Our Family Tree
Learn about the generous donors who have established charitable funds through Stark Community Foundation.
Stark Community Foundation’s Protecting Stark’s Future (PSF) initiative was created in 2020 with one central goal: to reduce childhood poverty in Stark County. Six years later, more than $1.3 M has been awarded to support collaborative, community-based solutions that have impacted thousands of youth across our community.
The original PSF framework is represented by a three‑layer bullseye: the outermost ring focuses on addressing immediate needs, the inner ring is increasing the earnings of families and the middle is breaking cycles of poverty.
Projects that were recently funded during the 2026 cycle focus on the middle and center rings— strategies that increase earnings of families and disrupt the long‑term conditions that keep children and families in poverty.
Based on learnings from previous grant cycles, Stark Community Foundation had a renewed focus for 2026 and invested $322,500— supporting projects that focused on economic stability and opportunity, education and youth development, positive neighborhood environment, place-based resilience and open innovation, high-impact strategies.
Three organizations recently received implementation grants to support programming ready to be executed in our community:
ICAN was awarded $80,000 to cover the expenses of a workforce development coordinator, who will advance economic mobility for families with children while strengthening their housing stability and long-term outcomes. This coordinator will expand ICAN’s workforce development program to intentionally serve households with children—particularly single females in its Rapid Rehousing (RRH) program, which provides short‑term, income‑based rental assistance for participants.
ICAN’s workforce model provides individualized coaching over 12 to 18 months, and trusted coaches support participants’ progress through setbacks and transitions. The program also includes flexible barrier‑removal funds, addressing issues like transportation or short-term financial disruptions that could otherwise undermine employment stability. Expanding this model to families in RRH supports parents’ ability to sustain employment and lowers the risk of returning to homelessness—key factors in improving childhood poverty.
“Children experiencing homelessness are among the most vulnerable members of our community and are living in the deepest levels of poverty,” said Julie Sparks, ICAN Inc. executive director. “This initiative is designed to serve these children and their caregivers by fostering meaningful employment and strengthening long-term household economic stability. Increasing household income is non-negotiable for a successful transition out of homelessness, and having a dedicated, hands-on employment coordinator to navigate this process is equally vital.”
Junior Achievement of North Central Ohio (JANCO) was awarded $100,000 expansion of its programming to include JA BizTown Mobile, a transformative, hands-on learning experience that delivers financial literacy and career readiness education directly to fifth and sixth grade students across Stark County.
Through 12 pre-simulation classroom sessions and a full-day mobile simulation, students will step into real-world roles as employees, consumers and citizens—managing businesses, earning income and making critical financial decisions. This program strengthens early career pathways by building foundational skills that support long-term economic mobility.
“By introducing career relevance, financial decision-making and workplace expectations in elementary school, JA BizTown Mobile strengthens the pipeline toward sustained educational attainment and career readiness,” said Josh Lehman, JANCO president. “This investment will support the launch and implementation of JA BizTown Mobile in Stark County, expanding access to hundreds of students and strengthening alignment between education and workforce outcomes.”
TomTod Ideas was awarded $100,000 to bring its What If 101 programming to Canton City, North Canton City and Plain Local School Districts. What If 101 is a school-based program empowering middle schoolers to see themselves as community leaders through an experiential learning approach.
Delivered in partnership with the Canton Regional Chamber of Commerce and Stark Education Partnership, this program engages middle schoolers in 12 sessions that connect classroom learning to community challenges and career pathways. What If 101 provides equitable, neighborhood-based programming and reaches students at a critical developmental stage when building civic identity and connection to community is most effective. By pitching resident-driven solutions for community improvement to local stakeholders, students foster the social cohesion and pride necessary to disrupt long-term conditions of poverty.
“By focusing exclusively on middle schoolers, we are leveraging a critical developmental window to build the agency, social capital and essential skills required for current and future success of our community,” said Joel Daniel Harris, TomTod Ideas executive dreamer. “This represents a strategic regional investment in a contiguous, geographic hub of over one-third of Stark County’s middle school students. This collaborative ecosystem ensures that every student, regardless of their zip code, has a clear line of sight to a prosperous future within our region."
Three additional organizations received planning grants to begin the research and design necessary to create change-driving programming:
Pathway Caring for Children was awarded $15,000 to plan a new, place-based program, Youth Career and Independent Living Pathways, which will serve 80 youth ages 10–17 and their families in high-poverty Stark County neighborhoods. Youth will be recruited through partnerships with TIQVAH Hands of Hope and The Martin Center.
The new program will be designed to integrate prevention efforts, life skills development and structured career exploration to address key drivers of child poverty by engaging participants in after-school and summer programming focused on communication, problem-solving, budgeting and daily living skills.
Project REBUILD was awarded $15,000 for the development of a Manufacturing Pathway that expands post-graduation career options for graduates of its nine‑month YouthBuild program. Although YouthBuild provides essential academic, technical and leadership foundations, participants often need a more structured bridge into our local manufacturing landscape—one that is intentionally designed for young adults facing barriers such as poverty, interrupted education, trauma and limited employment history.
Throughout the planning process, Project REBUILD will assess local workforce needs, develop high-quality manufacturing curricula and design a training sequence aligned with employer expectations and recognized credentials. The resulting plan will position Project REBUILD graduates for entry-level employment in a high-demand industry, which meets the goal of economic mobility and breaking the cycle of childhood poverty.
YWCA Alliance was awarded $12,500 to redesign and rebuild the Navigators After-School Program for Alliance Middle School students in grades six through eight as a collaborative response to child poverty in Alliance.
During a year-long planning process led by YWCA Alliance and in partnership with Alliance City Schools, the Greater Alliance Foundation and the University of Mount Union, the group will utilize prior program data, family input, school partnership insight and community expertise to design a strong after-school model for approximately 75 middle school students. The project’s goals are to create an implementation-ready plan, clarify partner roles, identify sustainable transportation and access solutions, strengthen family engagement strategies and design a program model that improves student academic success while supporting broader family stability.
See the framework guiding these initiatives and learn more about PSF at www.starkcf.org/child-poverty.