Cleveland Browns Foundation Awarding $275,000 in Grants

CLEVELAND, OH - The Cleveland Browns Foundation will award $275,000 in grants to the Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD), Ginn Academy, Shoes and Clothes for Kids, and the Centers for Families and Children, the team announced on its website today.

“Cleveland is a great town with a very big heart, and we are dedicated to improving our city and helping address pivotal issues in Northeast Ohio, including education and youth development,” said Dee and Jimmy Haslam on the Browns' website. “It takes an entire community to spark impactful positive changes, and we are fully committed to supporting these programs that measurably improve the lives of the youth in our region to offer them the best opportunities to succeed in school and in life."

Browns fans raised more than $137,000 during the Third Annual Cleveland Browns Foundation Radiothon this month. It marked the third consecutive year that the fundraiser collected more than $100,000 to benefit education and youth development in Cleveland.

Jimmy Haslam,Browns owner, and his wife Dee, announced a dollar-for-dollar match of the funds.

The four non-profits will use the $275,000 as described below:

• Cleveland Metropolitan School District (CMSD) – to support the “GET 2 SCHOOL, YOU CAN MAKE IT!” city wide attendance campaign, designed to help solve problems and remove barriers of students being chronically absent from school. The campaign promotes the importance of school attendance as research shows that chronically absent students have significant negative impact on student test scores and graduation rates

• Shoes and Clothes for Kids – to expand distribution of school uniforms, casual clothing and school supplies to Cleveland Metropolitan School District’s (CMSD) most disadvantaged students to remove clothing as a barrier to school attendance.

• Ginn Academy – to support Ginn Academy’s Life Coach program, which provides each student with a 24/7 mentor in the areas of academics, behavior, attendance and social-emotional development to serve as a link between home and school. The Ginn Academy is the first all-male public high school in Ohio and 100 percent of its student body comes from low-income families.

• The Centers for Families and Children – to support the implementation of the 2,000 Days Pledge initiative that engages parents, teachers and communities to make a child’s first 2,000 days – the time when 90 percent of brain development occurs – as impactful as possible.

For more on this story, visit the Browns' website.

Image via Rick Uldricks, Patch