Partridge Creek Farm Awarded Trust For Civic Life Grant
Today, The Trust for Civic Life announced its first set of grants and we are thrilled to be one of its 20 new grantees! This $300,000 award will help us expand our civic programs and fuel our work bringing the community together across differences and solving problems that matter most to our region.
A new philanthropic partnership called the Trust for Civic Life announced this week that it awarded one of its first grants to Partridge Creek Farm (PCF) in Ishpeming, MI as part of an $8 million investment into strengthening communities across rural America. Partridge Creek Farm will receive $300,000 over 3 years for its work to provide local food access and education to connect the community with their food and one another. In total, the Trust for Civic Life awarded 20 grants to innovative groups that are bringing people together with creative civic programs and helping residents solve important problems in their Communities.
“This support is invaluable to Partridge Creek Farm. Our organization has experienced massive growth the past 4 years–going from a fully volunteer-run organization to now having a staff of seven. We are continuing to develop and implement programming, steward five established community gardens, while also developing the new 3.75 acre Intergenerational farm to expand our growing capacity,” said Sara Johnson, Executive Director of Partridge Creek Farm. The Trust for Civic Life’s first grants support “civic hubs,” groups like Partridge Creek Farm that are reinventing local civic programs and initiatives to meet the changing needs of their communities, at a time when Americans are pulling away from traditional civic life. The Trust’s new grantees are responding with an entrepreneurial spirit: many are using the arts, hobbies, economic issues, and digital tools to encourage civic participation and help people with different viewpoints and backgrounds work together. The Trust for Civic Life’s funding will help the new grantees expand current programs and introduce new civic opportunities and projects.
Partridge Creek Farm will use the new grant to stabilize the organization over the next three years to ensure long-term sustainable growth to be able to continue serving the Ishpeming community and building a resilient local food system. “Our new grantees are critical connectors and problem solvers in their communities. They are helping neighbors find common ground, solve local problems and improve the community for everyone in it,” said Charlie Brown, the Executive Director of Trust for Civic Life. “Community-led work is transforming American life for the better, and the Trust for Civic Life is proud to support its momentum with these new grants."
The Trust for Civic Life was initiated by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Stand Together, and Omidyar Network, and has grown to include over a dozen philanthropists and foundations. The Trust for Civic Life’s first round of grants will support groups in rural areas, which are traditionally overlooked by national philanthropy. Despite accounting for 20% of U.S. residents and the vast majority of the nation's land, rural regions receive only 7% of U.S. philanthropic dollars every year. The Trust for Civic Life will award its next set of grants later this year. These grants will support “civic entrepreneurs” – individuals or smaller groups leading experimental programs or introducing innovative projects in rural regions.
Learn more about the Trust for Civic Life at www.trustforciviclife.org.
Thank you,
We’d like to thank May Tsupros, Director of Farm to Institution Programs Jean Hardy, Ph.D. Assistant Professor, Dept. of Media & Information, Director Rural Computing Research Consortium, College of Communication Arts & Sciences, Michigan State University for their support and partnership in helping us Partridge Creek Farm with this wonderful opportunity.
