The YMCA of Athens is among the latest recipients of grant money from the Foundation of the Jefferson-based Jackson EMC: the local Y gets ten thousand of the more than $110,000 grant that sends money to three other Athens-area social service agencies. — $12,450 to Three Dimensional Life in Gainesville, a non-profit organization that provides a 10-month residential recovery for young men 14-19 years old from Banks, Clarke, Gwinnett, Hall, and Jackson counties who are struggling with destructive behaviors, to provide 200 family counseling sessions.
$12,000 to YMCA of Georgia's Piedmont in Winder for its Summer Day Camp to enable 20 children ages 5-13 from economically disadvantaged families in Barrow, Clarke, Gwinnett, Hall and Jackson counties to attend a 10-week day camp that provides a safe environment and nurturing quality programs for youths that might otherwise be "latchkey" kids during their schools' summer break.
$10,000 to YMCA of Athens, to provide scholarships to 45 children for its Summer Day Camp project, which serves more than 1,000 young people by offering supervised sports and other activities, as well as teaching values and responsibility that help kids feel good about themselves, enjoy life and avoid the dangers of drugs or gangs.
$5,000 to Books For Keeps, an Athens nonprofit organization sponsoring the Stop Summer Slide program to improve children's reading achievement, providing books for summer reading to children in Clarke County elementary schools where 90 percent or more of the students receive free or reduced lunches, for the Cleveland Road Elementary School.
Jackson EMC Foundation grants are made possible by the more than 184,800 participating cooperative members who have their monthly electric bills rounded to the next dollar amount through the Operation Round Up program. Their “spare change” has funded 1,177 grants to organizations and 343 grants to individuals, putting nearly $12 million back into local communities since the program began in 2005.
