For the 16th-consecutive year, the Ravens Foundation, Inc. is executing the Ravens PLAY 60 Grant. The grant provides funding of up to $10,000 to qualifying nonprofit organizations that create and/or continue programs or projects promoting physical fitness and nutrition education in Maryland.
The program continues the foundation's commitment to increasing physical activity among area youth and seeks to encourage healthy youth activities.
Through this grant, over $1.5 million has been distributed to area nonprofits over the last 15 years, funding over 300 programs and impacting nearly 40,000 Baltimore-area children.
The Ravens will consider funding requests that meet the following criteria:
- Organizations that submit requests must be a 501(c)(3) organization.
- Programs or projects must be directed at youth (5-18) and must promote physical fitness and/or nutrition education.
- Nonprofits must illustrate a programming component with measurable goals in order to be considered. Through the Ravens PLAY 60 Grant, the foundation will not consider funding for large capital expenditures or the construction of buildings/fields/etc.
- Programs or projects must take place in Maryland.
The following are several examples of grants fulfilled through this program in 2021:
Black Girls Cook aims to help young girls feel motivated about cooking for themselves while gaining a better understanding of the importance of both eating a healthy balanced diet and food hygiene. Each class is taught by a certified female chef of color who owns a business in the Mid-Atlantic region. The girls also participate in life-skills workshops, which are led by female professionals who are also of color. The topics include subjects such as nutrition, how to budget, goal planning and STEM activities.
Friends of Great Kids Farms supports, promotes and enhances the programming at Baltimore City Public Schools' Great Kids Farm and the district's Farm to School programming. Friends works with city schools to bring students to the Farm, a 33-acre urban farm with a stream, woods, fields and greenhouses, providing students hands-on opportunities to connect farm and plate, reinforce curricular concepts, strengthen environmental literacy and promote healthy habits.
Soccer without Borders uses soccer as a vehicle for positive change, providing under-served youth with a toolkit to overcome obstacles toward growth, inclusion and personal success. By proactively working to eliminate financial, social, logistical and cultural barriers for participants to get to the field, Soccer without Borders practices a "do what it takes" mentality when it comes to supporting their youth to access opportunities.
Ravens PLAY 60 Grant applications are being accepted from April 18th – June 13th and are available atwww.baltimoreravens.com/play60grant.
