FLINT, MI -- Red Ink Flint was recently awarded $15,246 for youth programming -- the first grant given by Gen Forward, an initiative of the Community Foundation of Greater Flint formed about one year ago.

Red Ink Flint is best known for the Flint Local 432, the alcohol-free, all-ages music venue, but the money awarded by Gen Forward will go toward two other programs that aren't music- or performance-related.

Joel Rash, general manager of Red Ink Flint, said they do more than 100 shows every year at the Local.

"Our room for growth is during the day, in the summer and after school," he said.

Two-thirds of the money will go to a program started by Red Ink Flint called No Child Left Online, which aims to get youth out of the house and into nature. Last year, the program took kids hiking, biking along the Flint River Trail, kayaking and playing disc golf among other activities.

The rest of the money will go toward increasing Red Ink's presence during the second Friday Art Walk events in downtown Flint.

"We can put an art show on for free," Rash said, "but you can't promote, you can't provide refreshments or entertainment. Those things cost money. ... If we're going to have our own art shows, it should have the things an art show has."

He said he also plans to install equipment that will allow them to make the space in their 124 W. First St. location better for art shows. That will include more neutrally colored paint as a backdrop for artwork and cables to hang the work at various heights.

Gen Forward was started about a year ago as a way for young professionals to give back to their community, said Shannon White, who chairs the organization's formation committee.

Members can sign up for $200 ($300 for a family membership), with that money going into a pot for the grant. The membership, open to people between 20 and 49, gets each member one vote in who the money should go to.

The members, mostly with Flint ties, included people from Cleveland, New York and Los Angeles. White said some members donated far more than $300 (which still only gets them one vote).

She said the group looked at different groups to give the money to and settled on youth. Red Ink stood out as the winner, she said, because it reaches out to "youth that maybe were falling between the cracks...kids who didn't fit in with traditional academic or after-school activities."

Layla Meillier is one young person who found a second home at Red Ink Flint. Now 16, she said she became involved with the Local as a volunteer when she was in eighth grade. Now she sits on Red Ink's board of trustees.

She took part in No Child Left activities last year and spoke on behalf of the organization when they made their pitch to Gen Forward.

"I think it's hard to grow as a human being when you spend all day on a computer," she said.

She also said she was looking forward to seeing more young people represented during Art Walk.

She said she's noticed that most the art displayed downtown is by adults, "and that's fine, but a lot of young people in my age bracket would like to show their work."

Red Ink's operating budget last year was $53,000 last year, Rash said.

"It's a really significant grant," he said.