Musgrave Foundation helps OTC students who are single parents

A fund reserved for Ozarks Technical Community College students facing financial adversity gets used enough to inspire dreams of doing more. A philanthropist’s legacy will make the dreams come true.

Grants totalling $580,000 were awarded to Springfield-area organizations by the Community Foundation of the Ozarks on Dec. 14. The money came from the Jeannette L. Musgrave Foundation, which is managed by U.S. Bank Private Wealth Management. 

While grants of $5,000 were given to 41 organizations, two of the largest gifts — $100,000 each — went to the OTC Foundation and Boys and Girls Clubs of Springfield. 

The money for OTC will be used to create the college’s Wingspan Initiative. Amy Bacon, executive director of the OTC Foundation, said this money will be used to support students who are single parents and need financial assistance beyond tuition or fees. It is intended for expenses such as child care, car repair bills, rental assistance or other costs. 

“We have a large population of single parents, and if there is one thing we know, it’s that the work-school-life balance they juggle is greater than other students,” Bacon said. “We find a lot of them take classes part time so that they are available for their family, and they may also work to support their family, so it takes them even longer to get to the next step on their upward trajectory.”

The Wingspan Initiative will be different from the college’s often-used student emergency fund, which has a soft cap of $250 per student. The money will be used to support 10 single-parent students in a preventive fashion, ensuring they have what they need before finding themselves in a financial crisis.

OTC pays about $50,000 a year out of its emergency fund directly to student creditors, Bacon said. It is replenished through donations each year.

The students who use the money are already in some sort of problem that could derail their pursuit of a degree or certification for a better career, Bacon said. The goal of Wingspan is to handle the same types of challenges for single parents before finances spin out of control.

Bacon said this initiative would not have happened without the Musgrave Foundation.

Bridget Dierks, vice president of programs for Community Foundation of the Ozarks, said OTC’s program is one of the first of its kind that the foundation has supported, and that similar programs across the country had shown some success.

“Sometimes we are looking for an opportunity to try something new,” Dierks said. “OTC made the perfect place to do it because there are so many positive options there… which have solid earning potential.”

Boys and Girls Clubs teen center gets a boost

Another $100,000 was given to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Springfield for building its Risdal Family Center for Great Futures. Projected to open in 2025, the center will serve middle and high school students exclusively. 

“It’s supposed to be a center that is trajectory changing for what is our most vulnerable population,” said Rachael Salveter, director of development for Boys and Girls Clubs of Springfield. “It’s a center that will have activity spaces for every activity you can imagine, as well as spaces exclusive to mental health.”

The center has been under development for decades. Last year the organization announced that construction would finally move forward for a three-story, 44,000-square-foot building located near Parkview High School, at 810 W. Catalpa St. It will share space with FosterAdoptConnect’s YouthConnect Center for homeless and at-risk teens.

The organization is running a construction fundraising campaign for $12 million. With a combination of private donations and grants from the American Recovery Plan Act, it has about $7 million of that goal.

40 years of gifts

Created in 1983, the Musgrave Foundation has provided more than $18 million to agencies that support children, low-income families and homeless people. 

“Mrs. Musgrave had an enormous impact during her life, and now after her life, on the lives of children and low-income families in Greene County,” said Bridget Dierks. “It’s really an honor that we at CFO get to continue her legacy, and do great grant-making work with her foundation funds.”

In addition to those two gifts, grants of $30,000 each were given for nursing scholarships at Cox College, Drury University, OTC, Missouri State University and Southwest Baptist University. Because of Mrs. Musgrave’s appreciation for nursing, the field is a priority for foundation funds. 

Community Partnership of the Ozarks received a final $30,000 payment of a three-year plan for supporting the O’Reilly Center for Hope. The center serves as a hub for homeless and housing services in north Springfield.

Jerry Redfern grants