U.S. Soccer Foundation Invites Letters of Interest for Safe Places to Play Grants

Youth living in underserved communities often have limited spaces to play in a healthy and safe environment. To remedy this, the U.S. Soccer Foundation has provided over $59 million to soccer organizations and field-building initiatives nationwide since its inception in 1994. More than six hundred organizations have received grants to date, resulting in the creation of over 1,100 safe places for children to play.

The U.S. Soccer Foundation is currently accepting Letters of Inquiry for the Safe Places to Play program, which funds improvements to a community’s field space. Up to $200,000 of Field Building grants will be awarded for the installation of field surfaces, lighting and irrigation. 

To be eligible for a Field Building grant, applicants must:

• Apply on behalf of a program or project operating in the U.S.
•  Be a non-profit organization, school, municipality, college or university, or sovereign tribal nation.
• Apply as, or on behalf of, a field-building project.
• Own or have a minimum of a ten-year land lease/land use agreement on the land where the field-building project will take place.

Letters of inquiry must be received no later than February 1, 2014. Upon review, select applicants will be invited to submit a full application. For more information on Safe Places to Play, click here. For more information on the U.S. Soccer Foundation and their initiatives, click here.

U.S. Soccer Foundation Invites Letters of Interest for Safe Places to Play Grants

The U.S. Soccer Foundation is once again accepting Letters of Interest for their Safe Places to Play program to provide children in urban areas with places to play soccer. The program will award grants up to $200,000 for the installation of field surfaces, lighting, and irrigation for field space and are intended to help provide children in underserved communities with spaces to play in a healthy and safe environment.

To be eligible for the grant, applicants must:

• Apply on behalf of a program or project operating in the U.S.
• Be a non-profit organization, school, municipality, college or university, or sovereign tribal nation.
• Apply as, or on behalf of, a field-building project.
• Own or have a minimum of a ten-year land lease/land use agreement on the land where the field-building project will take place.

Letters of interest must be received no later than September 24, 2014. Upon review, select applicants will be invited to submit a full application. For more information on Safe Places to Play, click here. For more information on the U.S. Soccer Foundation and their initiatives, click here.

Five New Social Innovation Fund Intermediaries Announced

The Corporation for National and Community Service announced five new intermediaries as grantees of the Social Innovation Fund. The five awards total $13.9 million and will fund the initial two years of each grant, which address affordable housing, homelessness, obesity, early education and literacy. The five grantees are:

Corporation for Supportive Housing ($2.3 million over 2 years) to expand and replicate supportive housing models in four cities that combine health, housing, and social services to improve the health and housing outcomes for an estimated 400 homeless individuals per year with complex health needs.

Mile High United Way ($3.6 million over 2 years) to fund subgrantee programs that leverage community volunteers to improve 3rd grade literacy rates by 25% in up to 15 rural and urban areas across Colorado, serving an estimated 2,000 students per year.

NCB Capital Impact ($2 million over 2 years) to scale and replicate “long-term affordable homeownership” programs to build the capacity of local organizations in up to 10 cities to more effectively manage public investment in affordable homeownership for an estimated 300 low-income families per year.

U.S. Soccer Foundation ($2 million over 2 years) to support the expansion and replication in 12 cities of Soccer for Success, a no-cost, after-school, sports-based youth development program whose goal is to improve health by arresting and reducing obesity through physical activity and nutrition education. This program will serve an estimated 12,000 low-income youths with high risk for obesity per year.

United Way for Southeastern Michigan ($4 million over 2 years) to build a portfolio of replicable early childhood learning communities in 10 needy communities in greater Detroit and surrounding areas to dramatically raise demonstrated skills and proficiencies for an estimated 6,000 children entering kindergarten per year.
For more information on the FY 2011 grant competition, click here.

In addition to the five new grantees, the Social Innovation Fund 2011 grant competition has provided continuation funding to nine of its eleven current grantees that will enable them to continue to build their multi-year programs.

For more information about how intermediaries and subgrantees are using Social Innovation Funds at the local level, click here.