Nonprofit gives grant for health, education
Posted on Saturday, March 25, 2006
SPRINGDALE — The Community Care Foundation is providing $ 1. 6 million to benefit education and health initiatives in Washington and Benton counties.
The grant includes $ 378, 500 to support programs in area schools and colleges; another $ 615, 000 for nutrition, fitness and prenatal health initiatives; and $ 620, 000 for the Jones Center for Families and the Community Clinic at St. Francis House.
“Our board feels that these grants represent a long-term investment in the future of our community,” said foundation Chairman Randy Lawson, in a written statement. “We have great confidence in the abilities of these organizations to move their respective initiatives forward.”
No one at the foundation could be reached for comment Friday.
The foundation was created out of the sale of Northwest Health System in 1998. Since Northwest was a nonprofit organization, federal law required the sale’s net proceeds to either be donated to a charity or be held exclusively for the benefit of charities.
The foundation has given $ 25 million since its founding to support education, health care, immigration services, and nonprofit capacity building initiatives in Northwest Arkansas.
The Springdale School District received a total of $ 335, 000 to support three separate programs.
The funds will go toward supporting a new sophomore center at Springdale High School, a fitness program at Hellstern Middle School that incorporates physical activities like mountain biking and wall climbing and the expansion of the International Baccalaureate Programme from the high school into the grade schools.
The high school program is a rigorous, internationally recognized, two-year college prep program. Supporters say International Baccalaureate high school graduates are more likely to be accepted into and graduate from top-notch universities.
Marsha Jones, Springdale district assistant superintendent, said the program has been so well received at the high school that officials want to pilot the primary and middle school program at four schools.
“The early programs are whole school population inclusive, so it should improve all students’ critical thinking and problem solving abilities,” she said.
Bentonville High School, which becomes the state’s largest high school this fall when a 300, 000-square-foot addition opens, will receive $ 112, 000 from the foundation.
The money will benefit the school’s new “freshman academy,” a program that will assign incoming ninth-graders to a small learning community.
The high school newcom- ers will all take classes on the same floor with the same core group of 40 teachers.
District officials say the organizational model will help students build connections with their teachers and acclimate to a large high school setting.
Northwest Arkansas Community College also received $ 71, 500 to develop a peer-mentoring program for freshmen, and a mentoring program for Hispanic students at Springdale High School.
The foundation contributed $ 615, 000 to various health-care initiatives.
Funds will be used to start a “kid-to-kid” nutrition curriculum at the Communication Arts Institute of Eureka Springs, and start bilingual intake and referral services for low-income women at the Community Clinic at St. Francis House in Springdale. Decision Point, an alcohol and drug abuse treatment center, received $ 125, 000 to initiate a program to address substance abuse among mothers and pregnant women at the organization’s new Bentonville facility. Larry Counts, Decision Point executive director, said the money will fund three new beds at the facility. The residential program provides pre- and postnatal care, mental health treatment, parenting tips, and job training. “This grant is a real blessing because it allows us to treat more women,” Counts said. “A pregnant woman can come here in her first trimester and stay on site and receive treatment and services up through the birth of her child at no cost.”
To contact this reporter: jkrupa@arkansasonline. com
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