Education Awards and Development Grants Programs

Members of FAUSA are enthusiastic supporters and recipients of The FAWCO Foundation’s Development Grants (DGs) and Educational Awards (EAs) as well as FAWCO’s Target Projects. FAUSA members are eligible to apply for DGs and EAs. Applications are available in the fall or contact VP Programs, The FAWCO Foundation. Recipients are announced at FAWCO’s annual meeting in March of each year. FAUSA applications for DGs must be submitted through the FAUSA 3rd VP, Philanthropy preferably 30 days before the application deadline.

FAUSA supports The FAWCO Foundation with annual sponsorships of both a Development Grant and an Education Award.  FAUSA fully funds the following:

• The FAUSA Effecting Change for Women and Children at Risk Development Grant under the category of Human Rights. 2023 award: $4000. (Made possible by the Coughlan Foundation)
• The FAUSA Skills Enhancement Educational Award, allowing a FAWCO or FAUSA member to acquire​ ​new​ ​skills​ ​or​ ​enhance​ ​already​ ​existing​ skills. 2023 award: $4000.

Helping People Around The World

Learn more about recent recipients of development grants and education awards
Pictures, videos and stories from grant recipients
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The FAWCO Foundation Education Awards Program

The Education Awards are sponsored by various individuals or organizations. Applications are sent to the FAWCO Education Administrator who removes any identifying information. The submissions are then sent to 2 committees that select the best recipient.

Who is Eligible?

The FAWCO Foundation Education Awards program is open to all FAWCO and FAUSA members and their children, regardless of nationality and regardless of whether or not the affiliated Club has made a contribution to The Foundation’s programs. The children of the members, and the members themselves, of the Board of Directors of The FAWCO Foundation are not eligible for awards, in conformance with IRS rules and regulations governing 501(c)(3) not-for-profit corporations.

FAUSA funds The FAWCO Foundation's Education Award, FAUSA SKILLS ENHANCEMENT AWARD that allows FAWCO/FAUSA members to acquire new skills or enhance already existing ones ($4000).

And the 2023 Recipient Is …

Doan-Trang (Suzy) Nguyen, a member of AWC Berlin. Suzy will complete her first children's book by the end of 2023 for publication for the 50th anniversary of the fall of Vietnam in 2025. She intends to write and illustrate the story of her childhood Vietnam by capturing images of exotic lands, unfamiliar cultures and her people. She will attend a retreat from Jennifer Orkin Lewis, whose works are seen in the New Yorker. Jennifer Orkin Lewis teaches techniques of gouache ad how to use one's surroundings as inspirational starting points, an important technique for recreating scenes from Suzy's childhood.

2022 Recipient

Brook Viertel, a member of  AWC Hamburg for the 2022 FAUSA Skills Enhancement Award, sponsored by FAUSA.  As a licensed psychotherapist, she has both the ethical responsibility and the personal passion to continually expand and strengthen her clinical skills. She has found in the past years that many expat women have been challenged to find a qualified therapist offering treatment in English. She is planning to complete a certified training course in trauma therapy through the “Zentrum für Psychotraumatologie-Hamburg” and hopes to complete this comprehensive certification program which includes all aspects of clinical work with traumatized patients by October 2024.

More information about current Development Grants and grant applications can be found HERE.

The FAWCO Foundation Development Grants

Development Grants are also sponsored by various individuals or organizations or clubs. The applications are sent to the FAWCO Development Grant administrator who removes any identifying information and vets the information about the grant’s organization or NGO, if applicable. Every FAWCO Club is then sent one ballot to vote on the various grants. This year there were 21 grants awarded in the areas of Education, Environment, Health, Global Issues, and Human Rights.

Who Can Apply?

FAUSA members can recommend organizations that FAUSA, or at least two FAUSA members, have supported for at least one year for nomination for any of the Development Grants.  Such recommendations should be submitted to the FAUSA board in a timely manner to meet grant submission deadlines (usually the end of January).

And the FAUSA recipients this year were…

Refugee Assistance Alliance - South Florida

RAA helps forcibly displaced people from Afghanistan, Syria, Latin America or other nationalities. Through RAA, newcomers isolated by language and culture find connections, support and a sense of belonging in our land. RAA trains ordinary people to help refugees through language, education, employment, and community navigation. It provides a helping hand to refugees who arrive in Miami with nothing but the clothes they are wearing, raising money and supplies to help pay rent and equip homes. It helps especially women and some men without local work skills find jobs, learn English, gain qualifications. It ensures refugee children are enrolled in schools and access opportunities to flourish. It helps refugees get to know their new communities, and the facilities and services we take for granted. The DG funds will provide immediate assistance to four families, according to their individual needs.

Soft Interview Room and Beloved Bundles - throughout the United States

The DG funds will fund a soft interview room (with a plaque that would designate the FAWCO Foundation as the donor) along with 15 Beloved Bundles. Soft interview rooms are an integral component of trauma-informed care in sexual assault cases and provide comfortable, rather than stark, spaces in which law enforcement can interview sexual assault survivors. Beloved Bundles are provided to survivors who have a forensic exam or "rape kit" and have their belongings seized as evidence, leaving them with nothing to wear home. The bundles contain simple clothing, undergarments, travel-size hygiene products and stress-relieving items and allow survivors to leave the exam with dignity and the knowledge that someone cares. Trauma-informed care, such as soft interview rooms and Beloved Bundles, not only helps keep survivors from being re-traumatized, but also increases the likelihood that law enforcement will be able to obtain meaningful evidence leading to apprehension and prosecution of perpetrators.

More information about current Development Grants, grant application, and grant recipients can be found on the FAWCO Foundation website.

Previous Recipients

FAUSA Sponsored Skills Enhancement Education Award

Below is a list of previous recipients of the FAUSA-sponsored Skills Enhancement Educational Award:

Previous recipients of FAUSA supported Development Grants