The Grantees who receive funding from Your Community Foundation inspire us with the meaningful work they do to improve lives in the communities we serve. We are grateful to our grant recipients who have agreed to share their stories with you.

This year, a grant from our Community Trust Fund will help to strengthen a partnership between Millsaps College and Brown Elementary School. The College’s 1 Campus 1 Community program enables Millsaps students, faculty, and staff to develop long-term relationships with the campus’ neighbors in need, especially those in the K-12 education community. Thanks to our grant, the program will be able to create a mini-curriculum instruction program for organizations on campus adopting individual Brown classrooms. Millsaps students work with teachers at Brown Elementary to support classroom instruction, enhance students' engagement with the arts, and provide special events such as field trips and classroom celebrations. The grant will also help with efforts to institutionalize this program to help build consistency through the years.

Thanks to this grant, 100% of the classrooms at Brown Elementary have been adopted by Millsaps students. Dr. Darby Ray, director of the 1 Campus 1 Community program, says, “The campus response this year has been overwhelmingly positive and swift.” With 100% of the classrooms already adopted and more Millsaps organizations wanting to be involved, the program plans to expand adoptions beyond adopting classrooms to include additional school services like the library. The Community Foundation is pleased to have played a role in helping to strengthen this community partnership.