The ICA awarded grants to the following organizations:

• $3,000 to Home Forward — The public housing operator of Grace Peck Terrace and Dahlke Manor uses this funding to support an on-site foot care clinic including the services of a licensed, professional nurse. Through the foot care clinic, the nurse can help improve blood circulation for many elderly and disabled residents and also perform preventative services such as diabetes screening.  Everyone residing at both Grace Peck Terrace and Dahlke Manor has met the criteria to live in subsidized housing. 
• $2,000 to Meals on Wheels People — Providing good nutritious food to senior citizens, the Meals on Wheels People received funding to support their Martin Luther King, Jr. Center which is located at 5325 NE MLK Jr. Blvd.  The kitchen at this neighborhood dining center prepares and serves meals at the Center but also delivers meals to home-bound seniors. During their last fiscal year, they reported serving 1,176 seniors in the Irvington neighborhood some 71,990 meals. Meals are available to anyone age 60 or older, regardless of income, living in their service area. 
• $2,000 to Project Linkage — Project Linkage, at 2200 NE 24th Avenue, coordinates volunteers who provide crucial services to older adults and individuals with disabilities in the Irvington neighborhood. Their goal is to help low-income older adults to live independently.  Project Linkage provides in-home support, including minor home repairs, and transportation services to more than 200 older adults who live in the neighborhood. Clients receive rides to medical appointments, grocery stores, senior centers, and area farmers’ markets. 

• $1,800 to Irvington K-8 School — Lisa McCall, Principal at Irvington, requested funding to support Irvington’s 7th and 8th graders’ Spring 2014 field trip to Washington, D.C. The trip is designed to enhance the student’s social studies curriculum. Students are fundraising to help provide funding for the trip, which is for any student in 7th and 8th grade who commits to preparing for and attending the adventure. Kitty Haglund, the math teacher, is the coordinator for the trip. 

• $1,000 to the Beaumont Middle School Foundation — The Foundation requested operating support to help cover its fundraising events’ costs. The Board’s goal is to increase awareness of the school’s Foundation and to broaden the participation of students’ families. Their goal is to organize and produce four fundraising events during the year that will attract families to attend school programs and events. Special emphasis is placed on attracting parents of new sixth-graders.
• $1,000 to the Grant High School Foundation — Vivian Orlen, the former principal, submitted an application that requested funding to increase teacher time and consequently reduce class sizes at Grant. The grant seeks to secure the positions of the more junior teachers and to strengthen the filmmaker-in-residence program offered in connection with a new independent study elective, Integrated Media Production. 
• $1,000 to Grant High School All Night Party for 2014 — The high school uses this money to provide scholarships so that all graduating seniors can attend the important annual event held on the night of their graduation. Grant had 391 graduates in 2013 and nearly 60 of those graduates requested financial help to attend the alcohol-free and drug-free party. In 2013, the graduating students were charged $90 each to attend the party and the ICA’s contribution goes to support those kids that cannot pay the fee.
• $1,000 to Kinship House — This organization, headquartered in two home-like service facilities at 1823 NE 8th Avenue, provides mental health therapy, assessment, and family services to foster children who have been traumatized by family disruptions or dissolutions. The funds will be used to support children in foster care aiding them in successful placement in stable healthy homes. Adults also receive counseling and parenting skills training to support the successful transition of the child to his or her new community.  Kinship House served over 400 children in 2013 and has been located in Irvington since 1996. 
• $1,000 to Sabin School — Sabin principal, Andrew Dauch, requested the funds to pay for licensed classroom instructors (substitutes) so that teachers within the new International Baccalaureate (IB) Program at Sabin could be released from their classrooms to complete and write the IB units.
• $900 to Hancock Street Preschool — This non-profit cooperative preschool, which operates at Westminster Presbyterian Church, has served children and families in the Irvington neighborhood for almost 30 years. The grant will be used to provide assistance to families in need of tuition subsidy. The children at Hancock Street Preschool range in age from three to five years old and the entire community is 36 families. The school strives to be as accessible as possible. It is their goal that no child, once enrolled, should have to leave the school midyear because of a change in their family’s resources. 
• $900 to Northeast Community Child Development Center — NCCDC is a nonprofit cooperative childcare center located at 1624 NE Hancock St. in the Westminster Presbyterian Church building. They currently serve approximately 40 children and their families. They will use the grant funds to support their music, movement, and body awareness program, specifically providing their young students with weekly yoga classes.  The goal of their yoga classes is to build strength, balance, concentration, relaxation and body awareness skills. 
• $800 to Community Alliance of Tenants (CAT) — This small non-profit operates out of Augustana Lutheran Church at 2710 NE 14th.  Formed in 1996, CAT is a grassroots, tenant-controlled tenants’ rights organization. Its mission is to educate and empower tenants to demand safe, stable, and affordable rental housing. Working with CAT, tenants can increase their ability to effectively advocate for themselves and develop skills at documenting and communicating their concerns. CAT is a tenant membership organization and most members are low-income, predominately low-wage workers, families with children, people living with disabilities, seniors, and people of color. 
• $600 to Irvington Preschool — Located at Augustana Lutheran Church, Irvington Preschool has operated in the neighborhood for over 50 years and serves 30 families forming a community dedicated to raising children in a positive learning environment.  Parent education is a huge part of the service to their families. They will use the grant for parent education lectures and interactive workshops with the aim of strengthening families by developing parenting skills and raising awareness of early child development.  They propose five evening lectures in the 2013-14 school year.