The Women's Foundation for a Greater Memphis (WFGM) was recently awarded $800,000 from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in support of the Memphis HOPE projects. The grant was announced at the Women's Foundation's 10th Annual Tribute Luncheon, held April 15.

One of four Women's Philanthropy and Poverty Cluster Grants, the purpose of the funds is to support leveraging the assets, networks, and expertise of women's foundations to create opportunity for and partnership with low-income single women and their children. Over the next 2 1/2 years, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation will give a total of $4 million dollars to the International Women's Funding Network and four Women's Foundations: the Chicago Foundation for Women, Washington Area Women's Foundation, the Women's Foundation of California and the Women's Foundation for a Greater Memphis.

WFGM will use their grant to continue the progress being made for local women and their families through Memphis HOPE ( Health, Opportunity, Pride and Empowerment), a program which intends to break the cycle of poverty and multi­generational reliance on public housing by focusing attention on helping individuals achieve self-sufficiency in renovated mixed-income communities.

Begun as a $40 million Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grant, the HOPE VI Program addresses severely distressed public housing projects occupied exclusively by poor families. The target communities, formerly known as Lamar Terrace and Dixie Homes, are undergoing renovation to become mixed-income housing, with Phase 1 of the University Place Senior Housing units complete. In addition, the Memphis HOPE team, with partner Urban Strategies, Inc., have developed program safeguards and established viable relationships with other agencies to ensure they are moving each participant toward success. By leveraging community resources and funding to support the education, job-training, health and social needs of the resident families, a revitalized community is taking shape.

The vision of this project aligns closely with that of the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, Established in 1930 by breakfast cereal pioneer W.K. Kellogg, the Foundation supports children, families, and communities as they strengthen and create conditions that propel vulnerable children to achieve success as individuals and as contributors to the larger community and society. The Women's Philanthropy and Poverty Cluster grants aim to fund innovative approaches and partnerships that better the individual lives of single women and their children, while working on broader policy and social conditions that contribute to the challenging cycle of poverty.

For more information about other Women’s Foundations involved in the collaborative please visit:

Chicago Foundation for Women: www.cfw.org

Women’s Foundation of California: www.womensfoundca.org

Washington Area Women’s Foundation: www.thewomensfoundation.org