Cox Offering ‘Innovation in Education’ Grants

NEW ORLEANS – From Cox Communications:

New Orleans educators with brilliant ideas are encouraged to submit applications for funding through Cox Innovation in Education grants. Employees contribute all year to Cox Charities, and, in 2022, the team in the southeast region will award $45,000 in grant money to support student learning programs focused on education, technology, and social well-being. 

Public and private school educators in the New Orleans area whose facilities are located within Cox’s residential footprint can apply at www.CoxCharitiesSER.org through February 28, 2022. Cox will announce the recipients and distribute funds in May.

“I can’t tell you how much it means to teachers in the classroom to have someone believe in their ideas-to take that chance to help their students to see STEM in a different way,” said past grant winner Tracey Zelden, a teacher at Kenner Discovery Health Sciences Academy in Kenner, who used the grant to support Seeing Science All Around for her students. 

Cox employees fully fund Cox Charities through payroll donations and one-time gifts. Since 2006, they have invested more than $700,000 in the program. Grants are awarded bi-annually throughout markets in Acadiana, Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Florida’s Gulf Coast (Pensacola and Fort Walton), Central Florida (Gainesville and Ocala), and Middle Georgia (Macon and Warner Robins). 

“Educators founded Cox, and we’re steadfast in our commitment to supporting them,” said Erin Monroe Wesley, vice president of government and public affairs for the Cox Southeast Region. “Programs that help students develop new skills while fostering connections with one another are ones our employees are eager to get behind.” 

Cox Charities also provides Community Investment grants to 501(c)(3) nonprofits and will open its next grant cycle this August. Through the “Give Where You Live” grant program, funds raised locally stay local to support nonprofits and educators in the areas where Cox employees live. Last year, employees in the Southeast Region pledged over $140,000 to Cox Charities.