[HUDSON, June 25, 2024] – St. Croix Valley Foundation (SCVF) and its ten community affiliate foundations have awarded over $166,000 in Vibrant Communities Mental Health Grants to nonprofit organizations throughout the St. Croix Valley. The 27 grant recipients serve communities throughout SCVF’s service area, which includes Washington and Chisago Counties in Minnesota, and Polk, Burnett, St. Croix and Pierce Counties in Wisconsin.
SCVF also invited additional partners to collaborate on this regional grant program. This year, The Horst Rechelbacher Foundation contributed, as did several donor advised fund holders at SCVF. Through partnerships like these, Vibrant Communities Mental Health Grants have even greater impact throughout the region.
SCVF’s Vibrant Communities Mental Health Grants are the result of a competitive grant program, designed to support organizations responding to the mental health needs within their communities. Although each community experiences mental health challenges differently, mental illness is common. According to the National Alliance on Mental Health (NAMI), 1 in 5 adults experience mental illness each year; and 1 in 6 youth ages 6-17 experience a mental health disorder each year.
“Vibrant Communities Mental Health Grants were born from the desire to address something all too common in our region and beyond; nearly all of us know someone who is personally affected by mental illness,” said Angie Pilgrim, VP of Community Impact at SCVF. “Five years ago, SCVF gathered with our ten affiliates to gauge the needs in our communities. Though needs like childcare, transportation, and affordable housing are consistently on radar, we identified mental health as a priority that we felt we could address collaboratively and effectively.”
Regionally, mental health has been identified as a major priority by hospitals and health care systems through their Community Health Assessments – measures heavily weighed when the grant program was developed.
Now in its fourth year, the Vibrant Communities Mental Health Grant program has awarded more than $605,000 to support organizations that provide mental health services and programming (from prevention to intervention) to community members.
"There were already so many nonprofits in our area doing such important work to support mental health,” said Pilgrim. “We felt we could come alongside and help make their work even more impactful with some additional funding and the flexibility to use grant dollars in the ways that they deem most important.”
That flexible design is possible thanks to an endowed fund SCVF created several years ago, investing donations from community members to address community needs and opportunities as they emerge.
“None of us can predict the needs of tomorrow,” said SCVF President and CEO Heather Logelin. “There could be flooding or natural disasters or – as we’ve seen in recent years – an opioid epidemic. In fact, when we finished the campaign to raise these flexible, endowed funds, we had a very real and pressing example in COVID-19 of how and why communities need flexible and responsive funds like these.”
As a collaborative grant program, all ten SCVF affiliates representing more than 100 volunteers reviewed grant applications, selecting organizations and programs for their impact and ability to serve their communities.
“What excites me most about the Vibrant Communities Mental Health grant program is that it truly is a collaborative effort,” said Pilgrim. “Our affiliate volunteers are deeply involved in their communities and passionate about engaging in a local response. This region-wide grant program efficiently gets funding where it’s needed most – and this region’s community foundation works across traditional boundaries to help build vibrant communities.”
See the full list of recipients below:
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