Grantmakers in the News
May 1, 2003
Name: Jessie Ball duPont Fund
Year Founded: 1976
Contact Person: Dr. Sherry P. Magill, President
Address:1 Independent Dr., Ste. 1400
Jacksonville, FL 32202-5011
Phone: 904-353-0890 Fax: 904-353-3870
URL: http://www.dupontfund.org/
Trustees of the Jessie Ball duPont Fund awarded $44,000 to
Children’s Home Society in
Winter Park, Florida, to support a partnership with the Florida
Children’s
Campaign to educate
the public, community leaders and policy-makers at the state and local level about future
implications of reduced funding for children services.
The grant was among 17 awards worth $1.9 million made during the trustees’ February 2003
meeting. Seven of those grants, totaling $732,000, were made to Florida-based organizations.
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s proposed budget for 2003-2004 eliminates all front-end prevention,
intervention and treatment services provided by the Department of Juvenile Justice. The budget
also cuts funding for Children in Need of Services and Families in Need of Services and then
transfers the downsized programs to the Department of Children and Families. Meanwhile, the
governor proposes transferring $70 million in costs for detention, pretrial and probation
services back to local governments. According to the Florida Children’s Campaign, the
cumulative effect of these funding shifts is to eliminate services to between 35,000 and
40,000 children in Florida.
For these young people, few options exist: they may end up deeper in the criminal justice
system, due to lack of prevention/intervention options. Or they may end up in the state’s child
welfare system. According to numerous sources, Florida’s child welfare system is overburdened
and has suffered two years of scathing criticism and leadership changes after widely publicized
reports of missing children, child deaths and bureaucratic ineptitude.
Children’s Home Society, with the Florida Children’s Campaign, hopes to build community
conversations around the challenges facing the state as it attempts to deal with this mounting
fiscal and community crisis, and educate lawmakers about the long-term value and economy of
prevention and intervention programs.
In addition to the Children’s Home Society grant, trustees of the Jessie Ball DuPont Fund
awarded $140,000 to the Archdiocese
of Miami, Miami Shores, to support equipment and startup costs for a child-care facility at
Providence place, a transitional housing center operated by the archdiocese.
Currently, parents staying at Providence Place must find child care off-site and transport
children to the centers before beginning a day of work or school. By providing on-site
child-care, Providence place will provide stability for the children during a time of family
transition, and ease the daily burden of parents as they seek to rebuild their lives.
The Jessie Ball duPont Fund makes grants to 331 eligible institutions identified by Mrs. duPont
in her will. The fund has assets of $255 million and has awarded $212 million in grants since
1977.
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