Gary Community Ventures Announces 2024 Request for Grant Proposal Recipients

Oct. 21, 2024

Gary Community Ventures Announces 2024 Request for Grant Proposal Recipients

$900,000 in grant funding distributed towards support for multilingual learners and increasing family affordability through tax credits

By Department of Communications, Gary Community Ventures

Gary Community Ventures is pleased to announce the grant recipients of its 2024 Request for Proposals process, which launched in August. We’ve awarded 10 organizations grants to improve impact across two key areas:

Grant Proposal Recipients

With 59 applications received, we spent the month of September engaging in a structured review and due diligence process to award a total of $900,000 in funding to the following recipients:


Accelerating Outcomes for Multilingual Learners
Increasing Family Affordability through Tax Credits
Adams 12 Five Star Schools 

Ensemble Learning and DSST Public Schools

Jefferson County Public Schools

Littleton Public Schools

Rocky Mountain Prep
Adams County Health Department (lead) with Arapahoe and Jefferson Counties (partners)

African Leadership Group

Denver Asset Building Coalition

La Raza

Pueblo United Way
Total Funding Awarded: 
$500,000		Total Funding Awarded: $400,000

Why These Focus Areas?

Through these initiatives, Gary Community Ventures is addressing two critical issues affecting Colorado’s families and youth. 

The recent passage of the Colorado Family Affordability Tax Credit creates an opportunity, particularly when combined with existing state and federal tax credits, to financially strengthen low and middle income households with children, help families afford basic costs of living, improve child outcomes, address debt, begin saving, and over time, invest in assets that grow wealth.This grant aims to increase awareness around and utilization of all these tax credits by eligible families. The grant recipients above are well-positioned to achieve that goal. Our hope is that this timing allows organizations and associations to plan for and engage in targeted awareness, outreach, and tax filing support for the 2025 tax cycle, followed by financial coaching and services and data capture post April 2025 to inform improvements in outreach and services for the 2026 tax cycle.

Secondly, Gary acknowledges the challenges faced by multilingual learners in secondary schools, particularly older students who are either new to English instruction or have been in multilingual learning programs for extended periods. Despite the potential advantages of multilingualism, these students often experience poor educational outcomes, limiting their future opportunities. Gary sees an urgent need to identify and scale effective solutions that can help students not only catch up to their peers, but excel academically, ensuring they have access to the same high-value educational opportunities as their monolingual counterparts. The grant recipients above have demonstrated an ability to provide a disproportionately positive impact on multilingual learners in secondary grades; and/or ensure multilingual learners in secondary grades have equitable access to high-value programming, including concurrent enrollment and credentials of value. The grant recipients also have a track record of moving long-term multilingual learners to English proficiency in secondary grades. 

Collectively the grantees aim to create impact across the four counties we serve, including Denver, Adams, Arapahoe and Jefferson counties. Approximately 40% of the grantees are new partners to Gary and 50% of the grantees are led by those with racially diverse backgrounds or who have significant (greater than 50%) racial diversity on their leadership teams or boards.” 

We are honored to partner with these organizations to reshape the arc of opportunity for Colorado kids and families. 

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