamia and Isle communities in Minnesota, we have identified food insecurity as a major issue for many of our children and elderly. Catholic Charities rural leadership development will engage community in a two-pronged approach to food insecurity in Mille Lacs County. One, we will continue direct service efforts that have already been identified as school backpack food programs, summer food delivery efforts and food delivery to elderly/immobile populations. Two, we will begin a conversation on the root causes of the local food insecurity that requires our attention and community action.

As a grateful recipient of a $50,000 NobleCause grant award, the Quixote Quest program at Center For Family Services will address unmet needs in the community by utilizing the power of volunteerism. Quixote Quest fosters a culture of volunteerism among New Jersey high school teens, providing them the opportunity to take action and bring lasting change to the communities we all share. Quixote Quest pairs teen volunteers with meaningful weekly volunteer service opportunities. The Quixote Quest teen volunteers make a commitment to invest their time to make a change in the lives of people or animals in need. Quixote Quest members support projects that impact the lives of rescue or shelter animals, economically disadvantaged children, individuals with developmental disabilities, at-risk girls, or the medically fragile or elderly. Through the service learning experience, Quixote Quest, in partnership with NobleHour and TreeTop Commons, will mobilize a new generation of passionate, informed leaders who are connected and caring citizens.

The Center of Concern is a nonprofit social service agency providing services and housing solutions to seniors, the disabled, and others in need, enabling them to live safely and independently. "Connecting for Good" will build upon the Senior Services Program the Center of Concern currently provides to area citizens by introducing digital technology to seniors partnered with trained volunteers. The program will match high school and young adult volunteers with seniors wishing to form a stronger link to family members and the community by teaching access to an array of online services. "Connecting for Good" will use volunteers to teach and demonstrate digital opportunities for seniors. A majority of the funds will be used to recruit, train, and retain community volunteers.

The Chicago Conservation Corps (C3) is the Chicago Academy of Sciences / Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum's flagship environmental sustainability program. C3 recruits, trains, and supports a network of volunteer leaders who improve the quality of life in neighborhoods across Chicago through self-determined service projects that address the environmental sustainability needs of their own communities. Through the program, C3 has trained over 650 leaders who have completed 616 projects in every ward city-wide. Thank you to NobleCause for supporting these important efforts.

Through Community Harvest Project's Volunteer Farming Program, members of our community will learn about hunger relief, engage in basic farming techniques to grow and harvest fruits and vegetables, build leadership skills, and serve their community. Our goal is to engage recipients of our produce in the work on the farm. Through NobleCause funding we will provide transportation to urban youth and nonprofit groups to help them participate in this program. Funding will also provide for nutrition education so they are aware where their food comes from and how increased consumption will improve their health. We will also use funding to purchase computers for our new automated sign-in process. Through their experience of building community through farming, our recipients will improve the health of their community.

SLAM! Program Los Angeles trains college student musicians to teach after school music classes in local middle and high schools with limited or entirely absent music programs. We provide a robust coaching and professional development program for our college volunteers and work closely with each school partner to offer a variety of weekly contemporary after school music classes. Sponsorship from NobleCause will support the mobilization of 50 UCLA SLAM! volunteers during the 2016-2017 school year. The volunteers will be supervised and coached by our UCLA SLAM! Program manager to deliver weekly music classes to nearly 200 participating students across five underserved Los Angeles schools.

The Community Mediation project will consist of recruiting, training, and retaining volunteers to become community mediators for our various community mediation programs within Montgomery County, MD. Our primary goal is to strengthen communities peace by peace.

With NobleCause's support, the Connecticut Veterans Legal Center (CVLC) will strengthen the support system for Connecticut's disabled veterans by training a corps of pro bono attorneys from law firms and corporate counsel offices throughout Connecticut to provide expert legal representation in VA Benefits cases. Legal advocacy for disabled veterans - many of whom suffer from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), and other "invisible" wounds of war - can have a transformative impact on their lives, leading to improved income stability, improved health outcomes, and greater dignity for these wounded soldiers. CVLC will establish the first - and only - statewide education platform in Connecticut for private attorneys seeking to provide effective pro bono representation to veterans in this area of the law.

COVER Home Repair works with NH and VT homeowners within a 45 minute radius of White River Junction, VT. All of our homeowners are below 180% of the Federal Poverty Guideline (FPG) for our area; 86% are at or below 100% of the FPG (approximately $24,000 for a family of four). Our homeowners include families, the elderly, the disabled, veterans, single mothers, and frequently multi-generational households. Many of their homes are on the verge of being uninhabitable due to urgently needed repairs. Or they become inaccessible due to increased or sudden disability. COVER completes 80 home repair projects and 60 weatherization projects annually. We help approximately 200 to 250 people per year. We also see volunteers as a served population. Volunteers in the Upper Valley are looking for high quality, meaningful opportunities to experience community service and add value. COVER works with over 300 volunteers annually who provide over 3000 hours of service. We see no distinction between homeowners and volunteers in terms of served and serving. Our approach is that everyone on the worksite has skills and talents to bring. Homeowners are often taking the biggest risks by inviting volunteers into their homes, and by breaking the social isolation by asking for help. Many homeowners are able and eager to help our staff and volunteers with this work; some homeowners are unable to help. Their collective strength is their ability to ask for help and the courage to invite strangers into their home.

The Cristo Rey Jesuit educational model is renowned for its uniqueness and creativity, which allows for innovative solutions to educate economically challenged students often overlooked by the traditional education model. We prioritize the whole student approach (personal, academic, social, and emotional). As a Jesuit school, our program is fundamentally based in experience and community involvement. Building the Kingdom is a school-wide, year-round program to promote volunteerism and educate students on the importance of service. There are two main parts. First, the students meet in small groups throughout the year and select smaller service projects that take place within the school or the immediate local community. The projects must be on campus or within walking distance and must be completed in an hour or less. The second part of the program is Building the Kingdom Day in which the entire school volunteers in medium to large groups across Houston for three to four hours on the same day. The students volunteer at organizations like Habitat for Humanity, Houston Food Bank, local churches, etc

The Incredible Machine is a project to develop and implement kits and curriculum to introduce K-12 students to various types of engineering through classes, clubs, and day camps. Kits and curriculum will be used in urban and suburban areas to teach engineering in school classes and low-income after school programs. In the summer, the kits will be checked out to programs in rural areas of Utah and youth leaders will be trained to implement the curriculum in clubs and summer camps. The primary goal of the program is to give low-income and rural youth more opportunities to "try-on" engineering and consider pursuing engineering and other STEM careers in the future.

ELK's Youth in Natural Resources (YNR) Leadership Corps program serves youth in high-risk groups who have fewer opportunities to obtain meaningful education, leadership skills, and employment training that lead to future career paths, instead of being shuttled into menial labor or service jobs that provide only the lowest of wages and experience. YNR Leadership Corps youth serve as active leaders in ELK and as youth advisers. They meet at least monthly to learn about and share experiences in leadership, transferable skill building (public speaking, resume building, etc.), and design. They also engage in volunteer stewardship projects providing service to their communities while learning soft and hard employment skills. With funding from the NobleCause grant, YNR Leadership Corps youth will design and engage in one to three intentional volunteer stewardship experiences per month with their peers and on many occasions, corporate partners and mentors. These experiences will impact their sense of social responsibility and allow them the opportunity to learn about and consider careers within a myriad of sectors.

Through the Committing to Connection: Serving Persons in Poverty program, a volunteer leader will receive trainer certification in the Bridges Out of Poverty curriculum for the purpose of teaching/training other volunteers to engage in supportive relationships with persons living in poverty as they develop their own plans to gain stability.

Our Court has developed a plan for tutoring young people involved in our Court. UpGrade Tutoring will utilize college students who volunteer through the University of Central Arkansas (UCA) Service Learning Project, Hendrix College, and Central Baptist College. The tutors come every Tuesday and Thursday afternoon and through the generosity of NobleCause, we will provide laptops for the students to use and log into Google Classroom where most of their assignments are found. They will also do internet research for their projects. The college student tutors and our Juvenile Court staff will supervise the coursework and the laptops will be safely stored when not in use. We look forward to the improvement in school performance for the young people involved in our court.

Every year the Forest Park Conservancy puts on the Spring and Fall Days of Stewardship, two signature events that mobilize hundreds of volunteers to work on pressing ecological needs in Forest Park. Forest Park is facing threats from invasive species, climate change, and the impacts of a rapidly growing urban area. The Days of Stewardship are our most effective, on the ground restoration events every year. At these events we plant native trees and shrubs, pull English ivy and other invasives species, and repair damaged trails. These actions help improve habitat for sensitive native wildlife, increase forest biodiversity, and lessen impacts of recreational use in Forest Park. We will use funds from NobleCause to provide transportation, food, coffee, and supplies to support the restoration projects and participating volunteers at the Days of Stewardship. This will include snacks for volunteers during the work parties, and also food and drinks for a volunteer appreciation after-party. At the after-party we will also give out t-shirts and other donated prizes to thank our amazing volunteers. With support from NobleCause we will be able to increase the amount of volunteers we can coordinate on the two Days of Stewardship from 213 volunteers in 2014/2015 to 300 volunteers in 2016/2017. We will also be able to provide volunteer appreciation to thank our existing volunteers and engage new volunteers, thereby growing community support for the restoration and stewardship of Forest Park.

Funding from NobleCause will allow us to further develop our new project, CREATE Workshop. This program is for transitional partner agency sites, those at which youth are not permanently enrolled or housed. The program allows volunteers to sign up to work with youth on a semi-regular (one to four session[s] per month) basis to create art in a workshop style setting for 2.5 hours (two hours of youth contact) per session. Volunteers serve in teams of 3 - 6 people and work with 10 - 20 youth in each session. Volunteers have the option to serve a full or half term and commit to one social service agency partner for all of their sessions. This program is run in our Spring (February - April), Summer (June - August), and Fall (September - December) terms. We have nine social service agency partners committed for the CREATE Workshop in Fall 2016.

The purpose of this project is to advance our ability to recruit and train volunteers to serve the Georgia Cares mission of ensuring that child sex trafficking victims receive quality care and services in the state of Georgia. We will utilize funding from NobleCause to create an interactive tool on our website that will increase the knowledge of interested individuals on the issue of Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Children (CSEC) and Domestic Minor Sex Trafficking (DMST). This tool will also give those interested in volunteering an understanding of how they can join Georgia Cares in serving victims of CSEC/DMST and inform them of the steps necessary to apply for volunteer opportunities.

Gonzaga's Civic Engagement Pathways Program extends student engagement beyond direct service to such civic pathways as advocacy, community-based learning and research, philanthropy, and social innovation. A team of student interns will work in partnership with local community-based organizations to develop projects along these engagement pathways. These projects will build campus and community capacity, engage students across the University, and will be sustainable and/or replicable. The goal is to create a new student engagement program that develops our students' civic aptitudes, expands their civic capacities, and enhances their understanding of the ways in which they may contribute to their community now and well beyond graduation.

Groundwork Elizabeth oversees Come Grow With Us Community Garden and Farm Program, an urban agriculture program where we build gardens, grow organic produce, share information and skills with the community, and host an array of hands on programming which involves the need for many volunteers. For 2016, we developed a new program called Friends and Family Farm Days. The funds from NobleCause will help us reach out to interested diverse community members and connect them to work at the Kean University Farm at Liberty Hall and other community gardens associated with the program. The NobleHour database software will be invaluable in capturing new volunteers, tracking hours, and monitoring tasks. It will also help us better serve volunteers who have been involved with our program.

Gulf Coast's Woman to Woman Program is an evidence based prevention program for teen mothers and pregnant girls who are at high risk for academic failure and repeat pregnancies. The Program provides one on one mentoring from trained volunteer mentors. The volunteer mentors form a community committed to the personal growth and empowerment of the teens. NobleCause funds will be used for retention efforts with the volunteer mentors. As volunteers, they do not get reimbursed for mileage or gas. Often they would love to do more, but sometimes cannot afford the gas that it takes for transportation. The NobleCause funds will be specifically used to provide the volunteer mentors with gas cards to help ease the costs associated with transporting their teen to and from the monthly meetings.

Habitat of Lenawee is focusing on neighborhood revitalization.This grant will provide incentives in the Race to Rebuild contest being held during Home Improvement Summer. The purpose of the contest is to encourage residents to improve the look of the exterior of their home within a given time period with added incentives and the help of volunteers.

HandsOn Tomorrow is a two-week, intensive summer leadership and volunteering program for Bay Area high school students. The goal of the program is to encourage our young participants to be the change they wish to see in the world, and to organize together to become community leaders in the Bay Area and beyond. Each morning, participants will gather at a pre-selected nonprofit in San Francisco to learn leadership and team-building skills through fun, hands-on exercises and activities. In the afternoon, participants will put their newly-acquired skills to work through a service project that benefits their host nonprofit, which will be followed by time for group reflection and discussion. At the end of the program, participants will design, develop, and manage a capstone service project of their own. The capstone will provide opportunities for participants to engage their peers from their schools, church, sports groups, and neighborhoods through service events. Participants will gain a greater understanding of pressing community needs, use critical thinking to brainstorm solutions, act on specific plans, and reflect on the successes and challenges of implementation

HandsOn Broward, Broward County's premier volunteer connector hub, believes that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s message of equality and social uplift is too powerful to be limited to a single day of service. Therefore, HandsOn Broward will use funding from NobleCause to help support a three-day 2017 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Celebration Weekend that embraces Dr. King's vision of a community coming together, collectively and collaboratively, to assist those who require a helping hand, regardless of age, gender, creed, or race. The weekend will be accomplished through three signature events. 1.) The Human Race, a family-friendly 5k Run/Walk that supports programs honoring Dr. King's vision of civic service. 2.) A Sunday Supper to encourage community members and civic leaders to share a meal and discuss issues that affect our community. 3.) A community-wide MLK Signature Day of Service with service activities appropriate for all ages to benefit either a local charitable organization or low-to-moderate income neighborhood.

This project will address the preventive dental needs of the underserved children of the south Bronx. The volunteers for this project include our students, faculty, alumni, the Bronx Dental Society, the NY Hispanic Dental Association, and the Dental Hygienists Association of NYC. These volunteers will provide the following clinical services: personal oral hygiene care instructions, preventative services such as dental prophylaxis, varnish application, dental sealants, and routine preventative care to children between the ages of three and 16. If necessary, palliative care will be provided. Our Dental Hygiene Patient Care Facility, located at Hostos Community College, has sufficient patient chairs, facilities, and staffing to undertake this project and improve the dental health of children located within this community. Our facility, volunteers, and staff will be able to treat several hundred people during this Outreach Program.

Houston Food Bank's Core Specialist Program focuses on the identification, recruitment, utilization, and retention of a volunteer base that will advance the Houston Food Bank's mission by donating their professional talents and specialized skill sets. This generous donation from NobleCause will help fund various project expenses including a subscription for a customized social mapping software that will be used to identify and recruit this unique volunteer base.

Ivy Tech Central Indiana's Office of Student Life and Development proposes to further the development of a culture of service-learning and volunteerism through the expansion of its First Friday Service Event (FFSE). This monthly opportunity will allow college students, faculty, and staff to participate in a service project highlighting an issue specific to the Indianapolis area where this campus is located. Support from NobleCause will provide funding for three First Friday events to be held during the Fall semester of the 2016-17 school year (October, November, and December). Through partnerships with three local nonprofits, volunteers will participate in highly-engaging service projects on the first Friday of each month that focus on homelessness and hunger/food insecurity.

Jerusalem Farm is a Catholic intentional community located in Kansas City, Missouri. Built on the four cornerstones of Prayer, Community, Service, and Simplicity, the organization strives to transform their lives and those around them through service retreat experiences, sustainable living, and home repair. Their mission is to make themselves available to the needs of their community which includes addressing home repair needs and coordinating volunteers from Kansas City and around the country. The Jerusalem Farm Home Repair Program will host 250 volunteers for week-long service trips and an additional 100 volunteers for days of service. These volunteers will serve with our full-time volunteer community on over 40 home repair projects in the Historic Northeast neighborhoods of Kansas City, Missouri.

Junior Achievement of Western Massachusetts is dedicated to providing economic education and financial literacy programs to the youth of western Massachusetts and Vermont. JA of Western Massachusetts impacts thousands of young people each year - opening their minds to their potential and preparing them for life after graduation. Their Multi-Generational Leadership (Together Making A Difference) project will involve business leaders, as well as college, high school, and middle grade students. The business professionals and college students will volunteer together to present Junior Achievement's (JA) financial literacy, entrepreneurship, and career exploration programs to high school students. The high school students will receive four hours of training to become JA Volunteers. The volunteers will then visit a local middle school to partner with a college student to present a JA program to 8th grade students. The college students, high school students, and some of the middle grade students will also attend a workshop on service learning and volunteerism at the college. At the close of the workshop, the group will select a project to benefit a local charity, such as making no-sew blankets for the NICU or children with cancer at the area hospital; putting together book bags for house-bound elderly or homeless children; or personal care kits for the homeless shelter. The project will be presented at a luncheon with business leaders and a representative from the selected charity.

SafeTalk is an assault and bullying prevention program, offered free to area elementary schools, for children in kindergarten through fifth grade. SafeTalk's core message is that everyone has the right to live "Safe, Strong & Free." It teaches children how to make safe and healthy choices, stand up for themselves and for others, and how to seek help when needed. The presentations are lively, with lots of give and take discussion between the presenters and the children, and role playing to illustrate threats and protective strategies. At the end of each presentation, children have the opportunity to meet with presenters one-on-one to ask questions or just talk. In addition to asking questions, some children seek help for personal challenges, family struggles, and sometimes disclose physical or sexual assault. When this happens, and often this is the first time the child has disclosed the information, Kids in Crisis takes action to secure the child's safety and promote her/his well-being. Resultant arrests have been made.

LEADPrep students will design Makerspace activities and teach them to peers at the Boys and Girls Club/YMCA. They will determine projects, supplies, lesson plans, and lead the Makerspace project work. They will also provide the Club with Makerspace materials and ideas so that the students using the Boys and Girls Club can continue to create in the future.

Lee University, a private liberal arts institution in east Tennessee, will use the NobleCause grant to initiate the Service Leadership Development Project. Directed by the university's nationally-recognized Leonard Center for service-learning, the project will train student leaders through establishment of a competitive mini-grant program that will fund student-led, alternative Spring Break service projects. This grant will provide financial resources for student clubs and organizations to partner with other non-profit organizations that have minimal resources to help them address unmet needs within the community.

Loaves and Fishes, a free nutritious meal program, plans to mobilize civic-minded volunteers in addressing local hunger issues through its new "Farm for All" gardening club. "Farm for All" is a collection of five farms that is truly for all: our guests, donors, and volunteers. Loaves and Fishes acquired these farms in the summer 2015 with a one-time grant from the United Way. The ultimate goal of these farms is to promote health and wellness for our guests by growing produce to supply our dining sites with fresh, locally grown fruits and vegetables.

Our "Farm for All" gardening club volunteers will help plant, garden, maintain, and harvest crops from the farms. The service-learning volunteer experience also includes educational seminars in the areas of gardening skills, cooking, food insecurity in MN, advocacy, and nutrition education. Gardening club members will also be encouraged to volunteer at our dining sites throughout the summer. This will give them a full circle service-learning experience, providing them with the opportunity to meet the guests whom they are growing the vegetables for, as well as cook with the produce that they themselves have grown.

The NobleCause $6,500 grant will support Maui Preparatory Academy's STEAM and Sustainability project featuring inquiry-oriented and place-based learning. This project will utilize highly successful citizen science programs as springboards to engage students in authentic and regional specific science research experiences to cultivate action research skills. Maui Prep's six-week STEAM and Sustainability project is innovative in linking direct exploration of current local conditions to examine long-term changes in natural environments.

The Tornado Career Corps (College and Career Readiness Project for McCaskey High School) service project is the development and implementation of a College and Career Readiness initiative for economically disadvantaged tenth grade students in the School District of Lancaster in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. The project will increase the capacity of the school district to provide sophomore students with college-readiness programming, specifically in the area of career exploration and planning, with an emphasis on STEM career options. Millersville University student volunteers will be recruited and trained to implement the service project by delivering career exploration and planning consultation, workshops, and activities to the high school students. The project will enhance support for the students to explore new and emerging careers as well as current career fields.

Minds Matter's mission is to transform the lives of accomplished high school students from low-income families by broadening their dreams and preparing them for college success. We aim to equip underprivileged high school students with the tools to gain acceptance to top-tier academic summer programs and four-year universities, as we believe no student dedicated to earning a college education should be limited by socioeconomic status.

Global Youth Service Day (GYSD) is the largest service initiative in the world; celebrating and mobilizing millions of youth who improve their communities each day of the year. Minnesota Alliance With Youth will plan and implement MN GYSD to mobilize and engage youth and communities in service and recognize the contributions of young people in service across the state. The GYSD initiative will engage youth across the state of MN in service projects and host onsite projects related to health, educational equity, and community building at a statewide signature event. At the GYSD Celebration, youth talents are highlighted through youth performances and onsite service projects are shared with the general public to increase awareness of service. The Alliance's AmeriCorps members will mobilize youth they serve to become engaged in their school and community through service during the GYSD event timeframe.The GYSD efforts complement the goals of the Alliance of supporting youth academic success and civic engagement by facilitating a venue for youth to serve, develop skills, and be recognized. Youth engaged in GYSD efforts are part of our integrated service and support systems which intentionally connect youth with caring adults and opportunities to serve. These organized service activities incorporate authentic youth-adult partnerships and youth leadership in carrying out service learning projects. Youth play key roles in projects, leading efforts in their communities and connecting with issues that facilitate learning and action. The Alliance's work is about impacting and engaging students today so they are on track to achieve their full potential tomorrow.

Operation NobleCivics seeks to 1.) expand the reach of our free citizenship classes to new immigrant and English-as-a-second language populations through targeted marketing, such as advertisements in local radio stations, community newspapers, and/or public transportation; and 2.) help more of our students apply for U.S. citizenship through scholarships that offset the $680 naturalization fee.

The NobleCause grant will fund Mississippi State University's Service Dawgs for Cause. This project promotes volunteerism and community engagement to over 20,000 MSU students when they first set foot on campus for the new school year. It will begin with a day of service that includes over 35 community partner and nonprofit locations. Following the day of service, MSU volunteers will have the opportunity to participate in additional community service activities for the next 14 days, including a Habitat for Humanity house build and a reading blitz at a local elementary school. Lastly, on the final day of Service Dawgs for Cause, volunteers will participate in a volunteer fair highlighting volunteer projects with over 30 local nonprofits and community agencies.The goal of the program is to encourage students to learn about their community and contribute to a great cause. MSU Service Dawgs for Cause will also include a robust summer volunteer recruitment and marketing campaign targeting over 20,000 new and existing students to promote student participation before they set foot on campus. The Service Dawgs for Cause program will be administered by the Maroon Volunteer Center (MVC), a student-led office at Mississippi State University

Our overall goal for the program in year one is to recruit, train, and deploy 10 Spanish speaking Monmouth County Historical Association volunteers. These volunteers will not only enable us to offer needed Spanish language programs and signage, but will also act as our advisors to the program, offering feedback and helping us to best integrate this program into the fabric of our organization and the community. We will work to grow the volunteer program each year and increase the number of volunteers. By demonstrating the success of this program, our goal is to be self-funding by year five with support from individuals, corporations, and foundations.

Districts in Action is introducing community-focused service-learning into several school districts throughout the country. Community-focused service-learning refers to a teaching and learning strategy that positions students as agents of change in their communities, as they acquire and apply cross-disciplinary, standards-based knowledge to real world community issues and problems. In the process, youth not only experience greater success in mastering course content knowledge, but they develop college and career readiness skills ranging from critical thinking and problem-solving to communication and collaboration. Equally important, youth expand their civic skills and community involvement, becoming empowered to make a real difference in their communities as engaged citizens. A rigorous evaluation will aid in developing and promoting best practices in community-focused service-learning and to encourage expanded use of this valuable teaching and learning approach.

Neighborhood Ministries partners with others to build relationships that create safe, supportive, and empowered communities, one person at a time. They operate three neighborhood centers which offer various youth programs, including after school tutoring and summer meals. Their Helping Hands and Hearts program is designed to increase volunteer support for their community centers. Specific efforts include: 1.) creating a school community adoption program to engage students in community volunteering; 2.) providing background screening for volunteers that want to tutor, mentor, and work directly with children during after school hours, and; 3.) hosting a volunteer celebration banquet and several smaller events to recognize and affirm the impact volunteers have working with our children and families.

New Reach is the largest provider of family shelter and family supportive housing in the State of Connecticut. We inspire independence for those affected by homelessness and poverty through a continuum of housing and support using the most innovative and progressive methods. Our vision is for all children, families, and individuals in Connecticut to find a safe, secure, affordable home with the services and supports necessary to achieve a fulfilling, self-reliant life. We will use the NobleCause funding to provide leadership training to our inaugural Alumni Council. We plan to bring trainers and local organizations to our monthly meetings, as well as help the Council members find local trainings and events that interest them and benefit their leadership development.

Niagara University's Community Kitchen project centers around three different initiatives: (1.) A pilot project, held once a month, to teach residents of Niagara Falls Housing Authority (NFHA) about healthy eating and food preparation, and how to do it within a budget. Participants receive the ingredients needed to prepare the meal at home. (2.) Student volunteers, along with volunteers from the local community, will engage in ongoing outreach at community events in targeted neighborhoods to increase awareness and understanding of nutrition and healthy eating. (3.) NU's School of Nursing students will be available at the monthly Community Kitchen events to offer free health screenings, i.e., checks on blood pressure, cholesterol, BMI (Body Mass Index), height and weight, etc. Nursing students will also participate alongside other volunteers at community outreach events to help people understand the impact of food on their own and their family's health.

Eastside Blossoms is a project of East Fort Worth, Inc. to beautify the city's east side. Initially, the goal is to plant 2,000 trees, with over 60 of those trees being planted by students as part of the Ecology Program at Nolan Catholic High School. The trees will be used as an educational aid, teaching the students about botany, ecology, pollution, and environmental conservation.

Our project is centered on the UN Sustainability Goals for a better world by 2030 that is focused first on our immediate community. The students are engaged in projects to help at risk teens, urban gardening, recycling programs, and diplomacy with other students from around the world through cultural summits.

Our organization is hosting Volunteer Event Days. Eight Community Volunteer Event Days will be scheduled throughout northern Minnesota targeting small and large communities.The Volunteer Event Days will focus on gathering organizations, local businesses, and schools together in one location for volunteer recruitment.

The Harvest Club Program of the OC Food Access Coalition is a residential gleaning program that harvests excess fruit and vegetables from the backyards of Orange County and delivers all of it to our local network of emergency food providers. We have harvested nearly 250,000 lbs since our inception and are expecting to hit the 300,000 mark by next year.

Play-Place for Autistic Children is dedicated to inclusion, acceptance, and support. Through a unique play-powered environment, Play-Place offers recreation, education, therapy, life skills, social development, respite relief, resource management, and vocational training. In essence, our objective is to create the Disneyland effect with a life-changing impact where "play" improves, empowers, and provides promise for a brighter tomorrow. Play-Place's Volunteer "Play It Forward Service Network" is an innovative plan that incorporates the talents of volunteer retired special education teachers, therapists, college students, parents and relatives, community groups, church members, union members, corporate volunteer groups, and many more, into a human mosaic of compassionate, dedicated mentors for these individuals affected by autism or other special needs challenges.

The Portland Community ToolBank is a not-for-profit tool lending program that serves nonprofits by placing high-quality tools (ladders, drills, saws, hoes, shovels, etc.) in the hands of the volunteers who are painting schools; building ramps for injured veterans and the disabled; repairing seniors' roofs; landscaping public spaces; and more - guaranteeing that every volunteer is equipped with the tools they need to get the job done. The ToolBank is a resource to charitable organizations - a sector that typically faces a scarcity of resources. We provide tools to enhance the charitable sector's capacity to serve which facilitates hands-on volunteerism in the greater Portland/SW Washington area and empowers volunteer groups to perform larger, more ambitious, and more frequent service projects. We will partner with Hands On Greater Portland whose mission is to connect individuals and groups with volunteer opportunities to make meaningful, rewarding changes in the Portland area. Through this grant, ToolBank will provide one year of free tool lending for all Hands On Greater Portland community projects.

Pro Bono Partnership is a 501(c)(3) that provides free business and transactional legal services to nonprofits serving the disadvantaged or enhancing the quality of life in neighborhoods in Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York. NobleCause's support empowers the Partnership to provide our full range of legal assistance and education services for a greater number of organizations in Long Island's communities in the year ahead. We plan to (1.) conduct affirmative outreach to the nonprofit communities of Nassau and Suffolk Counties to make them aware of our direct legal services, our webinars, publications, legal resource hotline, and other services; (2.) engage the business and legal communities as volunteers; (3.) provide two or three in-person substantive legal workshops geared to Long Island nonprofits; and (4.) offer free, direct legal services to nonprofits who qualify for our services.

At Pursuit of Innovation, we use technology skills to change life perspectives for many. We teach technology to underserved youth and they use their skills to teach digital literacy skills to adults. Adult digital literacy is provided free and it is a learning service project for the youth.

Rainbow Pack is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization dedicated to providing elementary school students with the supplies they need to be successful learners regardless of economic circumstance. This year our goal is to give out at least 5,000 Rainbow Packs (new backpacks filled with homework supplies) to elementary school kids in need on the first day of school in 2016. Why do we call them homework supplies and not school supplies? It's because even the schools in the less privileged areas often manage to have supplies in the classroom for the students to do their work. It's when they get home that the kids really struggle. We are very excited about the grant from NobleCause. All of it will be used to purchase more backpacks and supplies and will get us closer to our goal for the year. Thank you NobleCause!

The Redwood City Library Foundation is working with Youth Literacy Council to host the First San Mateo County STEM Festival. Featuring over 30 local nonprofits, schools, and organizations, STEM Festival promotes hands-on activities for the whole family, teaching kids the importance of STEM subjects in school and increasing an interest in STEM careers. In conjunction with the STEM Festival, the San Mateo History Museum hosts Maritime Day and allows families free admission to the Museum for an entire day of maritime-related engineering activities.

A cornerstone of the success Refugee Support Services enjoys is a program called Fruitful Friends. This program pairs a local "host" family or individual with an arriving refugee family or individual. Volunteers often become incredibly close with their new friends and we actually have cases where refugee families and their Fruitful Friends remain close ten years after first uniting. We desire to come alongside the local refugee population and help build relationships with them in a family-to-family or individual-to-individual setting so that they can thrive in their new community. Refugees often simply want an American friend with whom they can practice English, explore Charlotte, or gain a better understanding of the culture in which they find themselves. The Fruitful Friends program continues to grow, but there are still many refugee families waiting for an American friend. Fruitful Friends are integral to our success in assisting refugees in becoming self-sufficient, contributing members of the local community. Volunteer families in this program include parents and their children and they are instrumental in helping refugees connect locally. Not only do our refugees learn from volunteers, our volunteers gain so much knowledge and insight about other cultures and regions of the world and are then able to informally pass this knowledge to others.The NobleCause grant will allow us to double the number of refugee families we can serve. This grant provides us the resources necessary to recruit, vet, and train additional Fruitful Friend volunteers so that we can double the number of refugee families that have a Fruitful Friend.

The Richmond Art Center will use the NobleCause grant to form an elected team of volunteer leaders who will assist in making our volunteer program representative of the Richmond community. To form this team, the Center will accept self-nominations from our current volunteer base and members of the community. Six volunteers will be elected to form a core governance team. These elected officials will commit to at least one year of participation, will attend two professional development courses on volunteer management, and attend bimonthly meetings with the Center's Volunteer Coordinator. This team will help shape the future of the volunteer program at the Richmond Art Center by becoming actively involved in the recruitment and program decisions of the Center's volunteer operations. The Center hopes this team will give a voice and agency to under represented groups of young volunteers, men, and people of color.

Right Tree provides unique volunteer opportunities for middle school girls to experience hands-on involvement in local community renovation projects. A neighborhood reclamation project in inner-city Detroit, a low-income home renovation project in Traverse City, MI, and ongoing low-income home improvement projects in northern MI, provide challenges, teach skills, build confidence, change lives, and bring to life the purpose and rewards of altruistic volunteerism.

Roseman University of Health Sciences - College of Pharmacy will proudly have students and faculty partner with the State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) Nevada to use the funds provided by NobleCause to support an existing volunteer on-campus Medicare Call Lab. SHIP-trained student-pharmacists provide unbiased Medicare advice to beneficiaries regarding cost effective plan selection and extra assistance programs. While the primary goal of this project is to assist 30,000 beneficiaries in 2016-2017, the College also hopes to demonstrate how this call lab can be replicated in pharmacy schools across the nation.

Moving Forward, Giving Back: Salem State University's First Year Day of Service will be an opportunity for 200 new students to begin their college experience by coming together with current student leaders, faculty, staff, alumni, and community organizations to build connections and address social issues through a collaborative community event.The connection between civic engagement and student success has been well established. The opportunity for new students to develop early relationships with community members, alumni, and university faculty and staff has proven to be an important predictor of college retention and success. Salem State's First Year Day of Service will give new students an exciting, positive, and promising way to begin the next phase of their lives.

Seeds of Literacy offers one-to-one tutoring in basic education and GED prep to adults in Cleveland, Ohio. Over 200 active volunteers help about 1,000 students each year, sharing compassion and knowledge to transform lives through education. Our NobleCause grant will help Seeds increase the number of volunteers, as well as improve and develop volunteer retention activities and policies.

SELF International, Inc., is a mobile discovery center delivering educational opportunities to underserved communities. We are completely volunteer based, so volunteers are the backbone of our organization. The success of our projects has increased the demand for our services. This requires a capacity building plan to develop a larger volunteer base and a better method of engagement, including expanded training. We want volunteers to become the future project leaders of our organization. Building relationships, providing training and development, and empowering volunteers will allow us to achieve our goal which is to reduce the educational achievement gap for under-represented youth.

The goal of the ServeWyoming Mural Project is to bring together community volunteers and local nonprofit partners for a community-wide service event to rejuvenate the community both in appearance and volunteer spirit. We plan to design a service project as part of a National Day of Service: likely the 9/11 Day of Remembrance. With the help of local nonprofit partners, the City of Casper, Casper College, and community volunteers, we plan to create a mural project in a high traffic area in Casper, WY, that is often vandalized. Prior to the project, we will host a Volunteer Fair in conjunction with Casper College and the Natrona County Library, in an effort to recruit Casper College students to participate in the Mural Project as part of the institution's service-learning curriculum. The Volunteer Fair will also engage students in their community outside of the college. In addition, we plan to host a Volunteer Management Training for our participating nonprofit partners to assure the volunteers recruited are properly managed to yield retention of their participation beyond the project. The NobleCause Grant Award will be used to leverage support of the project from the community and to compensate the artists for their time in planning, designing, preparing, and coordinating the painting process for the Mural Project. In addition, funds will be used to cover expenses for the Volunteer Fair, the Volunteer Management Training, Post-Project Forum, and the actual mural project. This would include any copies, flyers, registration forms, handouts, snacks and water, etc. Finally, funds will also be used to promote the ServeWyoming Mural Project to the community via print and radio advertisements, including a "live-remote" with a local radio station to cover the day-of activities.

Southern Rhode Island Volunteers have been changing lives for over 35 years. Our mission is to grow and support our volunteer organization to provide meaningful service opportunities for community members and to provide direct assistance and services which promote independent living. Through SRIV, volunteers meet the critical needs for Independent Aging support and become the workforce for Partner Agencies in the community.

The EMS Every Day Heroes project is a regional outreach and education campaign that will guide new volunteers to their local EMS agencies. We are seeking volunteers to serve as EMS providers, but also those willing to drive ambulances and those willing to fill administrative roles at their local agencies, such as bookkeeping. Finding volunteers to fill these critical auxiliary roles will free existing EMS providers to do what they do best - save lives. Working with partners at 14 volunteer EMS agencies across a three-county region of rural Western New York, we designed an outreach and education campaign to recruit new volunteers and guide them to EMS agencies in their home communities. Built around the theme "EMS Everyday Heroes," the campaign will utilize social media, as well as traditional media to educate the public about the need for EMS volunteers and the steps they can take to help serve and protect their communities. This is a critical issue because volunteer EMS recruitment has been declining for more than a decade. Many of our EMS agencies find it difficult to cover shifts and answer calls. This lack of volunteerism threatens the EMS safety net our communities depend on.

Spring Hill High School has had a very active service learning program since 2003 It was once funded by the state's Service Learning Grant. This program has two components: a Volunteer Class and a Volunteer Club. The Volunteer Club is for any student in the school to participate in the service learning projects that the Volunteer Class provides. The Volunteer Class meets daily and the students volunteer daily at different schools and then the students in the class hold a service learning project. Unfortunately, with all of the budget cuts, this program lost its funding, so it relies on grants and donations to keep the program thriving. Every year the Volunteer Club puts together, at least eleven student led projects such as serving a Thanksgiving dinner to a domestic violence shelter, serving at a homeless shelter, or assisting at a low-income daycare. During these projects all students are invited to attend. However, not only does our volunteer group have eleven service learning projects for the students to attend, but we also do our own community volunteering by having adopted grandparents in our Volunteer Class. Going to adopted grandparents is an opportunity to visit the elderly and learn about their past. In addition, the students volunteer their time at two elementary schools and one intermediate school. We also go to the local assisted living center to play games and entertain them during their stay. After all the hard work, Spring Hill is able to say we make a great impact on everyday issues and have the experience needed to do things right. The purpose of this program is to connect teens with societal issues so they can connect with their own community. As a sponsor and teacher of the class, I have seen firsthand how the program impacts students. The district's vision is to prepare, but also create an understanding of a lifelong commitment the students contribute to society. Service learning fulfills this obligation. Spring Hill School District's mission statement, "To be a school district that engages students to learn, create, adapt, and succeed in an ever-changing world," directly mirrors the mission statement of the volunteer program. Most of the objectives of the district's mission are practiced and are an integral part of the volunteer program.

Launch NOLA, an initiative of St. Roch CDC, provides business training, support, and affordable resources for urban entrepreneurs, empowering them to create sustainable, successful business in New Orleans. Our nine-week program equips aspiring entrepreneurs with the insights, relationships, and tools needed to turn ideas into action and turn a passion into a sustainable and thriving endeavor. Upon graduation, we commit to working with our graduates for two years by connecting them to a supportive ecosystem, further equipping them with additional training and constantly encouraging them along the journey.

Our service project is to work directly with the Medford Food Project to promote the value of the organization and solicit new volunteers for the program. We are designing a program that will have our students working in many facets of the project. With this grant, we will create videos. The big picture is to create sustainability for the volunteer pool for the program - the even bigger picture - the program developer would like to make our community the model for other towns to start this in their area. Our part of that effort is to send a cadre of students to a school in the area and show them how students can support the community effort.

Seuss to Success: A Reading and Resiliency Initiative is designed to support reading and build resiliency in young, underserved children (ages four through seven) residing in the City of Rochester, NY. Over the course of the semester, St. John Fisher College service-learning and community service students will serve as "guides" working with Pre-K to 2nd grade children once or twice a week, holding read-aloud sessions and running resiliency-building activities. Resiliency enhances a child's ability to cope with adversity and life stressors, which then leads to positive relationships and academic success. S2S is particularly valuable for the city of Rochester which is the second poorest city of comparable size in the nation. Only 7% of Rochester City School third grade students are meeting state standards for reading. Grant funds will support two student leaders, books and T-shirts for each child participant, and outreach to parents. This new program will be offered collaboratively with the college's Center for Service-Learning and Civic Engagement (CSLCE), the Community Service Office (CSO), and the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. School of Education (SOE).

With the help of numerous volunteers, the Loaves & Fishes Soup Kitchen has been cooking and serving between 200 and 400 meals a day to Houston's neediest citizens since 1976. This monumental effort requires a great deal of efficiency in the kitchen, especially with only 450 square feet of workspace. The kitchen renovation project, planned by St. Thomas High School students and Dad's Club members, will make the existing space as efficient as possible, providing more room to prepare and serve hot meals, so more hungry people can be fed.

Stepping Stones Museum for Children will use NobleCause funds to create the YESS-TEAM (Youth Enrichment at Stepping Stones -Teens Excel at Mutt-i-grees). The YESS-TEAM is comprised of a group of teen leaders selected from a year-round youth development program to present Mutt-i-grees, a social-emotional skill building curriculum, to young children at the museum and in the community. Using shelter pets and research-based lesson plans, Mutt-i-grees helps children grow into calm, confident, and caring adults. The YESS-TEAM will be trained in the curriculum and, under adult guidance, will bring Mutt-i-grees' lessons to young children in Fairfield County. This project will also help teens develop leadership and public speaking skills that will improve their future prospects.

The NobleCause grant awarded to SUNY Oneonta will be used to implement the "Harvest Share Buddies Program: A Service-Learning Partnership" at Riverside Elementary School in Oneonta. Through the Harvest Share Buddies Program, SUNY Oneonta faculty will join with teachers at the local elementary school to establish a service-learning project for approximately 80 college students. Through this unique, cross-disciplinary project, the college students will assist elementary school classrooms in planting and harvesting grow boxes; lead lesson plans developed by faculty around food, society, the environment, and plant biology; and coordinate two school-wide harvest days.

Every year, thousands of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families turn to The Arc Greater Twin Cities (GTC) for help. GTC will use the grant from NobleCause for a campaign to recruit and retain at least 100 volunteers between the ages of 14 and 35 for Arc's Value Village Thrift Stores & Donation Centers. It will also be used to improve the sustainability of The Arc GTC's volunteer base. This project will involve two interns: one will work directly with volunteers and staff on orientation/training and improvements to the volunteer experience; the other will assist the organization in identifying and understanding its volunteers and volunteer demographics. Both interns will help recruit volunteers and increase retention, and will make recommendations for improvement and growth. The volunteers they recruit will sort donations, tag and stock merchandise, and replenish the sales floor at Arc's Value Village, generating increased revenue to support The Arc GTC's mission.

Behrend Builders is an award-winning shelter repair program housed at the Washington DC Jewish Community Center. For over 20 years, Behrend Builders has been restoring homes, community centers, schools, parks, low-income housing, shelters, and other vital community structures in low-income communities across Washington, DC. Mobilizing approximately 1,000 volunteers annually, Behrend Builders strives to offer new, successful, and diverse volunteer opportunities; promote education; foster community connection; and provide direct service to populations-in-need; in addition to engaging children, young adults, and families in the active practice of repairing the world through community service.

The RIDGE Project's mission is to build a legacy of strong families. Although we do this in many ways, we specialize in events that serve the forgotten victims of crime - those families affected by incarceration. Our Summer Family Day event brings family and community together in a fun, engaging, outdoor setting where they can connect and enjoy time together.

The NobleCause grant will be used to help support a community partnership to plant and maintain a butterfly garden at one of Jacksonville's Preservation Parks, Castaway Island Preserve. The Timucuan Trail Parks Foundation's service learning outreach will be directed toward DePaul School of Northeast Florida, a neighborhood alternative school located across the street from the park. TPF will partner with the school to weed, plant, and maintain the garden. The project will include an educational component, service learning, volunteer development, and environmental stewardship.

The Cardinal Core is a working organization of adult volunteers targeting parents in the age range of 25 to 45 years. These adults will be encouraged and organized to complete school and community enrichment projects for all K-12 grades. Mentoring of students is a high priority for in-school activites. Experiencing enrichment activities both in the summer and after school hours will be the out-of-school activities. While the main goal is to enrich the lives of students, a secondary goal is to have this adult demographic work together, meet each other, and form a common bond of mutual benefit for themselves, their children, the school, and the entire community. The secondary goal will lead to benefits that surpass the current NobleCause grant period. Funds will be used for marketing new Cardinal Core projects, establishing a new communications network for volunteers, organizing events, and providing incentive rewards for both students and adults to participate in enrichment activities.

Tuleyome received a grant from NobleCause for our #DonateToRestore project. Tuleyome spearheaded the campaign to permanently protect 330,000 acres of federal public land. As a result of our efforts, the area was proclaimed the new Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument in July 2015. Immediately after the designation, however, over 65,000 acres of the new monument were burned in a series of wildfires. In response to that, Tuleyome launched its #DonateToRestore campaign, seeking funding and volunteers to help us restore the trails, watersheds, and vital habitat burned in the fires. We've already started restoration work at Stebbins Cold Canyon and will be adding other restoration sites to the list over the next several months (and years). The NobleCause funding will go toward volunteer recruitment efforts and informational brochures on our volunteer program, as well as our restoration work in and around the National Monument.

Each semester, Tutors for All recruits 30-40 volunteers to become tutors and program coordinators for various tutorial programs throughout Boston. As an incentive to recruit volunteers, the organization offers all volunteers free Charlie Cards to make their traveling easier as they commute to the different sites. With this grant, Tutors for All will be able to continue to offer their volunteers free Charlie Cards, a small token to thank them for their outstanding work.

Our project, Native Plants and Vegetable Gardens at Columbia High School and Tyrrell Elementary School will provide an important link for children and youth to education. Positive peer role models, volunteer students from Columbia High School, will mentor elementary school students, connect young people to nature with pollination and local produce gardens, and give back to their community by supporting other students and the local food bank.

United Way of Acadiana will use the NobleCause funding for its Adopt-a-School program. United Way Adopt-A-School creates, mobilizes, and fosters a grassroots connection between schools and the business and private sectors of Lafayette Parish, providing a direct link among the community, work-world, and the classroom. The program connects businesses, organizations and individuals that have a vast amount of human resources, talents, and other assets to schools that are interested in strengthening, enriching, and enhancing the quality of education in Lafayette Parish. Successful schools lead to successful communities. When a community works together to make sure its schools are successful, everyone benefits. Together, we make sure local schools have the assistance, incentives, and enrichment they need.

In Asheville and Buncombe County, children who live in poverty graduate from high school at a rate of 77% while their classmates graduate at a rate of more than 90%. Every student faces challenges, but those who live in poverty must navigate significantly more obstacles in order to make it to graduation. Every student who doesn't graduate from high school faces a life filled with greater obstacles - impacting their long-term health and income and often determining whether or not they live in poverty the rest of their life. United Way of Asheville and Buncombe is working with two public school systems and local nonprofit service providers to create a stronger support system for our students, their families, and communities. No single individual or organization can accomplish wide scale community change alone. We are stronger, more powerful, when we work together. This is the foundation of our work and we can't do it without the support of community volunteers. With the support of NobleCause, we will increase the number of volunteers working directly with youth in middle school and eventually increase graduation rates across Asheville and Buncombe County.

NobleCause funds are being used to expand United Way Readers, a project that United Way of Central and Northeastern Connecticut developed to help kindergarten to third grade children in Hartford and New Britain improve their reading skills. This research-based program prepares and matches corporate and community volunteers with struggling readers to ensure children read at grade level by fourth grade, a critical educational milestone. Volunteers spend time reading one-on-one to children and help improve basic literacy skills. Last year, 97% of the 165 students in Hartford and New Britain who worked with a volunteer demonstrated improved reading skills and 27% read at grade level.

With funding from NobleCause, United Way of Greater Kansas City will organize transformative volunteer projects in renovations and landscaping at three low-income Kansas City public schools for members of its community engagement group, LINC (Lead, Impact, Network, Change). These projects will mobilize 150-180 volunteers, aged 20-30.

Through funding by NobleCause, Grow Miami will help United Way of Miami-Dade to grow volunteerism among the millennial population in Miami-Dade, fostering civic engagement and community pride, toward United Way's mission of building community by helping people care for one another. Our Young Leaders are dynamic, generous adults up to age 40, dedicated to making an impact through philanthropy and advocacy. Young Leaders will paint a mural at a local elementary school. Miami-Dade County Public Schools is the fourth largest school district in the United States. LINC (Lead, Impact, Network, Change) are millennials ages 22 to 30 with a passion to give back through volunteering and leadership. LINC members will build a community garden at an early childhood learning center in one of Miami's most underserved areas. Additionally, along with a local leading culinary expert dedicated to fighting obesity they will present a healthy cooking demonstration to families of the center by facilitating an educational session as volunteers assist families in assembling their meals. The meal will incorporate ingredients grown in the garden, preparing families to use these fresh vegetables and herbs at harvest time.

The Bennion Center at the University of Utah leads with the belief that serving others is central to human survival and happiness; community engagement is the only path to solving society's problems; and deeply engaged learning experiences allow for the most profound personal growth in students. The Bennion Center's Alternative Breaks program supports students seeking these experiences over intensive weeklong service trips over fall and spring break. Students are immersed in specific issue-based community projects such as restoring ecosystems, rehabilitating injured animals, providing support to women living in poverty, and serving people living with homelessness, hunger and illness. All of the Alternative Breaks trips are student-planned and led. Each student site leader learns valuable leadership and management skills by working with a faculty/staff and community partner to arrange all travel, meal, lodging, training, service, and reflection logistics. Each student participant develops their civic competencies-skills, habits, values, and attitudes. Assessment reveals 92% of student participants are more likely to become involved in their community through volunteerism upon returning. In 2017, the Bennion Center will be celebrating its 30th anniversary. Thanks to the grant from NobleCause, the 2016-2017 trip costs will be off-set by approximately $39/student in this milestone year to engage students with financial need.

The University of Washington Homeless Outreach Program and Education Project (UW HOPE) combines dental and interdisciplinary education with outreach opportunities to serve the needs of marginalized populations in the Seattle metropolitan and Skagit Valley areas in Western Washington. The interdisciplinary component of HOPE is a student-led elective course offered by the Department of Oral Medicine that aims to pair student outreach with comprehensive understanding of marginalized populations. In this course, students gain insight into the adversities faced by homeless and low-income populations with regards to inaccessibility of healthcare. The course consists of presentations by volunteer health care and social service providers and advocates direct involvement by completion of a minimum of six outreach hours per quarter. This is made possible through the joint efforts of the Office of Educational Partnerships and Diversity in the University of Washington, School of Dentistry and a team of Washington Service Corps members placed at that site through the AmeriCorps program.

As part of VansForVets.Org Mission to aid disabled veterans, families and the community at-large in preparation for emergency and disaster situations, VansForVets.Org, through its affiliation with nationwide CERT (Citizens Emergency Response Team) initiatve as outlined by the Department of Homeland Security, will be providing a free emergency response kit to all persons in Caldwell County, NC who undergo and complete CERT Training Course in FY 2016-2017. This is made possible through the generosity of a grant from NobleCause.

volunTEENnation engages low-income youth in improving their communities through volunteer service and organized volunteer events. Our events include planting gardens, teaching healthy cooking classes, offering free youth-led tech workshops for older adults, and educating youth on healthy habits including exercise and eating fresh produce.

Volunteer West Virginia will continue to help organizations make a difference in their community by helping to fund high impact projects that aid a population entrenched in generational poverty. This year we add Global Youth Service Day to our list of targeted special service days. We will offer $6,500 in mini-grants to special service day projects that include or are led by students. We will organize one large kick-off service project for Global Youth Service Day in April.

VSA Vermont, an arts and disability organization, will use the $6,500 grant from NobleCause to develop four specialized workshops/trainings for our volunteers-with and without disabilities-on three topics. Creating Accessible and Inclusive Programs and Services for People with Disabilities, atwo-hour training, is a general workshop provided to all of our volunteers, service-learning students, and collaborative partners and would include information about various disabilities, people first language, disability access symbols, communication strategies, accessibility and accommodations, and more. Working as a Sighted Guide and/or Verbal Describer for People with Low Vision or Blindness, a two-hour training, is an informative and hands-on, experiential workshop for volunteers, service-learning students, and collaborative partners who will be working with people with low vision or blindness at a VSA Vermont event or program. One of our trainers will be an individual with low vision or blindness. Drumming Instruction for People with Disabilities, a one-day/six-hour training, is a highly specialized training for up to eight professional/amateur drumming volunteers who wish to work with people with disabilities in VSA Vermont drumming programs.

We will begin the week with a kickoff speaker coming to speak to our entire school about world hunger, the problems that come with hunger such as drug abuse, slavery, war, and a variety of other problems. On Tuesday, we will be traveling to the Salvation Army to assist with cleaning, feeding the poor and homeless, and assisting with whatever needs done. On Wednesday, we will again be going to Salvation Army, Cedar Valley Boys and Girls Club, and Country View Assisted Living. At the Salvation Army, we will be assisting in distributing Christmas meals and gifts to the less fortunate. At the Cedar Valley Boys and Girls Club, we will be helping to repair, stock, clean, and organize the shelter. At the Country View Assisted Living, we will be providing students to spend time with the elderly, reminding them that they are not forgotten, and people still care about them. We wish to carry this project out after attending leadership conferences over the summer in Washington D.C. and Ames, Iowa, which opened our eyes to the problems around us. These leadership conferences challenged us to bring our skills to use in our community around us, facing the 10 biggest problems in our local areas. These problems consist of hunger, homelessness, drug abuse, and many other issues, all of which we hope to have an impact on during this service project. Everyone is positioned to take steps to help bring an end to these issues; however, many people lack the ambition to do so. We have taken the initiative to help end these issues in our local communities, and by doing so, hope to ignite a spark within each one of the participants to continue their service to the community around us throughout their lives by truly opening their eyes to a world where these problems are not a foreign concept, but rather a very real, daily struggle.

Our mission is to empower people of all ages and incomes to grow and eat healthy, organic, local food.Through after-school and summer classes, summer camps, and field trips in our two youth teaching gardens, Wasatch Community Gardens (WCG) encourages youth to make healthier food choices and become more physically active by teaching them hands-on gardening, nutrition, and food preparation skills. In 2014, we served 1,598 primarily low-income youth through our Youth Garden Program, which has been serving Wasatch Front children with garden-based education since 1993. Through the Youth Garden Program Education Initiative, we will work to recruit 1-2 skilled volunteers per class to assist in these regular lessons, as well as engage young adults ages 18-25 to work with local children and connect with their community in a meaningful way. With these additional volunteers, our Youth Garden Program will be able to provide a safer environment for the youth participants and offer a fulfilling volunteer experience for young people looking for real-world experience with food justice issues related to children. By adding regular volunteers to our program, we also believe we can increase our capacity in the program and expose more Salt Lake City area children to garden-based programming and fresh, local, healthy food.

Alternative Breaks as a Method of Volunteer Management Training. Our project is to fund the travel costs for one volunteer coordinator from a local nonprofit organization to travel with our Alternative Break trips. This will provide our community partner with invaluable training in volunteer management and our students with in-trip reorientation back to our local community.

Youth Rights Agency's Teen Dating Violence Peer Education Program (PEP) partners with local schools to provide training to staff and students who will become volunteer peer educators at their school. Training includes warning signs of dating violence and unhealthy relationships, bystander intervention strategies, and information about local resources. Each year peer educators will continue to train additional students, who will then move into a leadership role and become peer educators, allowing the continuation of the program in each school.

The Youth Trumpet & Taps Corps is a service organization for high school trumpet players who use their musical gifts to honor military veterans. Our primary project is for volunteers to play Taps at veterans' funerals when a professional military bugler is not available. Most veterans receive an audio recording of Taps because there are not enough military buglers to attend every funeral with more than 1,500 WWII, Korean Conflict, and Vietnam veterans passing away each day. With the NobleCause grant money, we are expanding our volunteer opportunities and connecting with our communities by equipping our volunteers to perform patriotic music at community events honoring military veterans. Many of these events would otherwise have no live music and will be greatly enhanced by both the musical talents and presence of the high school volunteers. The presence of young people gives hope to our aging veterans as they witness younger generations expressing patriotism.