PACE Center for Girls Awarded Investment from a National Foundation and the Social Innovation Fund

FORT MYERS, Fla. - July 22, 2013 - PRLog -- Florida’s PACE Center for Girls has been awarded a three-year investment of $3.5 million from the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation (EMCF), consisting of funding from EMCF and the federal Social Innovation Fund (SIF). This investment will enable PACE Center for Girls to provide more services to more girls in Florida, conduct a rigorous study of effectiveness and cost benefit over time, and create a platform for becoming the national model for what works with teen-aged girls who want to turn their lives in a positive direction.

To fully implement its growth and evaluation plans, and satisfy federal matching requirements, PACE needs to raise an additional $2.5 million in new funding.  

The statewide PACE Center for Girls organization was chosen for this award in an open, national competition that drew 191 applications from leading nonprofits across the country.  EMCF relied on a rigorous, in-depth due diligence process to identify promising programs with the potential to transform the life prospects of greater numbers of economically disadvantaged youth, ages 9-24.

How this Award will Benefit Florida’s Communities

The EMCF SIF investment, coupled with the resources PACE seeks to raise to meet its matching requirements, will result in Florida becoming a national model for “what works” to help girls turn their lives around and represents broad national recognition of the significance of PACE’s work, the power of Public/Private partnerships and the wise investments the state of Florida and its communities have made in prevention and early intervention, rather than detention and incarceration.

The investment and match will support expansion of PACE’s services to reach more girls in Florida and a rigorous study of the PACE model’s effectiveness and cost benefit over a long period of time.  With this study, PACE will be the only gender responsive program in the country with proven results.  As the successful pioneer in this work on behalf of girls, Florida will have established the national model for what works with girls and can be taken to scale to reach more girls across the country.  For more information on PACE Center or Girls, please visit www.pacecenter.org.  To learn more about the matching funds please contact Kimberly Ward, Director of Advancement at kimberly.ward@pacecenter.org

About the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation

The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation seeks to transform the life trajectories of vulnerable and economically disadvantaged youth.  The Foundation makes large, long-term investments, frequently partnering with other funders, and promotes effective public and private support of nonprofits with a potential for growth and compelling evidence that they can help more young people become successful, productive adults.  For more information on EMCF, visit www.emcf.org

About the Social Innovation Fund

The Social Innovation Fund, an initiative of the Corporation for National and Community Service (CNCS), focuses on overcoming challenges confronting low-income Americans in three areas of priority need:  economic opportunity, health and youth development.  The SIF, established by Congress in 2010 through the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act, uses private intermediaries like EMCF to be a catalyst for social impact and apply public and private resources to find and grow community-based nonprofits with evidence of strong results.  The CNCS engages more than five million Americans in service each year.  For more information on the Social Innovation Fund, visit http://cncs.gov/programs/social-innovation-fund