Healthcare Foundation of La Porte Presents Grant Cycles 1 & 2 at Luncheon

The Healthcare Foundation of La Porte (HFL) introduced the 2018 Grant Cycle 1 & Grant Cycle 2, totaling in a whopping $5,057,075 that has been dispersed throughout the area to fulfill the Foundation’s mission. All grants foster goals specifically directed to empower residents to live healthy and well within the City of La Porte and surrounding areas. On Wednesday, November 14, the Healthcare Foundation hosted a luncheon that invited all grant recipients to the table. Additionally, the Foundation hosted their first ever Non-Profit Leadership Classes. Various non-profit organizations in the area qualified for an award, including United Way of La Porte County, the Pax Center, and La Porte CASA.

“I want to thank the Healthcare Foundation for giving us the support we need to become better as organizations and leaders, and for creating a sense of collaboration,” said Nate Loucks, Pastor at State Street Community Church and President of the Pax Center. “You are helping change and transform communities, and in doing so, La Porte County will get better. A better world is possible.”

Click Here for More Photos

“Today is a wonderful day for La Porte and for the Foundation,” said Jeffrey Bernel, Board Chair for HFL. “There are a lot of moving parts to this. We wouldn’t be here without the workings of Maria Fruth, who is so hardworking and is able to look into the future.”

It is undoubtedly so that many issues affect the health and wellness of residents within this area. However, the HFL is dedicated to supporting a diverse range of health and wellness programs and services for La Porte. All focuses are geared for La Porte to become one of the top 10 healthiest communities in Indiana by 2030.

Grants that were gifted ranging through three different categories including Strategic Grants, Responsive Grants, and Capacity Building Grants. The first Grant Cycle was in June and the second was gifted at the luncheon.

“We hope that the two cycles are helpful to you,” exclaimed Maria Fruth, CEO of HFL.

Strategic Grants focus on Healthy Living, Children, and Minds. These goals circle around a variety of healthy related ideas that correlate with reducing adult/childhood obesity and weight related chronic disease, improving education about tobacco and drug usage, increasing access to treatment for mental health issues and substance abuse, and increasing access to mental healthcare for children.

For the Healthy Children portion, 12 grants were awarded to 9 organizations totaling in $660,067. The funds will provide La Porte Hospital the Slicer Health Clinic located within La Porte High School, Family Advocates, Inc. to advocate for and advise foster youth ages 13-21, the Salvation Army to provide meals to over 400 students within the La Porte School Corporation, and much more.

Healthy Living gifted 24 grants awarded to 14 organizations totaling in $2,963,242 . The funds will provide Bethany Church with a playground renovation and addition, enable the City of La Porte to build Clear Lake Trailhead and Boardwalk, help the City of La Porte Park and Recreation Department to fund a Soldiers Memorial Park renovation, and much more.

Healthy Minds gifted 9 grants to 9 organizations totaling in $1,025,898. These funds will provide Healthy Communities of La Porte County Suicide Prevention Education to parents, educators, students, and others; the La Porte County Public Library with a Community Resource Coordinator to connect community members to critical health resources; the Dunes House with paid rent for 9 men entering long-term recovery program, and so much more.

Responsive Grants covering the goals for a Healthy La Porte focus on expanding successful existing programs that improve residents’ health and wellness, attracting new initiatives to attend health and wellness needs identified, and creating collaborations to better attend these needs.

Such funds will fund the improvements to the Dennis Smith Amphitheater Expansion and the Summer Concert Series for Arts in the Park, the La Porte YMCA with a Volunteer Capacity Building to further develop volunteer capacity to recruit, and much more.

Lastly, Capacity Building Grants focus on Healthy Partners in order to increase the impact of non-profits in the area and strengthening community organizations’ knowledge, infrastructure, management, and governance.

“Thank you for the part that you play,” Fruth said to the room of recipients. “We are here to achieve an exciting ambition of becoming one of the top 10 Healthiest Communities in Indiana. We support the work you do for our community and are holding hands to get to the place we need to be.”

For more information about the Healthcare Foundation of La Porte and their outreach, visit hflaporte.org.