Bridge Communities Receives $20,000 Grant from DuPage Community Foundation

GLEN ELLYN, Ill. - July 8, 2013 - PRLog -- Bridge Communitieswas one of 25 not-for-profit organizations in DuPage County to receive a grant from the 2013 Spring Community Needs Grant Cycle of The DuPage Community Foundation based in Wheaton, Illinois.  The $20,000 grant, awarded at a special distribution breakfast on Wednesday, June 12, 2013, at Glen Oak Country Club in Glen Ellyn, will help support the Bridge Communities’ Employment Program, which provides at-risk adults in Bridge’s Transitional Housing Program with job readiness and employment counseling.  

         “We’ve made great strides in expanding and improving our Employment Program to reach more clients, helping them get better paying jobs with more potential for advancement,” explains Mary Zienty, Bridge Communities’ Manager of Employment Services.  “Our Job Readiness Workshops have already helped dozens of clients find better jobs, which goes a long way toward helping our clients achieve self-sufficiency.  This grant allows us to continue providing the Workshops to assist even more clients.”

Bridge Communities, Inc. is a dynamic, grassroots, nonprofit organization committed to transforming the lives of homeless families in DuPage County through partnering with talented, resourceful individuals and groups in the community.  Its program of transitional housing, mentoring and supportive services empowers the families to increase life skills and earning power to promote self-sufficiency, sustain permanent housing, and to break the cycle of poverty within the family unit.  What began by co-founders Mark Milligan and Bob Wahlgren when they decided, in 1988, to begin to help homeless families, has now become a powerful current of change in the lives of hundreds of extremely low to low income at-risk families.  To make a donation to support homeless families served by Bridge Communities, or to find out how to support Bridge in other ways, please call Amy Van Polen at (630) 545-0610, ext.12 or visit www.bridgecommunities.org.

Established in 1986, The DuPage Community Foundation is a publicly-supported 501 (c)(3) organization to which contributions are tax deductible.  It was created to benefit the people of DuPage County and receives contributions and bequests into a permanent endowment from individuals, corporations, organizations and foundations wishing to make lasting contributions to the people of DuPage.  The earnings on these funds are then used, in accordance with donor wishes, for the Foundation's grantmaking and community leadership activities.

The DuPage Community Foundation seeks to raise the quality of life throughout DuPage County by fostering philanthropy, connecting donors to area needs and building community partnerships.  Based on the American virtues of volunteerism and philanthropy, the Foundation fosters a legacy of support for the people of DuPage County by making grants to not-for-profit organizations working in the areas of arts and culture, education, environment, health, and human services.  Since its inception the Foundation has built its endowment to more than $48 million and has awarded more than $16 million in grants to not-for-profit agencies serving the residents of DuPage County and beyond.

For further information about the Foundation, or to arrange future media opportunities, please contact Michael R. Sitrick, director of development, at 630-665-5556 or msitrick@dcfdn.org.

Photos available upon request.