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Feature Story

11 new nonprofit partners join Stand Together Foundation Community.

Cohort 12 Announcement

The Stand Together Foundation welcomes 11 of the most effective nonprofits across the country into its Catalyst Program, a cohort-based management and peer-networking program to encourage innovation, deepen impact, and expand reach.

ARLINGTON, Va., January 27, 2021Stand Together Foundation today announced 11 new nonprofit partners selected to join the twelfth national cohort of its Catalyst Community. Leaders from these organizations will participate in the Stand Together Foundation Catalyst Program, a  management and leadership development experience designed  to unlock the potential of America’s highest-performing nonprofits. This twelfth cohort will kick off its partnership experience on February 23, bringing the Stand Together Foundation Catalyst Community to 190 nonprofit partners across 47 states transforming the lives of more than a million Americans. 

“We are thrilled to welcome 11 new disruptive organizations into our Catalyst  Community. These nonprofits stand out in their field with the way they approach poverty – believing in and empowering the people they serve to tap into their gifts and talents to escape poverty,” said Evan Feinberg, executive director, Stand Together Foundation. “These social entrepreneurs are crafting solutions from within communities that are as unique as the people they serve. We look forward to maximizing their impact, transforming more lives, and demonstrating a better way to solve poverty.”  

The six-month program is highly selective, with over 10 organizations undergoing vetting for each selected. Stand Together Foundation evaluates each organization’s leadership, culture, demonstrated outcomes, ability to scale, and potential for societal-level change. Importantly, Stand Together Foundation only works with organizations that demonstrate a deep belief in the people they serve and seek to empower them to reach their full potential. 

The Catalyst program serves as an on-ramp to long-term partnership with Stand Together Foundation, including principles-based management coaching, leadership development, operational support, and access to a community of entrepreneurial peers, influential philanthropists, and business leaders.

Programming for Cohort 12 kicks off on February 23, 2021. The diverse group of innovative nonprofits includes a range of  solutions to poverty from showing low-income bilingual women how to use their language skills to  achieve economic security, to an after-school program that helps students succeed through athletics. The following is a full list of Stand Together Foundation’s newest Catalyst Partners: 

  • Downtown Boxing Gym (Detroit, MI): a free academic and athletic program that empowers Detroit students with tools to uncover their personal strengths and tap into their potential. DBG is a fierce advocate for its students, providing tutoring, mentorship, enrichment programs, college and career readiness, meals, transportation, support during college, and so much more, to set students on a path for success. The result? A 100% high school graduation rate since 2007.
  • DreamKit (New Haven, CT): mobilizes the power of community to restore the self-confidence of youth who are homeless or unstably housed. DreamKit’s tech-based intervention teaches youth the hard and soft skills needed to reach stable employment, pays members for their progress, and catalogues their growth to be shared with employers who can set them up for success.  
  • FreeWorld (Stockton, CA): empowers people who have been in prison with educational support and technical skills to enter into high wage, high demand careers so they can live fulfilling lives, prison-free. Freeworld aims to break the cycle of recidivism and generational poverty by demonstrating the potential of re-entering citizens creating meaningful career pathways and providing critical support services for the individuals and their families to overcome significant barriers. 
  • Family Promise (Summit, NJ): uses a community-based response to support families that are at-risk of or experiencing homelessness achieve sustainable independence. Family Promise mobilizes a national network of volunteers within communities across the country to provide social capital, relational support, and resources to end family homelessness for good.
  • HealthCorps (New York, NY): Unhealthy habits developed in adolescence can lead to a lifetime of social, emotional, and physical challenges, especially for our most vulnerable communities. HealthCorps’ highly engaging, teen-relevant health and wellness programming gives teens the knowledge, skills and motivation to not only make healthy changes in their own lives, but to catalyze change in their communities. 84% of teens who participate in the HealthCorps program improve at least one targeted health behavior.
  • Found in Translation (Dorchester, MA):  turns obstacles into assets by training bilingual women with low incomes to become professional medical interpreters. Leveraging their invaluable language skills transforms these women into agents of change that help advance equality in healthcare access, prevent medical errors, save lives and achieve economic security.
  • Just in Time for Foster Youth (San Diego, CA): provides a supportive community for youth exiting the foster care system to build confidence, capability, and the connection necessary for personal success. For transitioned foster youth aged 18-27, JIT creates a community of caring adults, long-term coaching relationships, and coordinated resources to address the root cause of trauma and empower youth to achieve self-sufficiency and wellbeing.
  • Lawndale Christian Legal Center (Chicago, IL): offers the only community-based holistic legal practice in the city of Chicago dedicated to the felony criminal defense of juveniles and emerging adults. Their Restorative Justice Community Court (RJCC) resolves felony cases for 18-26 year olds through conferences within the legal community and peace circles with those affected by the crime. Through these connections, Lawndale reduces the damaging effects of youth criminalization, mass incarceration, violence, and poverty. 
  • NMCAN (Albuquerque, NM): leverages youth engagement, community partnerships, and volunteerism to improve youths’ experiences in foster care and the juvenile justice system. Through their programming, young people build the necessary skills to take on leadership roles that drive positive changes in their communities and within the systems that are designed to support them.
  • Partners for Justice (New York, NY): trains non-attorney advocates to work inside public defender offices, helping get people out of the criminal justice system, and navigate complex legal and service bureaucracies. Leveraging local resources, they support individuals by empowering them both during the judicial process and in its aftermath, ultimately helping them walk towards success, and change attitudes and practices within the existing legal system. 
  • The Younique Foundation (Lehi, UT): provides healing services to women who have experienced childhood sexual abuse through retreats, support groups, and online resources. The Younique Foundation also educates and empowers both parents and caregivers to protect children from sexual abuse through community and online resources.

 

About Stand Together Foundation

Stand Together Foundation is committed to breaking the cycle of poverty in America by driving change from within communities. We are building a community of social entrepreneurs who believe in people, work from the bottom up, and unite with anyone to do right. Since 2016, we have committed $100 million and counting to fuel the innovation of nonprofits throughout the country to build stronger, safer communities where all people can learn, contribute, and realize their full potential. Our goal is to help nonprofit leaders maximize their impact to transform more lives out of poverty. Learn more at StandTogetherFoundation.org.

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