Grant Recipients

2025 Grant Recipients

• ABLE Academy

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  $190,000

  ABLE Academy provides intensive applied behavior analysis and therapy for children with Autism and related disorders. NCEF funding supports the Early Intensive Intervention Institute for developmentally delayed children, ages 1 through 7, who do not qualify for other funding or services elsewhere.

• Avow Kids

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  $127,200

  Avow provides hospice care, palliative care and grief support services. NCEF funding supports the Avow Kids program, which enables children (ages 5-17) to successfully manage the grief and loss caused by adverse events such as death, divorce, deportation, incarceration or pandemics.

• Better Together Strengthening Families

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  $200,000

  Better Together Strengthening Families works to prevent child abuse, strengthen families and promote independence by leveraging the power of the local community to support and equip families struggling with poverty and other life crises. NCEF funding supports the Better Families program, which provides families in crisis with a safety net of support to protect children and prevent them from entering the foster care system.

• Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Sun Coast

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  $110,000

  Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Sun Coast’s (BBBSSC) mission is to create and support one-to-one mentoring relationships that ignite the power and promise of youth. NCEF funding supports the One-to-One Mentoring Program, which provides opportunities for BBBSSC to pair youth with mentors.

• Boys & Girls Club of Collier County

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  $450,000

  Boys & Girls Club of Collier County provides daily after-school and summer enrichment programs to inspire and enable children in Collier County, especially those from disadvantaged circumstances, to reach their full potential. NCEF funding supports the academic and youth development programming for over 1,000 at-risk children in Golden Gate and East Naples.

• Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation

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  $75,000

  Cal Ripken, Sr. Foundation helps to build character and teach critical life lessons to at-risk youth living in America’s most distressed communities through sports-themed programs. NCEF funding supports multiple Ripken Foundation Direct Service Events for at-risk youth ages 9 to 14.

• Catholic Charities

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  $295,000

  Catholic Charities of Collier County seeks to serve and empower all in need, regardless of race, nationality or creed. NCEF funding supports Catholic Charities’ bilingual youth counseling program for sexually abused, neglected and behaviorally impaired children.

• Children’s Advocacy Center

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  $686,000

  Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC) provides services to the most severely abused and traumatized children in the community. NCEF funding supports payment for medical and social evaluations, case management, trauma-focused therapy and counseling. CAC is the only entity able to provide medical diagnoses of child abuse, child forensic interviews and safe custody exchanges.

• Conservancy of Southwest Florida

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  $75,000

  Conservancy of Southwest Florida’s mission is to protect Southwest Florida’s unique natural environment and quality of life. NCEF funding supports the Conservancy’s hybrid summer camp programs, as well as spring and winter break camps, and outreach initiatives through the Learning Lab Bus—a 38-foot interactive mobile classroom.

• First Tee – Naples/Collier

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  $75,000

  First Tee enables children to build a strength of character that empowers them through a lifetime of new challenges. By seamlessly integrating the game of golf with life skills curriculum, First Tee creates learning experiences that build inner strength, self-confidence and resilience that kids can carry into everything they do. NCEF funding supports the expansion of the program through an outreach coordinator and additional staffing.

• Fostering Success

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  $415,000

  Fostering Success provides abused, neglected and abandoned children with the social, educational and financial support the state does not. NCEF funding supports educational and out-of-school time opportunities for children in foster care, enabling thousands of foster children to discover hidden talents, boost their self-esteem, sustain good academic grades and most importantly, begin to realize their individual potential.

• Fun Time Early Childhood Academy

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  $490,000

  Fun Time Early Childhood Academy strengthens and enriches the lives of working families and underserved children in Collier County through affordable, high-quality early childhood education. Fun Time operates four high-quality learning centers serving 350 children birth to age five annually and is the largest provider of high-quality early learning to underserved children from economically challenged working families in Naples and Western Collier County. NCEF’s funding supports Fun Time’s mission to provide high-quality childcare to underserved families.

• Grace Place for Children and Families

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  $400,000

  Grace Place for Children and Families strives to break the cycle of poverty by ensuring students graduate from high school, seek continued higher education and enter the workforce as hard-working, prepared professionals. NCEF funding supports a service learning and high school leadership program that will serve as a pathway to college for at-risk youth in the Golden Gate area, afterschool services for elementary school-aged children and the Bright Beginnings program to increase family literacy.

• Legal Aid Services of Collier County

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  $600,000

  Legal Aid provides high-quality civil legal advice, representation and education at no cost to the residents of Collier County. NCEF funding supports the Legal Aid for Collier Kids Project to promote stability and well-being in the lives of children in the dependency system and those victimized by exposure to domestic violence, trauma and abuse. Free legal services are provided for at least 500 at-risk children annually.

• Literacy Volunteers of Collier County

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  $75,000

  Literacy Collier enhances the lives of students, families and children by improving their English skills. NCEF funding supports the Children and Parents Reading Together (CPRT) program which supplements and reinforces what the child is learning in class, in addition to educating the parent by promoting parental engagement in their child’s education.

• MusicScores Violin

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  $50,000

  MusicScores Violin provides violin instruction for preschoolers to enhance literacy, self-regulation and focus, as well as social and motor skills. NCEF funding supports over 300 Head Start children to participate in this research-based and data-driven program.

• Naples Therapeutic Riding Center

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  $100,000

  Naples Therapeutic Riding Center improves the lives of children and adults with special needs through therapeutic riding and other equine-related programs. NCEF funding supports therapeutic horsemanship and riding lessons, occupational therapy with horses customized for children with a wide range of special needs and Equine Facilitated Psychotherapy.

• NCH Naples Comprehensive Health

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  $84,000

  NCH Naples Comprehensive Health is an Advanced Community Healthcare System™ serving Southwest Florida with premier routine, critical and specialty care since 1956. NCEF funding supports a Bilingual Perinatal Community Educator. Perinatal education plays a critical role in improving birth outcomes and reducing maternal health disparities, and NCEF is working with NCH to ensure all expecting parents are set up for success and have access to relevant information and resources.

• NCH Naples Comprehensive Health

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  $85,000

  NCEF funding supports a Pediatric & Special Needs navigator. The navigator plays a vital role in connecting families with educational, medical, social and financial resources. They reduce fear and anxiety by linking families to support systems, clarifying service processes and guiding them through available assistance. Additionally, they track outcomes, engage in community outreach, coordinate with providers and liaise with organizations to address service gaps.

• NCH Safe & Healthy Children’s Coalition of Collier County

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  $50,000

  NCH Safe & Healthy Children’s Coalition of Collier County focuses on saving children’s lives through injury prevention and health promotion. NCEF funding supports Swim Central, a drowning prevention/water safety program. This program provides layers of protection through water safety education for at-risk and underserved families and water safety lessons for 1,300 children.

• Pace Center for Girls

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  $100,000

  Pace Center for Girls’ mission is to provide girls and young women an opportunity for a better future through education, counseling, training and advocacy. NCEF funding supports therapeutic counseling services to provide early identification, expert diagnosis and effective individual treatment of psychiatric and behavioral disorders that will help prepare girls for academic and social-emotional success as well as their futures.

• Special Olympics

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  $127,500

  Special Olympics helps people with intellectual disabilities participate as productive and respected members of society by offering a fair opportunity to develop and demonstrate their skills and talents through a structured athletic program. NCEF funding supports the Young Athletes Program and Unified Champion Schools. The funding also supports the continuation of Camp Shriver in Collier County.

• St. Matthew's House

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  $100,000

  St. Matthew’s House exists to change the lives of vulnerable and hurting individuals and families. NCEF funding supports the Essential Child Services Program, which serves many of the most vulnerable children and families in Collier County. It ensures the personal well-being, physical health and educational success of at-risk children in crisis situations. Funding is used for childcare, urgent necessities such as medical and mental health care, tutoring and school-related expenses and more.

• STARability Foundation

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  $80,000

  STARability Foundation provides social, vocational and educational connections to the community for individuals with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities while strengthening awareness and respect for individual abilities. NCEF funding supports STARability’s Junior Trailblazer Academy, which is an after-school and summer program providing high school students with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities with continuing education, vocational and life skills training and life-enriching experiences.

• Taste the Impact

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  $125,000

  Taste the Impact provides high school students in Immokalee and Naples, Florida with real-world business experience and the foundational soft skills needed to make them career ready. NCEF funding supports Taste of Immokalee, a student-run, real-world entrepreneurship program where students learn, through “hands-on” experience, how to run a successful business.

• The Education Foundation of Collier County - Champions For Learning

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  $225,000

  The Education Foundation of Collier County – Champions For Learning, makes it possible for our community to impact the lives of children by enriching the environment for student learning. NCEF funding supports the College and Career Preparation Program, which provides underserved students with a college and career readiness curriculum, helping students connect to their futures.

• The Salvation Army of Collier County

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  $75,000

  The Salvation Army is a multi-faceted human services organization providing services in 131 countries. In Collier County, The Salvation Army is placing an emphasis on education and the need for quality early learning programs for our community’s most vulnerable youth. NCEF funding supports quality programming and scholarships at the Child Development Center.

• The Shelter for Abused Women & Children

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  $150,000

  The Shelter for Abused Women & Children provides safety, intervention, education and support to victims and survivors of domestic violence. NCEF funding supports the Primary Prevention program, which creates a learning environment that inspires children and youth to create peaceful and nonviolent relationships.

• United Arts Collier

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  $85,000

  United Arts Collier enriches the lives of residents and visitors and strengthens the community through the power of the arts. NCEF funding supports over 2,500 children participating in academic and enrichment services.

• Valerie's House

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  $200,000 

  Valerie’s House is devoted to providing children and their families, who have experienced the death of a loved one, a safe place to share and experience support with others who are also grieving, while moving through the healing process. NCEF funding supports art, music and group therapy to help youth identify, express and process grief and to become mentally stable, healthy and successful in school and life.

• YMCA of Collier County

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  $350,000

  The YMCA of Collier County has established out-of-school programs that build a strong mind, body and spirit for children in the community. NCEF funding supports over 500 children in the Everglades City, Manatee and East Naples areas with after-school and summer programs.

• Youth Haven

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  $450,000

  Youth Haven’s mission is to protect and empower children and to strengthen families in Southwest Florida through comprehensive care and community collaboration. NCEF funding supports Youth Haven’s Home Teen Transitional living program, Emergency Shelter and their Therapeutic Support for Children in Crisis program. This program provides trauma-informed care, counseling, and therapeutic services for abused, neglected and homeless children and teens in Southwest Florida.