Stories: Grantee Stories

While families all over greater Akron gather around their fireplaces this holiday season, a chilling fact remains: Local women and children living in poverty are being displaced from their homes due to chemical dependency and substance abuse. Last year, Akron...

A few short years ago, Gabrielle Blackshear was a single mom struggling to support her family. Like many young women, she had poor credit and did not understand how to live on a budget or manage her finances. All of that changed, however, when she found...

Imagine waking up at 3 a.m. every day to get to work. This is a reality for many of the clients at H.M. Life Opportunity Services in Akron who have recently escaped homelessness and have no individual method of transportation. To get to work, these clients...

Sept. 11, 2007, is a day Akron resident Nikki Washington will never forget. It was on this day that Nikki took back her independence and walked through the doors of the Battered Women's Shelter with her five children. From the outside, Nikki looked like a...

Do you know where your next meal is coming from? For thousands of people in Summit County, the answer is no. Now more than ever, families need help putting food on the table, and Akron Community Foundation is stepping up to the plate through grants to...

Growing up as a young boy in a single-parent home, Donald Lykes lacked a strong father figure. Without a male role model, Lykes said he grew up not knowing how to be a father - or more accurately, a "dad" - and was unprepared for the responsibilities of...

The history of Summit County got a little richer as hundreds of people came to the Akron-Summit County Public Library in downtown Akron to record oral histories of their lives.  With the help of a $20,000 grant from Akron Community Foundation, the...

When Uzbek refugee Bahrom Abdurasulov fled his war-torn country in 2005, he knew re-establishing his life in the United States would be a formidable challenge.  He had limited English skills, no local support system, and very few resources. What he never...

Modern hip-hop music often gets a bad rap for encouraging violence. But do a little digging and its roots reveal quite the opposite. "The hip-hop culture was (based on) peace, love, unity and having fun," said Ismail Al-Amin, executive director of Keepers of...

Believe it or not, preschool isn't all fun and games. A nationwide study by Yale researchers found that preschoolers in state-funded programs are expelled at least three times more often than students in grades kindergarten through 12th combined. Most of...