Travis Simms Foundation snags $150,000 in budget for Youth Services Prevention.

The state budget gives the Travis Simms Foundation $150,000 a Youth Services Prevention grant, a program administered by the state’s Judicial Department. State Representative Travis Simms (D-Norwalk) has been attempting to launch and sustain a youth boxing program bearing his name for nearly a decade.

Simms made a previous bid for public funds for the foundation in 2014 when he was the minority leader on Norwalk’s city council. Nancy on Norwalk reported the details.

The Travis Simms Foundation, Inc., was dormant for six years and scheduled for dissolution this month until an annual report was filed with the Office of the Secretary of the State in March of this year. The document lists Sandra Stokes as a board member and Travis Simms, Jr., as founder and executive director. The foundation describes itself as “promoters of performing arts, sports and similar events without facilities” in its revised filing.

The $150,000 grant is the fifth largest of the 281 listed in the section 39 of the budget.

Both Simmses list the home they share with Representative Simms as the business address of the Travis Simms Foundation. Representative Simms was a light middle weight champion boxer in his youth.

The legislature moved the generous grant program from the jurisdiction of the Office of Policy and Management–which has many resources to monitor the spending of state funds–to the Judicial Department–which is given little money to keep a close eye on where the millions given away each year go–several years ago.

It is rare to include a program named after a legislator and run by his or her family in the grant bonanza.

Published June 5, 2023.