Grant cycle opens in April

Empire Health Foundation will open both the 2017 Responsive and Rural Aging Grant cycles on April 3 and close on April 28. The grant programs serve the seven counties of Adams, Ferry, Lincoln, Pend Oreille, Stevens, Spokane and Whitman, including the Kalispel Tribe of Indians, Spokane Tribe of Indians and the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation.

The Responsive Grant cycle is designed to address one-time, emergent needs. Non-profits, churches or government agencies may apply for funds up to $15,000. The Rural Aging Responsive Grant cycle also provides up to $15,000 of funding, but with a focus on one-time projects designed to help adults 60 years or older in rural communities live full, meaningful lives with independence and dignity.

Last year’s awards addressed food and hunger relief, the welfare of seniors, mental health and adverse childhood experiences, just to name a few.

Examples included:

• $10,000 to the Adams County Health Department to fund a walking path project, intended to create a safer, more engaging and interactive community space.

• $1,800 to Friends of Hospice for the Whitman County Music & Memory Outreach Project which will deliver personalized music services to older adults, allowing them to maintain dignity while in a care setting or in their own homes and communities.

• Spokane Guilds’ School & Neuromuscular Center was awarded $11,190 to fund the implementation of an electronic records system to improved services to children with developmental disabilities and delays and maximize its capacity to help additional children, as need increases.

• Curlew Civics Club was awarded $1,700 for a physical fitness class to help seniors stay health

• $15,000 to the Providence North East Washington Hunger Coalition to provide healthy food and resource referrals to low-income seniors who are homebound in the Tri-County area.

• $7,000 was awarded to YMCA of the Inland Northwest for kids during the summer meals outreach program.

• Northport School District got awarded $7,862 to buy kitchen equipment that will allow them to make healthy scratch cooked meals.

• $6,335 was awarded to Pend O’reille Players Association to for a play called Next to Normal to bring awareness to mental illness.

Empire Health Foundation is a private health conversion foundation formed in 2008 through the sale of Deaconess and Valley Medical, a nonprofit hospital system in Spokane. Stewarding philanthropic assets totaling approximately $71 million, the Foundation invests in ideas and organizations that improve health access, education, research and policy to result in a measurably healthier region. Visit http://www.empirehealthfoundation.org for more information.

Contact: Christina Kamkosi, program coordinator, via email at christina@empirehealthfoundation.org or by calling 509-919-3042.