CFO gives $50K to area nonprofits

Community Foundation of the Ozarks yesterday awarded $50,000 in grants to seven area nonprofits focused on early childhood issues.

The funding is part of CFO's Metro Springfield Early Childhood grant program, and grants were given to address red-flag issues in the community as identified by the Community Focus Report for Springfield-Greene County, according to a news release.

Grant recipients were:

• Community Partnership of the Ozarks, $8,000 to support the Strengthening Families Program, which helps decrease child abuse;
• Friends of Operation Us, $9,200 to support the the agency's Hatching project, which provides strategies for reducing abuse and neglect of children;
• Lighthouse Child and Family Development, $6,000 to purchase materials and provide training for case management and family education and to offer child care at low cost for families in need;
• Ozarks Area Community Action Corp. - Head Start, $13,750 to improve early childhood education and prepare children for kindergarten;
• Ozarks Literacy Council, $4,000 to purchase materials needed to improve kindergarten preliteracy training and tutoring;
• Springfield-Greene County Library District, $7,050 to help establish the library's Destination for Literacy Program, meant to increase kindergarten readiness; and
• University Child Care Center, $2,000 to train teachers and purchase materials for the Project Construct learning model.