The Cleveland Foundation has announced grants totaling $2.5 million to seven local youth development and support organizations.

The grants include $185,250 to the Partnership for a Safer Cleveland in support of the organization's efforts to foster greater collaboration among local youth violence prevention programs around shared goals, objectives, and data-driven strategies; $7,500 to Youth Opportunities Unlimited to boost employment opportunities for 14- and 15-year-old students in Cleveland schools; $200,000 to New Directions, Inc. to purchase and customize an app that assists in the follow-up treatment of alcohol-dependent patients; and $125,000 to Cuyahoga County Public Library in support of its Homework Centers, which provide K-8 students with high-quality homework support and academic tutoring at ten library branches.

The foundation also awarded $175,000 to Greater Cleveland Volunteers in support of a program that improves the literacy skills of underperforming K-3 students by pairing them with older adult volunteers; $15,000 to the ACE Mentor Program of Cleveland to engage a hundred and twenty Cleveland Metropolitan School District high school students in a year-long design project in the community; and $33,000 to the Cleveland Classical Guitar Society to expand its guitar instruction program within CMSD.

"Youth development has long been a priority focus of the Cleveland Foundation," said Cleveland Foundation executive vice president Robert E. Eckardt. "Now more than ever, it is imperative we continue to support programs that keep Cleveland’s youngest residents safe, healthy, and positively engaged in our community."