Strategic grants focus on supporting families with children, preparing for a growing aging population, and responding to substance use disorder.

FREDERICK, Md., Oct. 18, 2023 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ — The Community Foundation of Frederick County is excited to announce that it awarded more than $539,000 in strategic grants to 21 area nonprofits dedicated to improving lives and enhancing Frederick County.

The Community Foundation’s strategic grants focus on supporting families with children, preparing for a growing aging population, and responding to substance use disorder. Within each of these areas, preference was given to applications that supported access to affordable housing, addressed mental health needs, and/or alleviated disparities in service delivery. Generous donors who have created unrestricted funds trust the Community Foundation to award grants that address the community’s most pressing needs. These partners are dedicated to improving lives across Frederick County and their unrestricted support makes our important work possible.

Strategic grant funding supporting families with children was provided to:

Advocates for Homeless Families: $20,000 for case management for families with children transitioning out of homelessness.

Blessings in a Backpack, Frederick Chapter: $5,347.50 to support children from low-income households that are experiencing food insecurity.

Center for Adoption Support and Education (C.A.S.E.): $29,233.20 to support the mental health and well-being needs of 45 people in adoptive, foster, guardianship, and kinship families.

Centro Hispano de Frederick: $34,000 for staffing to support inter-generational immigrant families navigating health and human services needs.

City Youth Matrix: $12,013 for youth extracurricular activities and family empowerment.

Frederick Rescue Mission, Inc.: $10,347.50 for support of Faith House Transitional Living Program, which brings healing and hope to women and their children experiencing trauma and homelessness by providing transitional housing and services.

Heartly House: $25,000 for counseling families experiencing trauma through domestic violence and/or physical/sexual abuse and $10,000 to improve the lives of families receiving public housing services by mitigating and preventing intimate partner violence, sexual assault, human trafficking, and child abuse.

Housing Authority of the City of Frederick: $37,448.61 to support families in subsidized housing programs to stabilize from crisis, build an infrastructure for family success, and create pathways to prosperity through education, employment, and financial management.

Literacy Council of Frederick County: $13,334 for program manager and workplace coordinator staff positions who provide pathways to essential literacy skills for adults so they can provide for their families and increase opportunities that will contribute to the families’ overall well-being.

Mission of Mercy, Inc.: $10,000 to provide free medical and dental care for families with children who are asset limited income constrained employed (ALICE).

The Religious Coalition for Emergency Human Needs: $19,530.15 to provide operating support for Frederick County’s single-site Emergency Family Shelter for families with children who are experiencing homelessness.

Student Homelessness Initiative Partnership (SHIP): $8,981.52 to support the needs of families with children who are experiencing homelessness attending all elementary and middle schools in Frederick County Public Schools, keeping families connected to education.

Strategic grant funding supporting preparing for a growing aging population was provided to:

Daybreak Adult Day Services: $49,063.34 to support seniors with lower incomes through the Adult Medical Day Program and Senior Center Plus programs.

Lions Club of Frederick: $5,000 to provide eye care to lower-income seniors.

Mission of Mercy: $25,000 to provide free medical care, dental care, and prescription medications for seniors who are uninsured and underinsured.

Rebuilding Together Frederick County, MD: $25,000 to help senior homeowners who are of low-income age in place by making health and safety related home repairs and improvements.

Supporting Older Adults through Resources (SOAR): $36,963.15 to assist seniors with lower incomes with resources and financial assistance when they experience hardships.

YMCA of Frederick County: $10,000 to help seniors with Parkinson’s disease minimize their symptoms and increase independence of movement through the Rock Steady Boxing Program.

Strategic grant funding supporting responding to substance use disorder (SUD) was provided to:

Frederick Rescue Mission: $6,347.50 for the Changed Life Recovery program helping men transition from recovery to a life of sustainable sobriety, accountability, and gainful employment.

Friends for Neighborhood Progress: $30,000 for case management for people who are chronically homeless and have one or more disabling conditions, including SUD, and $20,000 to provide permanent housing stipends for people who are chronically homeless and have one or more disabling conditions, including SUD.

On Our Own of Frederick County, Inc.: $46,141 for peer support services, advocacy, and tailored navigation of resources so people with SUD are successful in recovery.

The Phoenix Foundation of Maryland: $18,122.35 for the recovery high school that meets academic state requirements within a sober supportive environment for adolescents in early recovery from a SUD.

Pride Center of Maryland: $32,218.36 to expand capacity of culturally considerate education, outreach, and direct mental health services leading to SUD prevention and treatment for sexual and gender minorities.

As a leader in grant and scholarship funding, The Community Foundation of Frederick County has given back more than $94 million to the community since 1986. To learn more about how the Community Foundation impacts Frederick County, visit http://www.FrederickCountyGives.org.

Media Contact

Kym Byrnes, Community Foundation of Frederick County, 301.695.7660 x304, [email protected], www.FrederickCountyGives.org

SOURCE Community Foundation of Frederick County

The Alliance for Women’s Health and Prevention (AWHP) has awarded its inaugural grant, in the amount of $730,000, to the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) to analyze these recent trends in cervical cancer screening and detection from a diverse population of women who are currently underrepresented in the data used by the U.S. government to set guidelines for screening.

“Our mission is to advance policy that drives equitable access and prevents the burden and progression of disease to improve the lives and health of all women and girls,” said Millicent Gorham, CEO and Board Chair, AWHP. “We are proud to be partnering with ASCP and investing in this important research, which we believe will help lay the groundwork for more comprehensive and equitable cervical cancer screening guidelines, and ultimately help save lives.”

ASCP will utilize the data to inform the healthcare community, patients, patient advocates, and policymakers of current trends in cervical cancer screening and detection in a more diverse population than is currently available in the scientific literature.

“We know that cervical cancer is caused by infection from the human papillomavirus, and we know that women of lower socioeconomic status tend to have less access to preventive health care,” says Ali Brown, MD, FASCP, chief medical officer for ASCP.

ASCP will work with a geographically diverse set of clinical sites around the country to look at retrospective data from patients to identify how frequently they receive cervical cancer screenings and review the history of their results to ascertain if there is a higher prevalence of cervical cancer in these diverse communities.

“The value of a scientific study that would combine data from multiple diverse sites that will help us identify the current state of cervical cancer and precancer detection and screening in the U.S. is critical and overdue,” says Dr. Brown.

ASCP will utilize its established HIPAA-compliant quality registry, the National Pathology Quality Registry (NPQR), to aggregate, standardize, and study historical data on cervical cancer screening and detection, serving as a trusted central hub. The aggregated data will be analyzed to identify recent trends in cervical cancer and precancer detection rates in diverse populations, as well as other relevant clinical and socioeconomic factors available.

“We will be a clearinghouse for these data,” Dr. Brown explains, adding that ASCP brings to this project a strong background of patient advocacy work. The ASCP Center for Quality and Patient Safety has extensive experience in collaborative projects between multiple clinical sites that involve analyzing aggregated patient data and performing analytics.

“This project directly aligns with the Alliance for Women’s Health and Prevention’s mission because we seek to gather data that will potentially lead to creating policies that are more equitable and representative of the vast diversity of women and women’s experiences in this country,” Dr. Brown says.

About AWHP
The Alliance for Women’s Health and Prevention is a non-partisan 501(c)(4) non-profit organization working to ensure that all women and girls have access to high-quality preventive care. Our mission is to advance policy that drives equitable access and prevents the burden and progression of disease to improve the lives and health of all women and girls.

For more information, please visit WomensHealthandPrevention.org and follow us on LinkedIn and Twitter @AWHPOrg.

About ASCP
Founded in 1922 in Chicago, ASCP is a medical professional society with more than 100,000 member board-certified anatomic and clinical pathologists, pathology residents and fellows, laboratory professionals, and students. ASCP provides excellence in education, certification, and advocacy on behalf of patients, pathologists, and laboratory professionals. To learn more, visit http://www.ascp.org. Follow us on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/ascp_chicago and connect with us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/ASCP.Chicago.

Media Contact

Sue Montgomery, American Society for Clinical Pathology, 312-541-4754, [email protected], www.ascp.org

Kelley Falisi, Alliance for Women’s Health & Prevention, 215-622-5554, [email protected], https://womenshealthandprevention.org/

SOURCE American Society for Clinical Pathology