For Release 12/19/22

The Foundation’s vision is to positively impact communities across North Carolina by awarding funds to local charities and nonprofits focused on solving health care, housing, human services and hunger issues. Through a deliberate grant process, the Foundation selects one to three community organizations quarterly to provide grants of up to $25,000 per organization.

In the fourth quarter round of applications, Children’s Flight of Hope, Families First and Unshaken Generation Outreach were awarded $25,000 each based on their alignment with the Foundation’s mission and impact on the community. All three 501(c)(3) organizations focus on community well-being and provide local resources for communities across the state.

Children’s Flight of Hope believes that distance and cost should not be barriers to care and provides flights to specialized medical care for children in need. This organization secures airline tickets for children facing rare and complex diseases that cannot be treated close to their homes or surrounding location. It is committed to ensuring children have access to top specialists and healthy futures.

Families First has a mission to nurture children, empower parents and strengthen the whole family. It provides resources to children and their family members residing in Concord, Kannapolis, Harrisburg, and the rural county lines of underserved regions of Rowan and Mecklenburg counties.

Unshaken Generation Outreach is a newly formed nonprofit organization based in Mecklenburg County. It provides well-balanced meals to at-risk children in the most impacted communities throughout Charlotte. The organization prepares, packages, and delivers nutritional meals directly to the homes of the children at no cost to them.

According to Jazmine Kilpatrick, Executive Director of the Local Foundation, “In the Foundation’s initial year of being a community resource, we are honored to continue our mission by contributing to these statewide community resources. All the organizations we have contributed to are to be commended for the difference they continue to make in the lives of North Carolinians.”

For more information about the Local Foundation of NC and its scholarship and grant recipients, visit the website Local Foundation of North Carolina or call 800.344.4846.

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Local Foundation of NC was founded in 2021 to help address needs in health care, housing, human services and hunger. Its mission is to change North Carolina one heart at a time. For more information, please visit localfoundationnc.org.

8/22 For Release

Families First is awarded $3,500 to provide early learning program for low/mod pre-school students in English and Spanish.

Families First Childcare Community Network Initiative fills a gap in services for families with children 0 to 3 years of age and builds a more robust childcare ecosystem in Cabarrus County, including formal and informal childcare. With over 2/3 of our young children not returning to childcare since the pandemic, and unable now because there is zero capacity in the county, this initiative aims to increase resources for home providers and builder stronger system supports.

Families First’s proven record of adapting, setting attainable goals, and scaling those services has assisted 1000’s families in achieving positive outcomes, supporting and reinforcing the county’s 2020 StrategicPlan and vision: “where our children learn, our citizens participate, our dreams matter, ourfamilies and neighbors thrive and our community prospers.”

For Release 7/22

The childcare industry is experiencing a market failure for providers, families, our community, and the country. A new team member at Corning moved to Cabarrus County and, to this date, months later, is unable to find care for their children- Mom and dad both work.

In 2021 we received a grant awarded by the Corning Foundation to start the hard work of change/recovery. The grant partially funded 1) a strategic planning event with stakeholders and 2) training for Families First to become NC’s first agency to implement an evidence-based model of visiting home-based providers twice-weekly. Learn more about Parentchild+ Home-Based Child Care Model.

For Release: 7/1/22

ZSR’s Community Progress Funds Families First in Cabarrus County in Year 2 to grow its ParentChild+ program, which addresses gaps in services for 2-3-year-olds by working with caregiver/child together. ZSR funding will support the program’s growth into several new communities in Cabarrus County, with an overall goal of reaching 50 families.

https://www.zsr.org/articles/zsr-announces-community-progress-fund-grant-awards