2018 Grant Recipients

Goodwill Southern Rivers, Inc.

$3,600 Due to the evolution of the service model in Newnan, Goodwill Southern Rivers recently hired a career coach to assist with the implementation of The Goodwill Work Experience Program to meet the needs of the community.This growth necessitates the establishment of a new office space. The career coach requires an office space to administer confidential career, financial and life planning to our clients, which is critical to their success. Goodwill Southern Rivers sought funding to support the growth of the program to purchase and install the office furniture needed for successful implementation of the program.

Real Life Center

$2,500 Real Life Center sought funding to support their financial assistance program for Coweta County families going through the unexpected hard times. This money is used to create stability during times of job loss, health issues, divorce, etc. In order to assist with longer term change, stability must be achieved first. In 2016, the total amount of financial assistance given to Coweta County residents is $100,276.91. This money primarily paid for rent, mortgage and utility bills. When Real Life Center meets with families, they also work with them to achieve an immediate plan of action.

Boys and Girls Club – Newnan/Coweta

Meals On Wheels of Coweta

Howard Warner School Playground Fund

$10,000 The City of Newnan sought funding to help build a community playground on the grounds of the Howard Warner School to serve the residents of the Chalk Level community and the participants of the new Boys and Girls Club. The playground will also be used by the members or the Cobra Football and Cheerleading programs.

Coweta CASA

$5,000 Coweta CASA has only one purpose – to recruit, train, and support community volunteers to advocate for the best interests of abused and neglected children involved in juvenile court proceedings in Coweta County. The CASA program is a nationally developed, federally recognized advocacy model that directs the provision of volunteer Guardian Ad Litem (GAL) representation for children involved in juvenile court dependency proceedings. The National CASA model is replicated in more than 900 communities nationwide. Both state and federal law call for the GAL to obtain first-hand information and make recommendations to the court concerning the best interest of the child. Georgia’s new Juvenile Code requires the appointment of both an attorney and Guardian Ad Litem for each child in a dependency case. While an attorney can simultaneously serve in both capacities, the Code states the judge shall appoint a CASA to serve as GAL whenever possible. Furthermore, when a conflict of interest arises between a child’s wishes and best interests, the child’s attorney can no longer serve as GAL (O.C.G.A. § 15 – 11 – 104). The CASA volunteer is the one individual whose role never changes and remains an unwavering constant advocate for the child’s best interests, which along with the health and safety of the child, are the paramount concerns in all dependency proceedings (O.C.G.A § 15 – 11 – 100(4)).

Newnan-Coweta Habitat for Humanity

$5,000 NCHFH requested funding for to subsidize contractor expenses (electrical, HVAC, plumbing) and construction materials needed for its Brush with Kindness projects for Coweta residents.

Patrons of the Centre

$3,000 The STAR program is a summer theatre opportunity for students from all three of Coweta County’s public high schools. The requested grant funds will be used to acquire the necessary licensing rights, script and score for next summer’s production. This past summer, STAR returned to The Nixon Centre after a 5 year hiatus. Approximately 35 students, along with 50 volunteers, contributed to the production.of “Hairspray,” a musical about racial integration in Baltimore in the 1960s.. On a professional size stage, the students learned about blocking, choreography, dialogue, set building and physical conditioning necessary for theatre performances. In addition to providing students with a semi-professional theatre experience, STAR participants learned much more. From this past summer’s show, students came to “understand how hard it was to live in that era…you can just feel how your character would act in that situation.” Students also said they realized that some of “the issues addressed in the show are problems today” and “it’s still up to us to push through and work to make things better.” Another significant takeaway from STAR is the interaction among students from the different high schools. As one of the director’s said,”It creates a common ground for every kind of clique. You put them on the stage and they’re on a level playing ground.”

Communities In Schools

$2,000 CIS requested funds to support the mentoring program. Communities In Schools Coweta (CIS) is working in collaboration with the Coweta County School System to provide an enhanced level of support to students through a robust mentoring program. The program is available to all students in the Coweta County public schools.

CORRAL

$2,500 In 2016 CORRAL served 176 students in Coweta County. Coweta County school groups ride with for a six-week session, coming every Monday or Thursday. In addition to the school groups, they also have two nine-week sessions every other Saturday with approximately 18-21 riders per session (included in that total of 176 participants) that do not come through the Coweta County school system. CORRAL requested support to maintain a horse for one year. Their program depends on the health and well-being of twelve therapy horses, and the estimated cost to maintain one horse per year is $2500. The grant covers the normal care of one therapy horse for one year.

Southern Conservation Trust

$1,400 Camp WILD (Water, Insects, Leaves, Dirt) continues to grow since its 2013 inception. They requested support to offer need based scholarships and reduced rate attendance fees to Coweta children. For their programs, they partner with local teachers with backgrounds in STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics) programs to create a camp that is engaging, interactive, and completely outdoors. Campers will spend their summer days immersed in the outdoors exploring aquatic life, learning about plants and wildlife along the hiking trails of Line Creek and The Ridge, and making arts and crafts. They will learn how to build boats, press and identify leaves, and work together to forge lasting memories and an amplified appreciation of the outdoors. The grant will be utilized for those students in Title I schools who need assistance to participate in the summer camp.

Newnan-Coweta Historical Society

$2,000 Support was requested to expand the capacity of NCHS to tell new stories about our history, to tell these stories in new ways, and to reach new audiences, through the implementation of a new modular wall system that will assist in our continuing mission to further professionalize the museum.

Central Educational Center

$750 “Studio Set” is an interdisciplinary project involving Film and Television team members and Construction team members. Support was requested to construct a new studio set, complete with flooring for use in locally broadcast television shows. The set design will mimic one currently used by a local broadcaster, but will be adapted and modified for our specific purposes.

Madras Middle School

$750 The Madras Eagle Pep Band is a first of it’s kind in Coweta County to march middle school musicians during home football games. The band rehearses one week in the summer and after school in the fall to put together and perfect a ‘show’ on the field for crowd entertainment. Since they are the first of our kind to attempt this activity, they have no marching percussion instruments at the school. So far, the percussionists use concert equipment on the sidelines while the rest of the band takes the field. These instruments would allow the percussion section to have a place on the field and take the instrument along using the included carriers. This is a ‘junior’ line, meaning the instruments are a bit smaller than the standard sizes used by high school and college musicians.

Newnan Crossing Elementary School

$250 Due to the nature of the classroom, students are served on Individuals Education Programs, or IEPs and given access to the curriculum on an individual level. However, one IEP can consist of, at minimum, 5 goals and 10 objectives covering daily living skills from eating and dressing to more functional academics such as mathematics and reading. If there are 8 children in a self contained classroom with 10 individualized objectives, the teacher and/or paraprofessional could be working on 80-100 unique objectives daily. This software program will cover nearly all objectives our students could be working on, helping to reinforce the teachings provided from the teacher and/or paraprofessional. Having this program would also allow the students within the self-contained classroom at Newnan Crossing opportunity to work independently using a computer. Increasing independent work time helps the students become more independent as they get older, hopefully to become independent, working adults in the community. Although an ending date is listed, this software would continue learning year after year.

Ruth Hill Elementary School

$525 Support was requested for the BEAR behavior intervention program. This program is designed to provide direct instruction of school success skills for first and second grade children who attend Ruth Hill Elementary School who have not yet developed these skills. The lack of school success skills may present as school problems (behavioral and/or academic), aggressive or inappropriate attention-seeking behavior, rejection by peers, and/or internalizing difficulties such as excessive sadness, fears, or worry. The goal of BEAR is for these students to learn developmentally appropriate classroom expectations, social rules, and behavioral expectations. BEAR teaches students active listening skills and age appropriate ways to seek attention from adults and peers. The program also teaches students to recognize their own thoughts and feelings and the thoughts and feelings of others through Second Step.

Winston Dowdell Academy

$750 The media center is the resource hub for the entire school.. It is a location design to provide answers and clarity to increase students’ research skills and informational knowledge. The media center lacked the resources needed to create an engaging learning environment to promote reading and learning and additional resources were needed to support learning and teaching in order to prepare our students for their transition to their traditional school or post-secondary education.

East Coweta Middle School

$635 Sixth Grade Engineering and Technology Education students are introduced to the areas of technology throughout the course. Energy, power and electronics are a major component of what they learn about during the nine weeks and currently do not have a way of practicing the skills learned during the unit. Electronics kits will help students grasp concepts and practice their skills, while reinforcing the knowledge learned. The Snap Circuit Jr kits will students to safely explore the field of energy and power with over a hundred different circuit combinations.

Ruth Hill Elementary School

$363 Support was requested to enhance the ‘street-based’ literacy activities to Ruth Hill students during the summer months as part of our summer bookmobile program thereby preventing the achievement gap that typically occurs for low income students.

Northside Elementary School

$363 Support was requested to purchase art supplies for the students at Northside Elementary. Northside Elementary is a Title I school, and they rely solely on parent donations for art supplies. In essence, they only receive art supplies from about ten percent of the students. Many of their students only receive art education at school and do not even have a box of crayons at home. Therefore, it is so important for us to use these simple supplies to promote creativity in each child while they are at school!