The Community Foundation aims to improve the quality of life in Newaygo County through strategic focus on education, poverty reduction, and community and economic development. By setting long-term goals like increasing education levels, lowering poverty rates, and maintaining low unemployment rates, the foundation seeks to foster a focused community effort towards generational change, requiring collaboration and support for a robust nonprofit infrastructure.
The grant program focuses on supporting positive opportunities for youth, specifically targeting programs that improve the quality of life for youth in Newaygo County. The Community Foundation's Youth Advisory Committee (YAC), which evaluates applications, emphasizes funding priorities including support for youth facing challenges like drugs, questioned sexuality, teen pregnancy, or poor home life (H.E.L.P.), enhancing social opportunities through recreational and educational activities, and bolstering continued educational opportunities to equip youth with skills for success in employment and leadership within the county.