204 Floyd Clay Drive, Winchester, KY 40391
Phone: 859.355.9054
Email: jalgire@clarkambition.org
Web: www.clarkambition.org
The Greater Clark Foundation was established with proceeds from the sale of Clark Regional Medical Center, founded in 1917, to LifePoint in 2010. The foundation hired its first President and CEO in 2012 and became fully operational in 2013. The foundation is located in Clark County, a bucolic community that serves as the gateway between the Bluegrass and Appalachian regions of Kentucky. The region served by the foundation is roughly 50,000 people in the western-most counties of Eastern Kentucky (Appalachia). The communities served by the foundation are strongly rooted in agriculture and have a strong base of manufacturing and industry.
Program Information: The north star for the foundation is to impact social determinants of health. After extensive community inquiry, foundation trustees and staff recognized that growing social capital and civic infrastructure was foundational to its ability to impact all other social determinants of health, therefore the foundation currently has a significant and evolving focus on civic engagement.
Significant initiatives include investing in the built environment to support economic development with the redevelopment of the former hospital site into a 30-acre public park; investment in downtown development through historic structure rehabilitation and demonstration projects; community capacity building with a focus on building the capacity of local institutions and individuals; and What’s Your Ambition?!, a community campaign to inspire people to think and act with the future in mind, paired with rapid response mini-grants designed to help community members understand that they have the power to be change agents.
- Financial Information:
Total Assets: $36,736,090 (FY15)
Amount Dedicated to Health-Related Grants: $272,151 (FY15)
- Special Initiatives and/or Representative Health and Human Services Grants
PROJECT 1107 (working title)—Redevelop former hospital site into an iconic public greenspace that will become a living legacy of well-being in the community. ($3.5 million)The Harwood Institute for Public Innovation—Build the community engagement capacity of residents in the greater Clark County, Kentucky region. ($400,000 over three years)
What’s Your Ambition?! Funding to support rapid response mini-grants and annual AmbitionFest! to bring the community together for an annual community engagement event. ($75,000 annually)
Strategic Changes
“One of the keys to economic development is civil society. Our funding strategy is designed to build resiliency of both community residents and institutions. For individuals, resilience is favorably correlated with education and health outcomes. At an institutional or community level, resilience is favorably correlated with economic development, civic engagement, and community problem solving.”
Jen Algire, President and CEO