City of Promise Dreambuilders Program applications due Jan. 15

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. (WVIR) - City of Promise is offering a helping hand to low-income parents in Charlottesville. The nonprofit is offering $1,500 grants to ten families through its Dreambuilders program to help parents and their children with their educational goals.

“Our mission is to end generational poverty through education. We do that by providing coaches who help people reach their goals, for students as well as their parents,” City of Promise Executive Director Mary Coleman said.

Three families have already gone through the Dreambuilders program.

“The program provides parents an opportunity to reach their self sufficiency goals while learning right alongside their kids,” Coleman said. “This enables them to put a down payment on a car or pay down their bills, and it reduces stress for parents, so it helps them focus on their kids goals, and it also moves the family forward financially.”

Once accepted, parents will go through a 19-week program with the opportunity to set their own goals.

“Over the course of the 19 weeks, you have dinners with your children to do learning activities, and you get individual coaching,” she said. “Your goals are unique to you, and so we let people decide for themselves what they want to achieve, and then we distribute the money based upon those goals”

The deadline to apply for the grants is January 15th.

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