: A list of grant recipient organizations and amounts is attached.
CLEVELAND, Ohio/August 14, 2009 — The Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland announced eight new grants to expand its work to improve health literacy across the Greater Cleveland area. Significant funding was also invested in continuing efforts to reduce homelessness through permanent supportive housing and the Housing First model the Foundation helped to introduce to northeast Ohio eight years ago.
Launched in 2007, the Foundation’s Health Literacy initiative is part of a broader effort to reduce health disparities. Health literacy refers to a person’s ability to obtain, process and understand basic health information and services. According to Teleangé Thomas, the Foundation’s Program Officer for Health, collaborative programs that incorporate tools of health literacy such adopting plain language for written and verbal communication or building partnerships that intergrate adult literacy and health education are viewed nationally as being critical to improving health access and health status, especially for individuals living in poverty.
In recognition of the importance of health literacy to the development of healthy communities, The Cleveland Foundation has joined with the Sisters of Charity Foundation to act as a co-funder of the Health Literacy initiative.
Current efforts by the Foundation to reduce chronic homelessness through supportive housing are a natural outgrowth of nearly a decade of work to increase affordable housing options in Cuyahoga and Lorain counties. Cleveland’s Housing First collaborative of 17 housing and service providers, foundations and advocates was first convened by the Foundation in partnership with the Cuyahoga County Office of Homeless Services and Enterprise Community Partners in 2001. It seeks to respond to long-term homelessness by creating 1,000 units of supportive housing in our community by 2014.
Nonprofit organizations that support the objectives of health literacy and Housing First — in addition to programs in health advocacy, supportive housing, Catholic health care, and support to the funder-initiated Senior Transportation Connection of Cuyahoga County — were the recipients of the Foundation’s grantmaking through the first half of the year, totaling $762,499.
Each of this year’s Health Literacy grantees had received funding for program planning or demonstration during the Initiative’s first grant cycle in Fourth Quarter 2007. The 2009 grants will fund pilot projects resulting from previous planning or expand existing demonstration projects. Grantee programs include Reading Health by Project: LEARN, providing personal health journals and post visit follow-up and care by an RN for patients at The Free Medical Clinic of Greater Cleveland, and assistance from Environmental Health Watch for low-income families dealing with childhood asthma. The largest grant – $86,513 – was awarded to the Moms First program of the Cleveland Department of Public Health to implement the Baby Basics program into (9) community and (2) clinic provider sites; this includes a component for women who are incarcerated.
Funding to support the Foundation’s Supportive Housing Initiative includes a grant of $75,000 to assist Mental Health Services in continuing to help residents of Housing First projects find and maintain employment. Enterprise Community Partners also received a $75,000 grant to continue growing local supportive housing facilities. South Point Commons, Cleveland’s newest Housing First facility, opened in the Clark-Metro neighborhood last year.
The Sisters of Charity Foundation is also interested in reducing educational disparities in Cuyahoga County, with special emphasis on Cleveland’s Central Neighborhood. The Foundation is a co-funder of a Cleveland Foundation project, MyCom (My Commitment, My Community). A $50,000 grant will assist that program in creating opportunities for youth by building neighborhood capacity and linking various activities such as youth engagement and employment in the Central Neighborhood.
ABOUT THE SISTERS OF CHARITY FOUNDATION OF CLEVELAND
The Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland serves as a grantmaker, collaborator and advocate for those most in need. In 2006, the Sisters of Charity Foundation joined with the Saint Ann Foundation—America’s first “healthcare conversion” foundation—to form a single organization. The combined Foundation has awarded more than $55 million in grants through 2008.
Current funding priorities for the Sisters of Charity Foundation across Cuyahoga County include initiatives to reduce chronic homelessness through permanent supportive housing and address disparities in health by improving health literacy.
The Foundation also works to build awareness of the many contributions of Catholic women religious and to support their vital health and human service ministries. In addition, local efforts responding to basic human needs such as food or clothing are eligible for the annual Good Samaritan grant program.
The Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland was established by the Sisters of Charity Health System in 1996 through sale proceeds involving St. Vincent Charity Hospital, which has been located in Cleveland’s Central Neighborhood for more than 145 years.
The Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine established the Saint Ann Foundation in 1973 with funds from the sale of Saint Ann Hospital which served Cleveland women and children for 100 years.
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Sisters of Charity Foundation of Cleveland
FIRST & SECOND QUARTER 2009 GRANT AWARDS
TOTAL: $762,499
SUPPORTIVE HOUSING $200,000
Coalition on Homelessness & Housing in Ohio (COHIO), Columbus
Building a Unified Voice for Permanent Supportive Housing in Ohio $50,000
Mental Health Services for Homeless Persons, Inc. , Cleveland
Supported Employment in Housing First $75,000
Enterprise Community Partners, Inc., Cleveland
Support for Housing First Initiative’s Funding Collaborative $75,000
HEALTH DISPARITIES $345,788
Health Literacy Initiative $326,788
Cleveland Department of Public Health – MomsFirst, Cleveland
Cleveland Baby Basics Initiative $86,513
Cleveland Department of Public Health, Division of Health -Steps to a Healthier Cleveland, Cleveland
Support for integration of health literacy strategies
Funded by The Cleveland Foundation $30,000
Diabetes Association of Greater Cleveland, Cleveland
Diabetes Health Literacy Initiative $18,750
Environmental Health Watch, Cleveland
Helping Families Manage Asthma-Pilot Project $40,000
The Free Medical Clinic of Greater Cleveland, Cleveland
Patient Advocate Program
Funded by The Cleveland Foundation $46,525
PM Foundation Inc.dba Urban Community School, Cleveland
UCS Health Emissaries-Children Leading the Way $15,000
Project:LEARN, Cleveland
Reading Health $40,000
Rainbow Pediatric Practice Clinic at Rainbow Babies & Children's Hospital of University Hospitals of Cleveland, Cleveland
Rainbow Parent Network Program
Funded by The Cleveland Foundation $50,000
Health Care Policy $19,000
Neighborhood Health Care, Inc. dba Neighborhood Family Practice, Cleveland
We Are the Uninsured Project $19,000
EDUCATION DISPARITIES $50,000
The Cleveland Foundation for MyCom, Cleveland
MyCom (My Commitment to My Neighborhood) Neighborhood Strategy & Implementation $50,000
RELIGIOUS COMMUNITIES $49,211
Sisters of Charity Foundation of South Carolina, Columbia SC
Co-Sponsor of the 2009 Statewide CMI Conference $19,000
Case Western Reserve University/The Center on Urban Poverty & Community Development, Cleveland
Research & Evaluation Services for the Collaboration for Ministry Initiative $30,211
COMMUNITY COLLABORATIONS $75,000
Senior Transportation Connection of Cuyahoga County, Cleveland
Support for county-wide system to provide transportation for low-income seniors $75,000
COMMUNITY EFFORTS $20,000
Foundation Center, Cleveland
Safety Net Services for Nonprofits $10,000
The Mental Health Advocacy Coalition, Cleveland
Operating Support $10,000
CATHOLIC MINISTRIES $22,500
Catholic Community Connection, Cleveland
Abundant Life Program $22,500