Playworks Massachusetts has been awarded a three-year grant in the amount of $450,000 by the Boston Foundation, Playworks Massachusetts announced. According to Playworks Massachusetts Executive Director Max Fripp, the grant will place Playworks program coordinators in 30 elementary schools across Boston in order to improve the health and well-being of 15,000 students through daily physical activity and safe, meaningful play.
"The Boston Foundation has been a partner from the beginning, and has played a crucial role in helping Boston’s young students get active and stay fit," says Fripp. Founded in August 2006 in seven schools, Playworks now operates in 30 low-income schools across Boston. Each school has well-trained, full-time program coordinator, known as a coach, who uses the power of play to bring out the best in every kid.
Playworks Program Coordinator, Sinddy Dejesus recently received the 2013 Changemaker Award from the Boston Foundation. Known as "Coach Sinddy" at the Dever McCormack School, a turnaround school in Dorchester, she has mastered the concept of making excellent happen at her school, creating respectful, healthy and inclusive place on the playground for every student there while building a healthy community for students, staff and faculty.
The Boston Foundation, Greater Boston’s community foundation, is one of the oldest and largest community foundations in the nation, with assets of nearly $900 million. In 2012, the Foundation and its donors made $88 million in grants to nonprofit organizations and received gifts of close to $60 million. The Foundation is a partner in philanthropy, with some 900 separate charitable funds established by donors either for the general benefit of the community or for special purposes. The Boston Foundation also serves as a major civic leader, provider of information, convener, and sponsor of special initiatives that address the region's most pressing challenges. The Philanthropic Initiative (TPI), an operating unit of the Foundation, designs and implements custom philanthropic strategies for families, foundations and corporations around the globe. Through its consulting and field-advancing efforts, TPI has influenced billions of dollars in giving worldwide.
Discretionary grants from the Boston Foundation are made possible through a family of funds known as the Permanent Fund for Boston, the Boston Foundation's discretionary endowment, which has allowed the Boston Foundation to make critical grants to support Greater Boston for over 90 years. The Permanent Fund for Boston exists today due to the generosity of donors, often through bequests, enabling the Foundation to meet the most pressing needs of our community.
For more information about the Boston Foundation, its grant making and the Playworks partnership visit www.tbf.org or call 617-338-1700.
