Flint, Mich.— Sloan Museum of Discovery was awarded a $350,000 grant from The Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity (LEO) today. Sloan is one of 100 nonprofit organizations, agencies, and schools across Michigan that were awarded a total of $64 million in Community Center Grant funds. The funding for 100 Michigan municipalities and organizations is intended to expand programming or work on capital projects to serve 1.6 million Michiganders. The grant program builds on Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer’s ‘Make it in Michigan’ strategy to win projects, invest in people and revitalize places.
“We are beyond grateful to be supported in our mission to engage communities on a learning journey in history and science,” said Todd Slisher, Executive Director of Sloan Museum of Discovery. “This funding will immediately make STEM summer camps and workshops accessible for more kids and enhance their learning experiences with better equipped classrooms,” Slisher added.
Sloan Museum of Discovery’s education staff serves nearly 90,000 children in Genesee and surrounding counties. The organization facilitates formalized hands-on STEM and social studies field trips in line with State of Michigan curriculums. Sloan also offers hundreds of STEM programs through libraries, partner schools, summer camps, scouts, and free drop in classes.
Sloan Museum of Discovery is one of three nonprofit organizations in Flint awarded a Michigan Community Center grant. The other two Flint-based organizations are Whaley Children’s Center and St. Mark Community Outreach Center.
The American Rescue Plan Act provided $60 million in grant funds which was appropriated by the Michigan State Legislature. In response to the resounding interest from applicants, the legislature also added $4 million though the FY24 Supplemental Budget Bill, recognizing the need to provide funding to connect communities and provide resources to serve residents.
There were nearly 1,000 applications requesting over $1 billion in funding, according to the office of Gov. Whitmer. Organizations in 43 Michigan counties received funding that will serve a total of 80 counties across the state. The Michigan Community Service Commission, the state’s lead agency on volunteerism, administered the grant process.
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Media Contact: Anne Mancour, Marketing Manager
About Sloan Museum of Discovery & Longway Planetarium
Sloan Museum of Discovery and Longway Planetarium are overseen by the non-profit Flint Institute of Science and History (F.I.S.H.) with a shared mission to engage communities on a learning journey in history and science. Together, the two institutions serve approximately 90,000 children per year with STEM and social study educational programming. Located within the Flint Cultural Center Campus in Flint, Michigan, Sloan Museum of Discovery opened in July, 2022, with four primary hands-on learning galleries and one exhibition hall for special traveling exhibits. The original Sloan Museum opened in 1966 as the Sloan Panorama of Transportation, named after long-time General Motors president, chairman and CEO Alfred P. Sloan. The new Sloan Museum of Discovery is nearly twice the size at 107,000 square feet and completely re-built into a re-imagined world-class, hands-on science and history museum. Longway Planetarium is Michigan’s largest planetarium showing full-dome shows and live astronomy-related presentations under a 40 feet high x 60 feet wide dome. It originally opened in 1958 and was named after Robert T. Longway, a community leader and one of the men responsible for the development of the Flint Cultural Center. Classes on the solar system and general science are offered to school groups and the general public. Both institutions are supported in part by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and Michigan Arts and Culture Council (MACC). Educational programs are supported, in part, by the Genesee County Arts Education and Cultural Enrichment Millage. Learn more at www.SloanLongway.org.
