Thanks to the George W. Jenkins Fund, Leland Bryan Fund, and Anonymous Funds within GiveWell Community Foundation, 93 nonprofit organizations received full or partial funding.
For this year’s grant cycle, the Community Foundation received 138 applications requesting a total of more than $2.3 million from 501(c)(3) organizations serving in Polk County. Impact Polk grants support a broad range of needs as identified in the United Community Needs Assessment (UCNA). Collectively, more than 975,000 individuals will be impacted through the programs of this year’s grantees. Examples of quality of life, affordable housing, food security, and education programs funded this year include: Central Florida Speech and Hearing Center’s Stability Training & Empowerment Program prevents falls so older adults can remain safely at home. Two Master Teachers will train eight Community Trainers to co-lead evidence-based classes, complete fall-risk screenings, and equip family caregivers with home-safety strategies. This program will serve 360 seniors in year one, with the model continuing beyond the grant year as additional Community Trainers are added. Participants will improve strength, stability, confidence, and quality of life while reducing falls and avoidable ER visits. Frostproof Care Center’s Housing for a Healthier Community project helps to find immediate crisis intervention by assisting with Housing/Shelter opportunities and seeks to break the cycle of housing insecurity in our community. With one-on-one counseling they review financial documents, discuss goals and obstacles, and develop a personal action plan for budgeting, saving, debt management and other steps toward housing stability. This project is designed to meet the needs of families that find themselves in a housing crisis due to lack of affordable housing, recent rent increases, and an increase in homelessness due to economic factors like job loss or reduced hours. Within Frostproof, housing budgets have gone from 30% to 50% on average. Due to the cost burden, these households are having to choose forgoing medical care or healthy food just to pay their mortgage or rent. Society of St. Andrew’s The Florida Gleaning Network rescues and shares produce by gleaning, salvaging large loads, and hosting food distributions. They work with farmers who open their fields to volunteer gleaners once commercial harvesting is complete. Society of St. Andrews offer these services at no cost, making it easier for farmers to donate excess food than to till it under or dump it in landfills — both of which cost them money (and emissions) in fuel and labor. The local distribution of food reduces the environmental impact of food miles. Consuming good food instead of landfilling or letting it rot in the field reduces greenhouse gas emissions, all while helping the residents of Polk County. Polk Education Foundation’s Building Better and Resilient Readers - Polk Reads is a free, in-school tutoring program three days a week for 30-minute sessions to kindergarten through third-grade students who are below proficiency in reading. By 3rd grade in Polk County Schools, only 46% can read proficiently, meaning 54% of these students are four times more likely to drop out of high school than their proficient peers. The purpose of this program is to enhance reading skills through evidence-based instructional strategies tailored to individual student needs; build resilience and grit by incorporating social-emotional learning components that encourage perseverance and a growth mindset; and create a supportive learning environment that motivates students to engage actively in their literacy development. Integrating academic support with resilience-building activities will produce well-rounded learners capable of overcoming challenges both academically and personally. To see a full list of grantees and learn more about the Impact Polk grant cycle, please visit impactpolk.org. Online dashboards with updated UCNA insights are available at ucindicators.org.
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