NBC4 is proud to announce that we've awarded $100,000 in three 21st Century Solutions grants to deserving local organizations.
The grants recognize local programs that provide bold ideas that help move communities forward. For more information on our yearly 21st Century Solutions grants, click here.
The organizations are:
The Arc of Northern Virginia: $50,000
The Arc of Northern Virginia supports people with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families through a variety of ways. The organization plans to use this grant for an app curriculum called EmployMate, which acts as a virtual travel trainer and job coach helping people navigate their working and social worlds by themselves.
Funds will also be used to train disability professionals in area school systems, government agencies and service providers to use these apps with their students.
Montgomery Community Television, Inc.: $25,000
Local
Washington, D.C., Maryland and Virginia local news, events and information
Montgomery County’s public television station will use these funds for its Multimedia Journalism Explorer’s Program. Economically disadvantaged students will learn and use backpack journalism skills to create and share personal book reviews using multimedia content creation and blogging.
By maximizing the resources of the public library, and training library staff to use multimedia production technology, the program will be self-sustaining and can be replicated anywhere in the country in which there is a public access station and a public library with available multimedia production technology.
Hopkins House: $25,000
Hopkins House, a center for children and families, will use its grant for Youth Speaks, a social media-based communication platform designed for young people to identify and discuss social issues and find resources to provide solutions. Youth will be given video cameras to create content that can educate and inform others. The goal is to have hundreds of them publish solutions to difficult social issues in hopes that their peers and their teachers will take notice.
"We come across organizations all year long that are working hard to make a real difference in our community,” said Jackie Bradford, president and general manager of NBC4. “Providing resources to make their jobs easier is one of our favorite things, and we look forward to seeing how these worthy programs benefit from these grants."
