Capital Area United Way Awarded $2 Million in Federal Funding |

BATON ROUGE –  Capital Area United Way was announced as a recipient of a two-year, $2 million dollar grant from the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS) through its Social Innovation Fund. Including matching funds, this grant will mobilize a total of $6 million in public and private support into our 10-parish area.

Capital Area United Way is one of just four grant-making organizations chosen to receive a 2012 Social Innovation Fund grant and is eligible for continued funding for up to five years. The competition was highly competitive and sought proposals that would drive impact and transform lives. Only organizations with a track record of success implementing programs with evidence of effectiveness were eligible. All applicants also needed to have a strong plan for growing program capacity and rigorously evaluating their results.

The grant will build community impact initiatives leading to success in early childhood in the Greater Baton Rouge area. CAUW will strive to improve children’s school readiness by ensuring positive birth outcomes, strong parental engagement, support, and education (including financial education), and access to quality child care and preschool. They will also work to ensure that children's physical health, safety, and social-emotional needs are met.

“When we launched our 10-year commitment to early childhood education in 2011, we developed outcomes to meet our initiative’s goal that children would enter school ready to learn.” stated Richard Williams, interim President and CEO for Capital Area United Way. “The Social Innovation Fund provides the cornerstone of us fulfilling this 10-year commitment.”

The Social Innovation Fund (SIF), now in its third year, is an initiative of CNCS that supports transformative community-based approaches that solve critical problems. SIF accomplishes this by stimulating, focusing and enhancing public/private partnerships and cross-sector collaborations to grow the impact of the best community solutions.

“The Social Innovation Fund is an innovative program that seeks to invest in intermediaries offering truly compelling solutions to the persistent challenges facing their communities,” said Paul Carttar, Director of the Social Innovation Fund at CNCS.

Over the next six months, Capital Area United Way will hold an open competition in search of nonprofits with evidence of strong results. Details of the selection process and criteria will be forthcoming.

The Social Innovation Fund is an initiative of the Corporation for National and Community Service. For more information on the Social Innovation Fund see a complete listing and description of Social Innovation Fund grantees and subgrantees here.

Helping People – Improving Communities. Capital Area United Way works to advance the common good and create opportunities for a better life for all. This is done through our focus on education, income, and health. With your support, over 120 programs that have measurable results in these three focus areas are currently being funded. These programs touch the lives of thousands in our 10-parish Capital Area and are making a positive impact on a daily basis. To give, advocate, or volunteer please visit CAUW.org.