LivableStreets Alliance

Announcing $6.5 Million in New Grants

At their September 2015 board meeting, Barr’s trustees approved 16 grants totaling $6.5 million.

We invite you to explore all of the grants awarded this quarter through our online grants database, and we are pleased to highlight a few of our partners and their work below.

In Arts & Culture, Barr awarded two grants totaling $700,000. These include a $500,000 grant to the New Dance Complex, located in the historic Odd Fellows Hall in Central Square, Cambridge, for operating support and for renovations to transform its storefront into a professional, ADA-accessible dance studio and a highly visible, revenue-generating event space.

In Climate, Barr awarded six grants totaling $2.4 million dollars. These include two grants to advance clean energy in Massachusetts: one to the Environmental League of Massachusetts to coordinate the Global Warming Solutions Project, a network of nonprofit organizations that monitors the State’s implementation of clean-energy and climate policies; and one to the Clean Water Fund for outreach, organizing, and education to ensure that Massachusetts meets its climate goals. Barr’s trustees also ratified a previously approved grant to the Nuestra Communidad Development Corporation to lead an effort to increase community engagement in exploring the possibility of one or more Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) corridor(s) serving Roxbury, Dorchester, and Mattapan; the effort includes a series of workshops at the Roxbury Innovation Center in Dudley Square using MIT’s CityScope tool, an interactive, LEGO-based system created with Barr Foundation support.

In Education, Barr awarded three grants totaling $2.6 million. These include a $2-million grant to Boston After School & Beyond to strengthen the partnerships and deepen the knowledge base contributing to out-of-school-time program quality, as well as a $400,000 grant to Strategies for Children to continue to support its work to strengthen early-education policy.

In Global, Barr awarded five grants totaling $800,000. These include two grants focused on climate-resiliency efforts: one to the Fondation pour la Protection de la Biodiversité Marine for its work in the Parc National des Trois Baies in northeast Haiti; and one to Global Footprint Network to enhance its Sustainable Development Return on Investment metric in India.

The trustees also ratified $1.2 million in grants approved earlier this quarter made across Arts & Culture, Climate, Education, and Special Initiatives.

Explore Our Grants Database

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Trevor Pollack

Former Program Officer and Manager of Special Projects