Holiday Heroes Foundation

The Joyce Foundation supports efforts to protect the natural environment of the Great Lakes, to reduce poverty and violence in the region and to ensure that people have access to good schools, decent jobs and a diverse and thriving culture. The foundation is interested in improving public policies in an effort to shape private sector decisions about jobs, the environment and health. Its education program works to close the achievement gap that separates low-income and minority children from their peers by expanding their access to educational opportunities in early childhood, improving the quality of teachers they encounter in school, and exploring such innovations as small schools and charter schools. The foundation was established in 1948 in Chicago.