Austin-Bailey Health and Wellness Foundation
(Canton, OH)
The Austin-Bailey Health and Wellness Foundation approved grants totaling $124,000 to fourteen nonprofit organizations. The foundation supports programs that promote the physical and mental well-being of the people residing in Holmes, Stark, Tuscarawas, and Wayne counties in Ohio.
Those receiving grants include:
- Access Health Stark County—to support community health workers serving the underserved and uninsured. ($25,000)
- Adaptive Sports Program of Ohio—to purchase a basketball wheelchair. ($3,250)
- Christian Children’s Home—for Cottage renovation to enable the home to serve teens. ($4,500)
- Faith in Action—to enable volunteers to make periodic checks on and provide transportation for seniors. ($1,500)
- Hammer & Nails—to provide handicap accessibility and property repairs. ($13,000)
- New Leaf Center—to support hiring of a nurse to coordinate patient assistance programs. ($13,000)
- Ohio Living Home Health—to sponsor Alzheimer’s training for health and human service workers, families, and volunteers. ($4,000)
- OneEighty, Inc.—to purchase a washer, dryer, gas range, and refrigerator for a new women’s residential treatment center. ($10,000)
- Philamatheon Society of the Blind—to purchase glasses for individuals without vision insurance. ($10,000)
- Pregnancy Care Center of Wayne County—to support the Healthy Choices for Teens Program. ($5,000)
- Pregnancy Choices—to assist with a nurse’s salary. ($8,000)
- St. Luke Lutheran Community—to purchase a vital signs monitor. ($3,000)
- Stark County Education Service Center—for a robotic educational program for dealing with autism. ($19,270)
- Chapel Hill Community—to train State Tested Nursing Assistants to become a valuable part of their health team. ($4,500)
In addition to the above grants, Austin-Bailey provides $4,000 scholarships to students at Aultman College, Kent State University Stark, Kent State University Tuscarawas, Malone University, Stark State College, University of Mount Union, Walsh University, and Wayne College. Recipients of those scholarships are all engaged in health-related studies. Ohio University College of Osteopathic Medicine also receives $11,000 for two scholarships.
The foundation has two grant cycles each year, and welcomes grant requests that are health and wellness related. Nonprofit organizations are encouraged to call the foundation office first to discuss their project or program. The deadline for submitting requests for the next grant cycle is June 4, 2019.
Contact: Don Sultzback
Phone: 330.580.2380
BHHS Legacy Foundation
(Phoenix, AZ)
Bullhead City, Arizona recently held a ribbon cutting for the new football field at Rotary Park. The field, which was originally used at the 30th Annual Cheez-It Bowl in Phoenix, Arizona was donated by Fiesta Bowl Charities and BHHS Legacy Foundation.
The donation to the city, valued at about $250,000, was made possible through the cooperative efforts of Fiesta Bowl Charities, BHHS Legacy Foundation, the City of Bullhead City Parks and Recreation, Boys & Girls Clubs of the Colorado River, and other community partners.
Thousands of youth from the surrounding Tri-State communities will utilize the field to participate in various ball leagues and intramural athletic sports. The Tri-State community will benefit from this project for years to come.
Contact: Gerald Wissink
Email: gwissink@bhhslegacy.org
Blue Shield of California Foundation
(San Francisco, CA)
The Blue Shield of California Foundation approved a set of forward-looking grants that will create new possibilities for Californians for years to come.
The foundation is investing $1 million in the BUILD Health Challenge, an innovative funding collaborative, which, over the next 40 months, will use this support to help community partnerships reduce the health disparities caused by systemic and social inequities. These partnerships will explore early opportunities to improve community health by addressing the social determinants of health—like education, safety, housing, and employment—which contribute to 80 percent of a person’s health.
The foundation is supporting a more expansive and just future for Californians, one that promotes positive gender norms as a means of ending gender-based violence. To advance this vision, it, as a founding funding partner, is providing $2.5 million in support to the newly-formed California Gender Justice Funder Collaborative, led by the Women’s Foundation of California. This collaborative will invest in a powerful culture change strategy—using clear narratives within the contexts of race, power, identity, and class—to help all Californians achieve their full potential and lead their healthiest lives.
Research on the life course of domestic violence has found that California’s court-mandated batterer intervention programs, which have remained largely unchanged since the mid-1990s, result in recidivism rates that range from 40 to 80 percent. The foundation is supporting a pilot project by the California State Association of Counties to test alternative programs using evidence-based practices in six counties. These programs will help break the cycle of violence and reduce the state’s domestic violence rate.
Additional funding will support health journalism, the promotion of ideas and dialogue to foster healthy communities, and collaborative ventures to improve the health and wellness of communities, along with the economic mobility of people and the strength of neighborhoods.
Together, these grants help it achieve its bold goal to make California the healthiest state in the nation with the lowest rate domestic violence.
Contact: Christine Maulhardt Vaughan
Phone: 415.229.6145
Email: christinevaughan@blueshieldcafoundation.org
The Boston Foundation
(Boston, MA)
The Boston Foundation approved $2,198,000 in single and multiyear discretionary grants to 22 organizations, and also acknowledged $802,000 in grants paid out between-cycles through other discretionary programs of the foundation.
The two largest grants in the docket include a three-year, $300,000 grant to the Massachusetts Public Health Association for its continued pursuit of policies that eliminate health inequities and improve the health of people across the Commonwealth. The foundation is also continuing its support of organizations and programs helping those with disabilities, making a three-year, $300,000 grant to Community Servings, Inc. to support the Medically Tailored Meal Program for the mobility-impaired and those with chronic illnesses, addressing a critical need by ensuring their clients adequate access to nutrition.
Other health-related grants include:
- Boston University School of Public Health—to support the Activist Lab, which works with local partners to identify public health problems and advocate for change, to convene two community committees that will curate stories that illustrate community health concerns. ($110,000 over two years)
- Center for Science in the Public Interest—to support the establishment of a healthy SNAP workgroup in Massachusetts, where 1 in 10 residents are food insecure. ($70,000)
- Massachusetts Public Health Association, Inc.—to support its strategic planning and to pursue its health equity policy agenda. ($300,000 over three years)
- Project Bread – The Walk for Hunger—to examine the history of food insecurity in Massachusetts, with a particular focus on the impact of race and ethnicity. ($40,000)
Phone: 617.338.1700
Rider-Pool Foundation
(Allentown, PA)
The Rider-Pool Foundation recently awarded $376,000 in funding. This total represents major proactive investments and ongoing support for programs throughout the Lehigh Valley in Pennsylvania with a focus on addressing and improving quality of life for residents through education, housing, culture, arts, and human services.
The foundation awarded six proactive awards in this cycle:
- Kamran Afshar Data Analytics Center at DeSales University—to create a scientific performance measurement model within the Allentown School District which will calculate and compare student performance and relevant cost factors within the district and report findings at the four-year mark of Building 21 Allentown activity. ($25,000)
- Kolbe Academy—to support a new high school for students in recovery from drug and alcohol addiction that will open in August of 2019 with developmental funds for the initiative. ($5,000)
- Meals on Wheels of the Greater Lehigh Valley, Inc.—to support the post-merger strategy of the former Lehigh County and Northampton County affiliates by investing in board and staff development, a needs assessment of current and potential clients, and creation of a mission and vision statement within a new strategic plan. ($45,000)
- Promise Neighborhood of the Lehigh Valley—to support strategic planning and programmatic operations. ($100,000)
- Ripple Community Inc.—to accelerate the development of RCI Village, a community-supported permanent rental housing initiative for very low-income, formerly homeless, and socially disadvantaged residents of Allentown, Pennsylvania. ($105,000)
- Wildlands Conservancy—to support an official name change of the Pool Wildlife Sanctuary to The Dorothy Rider Pool Wildlife Sanctuary by updating all signage, communications, and brand identification of the Sanctuary. ($20,000)
Sixteen awards ranging from $2,500 to $10,000 were also awarded to the Allentown Area Ecumenical Food Bank, Allentown Rescue Mission, Inc., The Bach Choir of Bethlehem, The Baum School of Art, Communities in Schools of the Lehigh Valley, Inc., Community Bike Works, Da Vinci Science Center, Lehigh Conference of Churches, Lehigh County Conservation District, Lehigh Valley Children’s Centers, Inc., Northeast Ministry, Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival, Safe Harbor of Easton, Inc., ShareCare Faith in Action, Stephen’s Place, and YWCA of Bethlehem.
In addition, The Pool Trust and Lehigh Valley Health Network (LVHN) announced they will work together to fund new clinical and community transformative programs that address social determinants of health or community-based patient care barriers. The Pool Trust has awarded $750,000 for these programs to support projects ranging from $5,000 to $25,000.
The Clinical Transformational Excellence Award by The Pool Trust will give financial support to projects that demonstrate potential to transform health care delivery and provide greater value to patients. Selected projects will identify innovative clinical interventions, patient care challenges, and other issues that impact the clinical care of patients. The Community Transformational Excellence Award also will support projects that address the social determinants of health, such as issues related to housing, mental health, food insecurity, and education.
These Transformational Excellence Awards build on previously funded work by The Pool Trust that supports research, development, and innovation in addition to awards funded for early career researchers, seed projects, and pilot programs throughout all staff levels at LVHN.
Phone: 610.770.9346
Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation
(Owings Mills, MD)
The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation announced more than $9 million in new grants in areas covering housing, health, jobs, education, and community service. It awarded health-related grants to the following organizations:
- Boulder Crest Retreat Foundation—to support Warrior PATHH (Progressive and Alternative Training for Healing Heroes), an 18-month group program that cultivates and facilitates post traumatic growth among combat veterans and their families and follow-up support through a technology platform with regular phone and video conference calls. ($200,000 over two years)
- CaringKind—to support education services for Latino caregivers of relatives diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. ($130,000 over two years)
- Code of Support—to support a program that connects struggling military members, veterans, and family members with peer navigators who provide case management services based on their needs. ($150,000 over two years)
- Comunidades Latinas Unidas En Servicio—to support the development of a new Latino Elder Care Center that will enable older adults to age in community through comprehensive supports and services. ($750,000)
- The Institute for the Advancement of Education in Jaffa—to support a comprehensive program serving older adults, primarily Holocaust survivors, with the goal of helping them remain independent and maintain a high quality of life. ($200,000 over two years)
- Mid-Shore Pro Bono—to support the Elder Law Project that provides older adults with comprehensive case management, access to benefits, and legal services. ($80,000)
- Northern Illinois Food Bank—to support upgrades for its transportation network, including truck replacements and new routing software. ($65,000)
- Ronald McDonald House of Scranton—to support the renovation of its facility in order to increase energy efficiency, soundproof suites, and provide more comfortable care for families during their stay. ($200,000)
Phone: 410.654.8500