Submitted by Grays Harbor Community Foundation
After receiving overwhelmingly positive results from the 2012 Technology Initiative and celebrating those successes with a Public Forum, the Grays Harbor Community Foundation is pleased to announce they have funded another Technology Initiative in 2014.
In May of 2012, more than $130,000 was granted to the community by the Grays Harbor Community Foundation through five school districts to integrate technology into classrooms. Those districts have had the opportunity to utilize the upgraded technology and adapt their curriculum to include the digital assets for an entire school year. They shared the results of their work via thorough and overwhelmingly encouraging final reports. A short video was also produced sharing how the grant funds are being used day-to-day and highlighting the qualitative and quantitative successes the schools have achieved. The video can be viewed here.
The Foundation was particularly pleased to learn that the first round of funding has resulted in decreasing learning disparities due to income. This second round of funding was focused on supporting those projects that strive to reduce disparities and target students that might otherwise have limited access to technology for learning.
The Districts’ requests ranged from purchasing Chromebooks, to providing iPad compatible accessories to supporting training for the staff utilizing the technology. “We felt it was important to give the districts the autonomy to tell us what they needed, rather than making the grant guidelines restrictive” Grant Committee Chair Dr. Dave Westby explained, “After hearing the results from the first technology initiative we were more open to funding things like training and infrastructure, rather than just purchasing hardware.”
The Community Foundation approved the funding of 10 grants to School Districts around Grays Harbor County, totaling $155,900 in investment of technology and technology support. The following school districts’ projects were awarded grants as part of the 2014 Technology Initiative:
- Aberdeen School District: Accessing Technology through STEM
- Cosmopolis School District: STEM Materials
- Elma School District: Math Technology Support
- Hoquiam School District: Home and School Technology
- Lake Quinault School District: Classroom Technology Training
- North Beach School District: Project Freshman
- Ocosta School District: Technology for Teachers
- St. Mary School: Technology Grant
- Taholah School District: Project Chromebook
- Wishkah Valley School: Technology Opportunity Grant
The Grays Harbor Community Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization with a mission “to improve the quality of life in the communities throughout Grays Harbor County.” This is accomplished through many projects and processes that work through or in support of other non-profit organizations, including a quarterly discretionary grants cycle with applications accepted on the first business day of January, April, July and October.
Tax deductible donations may be made to:
Grays Harbor Community Foundation, P.O. Box 615, Hoquiam, WA 98550
You may find out more by checking the foundation website here or by contacting the Foundation staff at 532-1600 or by e-mail at: info@gh-cf.org.
