Alcoa Foundation — Areas of Excellence
Safe & Healthy Children & Families
Ensuring that children and their families have the tools, the knowledge and the services to remain healthy and safe at home, in the community and in the workplace.
Global health and safety needs can seem overwhelming. Therefore, in order to focus Alcoa Foundation resources and strive for a clear impact in the area of Safe and Healthy Children and Families, the Foundation’s efforts within this Area of Excellence will focus on three specific issues for funding:
- Violence and Injury Prevention — Preventable ways to avoid intentional and unintentional injuries among children and adults; violence and abuse of women and children; and emotional and physical health and well-being of adults and children.
- Health Education, Promotion and Prevention — Promotion of positive health messages and opportunities in communities. Provide access and messages to reach the disenfranchised, where basic health care is minimal or non-existent.
- People with Disabilities — Improving opportunities for people with disabilities to participate actively in their communities and to live independently.
Conservation & Sustainability*
Demonstrating our commitment to conservation by educating young leaders, protecting our forests, promoting sound public policy research, and understanding the linkages between business and the environment.
Alcoa Foundation is looking for exemplary programs or projects that present new models with effective metrics, outcomes and impacts that will address urgent issues of global concern.
(* Sustainability is defined to include three pillars — economic, environmental and social.)
Global Education & Workplace Skills
Broadening student and adult participation through education in technical areas central to Alcoa to ensure that a diverse cross-section of our communities is economically connected workplace ready and globally competitive.
Increasingly, our jobs will take us far from where we grow up. Therefore, it will require us to be able to operate and work in multiple settings around the world or with colleagues from a range of countries and backgrounds. Alcoa Foundation views education and workplace skills through a global perspective and believes that students and adults with international exposure and understanding are more successful in navigating the increasingly complex professional and workplace worlds.
Because science, engineering, technology and business are central to Alcoa’s world, the Foundation will focus on laying the groundwork for all children and adults in our communities to excel in these areas and in the workplace, thus improving their quality of education and their future employment opportunities. Therefore, Alcoa Foundation’s efforts within this Area of Excellence will focus on five specific issues for funding:
- Access and Retention — Support efforts that actively seek and retain children and adults from disenfranchised backgrounds to gain equity and parity in education and the workplace.
- Workplace Skills Development — Support efforts geared towards job-training and workforce development and training that leads to upgrading individual knowledge, technology and other skills to be competitive in an ever-changing workforce.
- Career Awareness and Training in Economy/Manufacturing — Support efforts and participation in business and the knowledge economy and promote/provide access to the basic training that underpins technology, business, engineering and science.
- Broaden Participation in Math and Science — Support efforts that increase the opportunities for women and minorities in education and the workplace.
- Diverse Workforce — Support efforts that, through curricular, experiential or research programs will develop a cadre of more internationally astute, educated students and workforce that are knowledgeable and respectful of other cultures and traditions.
Business & Community Partnerships
Seeding notions of corporate citizenship community by community to strengthen the non-profit sector and to develop meaningful partnerships among non-profits, the private sector and local government.
Developing an Area of Excellence that focuses on Business and Community Partnerships provides a framework for strengthening non-profits in our communities and for supporting activities that benefit from non-profit and private sector collaboration. The foundation’s goal is to ensure that non-profits in our communities that are working in areas important for Alcoa and Alcoa Foundation achieve the highest levels of performance in their day-to-day operations, governance and community programs.
Alcoa Foundation’s efforts within this Area of Excellence will focus on two specific issues for funding:
- Developing Strong, Healthy, and Enduring Community-Based Non-Profits — Supporting strategic planning exercises, training in employee management, board strengthening programs or other grants targeted at improving the overall well-being of non-governmental organizations.
- Encouraging Partnerships Among Community Organizations and Businesses — Supporting non-profits recruiting corporate volunteers; regional working groups that bring government, private sector and community groups together to discuss economic development; and matching grants to encourage other funders to participate.
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Total in grants by Area of Excellence awarded in Canada in 2007
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