Welborn Baptist Foundation, Inc. Announces 2011 Grant Awards
Evansville, Indiana - Welborn Baptist Foundation, Inc. www.welbornfdn.org has awarded a total of seventy-two (72) grants to Tri-State not-for-profit organizations, totaling approximately $3.6 million for programs within the Foundation’s target areas of Promotion of Early Childhood Development, Promotion of Healthy Youth Development, HEROES Coordinated School Health Programs, Faith-Based Initiatives, Improvements to Community Health Status and General Opportunity. Since the Foundation’s first grant cycle in 2000, it has overseen the distribution of more than $37.4 million dollars through approximately 750 grants to 255 different organizations in the fourteen county area that comprises its service area.
“This is the culmination of a very competitive process that began in March of this year. We believe these grants represent the very best in efforts to improve the health and well-being of infants, children and adults in our community”, said Foundation Board Chairman Ron Romain.
Funds for 2011 are distributed as follows:
TARGET AMOUNT
Promotion of Early Childhood Development $313,000
Promotion of Healthy Youth Development 986,500
HEROES (Coordinated School Health Programs) 446,342
Faith Based Initiatives 408,500
Improvements to Community Health Status/movelment 584,176
General Opportunity 762,200
Designated Grants 110,000
Total 2011 Welborn Baptist Foundation Funding $3,610,718
“The grants awarded represent an increasingly diversified mix of geographies, age groups and areas of focus”, said Kevin R. Bain, Welborn Baptist Foundation Executive Director and CEO. “ In all cases, our aim is to identify and address root causes, to increase the probability of lasting change in our community.”
Included in the funds granted are resources for the movelment initiative, which has the mission of improving overall community health status through the development of a supportive social and physical environment that promotes healthy eating and physical activity.
The Foundation designated the Donald B. Cox Memorial Grant of $10,000 to Impact Christian Health Center for its Posey County health services program. The award is named for Mr. Donald B. Cox, a former Foundation Chairman, who died in 2005.
The Foundation also designated the Marjorie Z. Soyugenc Award of $100,000 to Community Coordinated Child Care (4C) of Southern Indiana for its Family Friend and Neighbor (FFN) initiative. The initiative is a pilot project to provide resources and education to non-licensed home and relative child care providers. The purpose is to promote school readiness by improving the quality of child care provided in these settings. This award is a tribute to Mrs. Marjorie Z. Soyugenc, who served as the Foundation’s first CEO until her retirement at the end of 2008.
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Welborn Baptist Foundation is the not-for-profit, private foundation created in 1999 from the sale of Welborn Baptist Hospital to St. Mary’s Medical Center and from additional assets of the hospital. The Foundation provides grants to not-for profit organizations that significantly contribute to community health in a fourteen county area of Southeastern Illinois, Southwestern Indiana and Western Kentucky.
To view a list of Foundation-supported projects, please click here.