Arlington Tomorrow Foundation Awards Five New Human Service Grants
Published on February 17, 2022
By Arlington Tomorrow Foundation
During its meeting on February 15, 2022, the Arlington Tomorrow Foundation's board of directors awarded several service-oriented grants to local non-profits who have requested assistance, with a total of over $800,000 in new grant funding. Grants awarded this month, include:
Arlington Life Shelter: The Road Home Program - $ 200,000
The Arlington Life Shelter was founded in 1987 by a group of Arlington churches to provide food, services and night shelter for those experiencing homelessness. Given the complexities and needs of families facing shelter insecurity, the Arlington Life Shelter expanded their program in June of 2020 to become a 24/7 service provider.
"The Road Home"; project provides families in transition with the day-to-day needs of family life along with financial counseling, career training and other services to help ensure families and individuals transition to self-sufficiency. The $200,000 grant from the Arlington Tomorrow Foundation will help underwrite Shelter services and programming to meet the pressing needs of Arlington Life Shelter clients.
Leadership Arlington: Operational Enhancements - $10,000
Leadership Arlington has been serving in the Arlington community for over 40 years with a mission to help develop next generation civic leaders by conducting Youth and Adult Training courses each year.
The Foundation's grant will provide enhanced technology upgrades and operations which will help Leadership Arlington participants in an era of pandemic restrictions and considerations. Specifically, the Foundation made it possible for the organization to invest in new highspeed Wi-Fi, a portable laptop, camera, microphones and projectors, all of which will help expand the quality of online programming for their participant today and into the future.
Mansfield Mission Center: Diabetes Management Program - $50,000
Established in 1979, the Mansfield Mission Center provides financial help, employment assistance, nutrition resources, and free healthcare for those in need. Nearly 50% of all families they serve call Arlington home.
Families with limited assets often have a hard time taking care of their health, especially those with expensive chronic health conditions such as diabetes. The Arlington Tomorrow Foundation grant will help fund costs associated with the Diabetes Management Program, which helps adults ages 18 to 65 who lack basic healthcare insurance.
Of the more than 1,000 medical appointments they had last year, about 1/3 of the patients are diabetic or pre-diabetic.
MHMR Foundation: Family Connects - $525,000
In 2020, the MHMR Foundation supported nearly 15,000 people in services ranging from vocational programs and group homes, to early childhood evaluations and therapies, to substance use disorders and mental health supports.
In keeping with the organization's leadership role as a provider of mental health, intellectual and developmental disability and early childhood services in Tarrant County, the organization launched Family Connects in 2019. With the help of an initial Arlington Tomorrow Foundation grant, Family Connects started in Arlington at Texas Health Resources in 2019 and Medical City in late 2020 where they established this 18-month Child and Family Services pilot program which provided a systemic change model, a tested approach, that combines engagement and alignment of community service providers - physical, mental, and social services - with short-term in-home nursing visits beginning immediately following the birth of a child.
Family Connects is built on research data that shows 95% of families adjusting to the addition of a newborn to their lives can use additional support, whether its support with breastfeeding, mental health services for parents experiencing symptoms of depression or anxiety, or resources to help siblings or other family members adjust. Family Connects is a preventative approach to help families identify issues early and find resources to help them thrive.
The Arlington Tomorrow Foundation's February 2022 grant will underwrite the next phase of Family Connects in Arlington serving at least 750 newborns and their families.
The WARM Place: Grief Support Program - $20,000.00
The mission of The WARM Place is to provide year-round grief support services to children ages 3 ½ to 18 and their families, as well as young adults ages 19 to 25, who have experienced the death of a loved one.
Since 1989 the WARM Place has helped over 43,000 children and their families cope with a death. The "warm" in WARM Place is an acronym for "What About Remembering Me?" The program's peer support groups not only give the children a safe place to share their feelings and emotions, but they also help lessen the children's sense of isolation as they learn how to grieve and adjust their lives following a family death.
For 32 years, The WARM Place has addressed this critical issue by staying true to its mission of providing unwavering support, at no cost, to grieving children and their families, so that no child will ever have to grieve alone. The Arlington Tomorrow Foundation grant is directed to cover expenses associated with Arlington families served through WARM Place programs.