Press release from The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina:
(May 2023) – The Women for Women giving circle recently awarded six grants totaling $278,950. With these awards, the Giving Circle has exceeded $5 million in grants for programs serving WNC women and girls. Women for Women’s mission is to improve the lives of women and girls through collective giving.“Women for Women is honored to support amazing nonprofits serving women and girls in WNC,” said WFW Grants Committee Chair Jill Preyer. “After carefully considering 60 applicants this year, the grants committee brought a slate to the membership, which voted to fund six. This year, we are providing support to nonprofits addressing mental health, healthcare, child abuse and financial counseling. The giving circle always welcomes new members; more dollars in the giving circle means more grants in our WNC region.”
“Five brilliant women hatched the idea for Women for Women in 2005,” said Bolling Farmer, WFW Steering Committee Chair. “With this year’s awards, we have committed $5 million to organizations improving the lives of women and girls in WNC. This is a testament to the strength of their vision that women can accomplish great things when we pool our resources and work together.”
The 2023 grants are:
All Souls Counseling Center – $64,650 over two years to expand individual and group trauma-informed mental health services to 240 women who are survivors of crime. Community partners, including Our VOICE, Helpmate and Asheville Buncombe Community Christian Ministry (ABCCM), will refer survivors to All Souls. Funds will cover therapist fees and will support outreach efforts. This grant will primarily serve women in Buncombe, Henderson, Madison, Haywood and Transylvania counties.
International Friendship Center – $15,000 over two years to support the salaries of two staff members to facilitate Grupos de Mujeres (Women’s Groups) meetings in the community and provide funding for supplies. The groups create a safe place for 20 to 30 Latinx immigrant women living in the Highlands/Cashiers area to share their struggles and resources so they may learn from and support each other and their communities. Grupo members discuss topics including marriage, family, mental health and child development.
KARE, Inc. (The KARE House) – $49,350 to hire a part-time victim advocate and a part-time forensic interviewer. KARE provides evidence-based, community-coordinated response to child abuse, neglect and exploitation in Haywood County through outreach, advocacy, and specialized interventions. This support will help prevent burnout for KARE’s full-time team members, and it will allow KARE to serve an additional 75 child survivors aged three to eighteen, with the majority of children identifying as female.
NAMI Western Carolina – $35,000 to hire and support a part-time staff person with lived experience to develop partnerships and initiate mental health and family support programming in partnership with community organizations serving the Latinx community. This dedicated staff person will recruit and train bilingual support group facilitators, offer Connection Peer Support and Family Support groups at least once a month in Spanish, and serve up to 300 Spanish-speaking individuals, primarily in Henderson and Buncombe counties.
OnTrack Financial Education & Counseling – $65,000 over two years to expand the Women’s Financial Empowerment Center’s programming to BIPOC communities. Funding will compensate staff with lived experience to co-create programs with community partners to provide financial education, counseling and coaching that meets diverse women’s needs and schedules. This project will primarily support women in Buncombe and Henderson counties.
Sistas Caring 4 Sistas – $49,950 over two years to support the organization’s move into an accessible, welcoming and functional office space. Sistas Caring 4 Sistas’ mission is to reduce adverse birth-related outcomes among individuals of color by providing doula services, advocacy and education to women across Western North Carolina. Funds will allow them to train 10 new doulas, secure office space and technology needed to grow services, seek reimbursement from health insurance companies for services, improve client satisfaction, and increase the number of mothers served.
Women for Women is an initiative of The Community Foundation of Western North Carolina (CFWNC). Membership information is at www.cfwnc.org.
The Women’s Fund, a CFWNC endowment addressing the unmet needs of women and girls, contributed $70,640 to the grants.
CFWNC works with families, businesses and nonprofits to strengthen communities through the creation of charitable funds and strategic grantmaking. A permanent charitable resource, the Foundation manages over 1,200 funds and has facilitated more than $328 million in philanthropy since its founding in 1978. Learn more at www.cfwnc.org.
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