2022-2023 BCF Mini-grant Winner
Alliance for Non-Profit Resources
2022-23 Mini-Grant Winner
"Rise Up Rides"
Rise Up Rides is a collaborative project between the Alliance for Nonprofit Resources (ANR), Butler Health System and the Lighthouse Foundation. The mission of Rise Up Rides is to shrink the transportation gap that exists in our county.
Far too many of our community members face a barrier to life-critical activities, and that barrier is often transportation. Rise Up Rides will bridge that gap with trips for those in need to and from grocery shopping, employment, non-emergency medical needs, family visits, among other destinations to ensure that our neighbors are living the best lives that they can.
Rise Up Rides is developing a referral program for local human services agencies to identify those in need to guarantee that the project is as effective as possible. ANR Transport will be providing the transportation for all trips.
For more information on the program, or to learn how you can support Rise Up Rides, contact Cody Slater 724-431-0063, Becky Clouse 724-284-6207 or Jayme Steighner 724-256-8959 ext. 123
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For referrals, contact Cody Slater at 724-431-0063.
Previous BCF Mini-grant Winners
Butler County Community College
2021-22 Mini-Grant Winner
"Wise Guides"
Wise Guides is a collaborative project between Butler County Community College, Aging Gracefully, and LIFE Butler County.
Wise Guides connects college students with seniors to teach them how to utilize and become comfortable with technology. The total program consists of 5 two-hour sessions scheduled over a 1-2 month period of time. Technological education will focus on the senior’s indicated area(s) of interest.
There is currently a significant generation gap in tech savviness, which can lead to a breakdown in overall communication. Retirement, COVID-19, moving to a nursing home, and other factors can create isolation among seniors. Being able to call, text, email, or video chat with family and friends is a great way to stay connected, combat depression, and build confidence. But, most of all, students and seniors have so much to learn from each other!
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The program will launch during the Fall 2022 BC3 semester and Butler County Community College Introduction to Social Work students will be paired with seniors at local nursing homes and day programs. Wise Guides will utilize a free software program, ELDY, and provide the pair with a Lenovo tablet to be used during the sessions. At the end of the program, the seniors can choose to have ELDY loaded onto their personal devices.
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For information on the program, or to learn how you can support this initiative, contact Karen Jack, 724-287-8711 x8378 or Lorna Gavin,724-602-9559
for more information.
The Lighthouse Foundation
2020-21 Mini-Grant Winner
"Cooking With Friends"
The funding we received from this grant has made a positive impact on this program, We have had an increase of participants in our program since the beginning of the 2021. The past few months we had 7 attendees in August, 6 in September and 11 in October. Participants learned how to make Puerto Rican rice and chicken, Chili, Robilotto, lasagna, spaghetti and meatballs and summer sandwich salads. There will be one more class this year on November 18th 5:00 pm at Fishbone Ministries / Jacob's House.
Our participants have been able to receive various household items through their attendance. Items have included crockpots, full sets of pots and pans, baking sets and spatulas. The most valuable portion of this program has been having the opportunity to get to know the individuals in the class many of which have been consistent attendees. The funding we received through this grant allowed this program to continue reaching individuals through fellowship and cooking together.
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They were able to discuss healthy options, substitutions, diet restrictions, and shopping efficiently. They were given recipes each week they could go home and make for their families or leftovers were provided.
Butler County Alliance for Children
2020-21 COVID-19 Relief
Mini-Grant Winner
COVID-19 significantly impacted our organization in many ways, but none more so than getting the multi-disciplinary team partners together to discuss important cases as well as instances where caregivers and children who would routinely meet with investigators and providers while they were at our center could no longer do so due to COVID protocols. Building relationships between the team and the children/families is very important part of our trauma-informed process and seeing the team lets them know that people are here and present for their situation and that they matter.
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The funds provided by the BCF COVID-19 Relief Mini-Grant assisted us in getting the necessary technology to ensure that families had more than just a phone conversation with providers and partners while at our agency, as well as an opportunity to see providers faces and start the rapport building process.
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We purchased the OWL Meeting PRO with the funds which permitted us to not only address multi-disciplinary teaming constraints, but also to creatively provide services for a non-english speaking child where we could team with a bi-lingual interviewer from another county. Without this technology, we would not have been able to seemlessly engage that child, ensure they were safe, nor meet their immediate emotional needs in a culturally sensitive way. This meeting hardware comes with a 365 degree camera which captures the entire room and ensures that those we are meeting with can see every person present in our team room without exception (transparency, when possible, being a fundamental value for our agency).
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We are very fortunate and thankful for this grant from the BCF.