RAPID CITY, SD — In a special ceremony today, the South Dakota Community Foundation in partial cooperation with the Bush Foundation awarded Black Hills Organizations with grants totaling $345,000.
For many in attendance, these grants came just in time to cover, or partially cover federal funding cuts to nonprofit and youth-focused organizations. YMCA of the Black Hills, Family Connections Centers, Catholic Social Services, Rapid City Club for Boys, Western South Dakota Community Actions, Black Hills Special Services Cooperative, and the Salvation Army of the Black Hills each received much-needed funding for the expansion or maintenance of community services in the Black Hills.
Doug Herrmann, Executive Director of the Rapid City Club for Boys (who received a $60,000 grant) spoke following the ceremony on his hope for the funding, saying “We’ve developed an academic coaching program for boys, and we have certified teachers that come to the club after school and to work directly and individually with our youth and we serve kids age 6 to 17. And so we’re trying to provide services across the full age range. This grant allows us to actually expand what we’ve been doing; we’ve been doing it for about 4 years, But this will extend both the length of the program as well as allow for additional academic coaching time”. Herrmann says that he is hopeful that this funding will additionally help the organization work more closely with the Rapid City school system to work for better outcomes for local boys.
