The project Holly and Lauren and their teams pitched for the Breakout Challenge will help transform Will Rogers Courts into a thriving community offering services to all generations of residents and neighbors – something we believe is the best way to fight generational poverty.
When Holly Towers from Lilyfield and Laura Gregory from the OKC Housing Authority thought they were just attending a meeting about their grant application. What they really walked into was the surprise of a lifetime. Ken Rees, his daughter Susan and his granddaughter Allison gleefully announced they had won the 2024 Breakout Challenge – a $500,000 grant from the Ken and Gae Rees Family Fund designed to break the cycle of generational poverty.
“The project Holly and Lauren and their teams pitched for the Breakout Challenge will help transform Will Rogers Courts into a thriving community offering services to all generations of residents and neighbors – something we believe is the best way to fight generational poverty,” said Ken Rees, founder of the Breakout Challenge Grant.
It’s not the first time the Rees Family has changed an organization forever with their generosity. This is the seventh Breakout Challenge grant – for a total of $2.8 million – the Rees Family has awarded to an Oklahoma City nonprofit with a great idea that needed necessary funding to accomplish.
The project Holly and Lauren and their teams pitched for the Breakout Challenge is to transform a building inside Oklahoma City’s oldest and poorest housing community called Will Rogers Courts into a thriving community center offering services to all generations of residents and neighbors – something the Rees Family believes is the best way to fight generational poverty.
The project is called the Westwood Community Collaboration. It brings together public partners, community stakeholders and Will Rogers Court residents with a creative plan to fight food insecurity, high rates of unemployment, limited healthcare services, high crime rates and few recreation options. During the three-year project period, the Westwood Community Collaborative, led by Lilyfield, will conduct community needs assessments, create partner agreements, and launch services within a dedicated physical space provided by the Oklahoma City Housing Authority at Will Rogers Court.
It’s a plan the Rees Family believes in so much, they chose Westwood Community Collaboration for the 2024 Challenge Grant.
Breakout Challenge History
The very first recipient of the Breakout Challenge was the Boys and Girls Club of Oklahoma County. With their grant awarded in 2013, they began a new club at Cesar Chavez Elementary. Prior to that, they had their stand-alone club site in Memorial Park.
The Boys and Girls Club knew that having a club in a school site made sense and they had seen it done in other places, but they didn’t have the funding for that location. The Breakout Challenge made that a reality, it was a huge success and now there are Boys and Girls Clubs in 14 school locations across Oklahoma County.
Other recipients include:
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Remerge
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Bridges of Norman
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Parent Promise
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OIC of Oklahoma County
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YMCA-Greater Oklahoma City
Check out below for photos from the event!