Barancik Foundation grants $6 million

The governing board of directors for Sarasota’s Charles & Margery Barancik Foundation recently approved $6 million in grant funding in four areas: arts and culture, humanitarian causes, education, and the environment.

The 16 grants and their recipients:

Barancik Foundation’s Early Learning Initiative: $900,000 to improve the quality of early learning in Sarasota County. Among the strategies envisioned are building a local workforce of early-learning educators, supporting mental and behavioral health services in preschools, and enhancing management capacity of early learning center directors. 

Operation Warrior Resolution: $850,000 toward the purchase of a permanent facility from which to base its operations.

Teacher recruitment, retention and recognition initiative: $750,000 for the partnership with Sarasota County Schools that funds several activities to help the school district recruit and retain teachers.

Suncoast Science Center: $450,000 to enable more students to participate in its STEAM programming and to expand its science lending library for use by local teachers in their classrooms.

FUNducation: $400,000 to enhance the organization’s capacity to provide STEAM education to more students.

Help to Home: $375,000 to support construction of phase two of Hope Village of Manatee, its neighborhood for temporary housing in Bradenton.

Family Promise of South Sarasota County: $350,000 to renovate its family shelter site in Venice.

Bridge a Life: $300,000 to expand foster-care prevention and adoption preservation and support services.

We Care Manatee: $300,000 to expand Care Connection Manatee, a program that provides medical care assistance to uninsured residents.

Manatee Education Foundation: $250,000 to support the planned Soar Lab, an expansion of the Soar in 4 literacy initiative that will bring learning materials directly into Bradenton neighborhoods.

Art Center Sarasota: $250,000 to expand its free art programming, engage more emerging local artists and enhance its community impact as the center approaches its centennial.

Sarasota Music Conservatory: $230,000 to support operations and need-based scholarships.

Barancik Foundation will direct $205,000 to seed a mental health fund from which the Barancik Foundation will direct grants to fill gaps in mental health services. And it will also set aside $200,000 to help organizations implement software to enable service referrals and coordination across the community’s network of health and human service providers.

Ability to Include: $150,000 to expand its services providing education, recreation, and caregiver support for children with special needs.

SunCoast Blood Centers: $85,000 to support the Resilience Incubator, a collaborative office space for nearly a dozen environmental nonprofit organizations on Mound Street.