Making a Change Group

Making a Change Group

  • Project Focus: Family
  • Year of Award: 2022
  • Grant Award: $30,000

Organization Background and Information

MACG is a young organization but has matured significantly over the last few years. Known as Team MAC and launched in 2004, this foundational youth development program served as a basis for establishing Making a Change Group (MACG), formally incorporated in 2016 as a 501c3 nonprofit. MACG’s mission has evolved since its founding, as has the scope and scale of its services. They seek to support social, emotional, and economic change in the areas they serve, intervening at the program – as opposed to system–level. The Connected Visions (Family/Household Services) program offers direct services to thirty-five (35) low-income households. They serve adults and youth ages eight and older. They provide intensive engagement via case management (including needs assessment and goal planning) and access to workshops focusing on social-emotional skill-building, career and workforce development, healthy living, budgeting, communication, and emotional well-being. Their goal is to support households as they address trauma, break cycles of poverty and achieve healthier lives as individuals and household units. They endeavor to provide households with a system of consistent support and community resources to foster the well-being of the entire family unit. The program offers adult needs assessments, goal planning, intensive case management (including referrals), and other supportive services/workshops. Their adult engagement focuses on:

  • Career and workforce development
  • Budgeting and financial literacy
  • Social-emotional skill building
  • Basic needs
  • Healthy living
  • Parenting
  • Educational attainment
  • Emotional wellbeing
  • Communication

Summary of Grant Request/Proposal

The grant monies will support MACG’s Connected Visions program, which is designed to help low-and moderate-income families residing in Chester, PA, and surrounding communities. The program works holistically with families (the majority of whom are female-headed households) as they address trauma, break cycles of poverty and achieve healthier lives as individuals and household units using a case management-based approach.

MACG wants to build the women’s skill level and resource access in the CV program, focusing on the female-headed households they serve. Connected Visions targets low-income Delaware County families (with an emphasis on Chester City and surrounding communities) that are traditionally underserved and lack access to the resources they need to live healthier lives. As already indicated, most households served are headed by single moms (20 of the 28 families currently receiving services), many of whom need substantial support to improve their quality of life and their children. A grant from Project W would help bridge the gap in funding for the Connected Visions (CV) program.

Link to organization’s website: https://www.makingachangegroup.org