Cox Cares Foundation Donates $35,000 to 13 Orange County Nonprofits

RANCHO SANTA MARGARITA, Calif. – The Cox Cares Foundation has awarded $35,000 to 13 Orange County nonprofit organizations. The funds will go toward programs that focus on youth, education, military and conservation.

An additional $5,000 will be awarded to the organization with the most votes and retweets in an online and Twitter public voting campaign that runs through Oct. 30, 2015. The public can visit Cox Cares Foundation or Cox California’s Twitter page to cast a vote for one of the 13 nonprofit grant recipients they feel is most in need of the additional $5,000. Votes must be cast by 11:59 p.m. on Oct. 30, 2015.

The Cox Cares Foundation 2015 Nonprofit Grant recipients for Orange County are:

Art & Creativity for Healing (ACFH) – In close partnership and collaboration with Children’s Hospital Orange County, ACFH established the “Visiting Art Angel Bedside Program” in 2002 to provide pediatric patients in long-term care in the Hematology/Oncology and Bone Marrow Transplant units, one-on-one bedside visits using drawing painting, and sculpture techniques to help children experiencing cancer express their feelings through art.

Children’s Education Foundation of Orange County – The Gift of History is an educational program designed to make history come alive for Orange County’s third graders. They are treated to an hour‐long program designed to illustrate that history is alive and all around them -- from the buildings they see, to the streets they drive on, to the parks they play at, to the dynamic examples of leadership that show they can achieve anything if they believe in themselves.

Friends of Cabrillo Marine Aquarium – This program teaches young students marine conservation and utilizes digital technology as a non-invasive way to study local marine life without injuring or harming animals in the laboratory. This training in technology prepares students for uses in future college studies and jobs.

Intervention Center for Early Childhood (ICEC) – The Ounce of Prevention program, a key part of ICEC’s Early Intervention Program, was created to provide developmental assessments and early intervention services to at-risk infants and toddlers who have been eliminated from the social services system.

Laurel House – Laurel House provides housing, counseling and care to homeless and runaway teen girls. They receive individual and family counseling, attend school, catch up on school credit, complete their daily chores and volunteer at the local Boys & Girls Club.

Newport Bay Naturalists and Friends – High school students at Title I schools in Orange County receive hands-on education in marine and wetland habitats, the environmental challenges of sustaining these habitats and undertaking team-based projects on selected environmental topics. They work in the laboratory, in on-the-water guided tours via outriggers and on land.

Ocean Institute – The Adopt-A-Class program provides underserved students the opportunity to visit the ocean and to experience immersive marine related educational programs. Through these programs, they observe migrating whales and collect scientific data.

Orange County Education and Research Institute (OCERI)/OCBC – To cultivate a skilled workforce, OCERI supports OCBC’s Workforce Development Initiative, which aims to provide real-world information based on the needs of employers and the business community to address the most critical needs of the county which include closing the skills gap of our growing minority Asian and Latino populations.

Project Tomorrow – YouthTEACH2Learn (YT2L) addresses the need to develop the next generation of math and science teachers, and enhances the classroom experience for high school and elementary school students. In YT2L, high school students take a class to learn about teaching math and science. The students develop hands-on science and math lessons and teach these standards-based lessons in local elementary school classrooms throughout the year.

Ronald McDonald House – The Orange County Ronald McDonald House is much more than a place to rest. It was built on the idea that nothing else should matter when a family is focused on healing their child - not where they can afford to stay or where they will get their next meal. Ronald McDonald House believes the love and support of a family can be the strongest medicine.

Special Olympics Orange County – The School Partnership Program provides children with intellectual disabilities the opportunity to train and compete in Special Olympics through their neighborhood school. Students participate in the sports of basketball in the fall and track and field in the spring with their teacher as their coach. At the end of the season, the organization hosts a School Games for schools to compete against each another.

Veterans Transition Support (VTS) – VTS prepares veterans and spouses before, during and after their transition through job training. The organization also offers peer support, networking and individualized mentoring in Career Development, Cultural Adaptation, Education Planning and Obtaining Veterans Benefits.

Wyland Foundation – Wyland Foundation inspires people of all ages to become positive, solution-oriented stewards of our global marine resources. The annual “Maddie’s Ocean” educational outreach tour is designed to broaden a student’s understanding of the relationship between human activities and a sustainable marine environment and to show how to apply that knowledge in practical ways to advance their understanding of environmental science and improve the health of communities.

About Cox Cares Foundation
Funded by employee payroll donations that are matched by the company, the Cox Cares Foundation provides support to communities in Cox Communications’ service area by awarding scholarships to high school seniors, Innovation in Education grants to local schools, and grants to non-profit organizations. A volunteer advisory board of Cox employees oversees the foundation and its giving programs.