On Grants

The Bucks County Women's Fund raises money to fund and support programs and policies that impact, empower and improve the lives of women and girls. Grants are awarded to area social service organizations working to find creative solutions to issues affecting Bucks County women and girls, including the needs for housing, health care, child care, life skills, and access to information and services. Click here to learn how to become a reader for grant making.

2009 Grants

• A Woman's Place, $2,500. The First Response Team at AWP supports women who are victims of domestic abuse in Bucks County. Providing access to this critical service has a proven long-term positive impact on the community.
  
  
• ADHD Aware, Inc., $1,000. A new initiative to support Bucks County girls with ADHD and their mothers, the Go Girls Leadership Summit is designed to become a model project for engaging girls in leadership and philanthropy around an issue of personal importance to them.
  
  
• Bucks County Opportunity Council, Inc., $3,750. The Getting Ahead Workshop is a proven model program geared towards
  low-income residents and providing workshop training for low-income women who are working towards permanent self-sufficiency.
  
  
• Child, Home & Community, $2,500. The Creative Careers Workshops is an exciting new program that supports young mothers in Bucks County who are still in high school, fostering economic self-sufficiency, improving access to information and services, and boosting self-esteem.
  
  
• Family Service Association of Bucks County, $2,500. The Ways to Work Program supports low-income families in Bucks County who are struggling, but working towards economic self-sufficiency (89% of these families are women-led). In particular, this program addresses the issue of transportation, which is one of the greatest barriers to economic stability
  in Bucks County.
  
  
• Habitat for Humanity of Bucks County, $5,000. The Women Build program trains Bucks County women to develop skills which contribute to their own competency and self-esteem. Participants are then encouraged to use those skills to empower other, at-risk women to achieve economic stability.
  
  
• Network of Victim Assistance, $4,000. NOVA will work collaboratively with young women to develop a Youth Advisory Council and a Youth Education Program to assist the agency in planning, developing and presenting violence prevention and personal safey education programs around girl-based issues such as relational aggression, internet safety and health relationships.

2008: The Listening Year

In June 2008, the Bucks County Women's Fund (BCWF) suspended grantmaking for one year to complete a year of listening throughout Bucks County in order to assess the needs of women and girls. Our purpose was to stimulate more effective strategies to improve their lives through our own initiatives, our future grantmaking, and by involving our legislators, local agencies, and the public. In the course of the year, we heard about many significant issues that negatively impact women, girls, and families. The widespread perception of Bucks County as a place of wealth and privilege often hampers the ability of residents and others to recognize the needs that exist throughout the county. By listening to women, girls, agency leaders, and other experts, we identified three critical areas of need in which the BCWF and others can work strategically to improve the lives of women and girls. They are:

1. Economic security and self-sufficiency for women:  empowering women, enhancing their safety, and removing barriers to their self-sufficiency.
2. Next generation leadership: nurturing the personal development of women and girls to build self-esteem and enhance skills and experience in leadership, advocacy, and philanthropy.
3. Access to information and services: empowering women to help themselves and their families get what they need to improve their quality of life.

At the conclusion of the Listening Year, the Board of the BCWF decided that, for the foreseeable future, the grantmaking, advocacy, education and coalition-building activities of the Bucks County Women's Fund will be focused on creating social change in these priority areas.

2007 Grants - Focus on Healthcare

• Aldie Counseling Center, $4,000. The grant funds New Moms in Recovery, an innovative program to help new mothers and pregnant women in recovery who have been or are addicted to opiates. New Moms in Recovery will focus on education, prenatal care and will be aimed at women between the ages of 19-22, most of whom are single and without the support of a partner.
  
  
• Child, Home & Community, $1,775. The organization will implement a 12 week teen pregnancy program through Doylestown Hospital targeting girls and young women between the ages of 12 and 22.
  
  
• Family Service Association of Bucks County, $4,000. Grant will help fund a program focusing on HIV/AIDS prevention and early access to health care for girls and women who are HIV positive, providing testing, education and referrals.
  
  
• Planned Parenthood Association of Bucks County, $5,000. The grant funds a new PPABC program to make over-the-counter emergency contraception and testing available to more women. The program aims to extend Plan B coverage to 250 lower income women.
  

2006 Grants - Focus on Bucks Girls

• Central Bucks Healthier Community Team, $1,620. Grant covers a portion of the speaker cost for a nationally renowned anti-bullying program to be presented to all seventh grade girls throughout the Central Bucks School District. The grant also pays for the purchase of more than 60 books to be placed in libraries and guidance offices of all Central Bucks schools.
  
  
• Child, Home & Community, $2,000. Twelve on-site classes to be presented on pregnancy prevention at the Bucks County Juvenile Detention Center, where many of the girls are considered at risk. The program, Teen Parent Awareness - Fact and Fiction, aims to reach 120 girls.
  
  
• Council Rock Coalition for Healthy Youth, $4,000. Grant initiates a program to help reduce cutting and self-injury among girls. Following a training program, 58 mentors each will work with three girls to reduce self-injury and cutting. The immediate goal is to reach 178 girls, although the program aims to be ongoing and be offered county-wide.
  
  
• Network of Victim Assistance (NOVA), $3,000. An anti-bullying prevention program will be developed in the schools and in the community for girls in fourth through eighth grade. The program will target relational aggression and work to build awareness, self-esteem and strategies for dealing with bullying.
  
  
• Planned Parenthood Association of Bucks County, $4,000. Grant will continue funding for Girlfriends, an outreach program for girls age 11 through 15 who live in Venice-Ashby, Bristol Township. This successful program focuses on issues such as sexuality, contraception, HIV and self-esteem.
  
  
• Coalition for Women's Economic Justice (WEJ). $5,000. Awarded by the Carolyn Marks Fund for Social Justice, an advised fund of the Bucks County Women's Fund established in memory of Bucks County feminist and activist Carolyn Marks. WEJ will use the grant to: develop and distribute a brochure outlining its work; support the organizing of a second forum for community leaders to raise awareness and facilitate action to improve economic justice for women in Bucks County; and provide funding for a consultant who will assist the leadership in those efforts and oversee distribution of several white papers addressing issues of economic justice for Bucks County women.
  

2005 Grants - Focus on Domestic Violence

• Indian Valley Housing, $1,500. Expaousing in nd counseling program which, in cooperation with A Woman's Place and other agencies, helps women find permanent hpreparation for, or after, leaving an abuser.
  
  
• NOVA, $3,000. Program in collaboration with Bucks County colleges to conduct sexual assault risk reduction outreach including education programs and training for women attending Bucks County Community College, Delaware Valley College and the Philadelphia College of Bible.
  

2004 Grants - Focus on Self-Sufficiency

• Bucks County Community College Women's Center, $5,000. Mentoring program to encourage and support women ages 15 to 50 majoring in science, math and technology.
  
  
• Child, Home & Community, $2,525. Transition program providing one-on-one career guidance sessions for soon-to-graduate high school students/moms.
  
  
• Collaboration of Three Healthy Beginnings Clinics, $3,600. Provision of comprehensive prenatal guide in Spanish and English for 480 low-income pregnant women attending prenatal clinics at Grand View Hospital, Doylestown Hospital and St. Mary Medical Center's Mother Bachmann Maternity Center.
  
  
• Family Service Association Caring Families Program, $5,000. Weekly support group sessions with child care focuses on new mothers and mothers struggling economically; purpose is to reduce child abuse by increasing support system and improving self-esteem.
  
  
• NOVA/Libertae Collaboration, $3,000. Provides counseling on violence and victimization to Libertae clients by trained staff of the Network of Victim Assistance.
  
  
• VITA, $2,625. The Women's History Project, part of VITA's family literacy program, will address self-determination, reading and writing skills utilizing inspirational accounts of American women.