2018 Community Impact Grant Recipients
TEP awarded a total of $135,000 in 2018 Community Impact Grants to 13 charitable organizations in Tucson and the Springerville area to improve the quality of life in the communities we serve.
TEP awarded the grants to nonprofit organizations that are working to improve childhood education; protect and conserve the environment; and meet the basic needs of limited-income and underserved residents.
The grants are just part of more than $1.5 million that TEP contributes to local charities each year. All of TEP’s contributions are funded from corporate resources, not customers’ rates. The company’s contributions to the community also include a robust employee volunteer program and in-kind donations of equipment and services.
Grant recipients are selected through a competitive evaluation process involving TEP employee volunteers and other company stakeholders. Grants are awarded based on the effectiveness and sustainability of the program, organizational strength and other criteria.
COMMUNITY ASSISTANCE
Our Family Services Inc. - $30,000
Our Family Services provides temporary housing, food, clothing, furnishings and household goods to hundreds of homeless children, youth and families through the organization’s New Beginnings shelter and housing programs. Funding will be used to cover security deposits, utility fees, transportation, food, clothing, household goods and food for families transitioning to permanent housing.
GAP Ministries -$26,250
GAP Ministries operates a warehouse of new items purchased at deeply discounted prices from retailers. Goods are then purchased by limited-income residents using vouchers provided to them by nonprofit redistribution partners. Funding will be used by GAP Ministries to leverage their purchase of goods from retailers.
Mobile Meals of Tucson - $15,000
Mobile Meals of Tucson provides homebound and isolated seniors and adults with disabilities with ongoing meals and nutritional support to help manage their chronic illnesses, reduce complications and hospital admissions and improve their overall health.
ENVIRONMENT
Tucson Clean & Beautiful - $14,000
Tucson Clean & Beautiful’s new Youth Environmental Leadership Program allows middle and high school students interested in the environment to become involved in meaningful hands-on projects that focus on land use and natural resources, water quality and watershed protection.
Tucson Wildlife Center - $4,750
The Tucson Wildlife Center captures, transports, treats and cares for injured or abandoned wildlife and then releases them upon rehabilitation or maturity. TEP’s grant will fund the purchase of temporary holding pens for rehabilitated wildlife, such as wildcats, hawks, coyotes, javelinas and owls, where they are kept until they are ready to be released to the wild.
EDUCATION
Act One - $10,000
The Act One field trip program allows students from schools serving limited-income families on field trips to performing and visual arts events to be able to experience the arts as part of their education.
Boys & Girls Clubs of Tucson - $10,000
Boys & Girls Clubs of Tucson provides safe, fun, affordable and structured after-school programming to thousands of youth. Grant funding will support its Power Hour program, which provides homework help and one-on-on tutoring services to students.
Make Way for Books - $10,000
Make Way for Books’ Story Project provides 5,700 children in Pima County with books and reading opportunities to help promote literacy and ensure their academic success.
Soar with the Eagles - $5,000
Soar with the Eagles provides affordable and individualized tutoring to help adults earn their General Education Degree and improve their future.
Boys and Girls of Round Valley - $3,150
The Boys & Girls Club of Round Valley will fund field trips to the Biosphere and Lowell Observatory to expose youth to STEM educational opportunities and careers.
White Mountain Regional Medical Center - $3,150
Grant funding will be used to offer a six-week workshop on diabetes self-management to people with Type 2 diabetes to help them better manage their disease through awareness, exercise, diet and medication management.
Eagar Firefighters - $1,200
Eagar Firefighters will use grant funding to purchase smoke detectors for distribution to families in the community to keep them safe.
New Covenant Church Food Bank - $2,500
New Covenant Church Community Food Bank provides food to limited-income families and individuals in the St. Johns community.
