Assistance League of Charlotte Community Awards
2023-2024

 Assistance League of Charlotte Community Awards program is currently funding awards to the following 4 organizations:

Stratford Richardson Y summer camps – Summer 2023, Assistance League of Charlotte is funding 22 campers ($424 per student for 2 weeks of camp) for children to attend age-appropriate enrichment activities in indoor and outdoor settings, designed to keep kids active, engaged and having fun. Swim camp, sports camp and teen camp, in addition to regular day camps are being offered.  Included this year in camp is social and emotional learning, since so many children are struggling with mental health issues. Camp also includes a reading/literacy component.

Assistance League of Charlotte is currently funding an $8,400 community award for Takisha Smith, in Class #74 at the Community Culinary School of Charlotte.

 

Student Takisha Smith stays focused on her dream to be a chef and to cook internationally, despite the loss she has experienced in her life. Growing up in a small town in South Carolina, Takisha would stand on a stool next to her mom to help her with dinner and bake cakes in her Easy Bake Oven. She moved to Charlotte to raise her four children. She and her brother Tarvis planned to enroll in culinary school together so they could open a catering company. But tragedy struck when Tarvis, her son Shamareon, and her father all died within a year of each other. Now she is raising two grandchildren and says they and her other three children motivated her and encouraged her to enroll in CCSC this year. Takisha loves the culinary instruction at CCSC, as well as the other help she’s received, including vouchers from DSS to pay for childcare while she is in class. Takisha says, “Whatever you need, they will help you with.” She enjoys taking the recipes she learns at school home to her family, like the Mexican street corn she made for her children. Takisha is already catering meals and events for friends; she calls her company Shorty Mac & Mauri, after her pet names for her brother and son.

 

Arts Plus

Currently Assistance League of Charlotte Community Award program is funding $24,000 to ArtsPlus: $12,000 to ArtsReach and $12,000 to financial aid programs for private music lessons.
Since 1969, Arts+ has been committed to making quality arts education accessible to everyone. Of the 4,500 students Arts+ reaches each year, roughly half receive their arts education for free or at a reduced rate. Our outreach programs make it possible for students of all backgrounds to access the transformative power of arts education. For more than 20 years, the ArtsReach program has provided free music and visual art programming to thousands of children through local community sites at absolutely no cost to the students or program sites.

Augustine Literacy Project

Assistance League of Charlotte Community Award program is funding $4,100 to be designated for:
Materials for resource cabinets at 20 ALP tutoring sites/schools and 50 bags with 3 books each for ALP students.
The mission of the Augustine Literacy Project (ALP) is to improve the reading, writing, and spelling skills of young, aspiring readers in under-resourced communities by providing free, long-term, one-on-one instruction from highly trained tutors. ALP methodology is built on the research-based Orton-Gillingham approach and uses materials developed by Wilson Language Training Corporation and ALP.