our support

funding support

TORCH is funded entirely by grants and donations.  TORCH is extremely grateful for all its financial supporters:

• Minnesota Office of Higher Education – Intervention for College Attendance Program
• Minnesota Office of Justice Programs – Juvenile Justice Advisory Council
• Great Lakes Higher Education Corporation
• Northfield Area United Way
• Women In Northfield Giving Support (WINGS)
• City of Northfield’s Grace Whittier Fund

in-kind support

TORCH is a collaborative initiative that relies on extensive in-kind support from its partners:

• Carleton and St. Olaf Colleges continue to provide more than 50 college students to tutor and mentor TORCH participants during study halls, ESL classes, and after school.  These students also assist with ACT preparation for high school students.  The colleges also coordinate academic classes to lead evaluation projects of TORCH, as well as workshops with TORCH students.
• The Northfield Mentoring Coalition works with TORCH to identify appropriate mentoring programs for all the TORCH middle school students.  The mentoring agencies of the Coalition recruit, screen, train, and monitor the mentors, providing ongoing support to the matches.
• Northfield Public Schools are great partners in the TORCH initiative.  District teachers from the ESL and FOCUS programs serve as resources to TORCH staff and participate in the TORCH planning and evaluation processes.  In addition, these teachers use their classrooms as the “home bases” for TORCH in the schools, thereby providing a consistent location for after school tutoring, academic assistance, and mentoring matches to meet.  In addition, the Northfield Public Schools donate the time of the Northfield High School Assistant Principal/School Connectedness Coordinator to serve as the TORCH Project Director.
• The Northfield Middle School Youth Center continues to provide an after school tutoring location for TORCH participants where students can receive homework or other academic assistance from volunteer tutors and school staff.
• The Northfield Healthy Community Initiative contributes time from its coordinator to assist with the TORCH evaluation and grant reporting efforts.