The Rhode Island Foundation, which is celebrating its centennial anniversary, has announced grants totaling $18.2 million in support of programs and organizations serving Rhode Islanders across the state.

Grant recipients include the South Kingstown School Department, which was awarded $15,000 for a program that enables kindergarten and first-grade students at Peacedale and West Kingstown elementary schools to spend half the academic day being taught in Spanish and the other half in English; the Tufts Health Plan Foundation, which will receive $24,740 to work with healthcare leaders to develop a plan for controlling healthcare spending in the state; Year Up Providence, which will receive $125,000 in support of its efforts to close the opportunity gap by providing low-income Rhode Islanders between the ages of 18 and 24 with the skills, knowledge, and experience that today's businesses demand; and the University of Rhode Island, which was awarded $74,423 to train public school teachers from urban school districts in English as a Second Language instruction.

The foundation also awarded discretionary grants to hundreds of nonprofits working to provide long-term solutions to significant community challenges, including grants totaling more than $50,000 to Sojourner House, Thundermist Health Center, Youth Pride, and other organizations serving Rhode Island's LGBTQ communities; grants totaling nearly $260,000 to nonprofits in Newport County, including the Boys and Girls Club of Newport County, the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Community Center, and the Visiting Nurse Services of Newport and Bristol Counties; and grants totaling more than $195,000 to foodbanks, homeless shelters, and free clinics working to meet the basic needs of Rhode Islanders, including the Blackstone Valley Community Action Program in Pawtucket, the West Warwick Senior Center, and the Jonnycake Center in South Kingstown.

"We connect the desires of our donors to the challenges Rhode Island faces," said the foundation's president and CEO, Neil Steinberg. "By encouraging innovation, collaboration, and leadership, we make it possible for nonprofits to take on issues that are crucial to the state's success."