Milagro Receives $47,200 in Grants

In December 2013, Miracle Theatre Group aka Milagro, the Northwest's premier Latino arts and culture organization, was awarded 4 grants totaling $47,200 in support of arts & health education programming, capacity building, and arts residencies.

The largest aw ard comes from the Fred W. Fields Fund of the Oregon Community Foundation (OCF), which approved a $30,000grant to fund one year of capacity building for Milagro's touring & arts education programming. Milagro has embarked on a three-year plan to expand its arts education programs, including the hiring and integration of an Associate Artistic Director to both helm the touring program and also train Milagro's artist-educators. OCF was established by William Swindells in 1973, as a permanent endowment for community improvement efforts throughout the state. Donors pool their funds under shared management and tailor their individual gifts to their own giving objectives. The Foundation has more than $1.4 billion under management through 1,700 charitable funds. For more information, visit www.oregonocf.org.

The EC Brown Foundation awarded a $10,000 grant to Milagro to support year one of a collaborative project with Latino Network and the Cascade AIDS Project (CAP). All three are members of the coalition OYE, opciones Y educación (Options & Education), which engages Latino youth and adults in sexual health workshops and community events. The Multnomah Public Health Department and CAP will train staff from Milagro and Latino Network, who will then implement sexuality education with youth and families through their individual programs. The EC Brown Foundation was created in 1930 as part of the will of Ellis C. Brown, M.D., as a perpetual charitable trust to be administered under the direction of the president of the University of Oregon. Its mission is to promote a sound and healthy understanding of sexual attitudes, activities, and behaviors among young people in the state of Oregon.

The Autzen Foundation awarded Milagro a $7,500 grant to support the expansion of its summer arts camp program into after-school settings, in partnership with community social service agencies that serve Latino youth, including Hacienda CDC and Latino Network. The goal of the program is to improve student retention through self-esteem building arts education. The grant will also help fund a program starting in the spring of 2014, in which Milagro will collaborate with the Portland Timbers to create a health and fitness assembly with a short bilingual play and discussion curriculum for elementary and middle school students. The Autzen Foundation was established in the 1950's by Thomas J. Autzen, and was headed by his son, Thomas E. Autzen, also president of the University of Oregon Foundation.

Milagro also received a grant in the amount of $4,200 from theOregon Arts Commission: Arts Build Communities to support Milagro's arts education programming, and in particular Milagro's bilingual arts residency in Baker City, Oregon. Milagro artists will hold workshops during the 3-day residency with 590 students at Baker City High School, and the program will culminate in a public performance of Milagro's touring play, Cuéntame Coyote. Arts Build Communities grants support the arts in local communities and the involvement of the arts and artists in community development. For more information, visit http://www.oregonartscommission.org/grants/arts-build-communities.