In its one board meeting in the second quarter of 2010, the PGE Foundation awarded $162,000 in grants bringing the total awarded in 2010 to $722,385. The largest grant in the second quarter — $50,000 — was awarded to the Oregon Independent College Foundation for 20 scholarships at OICF’s ten member colleges. This is the 57th year that Portland General Electric or the PGE Foundation has funded OICF.

With its focus on education and social services, the PGE Foundation awarded $15,000 grants to the Oregon Children’s Foundation’s SMART reading program, The Dougy Center to set up new services for grieving young adults, and The Right Brain Initiative which is bringing integrated arts education into K-8 public schools in Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties. This is the third consecutive year that the PGE Foundation has provided a grant to The Right Brain Initiative through the Regional Arts and Culture Council.

Other grants for education, healthy families and arts and culture ranged from $2,000 to $5,000.

These are:
Education grants:

• Centro Cultural of Washington County: $5,000 to provide Latino youth in Washington County with education in science, technology, engineering and math, and their parents the knowledge necessary to support their children’s education.
• Community Transitional School: $5,000 to support the teaching team with teacher aides to give at-risk children the attention they need in small learning groups.
• Peninsula Children’s Center: $2,500 to provide early childhood education and family service program scholarships for low-income children and families.
• Playworks: $5,000 to support Playworks Portland program that provides activities before, during and after school at low-income elementary schools.
• Portland Opportunities Industrialization Center: $5,000 to provide wrap around services to Rosemary Anderson High School graduates in the area of barrier reduction, post-secondary education, job training and placement.
• Portland YouthBuilders: $5,000 to train at-risk youth in green construction techniques, resulting in the development of construction skills and LEED certified or Earth Advantage homes for low-income homebuyers.

Healthy Families grants:

• African American Health Coalition: $5,000 to increase access to programs for African American residents of the Portland area, sustainably addressing health disparities and increasing life expectancy through proven culturally appropriate programs.
• Ecumenical Ministries of Oregon for the HIV Center: $2,500 to provide support services for daily living and the physical and emotional health for low-income clients living with HIV/AIDS.
• HomePlate Youth Services, Inc.: $5,000 for funding to help recruit and train volunteers who are essential in staffing weekly drop-in program for homeless/runaway young people in Washington County.
• Lettuce Grow Garden Foundation: $2,500 to support expansion of prison garden program that will result in garden produce that will be donated to the Oregon Food Bank.
• Partners for a Hunger Free Oregon: $5,000 to Project Summer: Everybody Eats campaign that provides mini-grants to organizations to ensure low-income children will eat nutritious meals during the summer vacation.
• Portland Housing Center: $2,000 to support the HomeOwner Basics program classes and counseling for potential first time home buyers.
• Proud Ground: $2,500 to support Proud Ground's minority outreach project to help them on their path to homeownership.
• YMCA of Columbia-Willamette: $5,000 to afford low-income, under and unemployed families access to YMCA services.

Arts & Culture grants:

• Children’s Healing Art Project: $5,000 to expand and enrich art classes and experiences for critically ill, injured, disabled and healing children as well as children from the community at CHAP’s Art Factory.
• PlayWrite, Inc.: $5,000 to support PlayWrite’s partnership with Bienestar to bring a summer playwriting residency to the children of farm workers in western Washington County.