Grant
Stories 2006
The Community Foundation of West Alabama
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West
Alabama has numerous non-profit organizations working tirelessly to
meet the cultural, educational, social, health, and welfare needs of
its citizens.
Twice a year the Community Foundation of West Alabama distributes
grants to various organizations in West Alabama from the Anna Brown
Education, Health and Welfare Fund. Anna Brown was a much
beloved teacher who taught in the city school system for forty
years. In March 2006, grants totaling $18,200
were given through the Anna Brown Fund to Baby TALK of Pickens
County, Easter Seals of West Alabama, A Woman’s Place Foundation,
Impact, the Indigent Care Fund of DCH Foundation, Big Brothers/Big
Sisters of West Alabama, Tuscaloosa Children’s Center, Hospice of
West Alabama, and Kid One Transport System.
Education grants recipients were also selected in March 2006 and
have been awarded to support projects at Fayette Elementary School,
Westside Elementary School, Demopolis High School, Tuscaloosa Middle
School, Northridge High School, Hillcrest High School and Project
B.E.T.H.E.L. These education grants, totaling $4994.76, will
support a wide range of art, math, reading, science, and
horticulture projects.
Please see below for details of these worthy projects and
pictures of check presentations.
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Pictured:
Buddy Burton, Chairman, presenting a check to David E. Gay, Jr.,
Executive Director of Big Brothers Big Sisters.
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Big Brothers Big Sisters
is a non-profit organization which serves many children in the West
Alabama community by placing them in a professionally supported
one-to-one relationship with mentors. These mentors spend time
with the boys and girls to encourage them to believe in themselves
and their dreams. These relationships also help them grow in
their understanding of themselves and the world around them.
Volunteers are at least 18 years old and are willing to spend at
least one hour a week with their Little Brothers or Sisters.
Volunteers are thoroughly screened and must pass a criminal
background check and a child abuse/neglect clearance from the
Department of Human Resources. The children who participate in
the program range from six years old to fourteen and are generally
referred to the program by parents, teacher or school counselors.
The impact of the Big Brothers Big Sisters program on the
children involved is significant. Recent studies have shown
that Little Brothers and Little Sisters are much less likely to
begin using illegal drugs or alcohol, less likely to skip school,
more confident in their own performance at school and are able to
better get along with their own families.
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| Pictured:
Charles Storey, Board member of the Community Foundation of West
Alabama, presenting a check to Tommy Woods, Executive Director of
Project B.E.T.H.E.L., and Maxine Abrams, Director of Project
B.E.T.H.E.L |
Project B.E.T.H.E.L., operating since 1998, is a community-based
program designed to provide educational opportunities for students
between the ages of eleven and fifteen who would not otherwise be in
class. Coordinated with both the Tuscaloosa City and County
school systems, Project B.E.T.H.E.L. is a successful drop-out
prevention program aimed at helping students who have been expelled
from their schools. Most of these students, once expelled,
have very limited options and might otherwise miss weeks to months
of education or drop out of school completely.
Project B.E.T.H.E.L., housed in Bethel Baptist, provides these
students with both academic and behavior management classes.
Teachers and administrators in the program, many of whom have
retired from long careers in the public school system, view the goal
of the program as encouraging students to finish high school.
Ideally these students will go on to earn a college degree or to be
successfully employed. With a safe and supportive atmosphere,
in addition to a one-to-four teacher to student ratio, Project
B.E.T.H.E.L. has served over 200 students, many of whom have
ultimately earned their high school diploma or G.E.D. and some
of whom have gone on to college. |
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| Pictured: Julie Sittason, Executive
Director of Hospice of West Alabama, holds the grant check from
Community Foundation of West Alabama and stands outside of Allison’s
House with Craig Threlkeld, Public Relations Coordinator of Hospice
of West Alabama |
The Community Foundation of
West Alabama recently announced that a $3,700.00 grant has been
awarded to Hospice of West Alabama to be used toward supporting the
completion of Allison’s House, a grief center that will open in the
summer of 2006.
Allison’s House is located on the campus of the Veteran’s
Hospital in a beautiful old home that previously served as a
residence for the VA Hospital’s Medical Director. Allison’s
House, named for Miss Allison Harbin, the 16 year-old daughter of
Karl and Mary Jane Harbin who died in an automobile accident in
2001, will serve as a specialized center that will expand Hospice of
West Alabama’s grief support services. The new facility will
host a variety of activities, including group and individual
counseling for adults and children. The house will also be
used on occasion for overnight accommodations for families of
patients who are receiving care in Hospice of West Alabama’s
inpatient facility, which is also located on the VA grounds.
The house is being completed with the help of the Tuscaloosa
Homebuilders Association as well as other groups and individuals.
The grant from the Community Foundation of West Alabama will be used
to assist in providing electronics and communications equipment for
Allison’s House.
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Pictured: Laura Gregory McKane,
Board member of the Community Foundation of West Alabama and
chairman of the Grants Committee (on right), presents a check to
Co-Presidents of A Woman’s Place Foundation, Inc., Rosemary
Childress (middle) and Catherine “Sister” Wright (left). |
The Community Foundation of
West Alabama recently announced that a $500.00 grant has been
awarded to A Woman’s Place Foundation, Inc. of Tuscaloosa to be used
in helping with the renovation of homes for the program.
A Woman’s Place Foundation, Inc. is a residential treatment
program for women over the age of nineteen who have substance abuse
problems. While involved in the program, women participate in
intensive treatment groups on a daily basis as well as in other
therapeutic activities. Treatment is a comprehensive effort
that includes education classes, good nutrition, parenting classes,
and exercise along with therapy. The residential setting
provides structure and close monitoring so that women can achieve
their goals and help begin the important recovery process.
Quality treatment such as this offered at A Woman’s Place Foundation
is highly sought after and the organization is working on increasing
its available number of beds from fifteen to thirty. The
planned renovation of two houses on the facility’s grounds will also
add a kitchen, dining room and meeting room. A number of
individuals and organizations have donated their time and resources
to help renovate these houses. The Community Foundation of
West Alabama grant will be used to help supply building materials
for these efforts. |
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Pictured: Bill Walker,
Treasurer of the Community Foundation of West Alabama, presents the
grant check to Tracy Smith, CEO/President of Kid One at their
headquarters in Birmingham. |
The Community Foundation of
West Alabama recently announced that a $3000.00 grant has been
awarded to Kid One to help with the costs involved in providing
transportation for children and expectant mothers to medical
appointments in Hale, Bibb and Pickens counties.
Kid One Transport was founded in Hoover, Alabama in 1997 by a
volunteer fireman who saw a need for reliable transportation to
medical appointments for children and expectant mothers. With
25% of Alabama families living at or below the poverty level, and
many people living in very rural areas, a significant portion of
Alabama’s families have difficulty in finding ways to reach
healthcare facilities. Public transportation is often
non-existent or too cost prohibitive for many Alabama citizens.
Kid One is a non-profit organization that offers safe, door-to-door,
round-trip transportation to children and expectant mothers to
non-emergency medical, dental, vision, prenatal and mental health
appointments at no cost to the families they serve.
To date, Kid One has provided more than 100,000 rides in 38
counties statewide. Kid One President, Tracy Smith, has been
able to witness the many benefits of getting people to the doctor.
She feels that not only does it result in immediate health
advantages, but it also offers long-term benefits. Families
who have available transportation are more likely to seek routine
health care which can lead to the early detection and prevention of
illnesses that can become life-threatening or life-impeding.
Mothers who receive prenatal care are less likely to have babies
with health problems or low-birth weight. Children who see
doctors on a regular basis generally perform better in school due to
fewer absences and less health issues which can hinder learning.
The Community Foundation of West Alabama grant will help supplement
the cost of transportation in Bibb, Pickens and Hale counties where
more than 7000 children and expectant mothers live in homes with
limited or no transportation. For more information on Kid One,
visit www.kidone.org. |
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Pictured: Jody
Blackburn, member of the Board of Directors of Community Foundation
of West Alabama, presents a check to Stephen Black, President and
Founder of Impact. |
The
Community Foundation of West Alabama recently announced that a
$5000.00 grant has been awarded to Impact: An Alabama Student
Service Initiative to be used for FocusFirst vision screenings in
school children in nine West Alabama counties.
Impact is Alabama’s first non-profit organization dedicated to
developing and implementing service-learning projects in
coordination with select universities and junior colleges throughout
the state. Stephen Black, the President and founder of Impact,
recognizes that individuals need to be educated for citizenship and
that young people in particular are a great resource in working
toward positive change. Part of the vision of Impact is to
help young citizens understand, appreciate and engage actively in
civic and public life. Individuals are encouraged to devote
time and talents toward meeting local and state needs, to work to
affect public policy, to vote and to generally pursue the common
good.
In an effort to fulfill its vision, Impact has developed three
“signature initiatives,” one of which is FocusFirst.
FocusFirst has a mission to provide cost-effective direct response
to the vision problems of underprivileged children living in urban
and rural poverty within Alabama. Undergraduate and graduate
students have been trained to help screen for vision problems in
children ages six months to four years. Volunteers from the
University of Alabama and the University of West Alabama alone,
through their work with Impact, screened 672 children between August
2005 and March 2006. This is critically important in the state
of Alabama since only an estimated 21% of preschool children receive
proper vision screenings. Of the thousands of children who
have been screened since 2004, up to 15% have been found to have an
eye disease or disorder that requires follow-up care. Free
follow-up care is provided to all of these children through the
Children’s Eye Care Network, run by Sight Savers of Alabama.
The goal of Impact for the 2006 school year is to screen 8000
children for eye diseases and disorders. The grant from the
Community Foundation of West Alabama, as well as donations from
other individuals and organizations, will help Impact work toward
this worthy goal
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