Dominion East Ohio Distributes $100,000 in Community Impact Awards

CLEVELAND, March 3 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Dominion East Ohio awarded $100,000 to 11 winners today in its annual Community Impact Awards competition, co-sponsored by Dominion East Ohio and Inside Business Magazine.

A panel of community judges selected the winners from 85 entries submitted by organizations throughout northeast Ohio, in the 15th annual awards competition. The award recognizes cities or organizations that have made a positive impact in the community. Funding for the grant comes from the Dominion Foundation, which is dedicated to the economic, physical and social health of the communities served by Dominion companies.

"We support the extraordinary efforts of everyone involved in these award-winning community projects," said Anne E. Bomar, senior vice president and general manager, Dominion East Ohio. "They have made a difference in the lives of the people they serve, and in the communities where we all live and work."

Since 1996, Dominion East Ohio has distributed nearly $950,000 in Community Impact Awards to organizations throughout the company's service area.

Community Impact Award winners include:

Akron Global Business Accelerator received $8,000 for The Global Technology Commercialization Initiative, which strives to stimulate the creation and development of technology-based entrepreneurial innovation. Housed in Akron's Canal Place, the program now boasts 49 member companies which have attracted $16.4 million in new investment capital.

Arts In Stark won $8,000 for the Canton Arts District project, Phase One, which brought together public art, music and art galleries and studios, with the hopes of revitalizing blocks of vacant buildings in downtown Canton. Today, more than 50 local artists operate out of the galleries and studios and 25,000 people attend First Friday, an annual arts festival.

Beatitude House received $8,000 for A House of Blessing, a transitional housing facility for women and children in Warren. Residents have a place to live for up to two years and the women work with an on-site case manager and counselor to further their education, secure stable employment and gain permanent housing. Nearly 90 percent of those who have completed the program never return to homelessness.

Cleveland Central Catholic High School earned $10,000 for The Stefanski Service Scholarship Program. Students receive $10 per hour of volunteer work in the Slavic Village to put toward tuition. A grant from the Third Federal Foundation helps fund the program. More than 340 Central Catholic families have participated in the program, accumulating 65,000 hours of community service.

Detroit Shoreway Community Development Organization of Cleveland won $12,000 for its Capitol Theatre renovation, which is the first completed anchor project of the Gordon Square Arts District, a $30 million initiative that is leveraging over $750 million in economic development. To date, more than 30 businesses have opened or moved to the district over the past four years, creating more than 350 jobs.

Family and Community Services, Inc. received $10,000 for its Resources at Oakwood Campus, which developed a "one-stop shop" for client services. The project included the renovation of an abandoned Ohio Department of Transportation facility into a central service campus to serve Portage County residents that included governmental and social service agencies, as well as private business.

Lima/Allen County Chamber of Commerce won $8,000 for its Center for Business Services, which transformed two historic buildings in downtown Lima in need of repair, into its new home for the Chamber and its partner agencies. It also served as a catalyst for downtown economic revitalization.

Mahoning Valley Organizing Collaborative earned $10,000 for its Vacant Property Campaign, which aims to tear down vacant homes in Youngstown's Idora neighborhood, and turn the vacant land into gardens, food co-ops and potluck barbecues for residents. More importantly, a neighborhood block watch was formed, and as a result, residents have a new sense of pride in their homes, and crime has decreased nearly 40 percent in the neighborhood.

Cleveland's ShoreBank Enterprise Group earned $10,000 for the Evergreen Cooperative Development Fund, which follows a unique cooperative model that allows employees, many of whom live in the low-income areas around University Circle, to own a stake in a company after six months of employment. The fund helped establish the first Evergreen Cooperative business, the Evergreen Cooperative Laundry, which is the first commercial-scale, industrial green laundry in Northeast Ohio.

Stark Education Partnership received $8,000 for a project that gives high-school students the chance to earn college credits, particularly those students in low-wealth urban and rural districts in Stark County. To date, 1,294 students earned nearly 4,000 college hours with tuition savings ranging from $410,000 to more than $1.5 million.

Urban Vision earned $8,000 for its "From Burma to Akron" program, which integrated 275 Karen refugees from Burma into American culture in North Akron, because of that country's oppressive military rule. The goal is to help neighborhood children succeed in school and help kids and adults learn English, so that they can find work and support their families.

Dominion East Ohio is a subsidiary of Dominion (NYSE: D), one of the nation's largest producers and transporters of energy, with a portfolio of more than 27,500 megawatts of generation. Dominion operates the nation's largest natural gas storage system and serves retail energy customers in 12 states. For more information about Dominion, visit the company's Web site at www.dom.com.

SOURCE Dominion East Ohio