Thank you to everyone who supports the Jo Zakas Legacy Foundation. Your generous support helps underserved adults and young people enjoy a better life. This year, we funded a few of the projects and programs for the following nonprofit organizations.
2024 Local Nonprofit Organization Grants
American Heart Association Ambassadors @ $5,000
Heart Ball Ambassadors are high school students who participate in educational and social programs and activities sponsored by the American Heart Association. Each ambassador can attain community service hours, learn valuable leadership development skills, and network with peers. The program’s highlight is the presentation of the Ambassadors at the Wichita Heart Ball.
Children First CEO Kansas Inc. @ $5,000
Children First CEO Kansas Inc. (Children 1st) mission is “to support students to feel safe and empowered, so they can learn and thrive, by staying in school and achieving in life, while working with their parents to increase family stability.” Funds will provide 100 individuals with necessities and help remove barriers to housing and employment.
Cricket Alley Ministries @ $5,000
Cricket Alley Ministries’ New Start program provides disadvantaged women in the Wichita area with the essential items to make a new start. These include new undergarments, clothing, beauty products, and Bibles. For their New Start program, funds will provide apparel, fashion styling guidance, and nurturing confidence and hope.
Destination Innovation @ $5,000
Each summer, Destination Innovation runs Camp Destination Innovation. This summer camp for high school teens in the Wichita area helps students interested in entrepreneurship. Students gain professional knowledge in an exciting and interactive environment. They also get hands-on experience in the business and have the opportunity to meet inspiring leaders in the Wichita community face-to-face.
EmberHope Youthville @ $5,000
EmberHope Youthville dedicates its efforts to impacting the lives of children, teens, and families. Its core values center on faith, integrity, cultural sensitivity, respect, excellence, and accountability. They work with foster families, volunteers, businesses, churches, and foundations who want to help families inspire positive change and build a brighter future. Because of EmberHope, hundreds of children and teens have a home environment to move past pain into healing. Their teams provide consistency, stability, training, and trauma-informed care to help the healing process begin.
Funds will be used to pay for the needs of youth and families participating in their program.
Juniper Arts Academy, Inc. @ $4,500
Juniper Arts Academy’s Music Club and Visual Arts Camps bring fine arts education to young people in the juvenile justice system and foster care. In 2023, 90% of music camp students had little to no access to fine arts education without Juniper.
Legacy Works Youth Development (Legacy Ministries) @ $5,000
The Legacy Works Youth Development program provides “opportunities to at-risk youth, ages 14 to 19, with social support, life skills training, and workforce development.” Legacy Works is on a mission to break the cycles of generational poverty. During a student’s time in the Legacy program, they earn their wages, develop employable skills, and build job longevity. These teens also experience a healthy community where they belong. By the end of their first year, some students have held a job longer than their parents or guardians. Many of these teens contribute their earnings to their households.
Rainbows United @ $2,200
Rainbows United’s mission is to enhance “the lives of children with special needs and their families by bringing together community resources and providing customized services.” The Foundation will help fund Camp Woodchuck, where kids with disabilities can develop their skills through art.
Raise my Head @ $5,000
The mission of Raise My Head Foundation “is to provide a safe, restorative residence for women who have been sex trafficked.” They provide trauma-informed, survivor-centered, research-based support services that promote healing, restoration, recovery, and growth. Grant funds will be used for their workplace readiness program.
Wichita Indochinese Center @ $5,000
The mission of the Wichita Indochinese Center is to teach skills and provide services (English as a Second Language, Workforce Development, and Youth Services) to immigrants and refugees so that these individuals will become self-supporting and contributing members of the Wichita community. The Center will use the grant funds for a part-time teacher.
Wichita Women’s Initiative Network @ $5,000
The Women’s Network empowers women, survivors of domestic violence, women recovering from trauma, and women working for better lives. It offers paths toward financial and emotional independence for long-term transformation and success. These include a domestic violence recovery program, education and employment opportunities, therapy, and case management services. The Network is also home to the popular Dress for Success program. The Women’s Network will use these funds to teach domestic abuse survivors job readiness skills and economic stability habits.
Youth Horizons Inc @ $6,500
Youth Horizon helps at-risk youth through three primary ways – helping youth through their mentoring program, managing group homes for boys and girls with severe individual and family challenges, and providing public awareness. Grant funds will train 60 individuals to serve in their mentoring program.
2024 Educational Grants for the Arts
The Academy at Music Theatre Wichita @ $5,000
Music Theatre Wichita advances the musical theatre art form by educating and nurturing creators, artists, and audiences, primarily through producing Broadway-caliber shows. Its academy program follows the same mission with an educational emphasis. Hundreds of young Wichita-area children receive instruction and gain lifelong skills each year through mainstage productions, youth theatre productions, classes, and camps. The Academy will educate youth on stage and behind the scenes with the funds used as scholarships to underserved students.
City Arts | Art Camp Scholarships @ $2,000 annual commitment
CityArts offers people of all ages and cultural backgrounds the opportunity to participate in diverse art programming throughout the year. Each year, City Arts offers art camps to youth in the area. The Foundation decided in 2022 to offer scholarship funds for underserved populations as an annual donation.
Wichita State University School of Performing Arts | Musical Theatre Incubator @ $30,000
The Musical Theatre Incubator Program is a three-week mentoring program that allows music theater students to work closely with industry professionals. Each year, the School of Performing Arts invites guest artists to campus to give students experience in writing and developing a play. This year, the students performed a staged reading of a musical, Express, after their workshop experience. Each artist will interact with students in person for at least two weeks each year. In October 2024, the Express writers returned and added choreography and staging for the students to incorporate into the play, along with the changes and additions.
This is the third year the Jo Zakas Legacy Foundation has helped to fund this program for enterprising theater students. The Board believes this would be a passion project for our founder and benefactor, Jo Zakas if she was still with us.
This is a group photo of the student actors. Visiting artists Janine Mguire and Lawton Simon are seated in the front row right.
For the 2023 recipients, click here.
