We Raise Foundation Awards Emerging Leader Grant to Ms. Brittany Ball
Itasca, IL – We Raise Foundation recently awarded a $15,000 Emerging Leader Grant to Ms. Brittany Ball, a Middle/High School Program Manager at Dream Center Evansville in Evansville, Ind. Emerging Leader Grants are an investment in the development of leaders between the ages of 20-35 at Christian organizations who are leading new programs at the intersection of poverty, violence, and inequality.
Each Emerging Leader Grantee receives $15,000 over two years with $10,000 supporting the program and $5,000 supporting leadership development. This leadership development includes attendance at a Leadership Fundamentals conference through The Center for Creative Leadership; attendance at the Global Leadership Summit through satellite locations; and individualized leadership coaching.
Proposals for the Emerging Leader Grant Program are accepted twice a year. The next deadline is September 30, 2023 with grants awarded in November. For more information regarding the Emerging Leader Grant program, please visit the website at weraise.org/emergingleadergrants.
Ms. Brittany Ball
Elevate
Dream Center Evansville, Evansville, Ind.
Leader Profile:
Brittany Ball is a committed leader who’s served as a substitute teacher for Evansville-area high schools, a small group leader for teenage girls, and a group leader for Young Life, a Christian ministry devoted to introducing adolescents to Jesus Christ and helping them grow in their faith. In May 2022, Ball earned a Bachelor of Social Work from the University of Southern Indiana, Evansville, Ind., and in May 2023 she received a Master of Social Work from the University of Kentucky, Lexington, Ky. Ball joined the Dream Center Evansville team in 2022 as a Wrap-Around Care Specialist and in April 2023, she was promoted to Middle/High School Program Manager. Through this work, Ball’s connections grew with the elementary and middle school students, but she wanted to find a way to engage with high school-aged students who were not involved in Dream Centers’ services. So, she engaged with the high school students to better understand life from their point of view and thus, the Elevate program began to develop.
Project Summary:
The Elevate program is Dream Center Evansville’s newest and next strategic step towards building sustainable pathways of support that provide students access to a thriving life into adulthood. Elevate, which will launch as a pilot program in Fall 2023, will be a place where high school students can engage in enriching and challenging experiences that allow them to feel safe, learn about their callings and potential, and grow. Elevate mentors will partner with students to nurture hope and coach them towards practical plans for the future. It will act as a place where teenagers can receive high quality and consistent tutoring tailored to their specific needs. Elevate will also leverage the full comprehensive array of Dream Center’s cradle-to-career services to support the students at home and in school environments. Currently, there are no other programs serving high school students within the 210 blocks of Dream Center and Elevate will be the first of its kind.
About We Raise Foundation
Motivated by the belief that freedom is grace in action (Galatians 5:1a), We Raise Foundation partners with Christian nonprofit organizations and emerging leaders working at the intersection of poverty, violence, and inequality. We have a preference for funding solutions within the areas of education, workforce development, and criminal justice and employ a unique approach to our investing by coupling program funding with a variety of robust value-added services that empower our grantees to grow their solutions. As a result of these value-added services, every $1 that donors invest through We Raise multiplies into more than double the benefit to the organizations we support. To learn more, please visit weraise.org. You can also find We Raise on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.