The Robert E. Weiss Advocacy Center for Children and Youth was created from a merger of the Child Advocacy Center of Genesee County and the Consortium on Child Abuse and Neglect. The Weiss Advocacy Center focuses on two aspects of child abuse and neglect: protection for children who need immediate help and prevention services that will break the cycle of abuse. The Weiss Advocacy Center is a community-based organization that is uniquely designed to provide comprehensive and coordinated advocacy, education, prevention, and investigative services for children in Genesee County. This grant will enable the Weiss Advocacy Center to acquire the property that currently serves as one of its two locations and fits the unique functional needs of the agency and the very vulnerable children it serves.

The Genesys Health Foundation oversees charitable gifts and grants for the Genesys Health System and Genesys Regional Medical Center in order to address community healthcare needs and improve access to healthcare services for those who are underserved. This grant will enable the Genesys Health Foundation to complete an economic feasibility study that will supply data to support economic revitalization and job creation in Genesee County and the surrounding area. Specifically, the feasibility study will help identify potential competencies and collaborative business opportunities for life science education, medical and technology development, and advanced biomedical and simulation modeling within the healthcare, education, research, and commerce sectors in Genesee County.

This grant will enable the University of Michigan-Flint, via the Office of Educational Opportunity Initiatives, to pilot and expand a pre-college summer residential and academic year bridge program for rising ninth grade students. The goal of this initiative is to provide 50 students from the Flint, Beecher, and Westwood Heights school districts with a linked comprehensive summer and year-long academic experience that will allow participating students to experience college, explore potential areas of study, learn about the college-going process, and most importantly take academic courses for skill-building purposes.