"During a time of great uncertainty, the Foundation was humbled to be able to quickly deploy resources to the agencies providing concrete supports to our area's most vulnerable population," said Tina Crave, GWCHF President & CEO. "Early in the Pandemic, food, shelter and personal essentials rose to the top of the most urgent needs," she said.
Taking a proactive approach as the pandemic wore on, the Foundation expanded its support to include building the capacity of agencies.
"We started hearing that cash flow issues caused by the pandemic were hindering organizations' ability to keep up with the demand for services, or even provide the same level of service as they had pre-pandemic," said Margaret Hanrahan, GWCHF Board member and Grants Committee Chair. "Broadening the scope of these grants helped support agencies serving the critical needs of the community to survive the pandemic and remain viable over the long term," she added.
Larger, multi-year investments were made to school-based mental health and drug and alcohol abuse counseling, needs compounded by the pandemic. Jefferson County Human Services and Dodge County Health and Human Services were awarded grants to provide school based mental health counseling to students and their families. In addition, Dodge County received funding to provide substance use disorder treatment to women whose children were placed in the child welfare system.
"Stresses caused by the Pandemic such as job loss and social isolation resulted in an increased demand for mental health and addiction services," said Hanrahan. "We are happy to support these agencies working to improve the emotional health of children and the functioning of the family unit."
The following Pandemic Response Grants were awarded to agencies by category:
| Education | Lake Mills Area School District | $7,187 |
| Education | Watertown Unified School District | $ 40,221 |
| Food | Adoration Abode | $ 1,200 |
| Food | Dodge County Food Pantry | $ 5,000 |
| Food | Marshall Waterloo Food Pantry | $ 2,000 |
| Food | Sacred Heart Church Food Pantry - Horicon | $ 1,200 |
| Food | Community Action Coalition | $ 150,000 |
| Food | School Districts | $ 30,000 |
| Food | Watertown Unified School District Gosling Nest | $ 5,350 |
| Housing | Crossroads House | $10,000 |
| Housing | Jefferson County Community Action Coalition | $10,000 |
| Housing | Jefferson County Salvation Army | $10,000 |
| Housing | PAVE | $6,230 |
| Medical | Church Health Services | $20,000 |
| Mental Health | Dodge County Human Services | $200,000 |
| Mental Health | Jefferson County Human Services | $210,000 |
| Mental Health | Lake Mills School District | $12,300 |
| Mental Health and Programmatic | Ixonia Elementary School | $14,971 |
| Mental Health and Programmatic | Wisconsin Lutheran Child & Family Services | $2,576 |
| Operations | Community Care and Preschool | $1,000 |
| Operations | Future All Stars Academy | $1,000 |
| Operations | Gingerbread Preschool | $4,862 |
| Operations | Green Valley Enterprises | $10,000 |
| Operations | Haus of Peace | $22,000 |
| Operations | Kiddie Kampus | $1,000 |
| Operations | Lake Mills EMS | $1,000 |
| Operations | Lake Mills Yoga Co-op | $3,000 |
| Operations | Mary Linsmeier | $4,413 |
| Operations | Rock Lake Activity Center | $25,000 |
| Operations | Watertown Park and Rec | $13,000 |
| Operations | Watertown Players | $8,500 |
| Operations | Willow Christian Child Care Center | $1,000 |
| Programmatic | Green Valley Enterprises | $2,000 |
| Programmatic | Jefferson County Human Services | $2,783 |
| Programmatic | A Moment of Magic | $1,000 |
| Programmatic | Rock Lake Activity Center | $3,580 |
| Programmatic | Shared Mission Group | $3,000 |
| Programmatic | St. Vincent | $3,000 |
| Programmatic | Watertown Area YMCA | $1,756 |
| Programmatic | Watertown Dept of Public Health | $10,000 |
| Programmatic | Watertown Unified School District/Building Bridges | $250 |
| Substance Abuse Treatment | Dodge County Human Services | $200,000 |
The GWCHF is currently accepting proposals for four open grant cycles.
The GWCHF invests in non-profit or governmental agencies focused on improving health equity. Prospective applicants can view the requests for proposals, complete with application details, on the Grants page of the Foundation's website at watertownhealthfoundation.com.
Submitted proposals must directly support the communities served by the school districts of Dodgeland, Hustisford, Ixonia, Jefferson, Johnson Creek, Lake Mills, Waterloo and Watertown.
To date, the Foundation has invested nearly $13 million in its five strategic, child-focused priorities:
To learn more about the foundation and supported initiatives, watertownhealthfoundation.com or Facebook at Greater Watertown Community Health Foundation.
