Some of the grant and funding news below is courtesy of the AED Center for Youth Development and the Afterschool Advocate - A media outreach newsletter published by the Afterschool Alliance.

GRANTS FOR YOUTH PROMOTING DROPOUT PREVENTION AMONG LATINOS
Youth Venture, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and MTV’s Tr3’s Voces are sponsoring grants for the Tu Voz My Venture Program to support groups of two or more youth that create ventures that encourage Latino youth to stay in school and prepare for careers. Grants are for $1,000 each, and five trams will be awarded additional $5,000 scholarships. Youth ages 13 to 20 may apply. Grants are awarded on a weekly basis through June 29. http://www.genv.net/?tg=articles&topics=388

GRANTS SUPPORTING YOUTH ENVIRONMENTAL ACTION
The Captain Planet Foundation is sponsoring grants for youth ages six to 10 for projects that promote the understanding of environmental issues and focus on hands-on involvement. Grants are available in amounts of $250 to $2,500. Application deadlines are June 30, September 30, and December 31. http://www.captainplanetfdn.org/grants.html

GRANTS FOR YOUTH PROMOTING COLLABORATION
The Southern Poverty Law Center is sponsoring the Mix It Up Grants program, which provides $500 for youth-directed activist projects that identify, cross and challenge social boundaries in schools and communities. There is no application deadline. http://www.tolerance.org/teens/grants.jsp

STATE FARM AND THE NATIONAL SERVICE-LEARNING PARTNERSHIP AT THE ACADEMY OF EDUCATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
The National Service-Learning Partnership at the Academy for Educational Development, a State Farm partner, will provide State Farm funded grant awards of $2,500 to a school or a community-based organization working with a school to support the implementation of service-learning activities designed to promote academic learning and financial literacy, with a strong emphasis on understanding credit and credit cards.
Students, teachers, and their community partners from 20 schools will be selected to create innovative service-learning activities designed to address financial literacy in their own communities.

Awards of up to $2,500 will be made to five schools within four target cities: Chicago, Denver, Houston, and the District of Columbia. Only one award will be issued per school, but that award can support multiple projects within a school community. In the spirit of its commitment to education excellence, State Farm supports service-learning as an innovative way to promote student academic achievement and community development. Service-learning helps student’s master important curricular content by making meaningful connections between what they study in the classroom and its many applications in the real world. With support from State Farm, more young people and their neighbors will gain the knowledge and skills necessary to establish a firm financial footing in life and will fulfill the dreams they have for themselves and their families.

Applications are now being accepted for the 2007-2008 school year. The deadline is July 1, 2007. For more information and to download an application, visit the State Farm Good Decisions® Financial Awareness website. You can also click here for more information.

GRANT RESOURCE FOR RURAL COMMUNITIES

U.S. Department of Education
Rural Education Achievement Program (REAP)
Many rural communities lack the resources to effectively compete for federal grants. Some districts may receive program allocations that, based on population, are too small to even begin to meet the intended purposes. REAP aims to address these issues. One of the most important REAP initiatives is the Small, Rural School Grant Program. This program provides supplemental funds for Title I and Safe and Drug Free Schools, both of which can support out-of-school time programming. These funds flow by formula grant through State Educational Agencies to school districts in rural communities that meet specific criteria. For more information http://www.ed.gov/programs/reapsrsa/index.html
The web site houses a list of REAP contacts in Texas.