TNC Community was recently awarded a $35,000 grant from the Louetta M. Cowden Foundation their Pandemic Health Supports for People with Developmental Disabilities project. The project will increase access to health care services for individuals with I/DD through our director of health services and health team. This team includes two community nurses, two health service coordinators, and one pharmacy tech.  The team will ensure clients have the consistent, high-quality, specialized care they need to continue to thrive during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted a possible alternative care solution in the use of telehealth visits with health care providers, which will free up the team’s time to focus on addressing preventative care of our clients.

Children’s Center for the Visually Impaired (CCVI) recently received a grant for $127,000 from the North American Savings Bank (NASB) to support technology upgrades and infrastructure supports. Funding from NASB pays for contract IT support services to project manage the day-to-day needs of CCVI and support services, help desk services, software subscriptions to for integrated scheduling and billing, laptops for teaching assistants, hotspots, and training for staff. 

Green Hills Area Education Agency (GHAEA) was recently awarded a $500,000 grant from U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) School Violence Prevention Program (SVPP) to contract with Rachel’s Challenge (RC) to provide a research-based framework for training school personnel and students on preventing student violence, including anti-bullying training. The three-year program will involve 41 school districts serving elementary through high school students in 131 schools.

Labette County School District 506 (USD 506) recently received a grant for $501,956 from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Distance Learning and Telemedicine (DTL) to implement specific technology upgrades which will allow USD 506 to address the economic, geographic, educational, and health services issues that Labette County students and their families face. The technology will improve connectivity and ensure students can receive both the academic and mental health support they need. The technology USD 506 Labette County upgrades will also facilitate professional development, continuing education, and collaboration among USD 506 educators, further improving the overall quality of education and student outcomes.

Green Hills Area Education Agency (GHAEA) recently received a grant for $669,453 from the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) School Violence Prevention Program (SVPP) will deliver evidence-based training and technical assistance helping schools implement threat assessment teams (TATs) and high-quality plans to improve school safety, in partnership with school districts, sheriff’s offices, and police departments in southwestern Iowa.

The United Methodist Health Ministry Fund (UMHMF) recently received a grant for $999,058 from the Lilly Endowment to support the expansion of the Healthy Congregations Program through increased use of the Good Neighbor Experiment (GNE) program. Funding from the Lilly Endowment will be used to expand the existing program, enhance and research the impact on communities, and develop a network of facilitators. Expansion will include serving 60 new Methodist and non-Methodist congregations over the next five years. Enhancement and research will include new education, technical assistance, and assessments with the Wichita State University School of Social Work. The university will conduct formal academic research on the impact of neighbor-to-neighbor relationships on congregations and communities of various sizes and geographic settings. A network of facilitators will be trained to support churches through day-long retreats and ongoing technical assistance to help them plan and implement community-based projects that use the collective assets to address community social needs.

The YMCA of Greater Kansas City was recently awarded a $2,102,020 grant from the Hall Family Foundation for direct operating support of the Linwood YMCA/James B. Nutter, Sr., Community Center (Linwood Y). This support will ensure the viability of our positive youth development programs, which are critical community resources. This partnership will also help to bridge the gap in revenues until the programs can be underwritten by sustaining revenue from the YMCA’s new downtown facility, opening in late 2020.

The YMCA of Greater Kansas City recently received a grant for $100,000 from the Health Forward Foundation, Healthy Communities to ensure that the healthy living strategies planned and implemented at the downtown Y, many of which will be scalable across the association, are inclusive and accessible to employees and residents who are low-income, underinsured, or uninsured.