FamiliesFORWARD receives Messer grant

The Messer Construction Co. Foundation presented FamiliesFORWARD with a $25,000 grant to buy computers and STEM-related software at Hays-Porter School in the West End of Cincinnati.

Messer is a regional company with offices in nine cities in the Midwest and Southeast, and its foundation supports, among other things, students interested in STEM (science, technology, engineering, math) careers, particularly building.

FamiliesFORWARD was one of four recipients, with the others being 4:13 Strong, Nashville, Tenn.; Good Samaritan Hospital Foundation for Samaritan Behavioral Health Inc., Dayton, Ohio; and NCJC Housing & Development Foundation, Columbus, Ohio.

Messer presented its check during the grand opening of its corporate headquarters in the West End, which is near Hays-Porter School.

FamiliesFORWARD plans to provide instructors to assist students in learning to use STEM-related software in its After-School Program at Hays-Porter. With Hays-Porter taking on a new technology focus in 2016-17 as part of Cincinnati Public School’s Vision 2020 initiative, the program will align well with what the school is trying to teach its students.

—Bill Ferguson Jr.