2025 Grant Award Winners

Grant Awarded: $100,000
Bridgeport, CT

Mission: The EMERGE model uses transitional employment and engages participants in wrap-around services to break the cycle of recidivism, build community and inspire hope. We support formerly incarcerated people successfully integrate back into their communities, and seek to remove the shame and stigma of incarceration.

Project Funded: Expansion of Transitional Employment Program (TEP) and personal development programs. Impact funds will help EMERGE CT to launch and sustain the Bridgeport expansion. Specifically, these funds will support key activities such as advertising and marketing to raise awareness, as well as the recruitment, hiring, training, and compensation of essential personnel. The TEP program includes workforce training and wraparound programs for adults returning from incarceration. Additional support focuses on areas such as skillset training, financial empowerment and academic tutoring.

Grant Awarded: $100,000
Stamford, CT

Mission: We counsel victims and survivors as they process their experiences of sexual violence from the past, we advocate for them as they navigate the circumstances of the present, and we educate our communities to prevent sexual violence in the future.

Project Funded: KidSafeHQ. Impact funds will support the development and launch of KidSafeHQ, a website designed to equip parents with tools to protect their children from sexual abuse and online exploitation. The Rowan Center will hire an educator to develop comprehensive content for parents of elementary-aged children, focusing on bodily autonomy, safe boundaries, and recognizing unsafe situations.