EDUCATION
MISSION STATEMENT
The Joseph & Vera Long Foundation seeks to enhance education in the communities of Northern California and Hawaii by supporting projects in the areas of: core curriculum enrichment; innovation in teaching; career cultivation; and educational services for students with special learning needs.
The Foundation funds projects for a specific purpose that are not for ongoing agency/program expenses. These projects have realistic goals and benefits and are responsive to the needs of the local economy and community. Preference is given to projects that demonstrate some of the following characteristics:
Innovation - Projects that are original in terms of approach, objectives and progressive outlook.
Measurable/Cost Effectiveness - Projects that are effective in their goals, emphasize accountability, have some form of measurability and are cost effective.
Matching Funding - Projects that will leverage our funding to obtain additional private or public support and that are financially sustainable over the long term with alternate revenue streams or future funding options.
Opportunity to Make a Difference - Projects that have a broader impact and can be shared and replicated in the greater community.
EXAMPLES OF RESPONSIVE GRANTS
Civicorps – The Foundation made two separate grants totaling $98,000 to support construction of a Career Cultivation Center and Career Development Lab at the West Oakland Job Training Center. These classrooms will be instrumental to help the organization expand career pathway courses and realize their long-planned expansion of the center from a warehouse to a true hub of student learning and support.
Mills College – The Foundation contributed $200,000 to support the COMPULIT21@Mills project, that will develop and implement a curriculum in computational literacy that will train students to analyze, comprehend and manage data across the disciplines of the liberal arts. While computer technology has long had a place in both the Mills arts and sciences curricula, dramatic shifts in the deployment of technology in the world and women’s continued
under-representation in the technology industry call for a comprehensive effort to set standards for computational literacy that should be a component of Mills core curriculum.
Oakland Museum of California – A grant of $10,000 was made to develop new Do-It-Yourself Education Guides for students in the 2nd to 12th grades with different versions produced for elementary, middle and high school audiences. These guides include opportunities for close observation, critical thinking, small group discussion and collaboration. The guides will be offered at no cost to help engage more diverse groups,
particularly under-resourced schools and those serving large percentages of low-income students. In addition, these guides will meet growing demands for inquiry-based, student-driven learning opportunities.
Waterside Workshops - $40,000 was granted to repair and upgrade Waterside’s main buildings. This includes replacing windows, doors and flooring, painting interior and repairing exterior surfaces, repairing an ADA accessible ramp, constructing a durable outdoor shelter for outdoor education and café customer seating and constructing new picnic tables for the outdoor café. By ensuring these buildings are maintained, we are helping the organization
reach its goals of providing youth with a safe space for emotional and cognitive development, connecting youth with partner organizations to ensure basic needs are met and assisting youth in making the connections necessary to find and maintain employment through relationships with area businesses.
YWCA San Francisco & Marin – The Foundation made a grant of $15,000 to create instructor manuals for scaled services of the FiftyPlus Employment Support Program. This program helps low-income women 50 and older achieve self-sufficiency through employment by offering free job training and placement services tailored to the unique needs of mature job-seekers. Building instructor manuals will allow the organization to offer more classes through
volunteer instructors- thereby reaching substantially more women.