SPECIAL PROJECTS AND INITIATIVES

The Community Foundation values its role as a catalyst, convener and collaborator, bringing other funders and nonprofits together around vital issues and adding key support to make positive change possible.  

We center our proactive work around what we know about community needs and in particular on information in the 2005 "Community Counts" report and other state and national data.  Since 1959, we have listened to what the community wants and looked for ways to build that brighter future for all.

Strong local schools
The Community Foundation continues to work with business and community leaders to engage citizens in supporting and strengthening the Birmingham City School System.  This grassroots campaign, called Yes We Can! Birmingham and based on a nationally successful model, began with public meetings in 2007, and resulted in the creation of the Birmingham Education Foundation in 2009.

Parks and open space
The Community Foundation took a leadership role in supporting the creation and expansion of three area parks -- the new Red Mountain Park and Railroad Reservation Park and Ruffner Mountain Nature Center. Our investment of a $1 million grant led to contributions from other foundations and the business community for a total of $15 million toward projects that make Birmingham one of the greenest communities per capita in the nation.

Responding to economic crisis
In 2008, the Communtiy Foundation began talking with our nonprofit partners and other experts about how best to respond to the effects of the economic crisis on our community. One answer was the creation of the Housing Stability Fund in 2009 with a $200,000 investment from our Community Funds.

We partnered with Greater Birmingham Ministries, Hope House in Blount County and Shelby Emergency Assistance to help keep people in their homes, helping more than 220 families and 300 children in 59 different zip codes across our five-county area during 2009.

Children ready for success
We worked with the Alabama Partnership for Children and many other organizations to create a Blueprint for School Readiness for Jefferson County.  Committees made up of local leaders assessed the data and resources available, looking for ways to coordinate efforts so that all children have what they need to be successful in school.

At the state level, the Community Foundation provided support for the creation of the Alabama School Readiness Alliance, which has successfully served as an advocate for the importance of voluntary, high quality pre-K sites in Alabama. ASRA is a collaboration of VOICES for Alabama's Children, A+, the Alabama Partnership for Children and Alabama Giving, the regional association of grantmakers of which the Community Foundation is a member.

Reducing domestic violence
The Women's Fund has been nationally recognized for grants, supported by its Voices Against Violence giving circle, to establish a model domestic violence court and other efforts. 

Contact Karen Rolen, Vice President Community Philanthropy, for more about these and other initiatives. Click the Donate Now button and choose the description for the initiative that you would like to help.


"As the community's foundation, we work through grantmaking and as a catalyst and convener to help our community accomplish the goals its citizens have determined for themselves." 

Karen Rolen,
Vice President Community Investment
SUCCESS STORIES

Success for every child
Find out why Dave Lawrence believes success in school is an important promise for everyone's child.

School lunches
In the mid-1960s, we developed a report documenting the need for school lunch programs for underprivileged children in Birmingham and Jefferson County. Grants from the Paul Savage Fund supported lunches directly, until city and county systems responded with a plan to meet these needs.

Community schools
In 1970, we provided funding to study of a new program to fill empty school buildings with positive programs for children after hours.  National and local funders joined forces to get the Community School Program underway in Birmingham and Jefferson County.

Region 2020
We helped to create this regional organization in 1996 at a way to get grassroots feedback on what people wanted their community to be. Today, the organization leads the way in many regional initiatives, from transportation to parks.

Community Counts
"Community Counts: Measuring Progress in our Region" is a unique report, funded by The Community Foundation, that can be used as a tool to measure quality of life in 12 counties of central Alabama. The 85 indicators included here provide information that can encourage and equip individuals and organizations to make our community a better place for all of us.   

Nonprofit Resource Center
The Community Foundation was a leader in the effort to establish the Nonprofit Resource Center of Alabama in the mid-1990s as a way to provide technical services to strengthen area nonprofits.

Projects/Initiatives