As part of an ongoing series focused on the National Recreation Foundation (NRF), Parks & Recreation Magazine highlights grant recipients for the foundation’s program benefiting at-risk youths. This month highlights one nationwide initiative, as well as programs from Texas and New York.

Cristo Rey Jesuit High School Network Healthy Lifestyles Grant: $100,000

Thanks to NRF funding, the Cristo Rey Network has implemented a comprehensive Healthy Lifestyles program to combat various health and wellness challenges facing its students. Cristo Rey includes 24 college preparatory high schools that serve low-income urban youth, located across 17 states and the District of Columbia. This latest round of grant money will strengthen participating schools’ institutional approaches to health, as well as the capacity to provide health and wellness education during students’ critical years of growth, development and learning. Cristo Rey students have been equipped with the knowledge and resources to initiate healthy habits to model for their families and carry with them through life.

Haven for Hope of Bexar County Grant: $50,000

Haven for Hope of Bexar County, Texas, provides assistance for homeless children waiting to enroll in the Early Childhood Education Program at the YMCA Harvey E. Najim Childcare Center, located on the Haven for Hope campus. NRF funding allows children to enroll in the program immediately upon arrival at the campus while their parents actively participate in job training, education and other skills-training opportunities intended to help them become self-sufficient for their family. The Early Childhood Education Program contributes to life transformation for disadvantaged youths by providing quality educational programs in a healthy and safe setting, as well as an opportunity to build the resiliency and competence needed to break the cycle of homelessness and poverty.

National Parks of New York Harbor Conservancy Community Kayaks in Jamaica Bay Grant: $25,525

The National Parks of New York Harbor Conservancy’s mission is to create an unrivaled vehicle to preserve the environment, promote economic development and produce on the New York harbor a top-notch urban waterfront recreation and educational national park system. This NRF grant helped develop a kayaking and water-safety program in the Jamaica Bay unit of Gateway National Recreation Area, in Queens and Brooklyn. Community Kayaks in Jamaica Bay taught underserved, diverse youth kayaking and swimming skills in local pools during 2012 and will also invite the participants to go on ranger-led kayak excursions. The program also encourages physical activity and healthy lifestyles for at-risk youth in the service area and will be the first step of a broader community engagement effort offering active recreation programs to a new audience.

The National Recreation Foundation and NRPA, along with NRPA’s predecessor organizations, have had a close working relationship since 1919. In addition to NRPA, NRF supports many other not-for-profit organizations and government agencies throughout the United States. In 2011–2012, grants were made to 35 programs for a total of $1.7 million. The mission is “to be a life-enhancing force on the youth of the nation by investing strategically in recreation with a special focus on programs for those who are economically, physically or mentally disadvantaged.” NRF gives funding priority to organizations working to coordinate efforts among local, state and national agencies that address this mission, as well as to programs focusing on outcomes leading to significant social change. The foundation views recreation and the leisure services as a broad and holistic perspective that assists youth at risk by encouraging healthy lifestyles for all.

Samantha Bartram is the Associate Editor of Parks & Recreation Magazine.