The Community Opportunities Flexible Fund (COFF) creates funding opportunities for organizations that are working to advance systems change for Los Angeles children prenatal to 5 and their families.
Donor Name: Community Partners
State: California
County: Los Angeles County (CA)
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 12/20/2024
Size of the Grant: $10,000 to $100,000
Grant Duration: Grant Duration Not Mentioned
Details:
Funds must support First 5 LA’s mission that every child in Los Angeles County reaches their full developmental potential throughout the critical years of prenatal to age 5. Funds must also advance progress towards First 5 LA’s three goals that children prenatal to age 5 and their families:
- Have their basic needs met
- Have nurturing relationships and environments
- Have a solid foundation for well-being, lifelong learning and success.
Community Partners encourages applications from initiatives led by people historically excluded from and/or negatively impacted by the systems for which they are advocating change. For example, this includes people who experience poverty and/or other injustices based on racism, anti-Blackness, disability status, home language, immigrant status, anti-LGBTQ+ discrimination, and the like.
Funding Information
The Community Opportunities Flexible Fund will distribute grants of up to $40,000. Activities must be aligned with one of three strategies to impact children prenatal to age 5 and their families:
- Public policy efforts at the local, state, and federal levels
- Advocating to strengthen public systems, services, and supports
- Growing a social movement to elevate their needs
Specifically, funded activities should support changing systems so that children prenatal to age 5 and their families:
- Have their basic needs met. This includes:
- Reducing infant mortality
- Reducing poverty
- Reducing housing insecurity
- Have nurturing relationships and environments. This includes:
- Increasing supports for maternal depression
- Increasing choices for healthy foods
- Increasing access to parks and open space
- Have a solid foundation for well-being, lifelong learning and success. This includes:
- Increasing early care and education;
- Increasing early intervention services
- Increasing culturally-affirming services.
Uses of funds
Funds may be used for a wide variety of purposes related to building community connections and uplifting the voice of people with lived experience to change systems affecting children prenatal to 5 and their families in Los Angeles County, including but not limited to:
- Community engagement
- Grassroots relationship-building
- Building or sustaining coalitions and networks
- Community convening
- Oral histories
- Culturally-affirming narratives and agendas
- Cultural celebrations and gatherings
- Policy and systems education
- Policy implementation and monitoring
- Educating gubernatorial and other candidates for elected office on early care and education and other 0 to 5 issues
- Capacity building, such as learning about the legislative/budgeting process
- Research and data collection to inform public policy, including community-driven research
- Communications campaigns
- Support for workforce development
- Other activities that help build grassroots connections and elevate the voices of people most impacted.
Eligibility Criteria
Community Partners invites Los Angeles-serving nonprofit organizations, fiscally sponsored projects, social-benefit businesses, and government or tribal entities to apply.
For more information, visit Community Partners.
