3.19.2007 - 12:25pm ET

(CSRwire) SAINT PAUL, Minn.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--March 16, 2007--The Travelers Companies, Inc. and its two private foundations, Travelers Foundation and Travelers Connecticut Foundation, awarded $15.5 million to charitable organizations nationwide in fiscal year 2006. Giving is focused on education, community development and arts and culture - areas where Travelers has helped create opportunities for people to succeed and build economically stable communities for more than 150 years.

Improving college access rates

According to the U.S. Department of Labor, nine out of 10 of the fastest growing U.S. jobs require some level of post-secondary education. At the same time, there is a growing population of students who are less likely to graduate from high school or to pursue further education. To help build the workforce of tomorrow, Travelers contributed more than $3.3 million in 2006 grants to support the success of low-income, first-generation students in post-secondary education.

"Improving student access to post-secondary educational opportunities is critical to the long-term economic success of an individual and a community," said Mary Pickard, president of the Travelers Foundation. "Those lacking the resources to go to college, and young students who do not have a defined path to college, depend on programs that can put them on track to a post-secondary degree or certificate program." Examples of Travelers grants that improve college access include:

• $201,000 grant to the Minnesota Private College Fund's Urban
  Education Scholarship Program that supports 22 low-income
  Minnesota students of color pursuing urban teaching careers.
  
  
• $127,000 in grants to the Greater Hartford Consortium for
  Higher Education to support an early college awareness
  initiative and its Career Beginnings mentoring program.
  
  
• $133,500 national grant to the Council for Opportunity in
  Education to help low-income, pre-college students develop
  leadership skills and prepare for college.

• $100,000 grant to South Arsenal Neighborhood Development
  Corporation (SAND) in Hartford, Conn., to provide life skills
  and job training for individuals facing barriers in the
  workforce.
  
  
• $250,000 grant to Twin Cities Local Initiatives Support
  Corporation to support the development of affordable housing
  and commercial development in low-income neighborhoods.
  
  
• $250,000 national grant to Habitat for Humanity International
  to build houses in Saint Paul, Hartford and communities across
  the country.

• $15,000 grant to the Center for Puppetry Arts in Atlanta
  supports a scholarship program that allows low-income students
  to visit the theater and museum.
  
  
• $85,000 grant to the Greater Hartford Arts Council to support
  small and mid-sized cultural organizations and to enable high
  school students to have a paid summer work experience as
  apprentices in the arts.
  
  
• $325,000 in grants to COMPAS to fund community-based arts
  programming in Minnesota schools and nonprofit agencies.

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