Community Partnership Mini-Grants Awarded

A summer lunch program and outreach for Veterans are among two initiatives that are receiving funding through the Hancock County Community Partnership’s Prevention and Wellness mini-grant program.

A total of $16,000 in funding is being awarded.

Full details are in the following news release from the Hancock County Board of Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services (ADAMHS).

Four Hancock County entities will receive a total of $16,000 in funding through the 2021 Hancock County Community Partnerships Prevention and Wellness mini-grant program, operated in conjunction with the Hancock County Board of Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services.

Receiving $5,000 grants are the Cory-Rawson Local Schools, the Hancock County Veterans Service Office, and LGBTQ+ Spectrum of Findlay. The Family and Children First Council was awarded a $1,000 grant.

Cory-Rawson Local Schools’ grant will help expand the “HORNET STRONG” initiative which began with a previous prevention education grant the school received. The focus of the K-12 Prevention Education initiative is to expand “Social Emotional Learning” curriculum, awareness and the development of SEL through the use of character strengths and building positive school and community culture. The funding will allow for additional in-depth training, staff readiness, student leadership development, as well as expanding its spring community outreach event.

The Hancock County Veterans’ Service Office grant will allow for creation of a Veterans Response Team, which will assist local first responders in de-escalating crisis situations involving local veterans. The majority of funds will go to training and essential equipment needed for the team. The grant will also support the work of the Veterans Wellness Program coordinator, an existing position which is responsible for the evaluation, maintenance and creation of various veterans wellness programs.

LGBTQ+ Spectrum of Findlay will use funding to further develop and advance its allyship building educational program, which aims to build partnerships with individuals, community organizations and local businesses likely to serve the LGBTQ+ community. Through training, participants will increase their awareness of LGBTQ+ terminology and issues, while helping turn Findlay and Hancock County in to a more inclusive community.

The Family and Children First Council’s grant will be applied to expenses related to the city’s summer lunch program, which is open to all youth and adults each year. Last summer the program, which is operated in partnership with the Findlay City Schools, provided 6,120 meals to school-aged children through Glenwood Middle and Lincoln schools. With participation expected to increase this summer due to the pandemic, organizers requested a grant to pay for additional monitors at distribution sites. The monitors help welcome and sign-in participants, assist in serving the meals and with clean-up.

The granting of the awards followed a review of applications that support prevention and wellness initiatives that promote health and safety and/or focus on reducing the likelihood of, or delaying the onset of health-related problems.

County non-profit, faith-based, and community-based organizations that serve Hancock County residents were eligible to submit proposals. This year, consideration was given to previously funded programs to allow continuing development, and to those projects related to the COVID-19 pandemic.

In the past, the annual mini grants have been $5,000 in total, but the Community Partnership opted to fully fund all proposals this cycle due the unique nature of each proposal, and the opportunity to expand its support of prevention with the adult population.

The Hancock County Community Partnership was established in 1990 as a result of receiving a five-year federal Community Partnership grant. The Hancock County Board of Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services served as the fiscal agent for the grant and continued co to fund the efforts of the Community Partnership when the grant ended. Since that time, the Community Partnership has been a charter committee of the ADAMHS Board.