Oneida County Youth Investment Initiative Fund

The Community Foundation, in partnership with Oneida County, is offering grants to support programs that help at-risk youth and reduce youth violence in Oneida County. Funding will support new or expanded programs that promote positive youth development and encourage collaboration among nonprofits, schools, law enforcement, and local government agencies.

Overview

The Oneida County Youth Investment Initiative invites nonprofits to apply for funds to expand existing programs or create new programs that foster positive youth development, strengthen community ties, and reduce factors that contribute to youth violence. Preference will be given to programs that involve collaborative partnerships and demonstrate innovative approaches to prevention with other nonprofits, schools, law enforcement, and/or local government agencies.

Additional Information

Proposed programs must align with the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Youth Violence Prevention Resource for Action Guide, which represents a select group of strategies based on the best available evidence to help communities sharpen their focus on prevention activities with the greatest potential to prevent youth violence and its consequences. Strategies and approaches outlined in the Prevention Resource are intended to impact individual behaviors and the relationships, families, schools and communities that influence risk and protective factors for youth. Strategies and approaches are intended to work in combination and reinforce each for long-term impact and success.

Proposed programs must support one or more of the following strategies:

Strategies	Approaches (for illustrative purposes only)
Promote family environments that support healthy development	Early childhood home visitation Parenting skills and family relationship programs
Provide quality education early in life	Preschool enrichment with family engagement
Strengthen youth's skills	Universal school-based programs
Connect youth to caring adults and activities	Mentoring programs After-school programs
Create protective community environments	Modify the physical and social environment Reduce exposure to community-level risks Street outreach and community norm change
Intervene to lessen harms and prevent future risk	Treatment to lessen harms of violence exposures Treatment to prevent problem behavior and further involvement in violence Hospital-community partnerships

The Oneida County Youth Investment Initiative seeks to positively impact Oneida County metrics in the New York State Education Department's (SED) School Safety and Educational Climate (SSEC) summary data which measures violent or disruptive incidents in school districts.

Grant Information

Important Deadlines

Submissions will be accepted Wednesday, May 13 - Tuesday, June 30, at 11:59 p.m.
Award notifications will be made within 45 days of the submission deadline. Applicants will be notified regardless of whether they receive funding.

Application Deadline: 06/30/2026

Apply Here

Informational Session

Interested and eligible applicants are encouraged to attend an informational session at the Community Foundation office in Utica to learn more about the initiative and ask questions regarding submissions.

Visit foundationhoc.org/events to RSVP by May 25.