ChristianaCare gave out grants this week to a list of Delaware community organizations. Officials say the new Community Investment Fund is meant to support organizations addressing the social, behavioral and environmental determinants of health.
32 different community groups shared in receiving nearly $2 million from the health system Thursday.
Chief Health Equity Officer Bettina Tweardy Riveros says this is part of ChristianaCare’s mission to impact health outside hospital walls.
“We want to be ChristianaCare: an organization that truly impacts the health of our community. And what does that mean? That means us being out in our community,” said Riveros.
The organizations receiving grants work in areas ranging from housing development, to after-school programs to workforce training.
Alison Windle is Executive Director of the community center in Southbridge Wilmington Neighborhood House. She says her group’s new funds will be distributed across seven different programs.
“We [will] increase our ability to serve children and youth and that’s going to have a lot to do with healthy food program,” she said. “Our other focus [is] going to be on family services, which is a crisis alleviation program that prevents homelessness.”
Gillian Timon is Executive Director of the grant recipient TRIAD Addiction Recovery Services in Wilmington. She says Thursday’s grant ceremony was a great networking opportunity.
“It was a great opportunity to hear from [ChristianaCare] the importance of the work that we all do and an opportunity for us to network with one another to see if there are ways we could collaborate in serving the communities we all serve,” said Timon.
Timon says her grant dollars will allow TRIAD to hire a new full time counsellor.
ChristianaCare says it plans to start giving out these community grants on an annual basis. The application process for the next round of grants opens in June.
