Below are recent grants made to Health and Human Services organizations through the Foundation’s Competitve Grants program. To find local Health and Human Services organizations, view our Nonprofit Directory.
Children’s Learning Center (CLC)
Data Entry Manager
$10,000
In addition to serving an increasing number of children with special needs, CLC is now required to complete even more documentation on each child. This added administrative work is taking therapists away from children who require special supervision and care. A Community Foundation will help fund a part-time data manager whose responsibilities consist solely of documentation and data compilation in CLC’s new, more sophisticated automated system, allowing trained therapists, teachers, and social workers to devote more time to the children who need and benefit from their expertise.
Children’s Learning Center (CLC)
Scholarship Fund
$10,000
CLC continues to offer the least expensive childcare in Teton County outside of home care providers. Still, the cost of providing quality childcare is substantially higher than most parents can afford, especially when many are now experiencing wage and hours cuts and working at lower paying jobs. With this grant, the Community Foundation will provide funding for scholarships for families who would otherwise be unable to afford CLC’s excellent childcare.
Curran-Seeley Foundation
Emergency Operating Funds
$10,000
As the only local state-funded Substance Abuse Treatment Agency, Curran-Seeley Foundation is required to provide services regardless of ability to pay. In the past two years, Curran-Seeley has faced significant cuts in funding from all revenue sources. Despite eliminating entire staff positions, reducing remaining staff hours, and cutting programs and expenses, the organization is facing a severe budget shortfall. Community Foundation grant funding will be used to pay for program and administrative costs until the next fiscal year when state and county contracts will be renegotiated and renewed.
El Puente
Program Support and Latino Community Mobilization Project
$20,000
El Puente offers medical interpretation services in Teton County at no cost to providers or patients. Currently, approximately 2,400 people in Teton County do not speak enough English to communicate with their doctors leading to an urgent need for a “linguistic bridge” to enable the health care system to function smoothly. Due to increased demand, El Puente must increase staff and recruit and train additional interpreters. Half of the funds from this grant will be used to underwrite interpreters’ salaries for core program activities, and half will be used to support a Volunteer Coordinator position to mobilize community participation.
Habitat for Humanity
5-2-5 Hall, A Helping Hand
$20,000
Habitat for Humanity of the Greater Teton Area partners with low-income families to build simple, decent and healthy homes that they can afford to purchase and maintain, creating stability for families and strengthening our community by giving residents a stake in the welfare of their neighborhood or town. In order to maximize volunteers at the 5-2-5 Hall Street site, additional construction management staff is needed. Grant money from the Community Foundation will be used to hire two full-time House Leaders to work under Habitat’s Construction Manager, enabling the organization to accept an additional 40 volunteers per site.
Jackson Hole Community Counseling Center (JHCCC)
Access to Services and Staffing Support
$45,000
Recently, JHCCC has experienced an unprecedented demand for services. Additionally, Fiscal Year 2010 saw reductions in funding from previously stable sources, despite a 22% increase in enrolled clients. The impact of this combination has challenged JHCCC to do more with less; however, it is apparent that additional staff is needed to provide critical counseling and timely access to care. A Community Foundation grant will fund the salary of a Master’s Degree therapist for the year, allowing the Counseling Center to serve an additional 50 to 75 clients this year.
St. John’s Medical Center Foundation
Audio Verbal Therapist Training
$2,500
With the development of the Pediatric Audiology Project at St. John’s Hospital, access to care for children with hearing loss has vastly improved. However, there are no auditory verbal therapists in the Jackson area who can provide the necessary therapy for children with hearing loss, enabling them to develop their listening and spoken language skills and to learn to use hearing to develop their speech and language. Grant funds will be used to train speech pathologists to become auditory verbal therapists who will be able to meet the needs of these children.
St. John’s Medical Center Foundation
Simulated Infant for Improved Baby Skills
$1,682
Currently, nurses in the Obstetrics Department at St. John’s must train for real-life emergency scenarios on live infants, limiting what they are able to do and often leaving them inexperienced in critical clinical situations. This Community Foundation grant will fund the purchase of the Pedie Premie Simulator, a simulated infant equipped with a monitor to observe ventilations and compressions. This valuable teaching tool will not only allow for instruction in and practice of invasive procedures such as intubation and intravenous drug administration, but it will also serve as a way for nurses to observe and recognize medical conditions.
St. John’s Medical Center Foundation
Pre-Natal Entry Program for Low-Income Women
$16,500
Prior to the creation of the Pre-Natal Program for Low-Income Women – a collaboration between St. John’s Foundation, Teton county obstetricians, El Puente, Teton County Public Health and the Community Foundation’s Economic Response Initiative – many uninsured women were arriving at the emergency room either in labor or late in their third trimester having received no pre-natal care. The program, which subsidizes the $750 entry fee mandated by Wyoming Medicaid for uninsured pre-natal care, has been highly successful, and since the program began, there have been no births at St. Johns involving patients that have received no pre-natal care. To date, 70 participants have been enrolled in the program, and this grant funding will provide access for an additional 58 between June 2011 and March 2012.
Teton Youth and Family Services (TYFS)
Group Home and Crisis Shelter Operations
$30,000
The Van Vleck House Group Home and Crisis Shelter provides a safe, supervised environment for youth who are abused, neglected or having other problems living at home. The focus of the program is to keep the child close to home, so that they can return to their families successfully after resolving their issues and/or completing the program. This year, due to an unanticipated drop in numbers at the Van Vleck Group Home, TYFS has depleted their savings. By statute, the Group Home must always be prepared to operate at full capacity; a certain staff to child ratio must be maintained, so staff cannot be laid off in response to economic downturns. This grant will provide funds to continue operating, keeping children out of the legal system and sending them home to their families upon completion of the program.
