Cleveland Indians' Larry Doby Youth Fund grant recipients announced

Posted April 14, 2017 in Articles

Author: Marc Bona

CLEVELAND, Ohio - Eighteen Northeast Ohio non-profit groups have been named beneficiaries of the Larry Doby Youth Fund, a program created just six months ago by Cleveland Indians manager Terry Francona.

After its inception in October, the fund quickly drew $1 million in contributions from players, public and the organization. This year, team owner Paul Dolan credited Francona with being the driving force behind the project, which aims to curb youth violence.

The Cleveland Foundation administers the fund, which supports resources for non-profit community groups. The foundation helped review grant proposals with a committee composed of Indians management and team members.

"We are very fortunate to be a part of Major League Baseball," Francona said in a news release, "and we accept the social responsibility that comes with that - to use our resources to directly make an impact on the underserved youth of our community, and to make our community better."

Doby was the first African-American player in the American League and the second behind Jackie Robinson to break Major League Baseball's color barrier.

2017 Larry Doby Youth Fund grant recipients

* America SCORES Cleveland: After-school soccer and journal writing.

* Negro League Baseball Legends Hall of Fame: League Park baseball history youth programming.

* Big Brothers Big Sisters of Greater Cleveland - Bigs in Blue: Mentoring relationships with 4th District police and youth.

* Boys & Girls Clubs of Cleveland: Building bridges between youth and law enforcement.

* Cleveland Peacemakers Inc.: Mentoring relationships for youth with police officers.

* Cleveland Police Athletic League: Activities that engage police officers and youth.

* College Now Greater Cleveland Inc.: College- and career-advising program for 600 John Adams High School students.

* East End Neighborhood House Association: My Brother, My Sister Cleveland chapter - after-school program for seventh- and eighth-graders.

* Esperanza Inc.: Mentoring programs.

* Friends of Breakthrough Schools: Support for 11 high-performing charter schools.

* Golden Ciphers: Out of school time programs.

* Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry: Health and crime-prevention education programs.

* Ohio Guidestone: Youth and police development programming.

* NewBridge Cleveland Center for Arts & Technology: After-school youth-arts programming.

* Partnership For A Safer Cleveland: IMPACT 25 Youth Commission.

* Providence House Inc.: Emergency shelter for children in crisis.

* University Settlement Inc.: SmartY's program.

* Youth Opportunities Unlimited: Summer job program for youth.

Original Article: http://www.cleveland.com/tribe/index.ssf/2017/04/c...