OSWEGO — The Richard S. Shineman Foundation announced it recently awarded eight not-for-profit organizations grants totaling $400,000 in the first of three 2018 grant rounds. 

The Oswego Renaissance Association (ORA) was awarded $200,000, representing the foundation’s continued commitment to assist the ORA in its fifth year of growing the “momentum of reinvestment and vibrancy in the city of Oswego’s neighborhoods,” the foundation said in a news release. Over 400 households in more than four dozen neighborhood clusters participated in ORA’s Neighborhood Challenge over the past four years.

A second community revitalization grant was given to the Parish Library as part of its capital campaign to raise 25 percent of the total funds needed to secure a New York State Library Construction Grant for expansion of the library, to provide more services to Parish–area residents. 

In the education and health field, the Shineman Foundation awarded Oswego Health, in partnership with the Oswego County Health Department, a grant to implement the interactive Healthy Highway program in all 23 Oswego County elementary schools in the 2018-2021 academic years. This program teaches students healthy eating choices and is targeting the county’s 22 percent childhood obesity rate. Another grant was given to Harborfest for its Children’s Park to feature STEM activities, the release stated.

In health and human services, funding was provided by the Shineman Foundation to several organizations. The Food Bank of CNY was awarded a grant to expand its mobile food pantry to Altmar and Volney, where there is limited access to grocery stores or emergency food programs, the foundation said. Northern Oswego County Health Services, Inc. (NOCHSI) was provided funding to support the rollout of its rebranding initiative across the county.

The Workforce Development Board was awarded a grant for its Skill Up Oswego County 2.0 initiative and public relations campaign to raise awareness of all the workforce-development courses and services available at the county’s One Stop Career Center in Fulton.

The Shineman Foundation also awarded an arts and culture grant to CNY Arts Inc. which will be used to promote Oswego County’s art, cultural, and historic venues across a 10-county region via a comprehensive billboard, print, and TV digital marketing campaign. 

The Shineman Foundation says its mission is to be a “catalyst for change and to enhance the quality of life in Oswego County.” The foundation uses its resources to “stimulate economic vitality, to encourage strong social bonds that strengthen the community, and to build the capacity of its not-for-profit partners.”