Blog note: This article references a grand jury report on the grant application process.
Seven local nonprofits will
receive more than $613,000 in grants from Napa County for programs ranging from
emergency women’s services to foster youth support.
The county Board of Supervisors
allocated funds from the national Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement of 1998.
Napa County has a total of $1.1
million to distribute for the 2015-16 fiscal year. It previously committed
nearly $500,000, including multiyear grants, a $100,000 annual earmark for
Children’s Health Initiative Napa County and a $75,000 annual set-aside for
quit-smoking programs.
That left about $613,000 in new
grants to award to nonprofits. A panel of county employees screened proposals
from 25 nonprofit agencies requesting a total of $1.3 million.
UpValley Family Centers will
receive $200,000 to plan and start the Napa County Triple P — Positive
Parenting Program. The parenting education system is designed to prevent and
treat youth behavioral problems. It is offered in 24 California counties.
“It’s not a cheap thing to do,
but we know that it works,” UpValley Family Center Executive Director Jenny
Ocon told supervisors last week.
On the Move will receive
$75,000 to start Project HEAL, a trauma care system for current and former
foster youth. VOICES foster youth community center is working on the program.
This is a three-year grant, with $75,000 also to be awarded for 2016-17 and
2017-18.
“We know these kids have
absolutely through no fault of their own experienced trauma,” Amber Twitchell
of VOICES told supervisors. “This shows up later in their lives and inhibits
them from being productive members of our community.”
Supervisors voiced no
objections to continuing the $100,000 annual set-aside for the Children’s
Health Initiative. The nonprofit group works to ensure all Napa County youths
have health care coverage.
“It’s an early intervention
program that pays dividends going forward,” said Mitch Wippern of the county
Health and Human Services Agency.
The Napa County grand jury in a
recent report said that some nonprofit groups consider the application process
for the grants to be burdensome. It suggested a consultant explore whether the
methods can be streamlined while still making certain that grant money is spent
wisely.
The county will spend $11,000
of the tobacco settlement money on what Wippern called “a fresh set of eyes” to
look at the screening methods. But Supervisor Diane Dillon said she in no way
wants the county to award grants to nonprofit organizations that cannot prove
program effectiveness.
May
17, 2015
Napa
Valley Register
By Barry Eberling
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