Welcome to the Hyams Foundation

Special Initiatives

Teen Futures:

Teen Futures is a three-year initiative sponsored by the Hyams Foundation to address the school dropout crisis in the cities of Boston and Chelsea. Today, in these cities, there are over 7,000 young people who have left school and who are unemployed. The goal of Teen Futures is to improve the success of these young people (ages 16-22) by increasing the number who gain their high school credential and commence a path towards higher education or a career-focused training program. As is detailed in the complete program description that can be accessed below, this goal will be accomplished through increasing the quality and the quantity of programs that combine education, skill development and employment all while applying a positive youth development approach. In focusing on the dropout crisis, the Foundation has targeted an area in which significant racial disparities are evident, as disproportionate numbers of students dropping-out are African American and Latino.

Geographically-Targeted Affordable Housing Strategy:

As a result of its strategic planning process in 2007, the Foundation made a small number of multi-year grants to community-based nonprofit housing producers as part of its current Geographically-Targeted Affordable Housing Strategy. Under this strategy, the Foundation is supporting a number of local community development corporations (CDCs) to produce a significant number of new affordable and mixed-income housing units near rapid transit points and in geographically-targeted neighborhoods that have been hard-hit by the foreclosure crisis. As is detailed in a program description that can be accessed below, the Foundation in 2009 reassessed its Geographically-Targeted Affordable Housing Strategy and extended funding in this area through 2012.

In addition, during 2010 and 2011, the Foundation provided targeted support to certain housing organizations to meet some critical, emerging needs in the affordable housing field: 1) to enable organizations to retain existing housing production capacity in the wake of the economic downturn; and 2) to address the destabilizing effects of the foreclosure crisis through the recovery of foreclosed properties. Funding for both approaches was awarded through a special Request for Letters of Interest (LOI) which is now closed. To support these efforts, the Foundation also provided a $1 million program related investment (PRI) to the Neighborhood Stabilization Loan Fund to provide groups with working capital to recover foreclosed properties and thereby restore vitality and housing options in impacted neighborhoods, including many communities of color. Any questions about the Foundation’s Affordable Housing work may be directed to Maria Mulkeen at mmulkeen@hyamsfoundation.org or at (617) 426-5600, ext. 311.

Learn more about the Geographically Targeted housing strategy.

Civic Engagement/Grassroots Leadership Development Strategy:

Capacity Building and Lessons from the Immigrant Leadership Fund - The Hyams Foundation funds constituent engagement, leadership development and community organizing work especially among youth, minority and immigrant communities as a part of its social change strategy. Over a decade ago, with the growth of immigrant communities in the state, Hyams was especially interested in finding out how to support and help build the capacity for this work in the grassroots immigrant-led groups and organizations that serve them. The immigrant capacity building initiative underwent several iterations in response to process evaluations and grantee feedback, with the most recent being the Immigrant Leadership Fund (ILF), which ended in 2009.

Since the conclusion of the ILF, the Hyams Foundation has had internal discussions as well as with our grantees on how to apply the ILF experience in building a more robust civic engagement strategy. As a result, the Foundation is making more general operating grants instead of more targeted program grants and more multi-year commitments to “core” grantees that have been strong partners in the grassroots leadership development area. We also are integrating grants for technical assistance (TA) into our funding strategy to help groups secure external assistance as needed in refining existing and/or building new capacities. Foundation staff also sponsored a series of focus groups with grantees from different communities of color in order to learn more about their organizational needs and aspirations; looked at capacity-building initiatives and resources in other parts of the country; and surveyed grantees about their specific staff and constituent training and convening interests. The Foundation used this information to develop a potential “framework” for deepening the capacity of local grassroots leadership development organizations. Read more about the future of this work.