COMMUNITY FOUNDATION OF HOWARD COUNTY AWARDS GRANTS
Nonprofit organizations awarded more than $38,000 in first half of 2011
July 14, 2011 — The Community Foundation of Howard County has awarded more than $38,000 in competitive grants during the first half of 2011.
"The contributions donors have made allow us to support a variety of organizations and programs," said Joe Dunbar, chairman of the Community Foundation of Howard County Grants Committee. "In order for a community to prosper, access to services should be readily available to consumers. Donors help to create sustainability and the organizations assure that the changing needs of the community are met. We are fortunate to be able to support these services through our competitive grants. We offer our thanks to the donors, committee members and organizations who participate in this process."
The following agencies and programs were awarded grants:
$3,000 to the Disabled American Veterans Chapter 28 to provide support to bring the American Veterans Travelling Tribute (AVTT) to Kokomo from Sept. 28 to Oct. 2. The AVTT includes an 80 percent scale replica of the Vietnam Veterans Wall in Washington, D.C. The AVTT will be on display at 2100 E. Lincoln Road, and all events in conjunction with the display are free and open to the public.
$5,000 to the Family Service Association (FSA) will provide partial support to sustain the organization's Consumer Credit Support (CCS) service for the next six months. CCS provides debt management, budgeting, foreclosure prevention and financial counseling services to people in Howard County who struggle with financial and credit problems. FSA has been providing this service for 15 years at little or no cost to clients. Funding will also be used to obtain accreditation that would allow FSA to secure additional funding.
$3,874 to Gilead House will be used to replace four computers for the office and two computers for use by clients. Clients will use the computers to search for jobs, fill out online applications and take online classes. Grant money will also be used to purchase financial software to help payroll and bookkeeping become more efficient.
$10,000 to the Howard County Veterans Memorial Corporation will provide partial support for the "Family Statue Phase 1" project. Phase 1 of the memorial includes sidewalk construction, landscaping lights and brickwork. The new memorial will be dedicated to the families of veterans and active duty service men and women.
$2,800 to the Kokomo Park Band will support a series of eight free concerts and activities. The funding will help to afford two nationally recognized guest clinicians/conductors, marketing and promotional materials, artistic fees, travel expenses and musical arrangements for these events. Events include a cartoon night, patriotic concert, big band night, international night and legacy night.
$4,435 to the Kokomo Rescue Mission will provide funding to replace 11 interior doors in the headquarters facility and the Open Arms facility that do not have a glass panel. The doors are required in order to meet the standards of preventing sexual abuse and child molestation.
$2,200 to Loving Hands Adult Day Care will help to purchase equipment, display board, training DVDs, wide screen TV with DVD player and display board video screen. The equipment will be used for in-house staff training, client socialization and marketing.
$4,000 to Maple Grove Community Church's New Leaf Mentoring Program provides support to purchase video presentation equipment, online mentor resources, and program equipment for mentor and mentees to use during activities (recreation, fitness, education, service projects and more). New Leaf Mentoring hopes to launch a mentoring match support project to assure the stability of the mentor match. This support includes quality orientation and training, activity support, follow-up, mentor and mentee community building opportunities and planned activities.
$3,000 to the Service Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE) will be used for the organization's 2012 marketing program. The program will include billboards, Yellow Book and Internet advertising. The marketing is to inform the community about the availability of SCORE's free counseling services for entrepreneurs and those in a start-up business.
The Community Foundation of Howard County was formed as a not-for-profit public charity in March 1991. The Foundation seeks to serve donors and make grants to benefit the citizens of Howard County. For more information about the Community Foundation, contact Ron Harper or Hilda Burns at 765-454-7298 or ron@cfhoward.org and hilda@cfhoward.org. The Web site www.cfhoward.org contains information about making gifts to endowment funds, scholarships and grantmaking.
