Charleston, WV- The Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation (TGKVF) Board of Trustees approved the distribution of 36 grants totaling $1,112,140. Funding supports programs such as Daymark’s New Connections Transitional Living Program.
Daymark’s New Connections is a Transitional Living Program for homeless youth and youth aging out of the foster care system in Kanawha County. While living in on-site supervised apartments, residents hold jobs and work on educational goals while saving money and learning to live independently. Program staff are on-site and available 24 hours per day, seven days per week. A New Connections client recently said, “staff are cool here. They care but can be hard on you if they need to be. I graduated, worked, bought a car, and couldn’t have done any of it without New Connections.”
TGKVF awarded 13 responsive grants totaling $394,400 to Arts & Culture, Basic Needs, and Field-of-Interest programs and awarded nine grants totaling $318,565 in the Foundation’s proactive areas of Community Economic Development (CED), Education, and Health. Funding was also awarded for one Special Initiatives-Equity grant and one Nonprofit Capacity Building grant totaling $57,725. In addition, continued generous support from an anonymous donor provided funding for three Dental and nine Emergency Aid grants totaling $346,650.
Cornerstone Family Intervention, Inc. – West Virginia Home Visiting Collaborative Partner Project: $56,000 (Education)
In its fifth year of support from TGKVF, this project will provide the nationally recognized, evidence-based, and free home visiting program, Parents as Teachers (PAT), in Boone, Fayette, Kanawha, Lincoln, and Putnam counties. PAT builds strong communities, thriving families, and children who are healthy, safe, and ready to learn by matching parents and caregivers with trained professionals who make regular personal home visits from prenatal through kindergarten. In addition, the project will allow the sites to continue operating their programs despite state budget cuts by providing funds necessary for home visitor salaries and operation expenses.
STAR Club, Inc. – Remediation to Enhance the Success of the STAR Club Students: $30,000 (Education)
Funding for this project will support hiring an assistant director for after-school mentoring, tutoring, and enrichment program for middle school students serving both Hayes and McKinley Middle Schools in Kanawha County. Until now, the program has been guided by an all-volunteer staff, several of whom have secondary training. Funding will also support increasing technology, library, and remediation resources.
Fayette County Board of Education – Community Focus on Literacy in Early Childhood: $24,865 (Education)
A Place to Grow Children’s Center will continue and expand a collaborative community project to increase the school readiness and third-grade reading proficiency of participants in Fayette County. This will be achieved by strengthening the core curriculum’s implementation, increasing parent knowledge and involvement, and supporting teaching staff and families. In addition, this project will increase and improve intervention strategies for low-performing children and their families. Funding will be for evidence-based professional development for teachers (Teacher-Child-Interaction Training), the continuation of child-led book-making, professional staff (literacy coach and special education specialist), family involvement workshops, and training (language/ literacy and Parent-Child-Interaction-Therapy (PCIT).
Kanawha County Board of Education and the George C. Weimer Elementary School – Wildcats Walk: $15,000 (Health)
George C. Weimer Elementary School in Kanawha County has limited opportunities for affordable physical fitness activities in the Weimer-McKinley school community compared to the opportunities for physical fitness activities in the middle to upper-class areas. Funding will support a well-constructed walking track to catalyze the students and community to develop healthy habits.
SHEILD Task Force Inc. – Child Abuse Prevention Program Development for Schools and Faith Communities: $16,500 (Health)
The Child Abuse Prevention Program Development for Schools and Faith Communities in Boone, Clay, Fayette, Kanawha, Lincoln, and Putnam counties aims to advance faith-based abuse prevention and middle and high school abuse prevention. The program will empower victims and support survivors through targeted volunteer recruitment and a train-the-trainer event.
Cabin Creek Health Systems (CCHS) – CCHS Community Impact Mobile Team: $50,000 (Health)
CCHS provides healthcare to homeless, underhoused, and underserved populations in the Charleston area. The Mobile Team will continue building trust and rapport in the community and, when a patient is ready, transition them to the broader services CCHS and other agencies offer. As a result, community Impact has been able to provide positive experiences to improve perceptions of healthcare.
Town of Fayetteville – Town of Fayetteville-Town Planner: $50,000 (CED)
Project funding will support hiring a town planner to assist with planning for the town’s future, directly impacting Fayette County and surrounding areas. The town is growing rapidly and is seeking guidance to hire an urban planner to help guide the community’s vision toward long-term sustainable growth.
Marshall University – Bridge To Opportunity: $41,200 (CED)
Bridge To Opportunity (BTO) is a pre-apprenticeship program that will introduce high school students from Boone, Clay, Fayette, Kanawha, Lincoln, and Putnam counties to gain various skill sets essential to many manufacturing careers. The one-year program will connect students to a training pathway that will lead to professional opportunities while providing financial aid through scholarships, prepaid food, and transportation cards. BTO will consist of seven cohorts: three welding, three machining, and one additive, with up to ten students, enrolled in each cohort in two to three-week-long boot camps.
Advantage Valley Community Development Corporation – FASTER WV Entrepreneurial Development Loan Fund: $35,000 (CED)
FASTER WV is an entrepreneurial development program that offers business coaching, training, and access to capital for new and expanding businesses in Boone, Clay, Kanawha, Lincoln, and Putnam counties. This grant will provide funding for loans to businesses that have completed coaching and training.
West Virginia University Foundation, Inc. – OLLI at WVU at the Schoenbaum Family Enrichment Center: $10,000 (Field-of-Interest)
The Osher Lifelong Learning Institute at West Virginia University (OLLI at WVU) is seeking funding in support of offering educational programming, volunteer opportunities, and social engagement events for older adults from the Kanawha Valley and surrounding counties at and originating from the Schoenbaum Family Enrichment Center (1701 5th Ave, Ste. 1, Charleston). Funds will be used to pay rent for classroom and office space and purchase camera equipment to support the delivery of hybrid programming, giving OLLI at WVU the ability to offer classes at the Schoenbaum that can be viewed across its network.
Appalachian Community Theatre, Inc. – Promoting the Arts in Boone County: $5,000 (Arts & Culture)
Funding will support Appalachian Community Theatre (ACT) in providing a safe storage area for equipment, meetings, auditions, and rehearsals in Boone County. Funding will also aid in ACT’s rent and supply of materials needed for performances.
River City Youth Ballet Ensemble – Outreach Through the Performing Arts-Dance: $4,900 (Arts & Culture)
This project will assist the River City Youth Ballet Ensemble in offering outreach classes of ballet instruction in Clendenin for economically disadvantaged children. Counties served to include Kanawha and Clay. Funding will support tuition assistance, instructors’ salaries, class space rental fees, promotional materials, and other materials such as stage props and costumes.
West Virginia University Foundation, Inc. – Children’s Vision Rehabilitation Program (CVRP): $ $98,800 (Field-of-Interest)
The project goal is to provide blind and visually impaired school-age children across West Virginia, specifically TGKVF’s six-county region, tools to become independent and employable by optimizing visual function at home and school. CVRP helps to provide access to the visual environment for children with incurable vision loss through medical care, optical devices, assistive technology, educational recommendations, and support to local school systems. Funding of CVRP’s programs supports evaluations, mentoring, low vision/blindness equipment, and programming to address success in higher education and employment.
Covenant House, Inc. – Improving Quality of Life for the Homeless and Low-Income: $30,000 (Basic Needs)
Covenant House seeks to fight hunger, homelessness, and poverty in Kanawha County. Funding will support providing food, hygiene items, socks, underwear, blankets, and support staffing. Covenant House estimates serving over one-third of the homeless population in the Kanawha County area.
Manna Meal, Inc. – So the Hungry Can Eat: $30,000 (Basic Needs)
Manna Meal, a 365-day-a-year feeding facility, is a safety net for the food-insecure population in Charleston and surrounding areas. The need for services has skyrocketed, evidenced by the dramatic increase in meal recipients and requests for emergency pantry bags, alongside a decrease in the number and amount of donations typically received. Funding provided by TGKVF will be used to purchase food to help meet the extraordinary demand for meals and recipients.
American Red Cross – Disaster Cycle Services: $30,000 (Basic Needs Multi-Year)
The American Red Cross responds to disasters meeting each family’s immediate emergency, disaster-caused needs for food, clothing, shelter, medicines, eyeglasses, security deposits, transportation, and health and emotional support. In addition, the American Red Cross works with families to provide much-needed recovery assistance and counseling, helping stabilize families by swiftly returning them to economic self-sufficiency. Funding will be used for specific financial aid to families experiencing a disaster-caused emergency in a six-county area, including Boone, Clay, Fayette, Kanawha, Lincoln, and Putnam counties.
Daymark – Patchwork: $22,500 (Basic Needs Multi-Year)
Patchwork is a shelter for youth ages 12+ and offers crisis support services for the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources. Patchwork’s mission is to provide youth with a safe alternative to abusive, neglectful, or dangerous environments. Patchwork’s free and confidential services are designed to meet immediate emergency needs. The program is never closed, operating 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Patchwork staff also provide information and referral services, identifying needs and linking youth in crisis to services designed to meet longer-term needs. Funding will assist with staff salaries, food, and utilities.
Heart and Hand Outreach Ministries – Heart and Hand Outreach Ministries Basic Needs Programs: $23,000 (Basic Needs Multi-Year)
Heart and Hand programs support low-income residents with basic needs for food, clothing, shelter, and baby care items. The requested funding will be used for utility and rent assistance and to supplement the food pantry to meet food insecurity needs for residents of Kanawha and Putnam counties.
Kanawha Valley Collective, Inc. – Safety Nets and Services for Neighbors: $62,000 (Basic Needs Multi-Year)
The Kanawha Valley Collective is the Local Continuum of Care, the collaborative network of providers working to end homelessness in Boone, Clay, Kanawha, and Putnam counties. TGKVF funding will support our highly qualified and experienced members who are affecting the development of our community’s economy by increasing educational attainment, improving academic proficiency, increasing access to healthcare, increasing employment activity by providing education, decreasing premature mortality by providing shelter and access to health care, and increasing inclusiveness in our community by providing opportunities to our most vulnerable citizens. This project will serve more than 1,000 individuals.
Kanawha Valley Fellowship Home, Inc. – KVFH Transitional Housing: $21,500 (Basic Needs Multi-Year)
The Kanawha Valley Fellowship Home (KNFH) is a safe, secure, sober transitional living home dedicated to assisting men who are serious about their recovery from substance use disorder. The program stresses structure, action, and accountability as a pathway to sobriety and self-sufficiency. TGKVF funding supports KVFH’s safe, sober housing, including utilities, food, toiletries, and laundry supplies, and also assists with transportation costs, clothing, and referral to healthcare and dental services. In addition, counseling provided by a Certified Addictions Counselor gives additional support in the recovery process by addressing the physical, mental, and emotional aspects that affect men, leading to change and improved lives.
YWCA Resolve Family Abuse Program – YWCA Resolve Family Abuse Program Participant Sustainability: $23,000 (Basic Needs Multi-Year)
The Resolve Family Abuse Program Victim and Shelter Services Coordinator assists domestic violence victims by providing basic needs such as food, clothing, and safe and secure shelter. The coordinator also provides case management, referrals to resources, and on-site classes, which empower survivors to become self-sufficient for their future. Funding will aid in supporting the coordinator’s salary and support client expenses such as relocation services and medical care. The targeted populations are victims of domestic violence from Boone, Clay, and Kanawha counties.
YWCA Sojourner’s Shelter for Homeless Women & Families – YWCA Sojourner’s Shelter for Homeless Women and Families: $28,500 (Basic Needs Multi-Year)
With TGKVF’s funding support, YWCA Sojourner’s Shelter for Homeless Women and Families will serve individuals in Boone, Clay, Fayette, Kanawha, Lincoln, and Putnam counties. This includes providing access to needed services 24 hours a day, such as residential and medication monitoring, three nutritious meals and two healthy snacks daily, a safe place of refuge by maintaining a clean and sanitary facility, assistance with transportation, and other support services as needed to allow residents to meet their medical, employment and/or housing needs.
Daymark, Inc. – New Connections Transitional Living Program: $22,000 (Emergency Aid)
Daymark’s New Connections is a Transitional Living Program for homeless youth and youth aging out of the foster care system in Kanawha County. While living in on-site supervised apartments, New Connections residents must have jobs and work on educational goals while saving money and learning to live independently. Program staff is on-site and available to youth 24 hours per day, seven days per week. Funding will support grocery purchases, transportation costs, and apartment expenses such as equipment and insurance.
Libera, Inc. – Libera LovePacks for West Virginia Foster Children: $ 10,000 (Emergency Aid)
This project provides LovePacks to all 7,000 West Virginia foster youth and funding will specifically serve the six-county TGKVF region. LovePacks are reusable drawstring backpacks filled with age-appropriate books on anxiety, depression, grooming, and abuse prevention; videos on body safety, online safety, and human trafficking; journals with prompts; anxiety and depression tools and resources; stress balls; resources with the Crisis Text Line and West Virginia crisis lines; handwritten cards to students, telling them how valuable they are; snacks; and more. LovePacks show students love and give them the support they desperately need.
Mission West Virginia – Carry-On: $30,000 (Emergency Aid) Funding for this project will support Mission West Virginia’s assistance to relative and foster caregivers in covering the necessities for the youth in their care. Examples of items the funding supports include personal toiletries, haircuts, school supplies, and extra-curricular costs such as team fees or lessons. The children served will have increased self-esteem, social skills, and confidence from the ability to fit in with peers due to having age and peer-appropriate grooming, clothing, and activities.
Morgantown Sober Living, Inc. – West Virginia Sober Living (WVSL) Implementation of Supportive Services for Justice Involved Individuals: $36,000 (Emergency Aid)
West Virginia Sober Living will use the funding to improve success in the justice-involved populations through Peer Recovery Support Specialist (PRSS) services to engage people suffering from substance use disorders who are currently in correctional facilities or in the re-entry process. This expansion will serve Boone, Clay, Fayette, Kanawha, Lincoln, and Putnam counties. PRSS will interact with individuals in the community through community outreach and Quick Response Teams to engage them in treatment and serve as a resource for information and referrals.
Religious Coalition for Community Renewal (RCCR), Inc. – Mobile Hygiene Trailer: $24,500 (Emergency Aid)
RCCR’s Mobile Hygiene Trailer features one washer and dryer set with two restrooms and showers. The mobile unit will serve Charleston’s West Side and targeted counties in Boone, Fayette, Kanawha, and Putnam counties, focusing on existing homeless encampments in Kanawha City and Saint Albans. The unit will operate four days a week and is estimated to serve 100 clients with 5,280 showers and 1,600 loads of laundry annually.
Risen Lord Church – Risen Lord Food Pantry, Backpack, and Utilities Assistance Program: $24,500 (Emergency Aid)
The Risen Lord Food Pantry, Backpack, and Utilities Assistance Program alleviates hunger in Clay County. The program fosters the human dignity of all recipients and volunteers, provides hands-on opportunities for neighbors to help neighbors, and improves the health and well-being of Clay County residents in need by providing access to food and related resources. Funding will be used to purchase food from Mountaineer Food Bank, Kroger, and other community resources.
Sissonville Community Food Pantry – Sissonville Food Pantry Vehicle Replacement: $24,500 (Emergency Aid)
Sissonville Community Food Pantry serves the food security needs of the greater Sissonville area of Kanawha County. The pantry provides food boxes to up to 300 families/1,200 individuals and distributes Commodity Supplemental Food Boxes to 70 qualified senior recipients per month. Funding will support the replacement of a dedicated delivery vehicle.
United Way of Southern WV, Inc. – Bridging the Gap: $7,500 (Emergency Aid)
The United Way of Southern WV 211 Hotline connects callers to local resources. In 2021, the United Way received 691 calls for assistance from Fayette County. Unfortunately, partner organizations frequently exhaust monthly budgets or may need more discretionary funding to address specific needs. Funding for this project will provide direct assistance to residents of Fayette County when resources are exhausted, which may prevent utility shutoffs, gaps in prescription coverage, or provide deposits for housing.
YWCA Charleston – Investing in the YWCA Infrastructure and Facilities: $47,650 (Emergency Aid)
The YWCA of Charleston will use the funding to support assistance to individuals moving into permanent or transitional housing, to replace the stairwells and railings inside YWCA Sojourner’s Shelter for Homeless Women and Families, and provide labor and materials to instill a new air conditioning unit for the new YWCA Center for Racial Equity and Inclusion.
Cabin Creek Health Systems – Cabin Creek Smiles!: $50,000 (Dental)
The Cabin Creek Smiles! program provides individuals of all ages with appropriate oral health care designed to improve their quality of life and restore their smiles. This program operates out of the Sissonville and Clendenin health centers and is open to any Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation catchment area resident.
West Virginia Bureau of Senior Services – Senior Smile: $20,000 (Dental)
The Senior Smile project alleviates the dental barriers that low-income seniors face and increases their employability. Medicare and Medicaid offer limited dental coverage. Dental health has a direct correlation with overall health. Funding for this project will support non-cosmetic dental procedures for in-need individuals who live in Boone, Clay, Kanawha, Fayette, Lincoln, and Putnam counties.
Kanawha County Dental Health Council, Inc. – Kanawha County Dental Health Council, Inc.: $50,000 (Dental)
Through a partnership with Kanawha County Schools, this project provides dental services for children of low-income families who do not have a private dentist. School-based dental hygienists educate and screen all children in Kanawha County schools, while a clinical staff of dentists and dental hygienists provide much-needed dental treatment. Providing continuous care for these children is essential to the Council’s mission: no child within Kanawha County will ever go without needed dental services or education.
YWCA Charleston – Building Capacity for Racial Equity and Inclusion in the Community: $30,225 (Special Initiatives-Equity)
Funding will support building local capacity in Boone, Clay, and Kanawha counties through racial equity and inclusion initiatives and providing programming that creates safe spaces where truth-telling, uncomfortable conversations, and healing can happen. These initiatives will raise awareness by utilizing speakers, presenting seminars, and providing anti-racist workshops on topics that introduce equitable and inclusive strategies for professionals at all levels. In addition, the funds received will expand outreach through consciousness-raising events celebrating communities of color in our counties.
West Virginia Community Development Hub – Mobilizing Mini-Grants for BBLI Cohort Development: $27,500 (Special Initiatives-Capacity Building)
Funding will support an additional five mini-grants to emerging nonprofits and projects within TGKVF’s six-county footprint. Twenty $5,000 grants were approved earlier in the year to organizations participating in the Foundation’s capacity-building series, Building Bridges Leadership Institute.
The Greater Kanawha Valley Foundation is grateful to our community of generous donors who make these and other grants possible. The programs and work approved for the third quarter of 2022 are supported by the following funds: General BB&T; General JP Morgan; Anonymous-Dental; Anonymous-Emergency Aid; Senator William E. Chilton, Sr.; General City National Bank; Ellsworth R. and Caroline H. Clark; William O. Clarkson; Helen R. Coffindaffer Revocable Inter Vivos Trust; Columbia Gas; Lenore Cox Compton Memorial; Cox-Morton; F. Waldo Craig; J. Hornor Davis, II; Jane M. and Rugeley P. DeVan, Jr.; James F. Duncan Charitable; Lloyd and Margaret B. Erhard, Jr. Trust; Brent B. Galyean Memorial; Rebecca Dickinson Goldsmith Memorial; George and Patty Herscher; Glenn (Fritz) and Lois Wingett Howard Memorial; General Huntington Banks; Blanch E. Jacobson; Loewstein #2; Stanley Loewstein Memorial; Nathan and Sarah Maslow; Mary Jane Mason Fisher General; McJunkin-Jones Family; Mary S. Moses Memorial; Peyton #1; Nancy Gay Randolph; George and Josephine Rogers; L. Newton and Katherine S. Thomas General; and General United National Bank.
