2022 Grant Recipients
Program: ACT & Mid-Columbia Youth Orchestra Joint Concert
Agency: Academy of Children’s Theatre
Academy of Children’s Theatre and the Mid-Columbia Youth Orchestra provide educational opportunities in the creative environment of theater and musical sphere.
The collaboration of the Joint Concert production of Into the Woods at Southridge High School in March 2023 will celebrate and elevate the musical talents of 50+ symphony students and 50+ theatre students from all across the greater mid-Columbia. Not only will these students present this show to the general public but will also have a field trip opportunity for area elementary students to witness, in a peer-to-peer experience, the artistic talents of the youth in our community.
Program: Reentry Gap Funding Program
Agency: Columbia Basin College Foundation
Columbia Basin College Foundation is dedicated to promoting student success programs through raising funds, building partnerships, and advocating for students and the college.
The CBC Reentry program will serve to support women learning skills to change the course of their lives for themselves and their dependents. The idea is to provide intensive, targeted assistance to a small number of women to help overcome barriers, so their justice status no longer defines them. This program will help women change how they identify from an individual with a criminal history to an educated and employed member of the community.
columbiabasin.edu/foundation
Program: Empowerment Place
Agency: Columbia Industries
Columbia Industries is a mission-based organization committed to supporting and empowering individuals with disabilities and other challenges, in order to help them achieve personal success and community engagement. We champion the development of essential vocational and life skills, meaningful social involvement and access to critical resources.
Empowerment Place is a walk-in resource center where individuals are connected to various support services. Staff either directly provide services or connect individuals to specific resources provided by partner agencies. Services include: access to job boards, resume/job application assistance, Basic Food application, low-income housing search, rent/utility assistance, mental health counseling, transportation, health care, recovery treatment, immediate needs such as food, clothing and toiletries, domestic violence resources and more. We provide vital services to empower clients on their journey to stability and independence.
Program: Transition To Success
Agency: Elijah Family Homes
Elijah Family Homes provides supportive services to those not eligible for public housing because of activities during their time of active addiction. The Transition To Success program assists families currently in the EFH housing program and those on the waiting list. Families have been in recovery from substance abuse addiction for at least one year upon program entry, have children under 18, and do not qualify for public housing. Case management includes home visits, Positive Parenting Program, goal setting, compliance monitoring (drug tests and recovery meeting documentation), EFH community meetings, and family activities.
Program: Experience Partners Program
Agency: Forge Youth Mentoring
FORGE Youth Mentoring is passionate about connecting generations to restore hope in communities and help young people discover their God-given potential. They serve young people aged 7-18 throughout the Tri-Cities area, from all racial/ethnic and socioeconomic backgrounds, targeting those in single parent homes.
The Experience Partners program aims to break the poverty cycle and reduce the opportunity gap for our mentees by encouraging them to explore their possibilities and by providing them the guidance and support to pursue their interests.
FORGE Youth Mentoring plans to develop a network of “Experience Partners” that will share their expertise with FORGE Youth Mentor matches by providing guided activities or tours related to their unique skills, talents, or careers.
Program: Go-Getter Outreach Troops Program
Agency: Girl Scouts of Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho
Girl Scouting builds girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place.
Go-Getter Outreach Troops support mental well-being in girls between 5-18. Half of all mental health conditions begin by age 14, but most go undetected and untreated. Girl Scouts has continued to adjust its structure to flexibly meet girls needs while emphasizing four overlapping areas that are crucial to girls’ success today and tomorrow: supporting their mental and physical well-being, reducing their learning loss, promoting equity and social justice, and developing a workforce with more talented women leaders. Maintaining our focus on our four core “pillars” of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), Outdoors, Life Skills, and Entrepreneurship.
Program: Grace Kitchen Program
Agency: Grace Kitchen
Grace Kitchen is a ministry that exists to empower and employ women out of poverty in the Tri-Cities area, through mentoring, job training, employment, and friendship.
Through the production and sales of gourmet dried food products, women can earn a fair wage as they learn business skillsets that make them more employable. With time we plan to launch a catering business and a barista training program. Upon completion of our training program, women will be able to support themselves and their children.
Many of the women Grace Kitchen serves have been through some type of trauma such as adverse childhood experiences, spousal abuse, rape, prostitution, or death of a child. Others have been previously incarcerated, making transportation and employment a challenge.
Program: Blooming Hearts Children’s Grief Program
Agency: Heartlinks Hospice & Palliative Care
Heartlinks Hospice & Palliative Care enriches the quality of life for individuals and their families in need of comprehensive end-of-life care.
Children grieve differently than adults and need specific care. The Blooming Hearts Children’s Grief program will take that into consideration as we meet those needs. We are touching on tangible resources as well as counseling geared toward youth and their unique needs during a tragic time of mourning.
Program: Tri-Cities School-Based Mental Health Program
Agency: Lutheran Community Services Northwest
Lutheran Community Services Northwest partners with individuals, families, and communities for health, justice, and hope.
The Tri-Cities School-Based Mental Health program collaborates with the Richland School District to provide early intervention and support for students with mild or emerging mental health needs. Services are provided by a Program Supervisor, Mental Health Clinicians, and a Case Manager who collaborate with teachers, parents, and the district’s mental health team to promote healthy social and emotional well-being, teach coping skills, and foster the best possible outcomes for students.
Program: Esther’s Home Therapeutic Services and Life Skills Program
Agency: Mirror Ministries
Mirror Ministries mission is to respond to domestic minor sex trafficking with the love of Christ through local education, intervention, restoration, and aftercare. Our vision is to see local victims of sex trafficking become survivors who have hope, healing, and restoration.
Esther’s Home Therapeutic Services and Life Skills will be the first restoration home for minor victims of sex trafficking in Washington. A place of refuge with consistent loving care from well trained staff in a home environment specific to their trauma. The girls will have onsite counseling and therapeutic activities including equine therapy. They will do online school with trauma informed tutors onsite and have a variety of life skills and enrichment opportunities for fun and growth. They will get to be a kid while preparing to be a healthy adult.
Program: Down Payment/Closing Cost Assistance
Agency: Tri-County Partners Habitat for Humanity
Tri-County Partners Habitat for Humanity focuses on ensuring that all residents of Benton, Franklin, and Walla Walla Counties have the opportunity for a decent and affordable place to live; Habitat for Humanity seeks to put God’s love into action by bringing people together to build homes, communities, and hope.
The Down Payment/Closing Cost Assistance program will help ten future homeowners. During the program, they will be completing sweat equity, saving for closing costs, taking care of their families, and working full-time jobs. This program is not a free pass to homeownership and our families work very hard to achieve homeownership and the peace of mind that comes with it. Habitat aims to make sure that affordable homeownership is accessible for these families. Habitat ensures that their mortgage is no more than 30% of the household’s income.
Program: Adaptive Riding Program
Agency: Therapeutic Riding of Tri-Cities (TROT)
Therapeutic Riding of Tri-Cities (TROT) promotes the physical, psychological, and social well-being through therapeutic horseback riding and equine-oriented activities to people of all ages living with disabilities in the Tri-Cities and throughout the Mid-Columbia.
TROT’s Adaptive Riding program teaches horseback riding skills to people ages 4 and up, with special physical and developmental disabilities. Potential students are evaluated by our certified Instructors of Riders with Disabilities and specially trained therapists to determine appropriate placement in the various level of classes. Utilizing adaptive tack, assistive devices, modified lesson plans and instruction, volunteers and the rhythm and symmetry of the horse’s movement to improve a disabled rider’s posture, balance, coordination, flexibility, verbal communication, muscle control, concentration, memory, and sequential though processing which helps the rider reach their fullest potential.