For 25 years, readers of The Sacramento Bee have been making dreams come true for people in need throughout the capital region. In December, they came through again, this time for The Soldiers Project/Sacramento, helping to fulfill a wish for a commercial grade copy machine. The Soldiers Project/Sacramento was one of 16 organizations and individuals featured in the newspaper's annual “Book of Dreams” series during the yuletide season. Readers contributed more than $131,000 to the effort, according to the Bee’s website; $5,000 of that was awarded to TSP on Jan. 17. “Being part of the ‘Book of Dreams’ was a wonderful way to cap off 2012,” said Becca Bettis, program manager for the local ch

The Boys and Girls Club of Greater Sacramento will have to wait two weeks longer to launch key literacy and gang-prevention programs after a surprise move by City Council Tuesday halting the acceptance of a $250,000 grant to fund the programs. Sheedy asked for the agenda item on the grant to be pushed back until she could get more information from City Manager John Shirey about details of the grant. “I haven’t been briefed on it, and I have a lot of questions,” Sheedy said Tuesday. “I have questions about how it was done and the method of a private individual doing it instead of the city.” The item was initially on the City Council’s consent calendar, which typically contains non-contro

The Sacramento Valley Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure® awarded over $850,000 in grants to local organizations that deliver screening, patient support and education programs throughout the Affiliate’s 19-county service area. The announcement was made at a breakfast honoring top individual fundraisers from the 2011 Race for the Cure, held April 11 at The Mind Institute at UC Davis Medical Center. “With these grants our Affiliate has invested $2.85 million in three years, specifically for women who are without insurance or are at higher risk,” said Executive Director Paula Birdsong. “For every dollar we raise, 25% is directed at research to find the cures and 75% supports local orga

Local homeless programs received a federal boost Friday with a $995,000 grant from the Housing and Urban Development Department – opening the door to shelter and services for more than 100 additional people this year. "This funding will help us meet our goal of ending chronic and family homelessness in Sacramento,” Ben Burton, executive director of Sacramento Steps Forward, said in a press release Friday. The award is part of $201 million in competitive grants that HUD awarded across the nation for 2012. In Sacramento, homeless programs offered through the city, county and a variety of nonprofit and volunteer organizations are coordinated by the county in what is called a “continuum of

  SACRAMENTO, CA | For the first time in its history, the Housing Authority of the City of Sacramento has received a High Performer designation on the Public Housing Assessment System Score Report from the U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. The Housing Authority received a PHAS total score of 90 out of 100. The assessment period covered the fiscal year ending December 31, 2010. “This is a great accomplishment for the Housing Authority,” said La Shelle Dozier, Executive Director of Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency, a Joint Powers Agency which includes the Housing Authority. “We redoubled our efforts to improve our performance in all of the scoring categories and

SACRAMENTO, CA - Today, Congresswoman Doris Matsui (D-Sacramento) held a press conference announcing that the Sacramento Employment & Training Agency (SETA) is receiving $300,000 in federal funding to support SETA's On-The-Job Training Program. The event was held at the Beutler Corporation, located at McClellan Park, one of the several Sacramento companies that will be able to hire workers as a result of this grant. Congresswoman Matsui was joined by California Energy Commissioner Karen Douglas, SETA Executive Director Kathy Kossick, and Beutler Corporation President Rick Wylie to make the announcement, followed by a tour of Beutler's manufacturing plant. “I am excited to announce the all

Today, Congresswoman Doris Matsui (D-Sacramento) announced that the Crocker Art Museum has been awarded a federal Museums for America grant of $148,441 by the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS). These funds can be used for a wide variety of projects, including research, planning, and new programs and activities that support the efforts of museums to integrate new technologies. “The Crocker Art Museum is one of the jewels of Sacramento, and this grant announcement is great news for our region,” said Congresswoman Matsui. “The federal funding will further enable the Crocker to provide valuable programming for Sacramento families, and to be a catalyst for our local arts scene.”

Today, Congresswoman Doris Matsui (CA-05) announced that two local Sacramento organizations will receive a combined $2,087,419 in AmeriCorps grants from the Corporation for National and Community Service, and will be able to hire 253 AmeriCorps members as a result. Congresswoman Matsui, Co-Chair of the bipartisan National Service Caucus, has been continually supportive of both AmeriCorps and the Corporation for National and Community Service, and has helped lead the fight for adequate federal funding to support programs like these in the last several Congresses. “As our region continues to work toward economic recovery, these funds will help put 253 AmeriCorps participants to work in our

Today, Congresswoman Doris Matsui (D-Sacramento) announced that the Sacramento Regional Conservation Corps (SRCC) has been awarded a Department of Labor competitive grant of $542,502 to support their YouthBuild program. This is in addition to the $1 million in federal funding SRCC received in June 2009 for their YouthBuild program; a three year grant that ends in 2012. “YouthBuild helps young people in Sacramento gain both the academic and work skills they need to succeed,” said Congresswoman Matsui. “By providing valuable job training skills and a modest stipend, the Sacramento Regional Conservation Corps is literally helping our youth build a better life, brick by brick, project by proj

Today, Congresswoman Doris Matsui (D-Sacramento) announced that two local organizations, the Sacramento Philharmonic Orchestra Association and California Presenters, have been awarded grants by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The Sacramento Philharmonic will receive $20,000 to support an educational outreach series featuring Carnegie Hall's LinkUP! for Music “Orchestra Rocks” program; and the California Presenters’ $15,000 grant will support their 28th annual Artist Information Exchange Conference. “Investing in the arts is an investment in the creativity and innovation of our community,” said Congresswoman Matsui. “This federal assistance will help California organizations con

Stepping in to replace funding eliminated by state budget cuts, Kaiser Permanente has approved a nearly $50,000 grant to fund Sacramento County’s flu immunization program for low-income and underserved schoolchildren. The grant for the Immunization Assistance Program, which is run by the county’s Public Health Division, will allow public health officials to re-establish plans to vaccinate hundreds of children at 20 elementary schools this fall. The $49,737 grant is provided by Kaiser Permanente’s Community Benefit program in the greater Sacramento area. The grant is among $1.2 million in funding approved last week to improve access to health care and health-care coverage, increase health

To celebrate its 10th year of community benefit funding, Sutter Medical Center, Sacramento (SMCS) will award one of its community partners an additional $10,000 grant for 2011. The winner will be determined through online voting that will close on February 16. The Downtown Sacramento Partnership (DSP) and 16 other local agencies are using social media to help garner the votes they need to win the additional grant money. "If the DSP is fortunate enough to be granted the additional funding, our organization plans to use it to fund homeless and youth outreach,” said Ryan Loofbourrow, DSP community services director, “Mental illness is one of the leading causes of homelessness. We would love

While winning grant monies in the private industry sector sometimes seems impossible, a number of technology companies in the Sacramento region have recently won government grants to help fund research and underwrite programs. For example, in September, Renewable Energy Institute International received a $20 million economic stimulus grant from the U.S. Department of Energy to develop a pilot biorefinery to turn crop and wood waste into diesel fuel. In October, Insera Therapeutics was awarded a $150,000 Phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) that they will use to develop the industry's first clot-specific catheter-based platform f