Avery Dennison Corporate / Latest Avery Dennison Foundation grants support diversity, equity, and inclusion

Latest Avery Dennison Foundation grants support diversity, equity, and inclusion

Latest Avery Dennison Foundation grants support diversity, equity, and inclusion—and much more

"...we collaborated for the first time with the company’s Diversity & Inclusion councils and employee resource groups (ERGs) to identify and support local programs promoting DE&I. "

Sports programs to empower girls in Pakistan. Jobs and workforce readiness for African American youth in Cleveland. Foster care for abused and neglected children in São Paulo. 

These are just some of the efforts funded by 10 grants that the Avery Dennison Foundation made in July of this year. 

Each year, the Foundation awards grants in multiple cycles. The latest focused on community needs near the company’s operations in Pakistan, Brazil and the United States. Grants are awarded based in part on recommendations from local Avery Dennison employees, and often include opportunities for employees to volunteer.

“This year’s grants, as in years past, support NGOs advancing our three giving priorities: education, sustainability and women’s empowerment,” said Foundation president Alicia Procello. “Also in this cycle, in alignment with Avery Dennison’s advancement of diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I), we collaborated for the first time with the company’s Diversity & Inclusion councils and employee resource groups (ERGs) to identify and support local programs promoting DE&I. 

“We’re pleased to be able to help make a difference in the communities we’ll touch through these grants, and  we look forward to sharing information about the organizations we support in future grant cycles,” Procello said.

Following is a list of this cycle’s grantees and a description of their work. The Foundation’s next round of grants will be announced in November 2021.

Sustainability:  Lake-Geauga Habitat for Humanity, Painesville, Ohio
Lake-Geauga Habitat for Humanity’s (H4H) “brings people together to build homes, communities, and hope.” The organization facilitates the provision of shelter, advocates for affordable housing, promotes dignity, and supports sustainable and transformational development. Habitat homes are sold on a 30-year, zero interest mortgage and have an average mortgage payment of $800. Lake-Geauga H4H will use its grant of $50,000 to support new home construction in Painesville. Local Avery Dennison employees have volunteered on H4H construction sites in the past, and will have the opportunity to do so again under the new grant. 

Lake-Geauga Habitat for Humanity, Painesville, Ohio

Education: Associação Beneficente ABID, São Paulo, Brazil
Associação Beneficente ABID provides foster care services to children referred by the judicial system. Families served by ABID are typically confronting domestic violence, psychological abuse, or chemical dependency. The Foundation provided $132,000 over two years to help fund two programs: Projeto Acolher, which supports children temporarily removed from their family home because of negligence or violence, and Projeto Conviver, which supports family unification. As part of the grant, Avery Dennison team members will be invited to contribute food and clothing to the programs and participate in virtual volunteering opportunities. 

Women’s Empowerment: Right to Play USA, Burundi and Pakistan
Right To Play (RTP) harnesses the power of play and sports to protect, educate and empower children facing adversity. A $100,000 grant from the foundation will support the Quality Education and Girls Empowerment Project in refugee camps and underserved communities in Pakistan and Burundi. The program increases girls' access to quality education and ensures that girls stay in school and meet performance objectives. Employees in Karachi will have the opportunity to volunteer with RTP’s program there. 

Disaster Response: GlobalGiving Foundation, Inc.
GlobalGiving is a nonprofit that supports other nonprofits by connecting them to donors and companies. GlobalGiving will create and manage a website through which Avery Dennison employees can give locally to high-impact local organizations in the event of a disaster and receive reports from the organizations describing what they've accomplished with donors’ funding. Employees can also use the site to nominate response organizations for inclusion on the site. The Foundation grant of $60,000 will be used to develop and manage the donor site and fund a dollar-for-dollar match of employee donations during 2021.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Cleveland Contemporary Chinese Culture Association
The Cleveland Contemporary Chinese Culture Association promotes multicultural exchanges for mutual understanding in the Greater Cleveland area. Its two major programs include a Saturday Chinese School for 450 American and Chinese children and adults from various ethinc groups, and cultural programs emphasizing sports and the arts. The Association will use a Foundation grant of $10,000 to enable smaller class sizes for the Chinese language classes.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion:  Westlake Chinese Culture Association
The Westlake Chinese Culture Association promotes intercultural exchange, provides Chinese cultural information and services, and delivers Chinese language education to the Greater Cleveland community. The $10,000 grant will help recruit up to 30 more participants for the Association’s Chinese Culture Diversity Education Program, and provide three to five scholarships for lower-income families of diverse backgrounds. Avery Dennison employees will be invited to attend the Association’s annual celebrations,  as well as arts and sports programming.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland
The LGBT Community Center of Greater Cleveland is the oldest advocacy and support organization in Ohio dedicated to LGBTQ+ individuals. The Center’s main progrqams include helath and wellness, communty support groups, programs for queer youth and LGBTQ+ elders and cultual sensitivity training. Nearly 50 percent of those served by the center live at or below the federal poverty line, and an estimated  20 percent are homeless. A $25,000 grant from the Foundation will support LGBTQ+ awareness and programming in Northeast Ohio. Avery Dennison’s UNITE ERG will help build awareness about the center’s offerings.

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Youth Opportunities Unlimited
A $50,000 grant will enable Youth Opportunities Unlimited (Y.O.U.)  to provide job readiness and training to young people in Cleveland. Y.OU. provides workforce programs to youth ages 14-24 who live in economically distressed communities. Eighty-one percent of program participants are African American youth who live in poverty. As part of the grant, Avery Dennison employees will be able to volunteer in resume writing workshops and mock interviews to help young people with the job application process. There will also be opportunities for employees to speak about their career paths and offer advice on job readiness. 

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Pró-Saber SP Institute
Pró-Saber SP Institute’s mission is to reduce social inequality by guaranteeing the right of every child to read and play. The Foundation’s $25,000 grant will support Pró Read & Play, a weekly program for 125 youth ages 4 to 8 years old that helps children develop a daily reading habit while strengthening vocabulary, speech and logical reasoning. The program serves Paraisópolis, the second-largest favela in São Paulo. São Paulo employees will be offered opportunities to volunteer in support of Pró-Saber's literacy campaigns.

Pró-Saber SP Institute
Pró-Saber SP Institute

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: HOLA Ohio
Based in Painesville, HOLA’s mission is  to improve quality-of-life opportunities and empower the Latino community through outreach, education, civic engagement, entrepreneurship and skills development. The Foundation provided a grant for the final $200,000 needed to support construction of a new Hispanic community center. HOLA will continue to  provide programs that improve the educational outcomes for youth and adult learners, build wealth in the community, boost training for workers and entrepreneurs, and bring people together with cultural programming.

HOLA Ohio
HOLA Ohio

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