WELBORN
BAPTIST FOUNDATION
DESCRIPTIONS OF GRANTS AWARDED 2001*
*(All Projects Listed
below were granted in 2001
in the name of the Welborn Foundation,
Inc.)
PROMOTION
OF EARLY CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT
Goals: The Welborn Foundation believes that early
childhood development is critical to a child's academic success
as he/she prepares to enter the school environment.
Because school readiness is influenced by many factors,
the foundation encourages programs that invest not only at the
level of the child, but also support the families, schools, and
neighborhoods. The foundation is awarding grants that
address specific goals which have been defined through the key
finding that increasing numbers of children in preschools are
being identified with disabilities. The strategies focus
on enhancing cognitive, emotional and social development of
preschool children, both with quality early childhood education
and the involvement of the parents.
GRANTS AWARDED:
5 Grants
Totaling $499,725
Evansville ARC
Resource Center for Child Life Center
$156,875
Planning and implementation grant - The goals of the
Evansville ARC grant are to ensure that all children with and
without developmental disabilities or delays benefit from the
best practices available in early intervention, special
education and early childhood development, and to develop the
Child Life Center into a model program and community resource.
They will be a special education and early childhood education
consultant to at least 3 other local childcare facilities and
establish a Resource Center at the Central Library. Their
partners in this project are the Evansville Area Community
Coordinated Child Care, Inc. (4C), the Evansville Vanderburgh
Public Library, The Rehabilitation Center, and the USI
Childcare Center.
Joshua Academy
Closing the Gap
$150,000
The "Closing the
Gap" program of the faith-based center-city school is
specifically intended to provide at risk students with the
academic tools they need to eliminate the achievement gap
between themselves and non at risk children. One hundred
fifteen (115) students from pre-school through the 5th grade
attend the year-round school. With its extended daily academic
schedule, the school provides students with 57 additional days
of instruction above the local public elementary schools.
Providing a student to teacher ratio of 10:1, the school
emphasizes student excellence in a nurturing environment that
stresses hard work, patience, and responsible personal choices.
Parental involvement is mandatory.
Oakland City University
Parent Education/Child Care Program
$125,000
This
grant addresses the cause of children's low literacy rates by
preparing parents, current early childhood teachers and future
educators with strategies to assist children to develop their
literacy skills. It promotes the safety and well-being of
children by providing pediatric CPR and first aid training.
The target population is children at risk, which will be
identified through all schools and churches in Gibson and Pike
Counties. Through a systematic approach, parents will
become trained mentors to other parents and be involved in
childhood learning from infancy through high school; teachers
will be better prepared to address the early childhood issue of
literacy; and safety issues of infants and toddlers will be
addressed.
The Rehabilitation Center
Children's Psychiatric Services
$62,850
Children's psychiatric services will be made available at the
center through collaboration with the Southwestern Indiana
Mental Health Center. Service will address the special needs of
children and youth with disabilities. Solving the problem
of unavailable psychiatric services, along with the prescribing
and monitoring of appropriate medication, will truly change the
lives of many disabled children and youth.
Vanderburgh County CASA
Volunteer Child Advocate Development
Program
$5,000
The Volunteer Child Advocate Development Program will
enable CASA to provide specialized volunteer training to
address the needs of the abused/neglected children who are
wards of the local court system. CASA strives to provide
a volunteer advocate for each newborn referred with a diagnosis
of drug exposure, and to furnish volunteer coordination
services to all CASA volunteers working actively on at least
one case.
GENERAL
OPPORTUNITY
The majority of the available funds are
directed to the specific targets; the Foundation did consider
and award grants in the domains of health, social services, and
education which address community needs.
GRANTS AWARDED: 5 Grants
Total $624,000
Southwestern Indiana American Red Cross
New Headquarters Facility
$500,000
The Welborn Foundation provided the lead
gift for the new local American Red Cross building which will
include the Accident, Illness and Disease Prevention Center.
This center will focus on mitigation or prevention and
will be the first model building for mitigation in the
region, and the first Prevention Center in the Red Cross
system. The building project will be located on land
donated by the state on the Evansville State Hospital property.
A community fund raising campaign will be announced to
seek $3.2 million dollars for this project.
Jacob's Village
Feasibility Study Grant
$75,000
Jacob's Village mission is to provide a
comprehensive program of residential, vocational and social
support services to adults who are developmentally and/or
physically disabled in an economically viable, environmentally
friendly atmosphere. This grant will assist the planners
to create a business plan to evaluate financial and fund
raising feasibility of the project.
The Rehabilitation Center
Enhanced Augmentative Communication
Services
$24,000
This grant will enable the Center to
purchase computerized equipment - augmentative communication
devices - that can speak for people who cannot talk
independently. Augmentative communication is a highly
specialized, labor intensive, time consuming field that serves
a relatively small number of people and does not generate
excess revenue. However, for the individuals served, the
value is immeasurable.
Evansville Association for the Blind
Low Vision Outreach Days
$20,000
The purchase of low vision aids/equipment
and the development of "Low Vision Outreach Days" is
the objective of this grant. The program seeks to
increase community awareness about low vision, and will provide
vision screenings for the target population of men and women
age 55 and over. It will be available in 5 counties in
our region.
Ozanam Family Shelter
Family Advocate
$5,000
The shelter which is located at 1100 Read
Street, needs assistance with the funding of a social worker
who serves as a family advocate. Educational classes and
individual and family counseling are the duties of this
individual.
Promotion of Healthy Adolescent
Development
Goals: Adolescence is the time when young people are at highest risk for
engaging in behaviors that can result in poor health outcomes. [According to]
the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, six categories of behavior
are responsible for 70 percent of adolescent mortality and morbidity:
unintentional and intentional injuries, drug and alcohol abuse, sexually
transmitted disease and unintended pregnancies, diseases associated with tobacco
use, illness resulted from inadequate physical activity, and health problems due
to inadequate dietary patterns. The grants awarded address teen pregnancy
prevention, adolescent substance abuse prevention, and healthy life styles for
at risk youth.
GRANTS AWARDED: 5 Grants
Totaling $527,446
YMCA
Youth Achievers Program
$100,000
The Youth Achievers Program is a leadership development program of the YMCA of
the USA. It has proven effective with youth in some of the most deprived
neighborhoods in the country. Locally the program will serve a minimum of 100
students who will be primarily from the inner-city neighborhoods, a population
that is most vulnerable to academic failure, drugs, crime, and other lifestyles
that will condemn them to a life of poverty. The program will promote positive
career choices and preparation, alcohol and drug awareness, positive
self-esteem, teen abstinence, conflict resolution, goal setting and achieving
and good choices/bad choices.
St. Mary's Addiction Services
Juvenile Offenders Treatment Program
$50,000
Research, planning and implementation grant - The successful program,
Strengthening Families Program, will be developed for families of youth, ages
15-18. The developer of the SFP, Dr. Virginia Molgaard of Iowa State
University, will be a consultant, and Youth First, the Vanderburgh Juvenile
Court and Probation Office will be collaborators. The potential national model
will specifically address the substance abuse and/or aberrant behavioral
problems of first time, pre-sentencing offenders and the needs of their
families.
Greater St. James Missionary Baptist Church
Pregnancy Prevention Program
$15,000
Planning and implementation grant - This pregnancy prevention program is a
component of the "Family Initiative". It will serve young people age 12 -18 who
are at risk of unintended pregnancy due to the influence of personal, family or
community risk factors.
Evansville Lutheran School
Sex and Teen Pregnancy Education
$12,446
The purpose of this grant is to provide funding for the "Baby Think It Over"
project. The specific focus is to reduce teen pregnancy by educating students
about the stresses and responsibilities of parenting. This will be accomplished
through hands-on simulation of the demands of infants, accompanied by
educational videos.
Youth First Foundation, Inc.
Substance Abuse Intervention Program
$350,000
Youth First will be able to respond to the requests from local schools, the
juvenile court system and other youth-serving agencies in our service area to
offer new research-based substance abuse prevention/intervention programs for
area youth. The Foundation will contribute $2 for each $1 raised for this
purpose to create an incentive for the community to support this much need
program for our youth. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has declared
substance abuse as the "Nation's Number One Health Problem". Youth First is
eminently positioned to be a key resource for our community's young people and
their families.
IMPOVEMENTS
IN COMMUNITY HEALTH STATUS
Goals: Studies that identify community-level
characteristics associated with the health-related quality of
life (HRQOL) of residents could help guide local health
planning. Key findings demonstrate that the infant
mortality and morbidity rate, although improving, still needs
to be addressed; that the morbidity and mortality rate of
breast and cervical cancer among the African-American
population is higher than average; and access to specialty
health care for children is needed. The grants awarded
address these goals.
GRANTS AWARDED: 4 Grants
Totaling $639,209
University of Southern Indiana School of Nursing and Health Professions
Breast and Cervical Cancer Awareness
Program
$139,500
Planning and implementation grant - The "Breast
and Cervical Cancer Awareness Program" addresses the need
for a comprehensive breast and cervical cancer education and
early detection program for African-American women in
Vanderburgh County. In an excellent collaborative endeavor
between the University and the Greater Evansville Affiliate of
the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, St. Mary's Health
Care Services and the Indiana State Department of Health's
regional Breast and Cervical Cancer Screening Program (BCCP) a
program called the "Witness Project" will be
implemented. Researched and developed by professionals at
the University of Arkansas, its effectiveness has been measured
through grants provided by the American Cancer Society, the
Komen Foundation, Avon Breast Health Access Fund, and the
National Black Leadership Initiative on Cancer. It is
also sponsored by the CDC and the National Cancer Institute.
Evansville Christian Life Center
Pregnancy Resource Center Clinic
$75,000
This grant will enable the Pregnancy
Resource Center Clinic to increase their services to include
women's physical exams, pelvic exams, and screening for
sexually transmitted diseases (STD). It will also
increase awareness and education about good pre-natal care,
fetal development, abstinence, birth control and STD's. The
goal of the PRC is to have women fully informed about how their
choices will affect their lives. This program will
contribute to the Foundation's goal of helping to reduce the
rate of infant morbidity and mortality.
St. John the Apostle Catholic Church
The SOUL Empowerment Nutrition and Exercise
Program
$50,000
Funded originally by the Welborn Baptist
Foundation in 2000. SOUL addresses the health -related
risk factors prevalent in the Evansville ethnic minority
community. By providing services to the Fourth Ward district
residents, SOUL provides access to the only cost-free
preventative health care program which addresses nutrition,
physical activity, reduction of overweight and obesity and
diabetes. The program is under professional direction of a USI
professor who holds a doctorate in exercise physiology. The
grant will permit the continued development of the program.
St. Mary's Foundation
The Children's Health
Group
$442,209
The Children's Health Group will be the
first comprehensive community based pediatric clinic in Indiana
that brings multiple sub specialist services to underserved
areas. Because our region cannot support full time pediatric
sub specialists, pediatricians from Riley Children's Hospital,
St. Vincent's Hospital, and the University of Louisville Health
Science Center will provide the services. The services will
include pulmonology, cardiology, children's allergy and
rheumatology.
PROMOTION OF HEALTHY
LIFESTYLES
Goals: Every year, chronic diseases claim the
lives of more than one and a half million Americans. Much
of the chronic disease burden is preventable. To a
certain degree, the major chronic disease killers,
cardiovascular disease, cancer and diabetes - are a result of
what people do, or what they do not do, as they go about the
business of daily living. The key findings show that our region
is at above average risk for the development of these diseases,
because of prevalent habits of physical inactivity and
unhealthy eating. These habits lead to overweight and obesity,
diabetes, and heart disease and some cancers. The grants
seek to promote healthier habits by targeting prevention and
reduction of smoking, management of chronic disease, and
modification of life style.
GRANTS AWARDED: 6 Grants
Totaling $638,355
Smokefree Indiana
You C.A.N. Quit Smoking
$90,000
The "You C.A.N. Quit Smoking" program will provide free smoking
cessation services for at least 500 members of the general
public, and limited services for individuals for a fee. The
program, based on research by the National Cancer Institute and
currently managed by the Center for Disease Control (CDC), has
demonstrated success for helping people overcome a difficult
addiction.
First Baptist Church
Family Life Center
$68,000
A community-oriented Family Life
Center is being developed in the downtown location of First
Baptist Church. It will provide a safe, supervised environment
where neighborhood children and youth will be able to meet for
sports activities, movies, tutoring and time of fellowship in a
renovated and appropriate facility. Parents will be able to
access parenting and marriage classes, exercise classes, and
family concerts.
University of Southern Indiana
School of Nursing and Health Professions
Worksite Link to Health Program -
Feasibility Study
$65,000
The "Worksite Link to Health
Program" (LINK) will be evaluated to determine if a
promotion of healthy life styles through the worksite is a
concept that local business and industries are interested in
developing. The development of a cost effective worksite
wellness promotion model that can provide future financial
viability for worksite wellness programs and which can
replicated in other area businesses is an expected outcome of
the program. This program has proven to be effective in Dayton,
Ohio.
Henderson County Senior Citizens Center
Fitness Center Equipment
$10,192
This senior citizens center serves over
6,000 clients annually in their exercise facility. Many have
chronic health problems related to heart disease, stroke, and
arthritis. Through their education programs, the center is
addressing healthier life styles, enabling their clients to
reduce required medications, reduce pain, and lower blood
pressure and cholesterol. The grant will assist them with the
purchase of more durable exercise equipment.
ECHO Community Health Care
Diabetic Care Management Center - Planning
and Implementation Grant
$380,143
This grant will develop an outpatient
center of excellence for treatment of diabetes for low-income
individuals. The center will focus on the medical care,
education and self management necessary for the client to
improve the outcome of their disease and to prevent/delay
complications. This will be done by incorporating an
interdisciplinary team approach to provide not only medical
treatment for diabetes but education and the lifestyle
behavioral changes for weight management, cholesterol control
and blood sugar maintenance.
Mission of Grace
Diabetic
Screening Program
$25,000 |
