FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 16, 2011

PGE Foundation awards almost $600K in grants in first quarter 2011
Top priority given to youth educational programs addressing academic and social needs

PORTLAND, Ore. — In the first quarter of 2011 the PGE Foundation — Portland General Electric’s corporate foundation — awarded 62 grants totaling $569,366 to nonprofits across the state to fund programs in areas of education, health and wellness, and the arts.

The foundation gave top priority to addressing the academic and social needs of youth awarding almost $330,000 to programs focused on early childhood programs, mentoring, after-school, arts education, targeted social service interventions and college scholarships.

“Planning for the next generation of skilled workers is critical,” said Gwyneth Gamble Booth, foundation chair. “That’s why in 2011 we are embracing the cradle-to-career concept, an approach that looks at education as a continuum from birth to employment.”

Significant education-focused grants included: $87,366 to Community 101, the joint PGE Foundation and Oregon Community Foundation classroom-based program that provides students opportunities to be involved in their communities through grant-making and volunteering; a second-year $25,000 grant to Oregon State University for OSU College of Engineering scholarships; and $108,000 to arts programs focusing on youth education and outreach.

The PGE Foundation also awarded a $50,000 grant to Columbia River Community Health Services to support a new community health Center serving Boardman and Northern Morrow County. In addition, education grants were awarded to.

• Academy for Architecture, Construction and Engineering (Oregon Building Congress): $10,000 to Project Lead The Way engineering program at ACE Academy, 2010-2011 school year.
• Adelante Mujeres (Forest Grove): $10,000 to adult education program serving low-income immigrant Latina women and their families.
• Artists Repertory Theatre: $7,500 for educational programming, including panel discussions, writing and reading workshops, conversations with artistic staff and free student matinees.
• Arts Central (Bend): $5,000 for an arts education center, Artists in Schools residency program and mobile arts program.
• Big Brothers Big Sisters: $5,000 for one-to-one mentoring in schools.
• Broadway Rose Theatre Company (Tigard): $5,000 for summer theater programming by subsidizing tickets for YMCA youth and providing need-based drama camp scholarships.
• Chamber Music Northwest: $5,000 to support young performers in residence and a series of free community educational and outreach performances.
• Chess for Success: $5,000 to after-school chess programs and tournaments for elementary schools.
• Farmworker Housing Development Corporation (Woodburn): $10,000 to after-school youth dropout prevention programming for low-income children in Woodburn and Salem.
• Film Action Oregon: $5,000 to the Project Youth Doc program, a summer documentary film making course for teens in North Portland’s low-income housing community.
• Friends of the Children: $5,000 to help reduce the achievement gap experienced by participating middle and high school youth.
• Hacienda CDC: $10,000 to support its Plaza Comunitaria program that provides educational and economic development opportunities for low-income Latinos.
• J Bar J Youth Services (Bend): $2,500 to update the computer lab in the Learning Center.
• Literary Arts: $7,500 to the Writers in the Schools program in Portland high schools for 2010-2011 school year.
• Media Arts and Technology Institute: $1,500 for Media Literacy classes at Beach, Humboldt Elementary School and Open Meadow Middle School.
• Metropolitan Youth Symphony: $2,500 to support services provided through its website.
• Oregon Ballet Theatre: $10,000 for youth education and outreach programming that connects ballet to arts and academic subjects.
• Oregon Humanities: $5,000 to provide free education in the humanities to economically and educationally disadvantaged adults in Salem.
• Oregon Symphony Association: $20,000 to underwrite free symphony concert tickets for student music ensembles and free youth concert tickets for low-income students.
• Portland Art Museum: $20,000 to support education programming with the Object Stories project personally connecting visitors with the museum through interactive sharing.
• Portland Chamber Orchestra: $5,000 to underwrite performance and events for its spring 2011 concert, “From Darkness to Light.”
• Portland Playhouse: $2,500 for students at seven high schools to produce a 90-minute fully staged production of a Shakespeare play
• Tears of Joy Theatre: $3,000 to support after-school performing arts classes for low-income 5th to 8th grade students.
• Washington County Museum: $5,000 to expand Free Family Day programming to more locations in Washington County and Touching History Mobile Museum in-school presentations to elementary and middle school students.
• Write Around Portland: $5,000 to support creative writing workshops in partnership with social service agencies.

In addition to the grant awarded to Columbia River Community Health Services, healthy families grants focused on programs supporting successful youth development including domestic violence, hunger and housing assistance, physical and mental health care, as well as initiatives aimed at foster children, seniors and people with disabilities, including:

• A Family For Every Child: $5,000 to provide foster children with adoption services and offer family finding and mentoring for older youth in foster care.
• Albertina Kerr Centers Foundation: $10,000 for its Family Involvement Program that serves parents of children with mental health challenges.
• American Cancer Society: $2,500 to support free Camp Ukandu sessions for children and teens affected by pediatric cancer.
• Birch Community Services: $5,000 for poultry for more than 700 needy families for three months.
• Cascade AIDS Project: $7,500 to Kids’ Connection, providing psychosocial support and community building to families living with HIV and AIDS.
• Chemeketa Non-Profit Housing, Inc. (Salem): $3,000 to provide critical health care to low-income households progressing toward self-sufficiency and away from government assistance.
• Clackamas Service Center: $15,000 to provide improved client services to low-income individuals and families
• Coffee Creek Quilters (Wilsonville): $1,000 to support women at the correctional facility to learn quilting and donate quilts to those in need.
• Community Cycling Center: $5,000 to expand bicycle production space helping 1,025 additional people annually to access affordable, reliable and healthy transportation.
• Estacada Area Food Bank: $5,000 to provide food boxes to an increasing number of low-income and homeless clients.
• Growing Gardens: $5,000 to support the Home Gardens program that provides families with food- growing support.
• Impact Northwest: $7,500 for Early Childhood Family Services to promote the nurturing, healthy development, and school readiness of at-risk children ages 0-5.
• Kinship House: $7,500 to support out-patient counseling and permanent placement assessment services for high-needs foster care children.
• Lifeworks NW: $10,000 to provide a full range of vocational assistance to adults living with severe mental illness who have a desire to work.
• Maybelle Clark Macdonald Center: $5,000 to support independent living services for 80 extremely low-income, vulnerable individuals.
• Mid Valley Mentors (Salem): $5,000 to support the successful transition into society for recently incarcerated adults and youth with family engagement and enrichment activities.
• Mt. Angel Community Foundation: $10,000 for capital support in support of construction of new community center.
• Northwest Pilot Projects: $10,000 to provide eviction prevention services for very low-income at-risk seniors.
• One Step Closer: $2,500 to support running program for people experiencing homelessness.
• Oregon Food Bank: $25,000 for its new warehouse that will serve Washington County and beyond with 1.5 million pounds of food per year.
• Salvation Army: $6,000 to support its SAFE Shelter which provides shelter to women and offers advocacy, housing and employment search support.
• Self Enhancement: $10,000 to support Youth Potential Realized program serving at-risk youth with multi-year academic and family support programming.
• Store to Door: $5,000 for grocery shopping assistance for seniors and people with disabilities.
• Sustainable Urban Neighborhoods: $2,500 to expand the Community Harvest Program that provides fresh, healthy food to low-income families.
• Transition Projects: $15,000 to support refurnishing its Resource Access Center that will provide services for those experiencing homelessness in Portland.
• Trillium Family Services: $7,500 to support the Healing Garden for children with mental illness.
• Virginia Garcia Memorial Foundation (Hillsboro): $5,000 to support the parenting education program that includes group parenting classes and individual home visits to reduce child abuse and neglect by strengthening at-risk families.
• Volunteers of America: $7,500 for Child & Youth Advocacy Services for children who are exposed to domestic violence.
• Woape (Brightwood): $1,500 to support life skills training, individual tutoring, and work readiness skill training for at-risk youth.
• Youth Progress Association: $5,000 to provide vocational training and specialized job-readiness training for low-functioning adolescents.
• YWCA (Salem): $5,000 for emergency shelter and meals to individuals and families in crisis.

In addition to arts educations grants focused on youth, grant awards focused on performances made available to the community include:

• Inland Northwest Musicians (Hermiston): $5,000 for free community concert performances.
• JANE A Theatre: $6,000 to support the “Ghosts of Celilo” project, a musical production based on Native American history and true events at Celilo Falls.
• Miracle Theatre Group: $7,500 to support La Luna Nueva festival celebrating Latino arts and culture during Hispanic Heritage month.