Community Experts Fund Grant

The Community Experts Fund Grant, provided by the Peter & Elizabeth C. Tower Foundation, aims to improve the lives of young people facing mental health and developmental challenges in targeted counties. With $350,000 available in 2025, the fund emphasizes mentoring initiatives that empower youth-driven goals. By strengthening existing programs, it seeks to build capacity and support young individuals through quality one-on-one mentoring, distinct from traditional case management, addressing the pressing needs of this vulnerable population.

Background
The Tower Foundation is a family foundation that helps children, adolescents, and young people affected by intellectual disabilities, learning disabilities, mental health issues, and/or substance use disorders. Our goal is to improve the lives of young people in our geographic footprint of Erie and Niagara Counties in Western New York, and Barnstable, Dukes, Essex, and Nantucket Counties in Eastern Massachusetts.
The 2025 Community Experts Team began their work together by drawing on their own experiences to explore a range of potential services for young people. What made a difference in their own lives, or what do they wish had been accessible to them? The team quickly coalesced around mentoring and/or coaching supports, while avoiding a narrow definition of either. Mentors help with needs that youth themselves prioritize, assist with progress towards personal goals, and help to weather life’s ups and downs.
Team members chose to support capacity building with this year’s fund. Nonprofits face daunting challenges in this moment that are not particularly conducive to taking on new program initiatives. For the 2025 Community Experts Fund, grants will help strengthen mentoring programs that support young people with mental health challenges, intellectual disabilities, learning disabilities, or substance use disorders. Mentoring should be understood as quality one-on-one time focused on youth-driven goals, distinct from case management and care coordination.
The Community Experts Fund has a total of $350,000 to award in 2025. Applicants may request any amount up to $50,000.