New Grants Program supports partners in behavioral health and housing sectors

Foun­da­tion News

The Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion of Jack­son Hole recent­ly award­ed $1,000,000 in fund­ing to local orga­ni­za­tions through a pilot grant­i­ng pro­gram guid­ed by two of the Foundation’s Ini­tia­tives — Behav­ioral Health and Hous­ing Solu­tions — which are address­ing cross-cut­ting com­mu­ni­ty issues.

“Our goal is for Ini­tia­tives’ grants to spark change spe­cif­ic to the behav­ioral health and hous­ing demands fac­ing our com­mu­ni­ty,” Com­mu­ni­ty Foun­da­tion Pres­i­dent Lau­rie Andrews reflected.

This ini­tial grant­i­ng oppor­tu­ni­ty was opened in the fall to mem­ber orga­ni­za­tions of the Teton Behav­ioral Health Alliance (TBHA), cross-sec­tor hous­ing efforts (non­prof­its, pri­vate-pub­lic part­ner­ships), and hous­ing pro­grams address­ing the needs of com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers who are dis­pro­por­tion­ate­ly affect­ed by the lack of safe and afford­able hous­ing (rental assis­tance, hous­ing stipends, tran­si­tion­al hous­ing opportunities).

The fol­low­ing orga­ni­za­tions were award­ed fund­ing through the Foundation’s Ini­tia­tives’ Grants pilot program:

Behav­ioral Health Awards

Com­mu­ni­ty Safe­ty Network

Gen­der Spectrum

Men­tal Health and Recov­ery Ser­vices of Jack­son Hole

St. John’s Health Foundation

Teton Coun­ty Health Department

Teton Youth and Fam­i­ly Services

“Whether relat­ed to upstream pre­ven­tion, direct ser­vice treat­ment, or inno­v­a­tive cri­sis response, each project aligns with the goal of the behav­ioral health ini­tia­tive by address­ing the gaps and inequities that exist in the behav­ioral health care sys­tem in Teton Coun­ty. Their com­bined efforts will undoubt­ed­ly move the nee­dle to improve com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers’ access to care and resources,” stat­ed Kate Schelbe, Back­bone Leader of the Teton Behav­ioral Health Alliance.

Hous­ing Solu­tions Awards

The Fund for Pub­lic Education

Jack­son Hole Com­mu­ni­ty Hous­ing Trust

Jack­son / Teton Coun­ty Afford­able Housing

One22 Resource Center

Habi­tat for Human­i­ty of the Greater Teton Area

Voic­es JH

“These awards will sup­port hous­ing projects and pro­grams that advance col­lab­o­ra­tive hous­ing­so­lu­tions through inno­v­a­tive pri­vate-pub­lic part­ner­ships; diverse hous­ing sup­port ser­vices, such as rent assis­tance and tar­get­ed out­reach to ensure that tra­di­tion­al­ly mar­gin­al­ized house­holds are reg­is­tered for upcom­ing afford­able hous­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties; and assess­ments of unmet com­mu­ni­ty hous­ing needs includ­ing dis­abil­i­ty-inclu­sive and acces­si­ble hous­ing,” said Wendy Mar­tinez, Direc­tor of Hous­ing Solutions.

To bet­ter under­stand the scope of com­mu­ni­ty needs with­in the behav­ioral health and hous­ing sec­tors, the Foun­da­tion con­duct­ed a pilot of the future grants pro­gram. The Foun­da­tion plans to for­mal­ly intro­duce fund­ing oppor­tu­ni­ties in 2024 for projects in align­ment with the strate­gic direc­tion of the Behav­ioral Health Ini­tia­tive and Hous­ing Solu­tions Initiative.