Announcing New Grants August 2020

Emergency funds for health access, mental health and food security are in addition to $225,000+ in planned program grants issued in August by HCF

Healdsburg, August 25, 2020 – Building on initial emergency COVID-19 funding of $40,000 through its Emergency Healthcare Fund, the Healthcare Foundation of Northern Sonoma County (HCF) today announces an additional $100,000 in unrestricted emergency grants to stabilize critical health and human service providers working with the most vulnerable community members during the COVID-19 pandemic. The target populations for these funds include those most impacted by the pandemic, including the Latinx community and low-income or homeless individuals and families.

The HCF board voted in an emergency session this month to immediately release the funds, which will go to the following nonprofit organizations providing essential safety net services:

HCF Emergency Fund Grants

• $56,000 to Alliance Medical Centers (Healdsburg and Windsor), a key safety net medical provider that treated 12,329 unduplicated patients in 2019, 70% Latinx, and has seen a dramatic loss in revenue and a rise in uninsured patients since COVID-19. Funds will be used to purchase equipment and supplies to offer Rapid Point of Care testing that will provide results within approximately 15 minutes;
• $14,000 to Alexander Valley Healthcare (Cloverdale) another key safety net medical provider that served approximately 4,200 undu​plicated patients in 2019, 40% Latinx, to assist with its new satellite treatment office for COVID-positive patients;
• $10,000 to Windsor Wellness Partnership for its grassroots efforts in connecting food delivery for people in quarantine and others experiencing food insecurity;
• $10,000 to Humanidad for its bilingual/bicultural mental health services, in partnership with Corazón Healdsburg;
• $5,000 to Mi Futuro in support of its COVID-related mental health promotion to Latinx high school students pursuing healthcare careers; and
• $5,000 to Farm to Pantry for rescuing locally-grown food and sharing it with those in need.

“The Emergency Fund is a partnership between the Healthcare Foundation, our generous donors, and the nonprofits on the ground,” HCF Executive Director Kim Bender reports.” We raise funds so that nonprofits can focus on serving the most vulnerable people in our community at this time of unprecedented need.”

HCF Announces Additional Program Grants to the Community

These emergency funds complement additional program grants in the amount of $227,625 HCF is injecting into the community this month for an array of services, including mental health in schools, healthcare practitioner education, and street medicine directed at the local homeless and home insecure population. Current HCF program grants include the following:

Program Grants

• $100,000, in partnership with the John Jordan Foundation, in support of the Team Success counseling program at local high schools; $40,000 to Healdsburg Unified School District, $45,000 to Windsor Unified School District, and $15,000 to SOS Counseling Services;
• $62,125 for Reach for Home’s Street Medicine program, which brings medical care and mental health stabilization services directly to homeless individuals who might otherwise go years without seeing a provider;
• $55,500 to participants in the Mental Health Talent Pipeline program for scholarships, stipends and signing bonuses to local bilingual/bicultural Latinx mental health students and professionals; and
• $10,000 to the Hanna Institute to build and nurture the network of 450 mental health professionals who, supported by the Healthcare Foundation, received Skills for Psychological Recovery (SPR) training as part of the Wildfire Mental Health Collaborative after the 2017 wildfires.

“These partners are doing vital work in two of our focus areas: mental health and healthcare access,” said HCF Executive Director Kim Bender. “Funding for the Team Success program is in the third year of a three-year, $300,000 joint effort with the John Jordan Foundation to support ongoing mental health counseling services to local high school students. SOS Community Counseling, the Team Success service provider, continues to deliver these vital services to students via video and telephone conferencing.”

Click here to donate to the Emergency Healthcare Fund.

About Healthcare Foundation Northern Sonoma County

The Healthcare Foundation Northern Sonoma County is the only funder exclusively focused on health in the northern region of Sonoma County. It is the leading proponent for creating healthier communities and relies on donor contributions to fund its work. The Healthcare Foundation has three focus areas for its grantmaking: health access, mental health and early childhood development. Founded in 2001, the Healthcare Foundation has invested more than $26 million to build a healthier region for all who live, work and play here.

For more information, visit healthcarefoundation.net.

Media Contact: Kim Bender
707-473-0583
info@healthcarefoundation.net