This year, the William T. Grant Foundation, joined by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Bezos Family Foundation, Doris Duke Foundation, and Spencer Foundation, awarded $2.6 million in Institutional Challenge Grants to four university–community partnerships. Each grantee receives $650,000 over three years, with the option of continuation funding, to strengthen collaborative research aimed at reducing inequality in youth outcomes.
Fordham University, in partnership with Graham, will develop trauma‑informed, career‑connected pathways for youth in the Bronx impacted by child welfare. The University of Georgia, working with the Multi‑Agency Alliance for Children, will address educational inequities for transition‑age youth in foster care. The University of Pennsylvania, partnering with the Governor’s Office of Pennsylvania, will examine the effectiveness of state policies in tackling youth homelessness. Virginia Commonwealth University, alongside Richmond Public Schools, will design family‑centered approaches to support multilingual learners’ pathways to postsecondary success.
The program requires institutions to reform policies and incentives to value community‑engaged scholarship. Fordham plans to revise tenure and promotion guidelines to recognize youth‑led research, while Penn will formalize data use agreements and create seed funding for faculty partnerships with state government. These changes aim to embed collaborative research into institutional structures.
The grants also strengthen nonprofit and public agency capacity to use evidence. Graham will engage youth and caregivers in co‑designing initiatives, while Pennsylvania’s Governor’s Office will build durable data infrastructure for homelessness research. VCU and Richmond Public Schools will explore how multilingual family participation in school improvement teams can foster culturally responsive engagement strategies.
Philanthropic partners emphasized the importance of linking research with practice to address barriers facing young people. Leaders from the Casey, Bezos, and Spencer Foundations noted that these partnerships elevate youth voices, generate actionable evidence, and reshape conditions under which scholars and communities collaborate.
Together, the four partnerships illustrate how universities and communities can co‑create solutions to pressing challenges, from foster care and homelessness to multilingual education, while building systems that reward collaborative, evidence‑driven approaches to reducing inequality.
