by Inez Torres Davis
Women of the ELCA awarded $47,583.81 in grants to 18 domestic and nine international programs in 2015 to promote women’s complete and total health: physical, emotional and spiritual.
The grants program focuses funding toward projects and agencies dedicated to education and advocacy, empowering women and girls to lead healthier lives.
Women of the ELCA seeks proposals from not-for-profit organizations, both domestic and international, that support healing and wholeness for women of all ages through the affirmation and advancement of women’s emotional, physical, and spiritual health. A grants committee evaluates each program to determine which will get funding.
The 18 domestic grants totaled $34,900 and ranged in size from $1,000 to $3,000. They were awarded to programs based in Washington, Arizona, Colorado, Minnesota, Nebraska, Missouri, Texas, Iowa, Wisconsin, Ohio, Maine, North Carolina, Georgia and Washington D.C.
The nine international grants totaled $12,600 and benefited programs in Cameroon, Ghana, India, Kenya and Uganda.
Women of the ELCA grants are issued from money earned from several endowments designated for that purpose. Your gifts also make these grants possible. Consider including Women of the ELCA grants in your estate planning.
Inez Torres Davis ([email protected]), Women of the ELCA’s director for justice, oversees the grants process. The program is being reassessed and will be on hiatus in 2016.
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Photo: SafePlace staff demonstrating how the work they do is intertwined.
Domestic grants by region
Note: In the below listing, the organizational name is first and the project name is second.
Region 1
1C—SafePlace, Children’s Program, Olympia, Wash., $1,500
Provides basic needs and comprehensive advocacy to survivors of sexual and domestic violence between the ages of birth-17.
1D—St. Joseph’s Family Center, HeArt of Your Emotions, Spokane, Wash., $2,000
A collaboration between St. Joseph Family Center and Transitions’ Women’s Hearth Program engaging disenfranchised, low-income women through art-making while engaging in therapeutic exploration of emotions.
Region 2
2D—Area Agency on Aging, Region One, DOVES® Program, Phoenix, Ariz. $2,000
DOVES® provides outreach and education, support groups, emergency and transitional housing for victims of late-life domestic violence and elder abuse.
2E—Crossroads Safehouse, Emergency Shelter Program, Fort Collins, Colo., $1,500
A full service domestic violence emergency shelter for victims of intimate parnter abuse and their children.
Region 3
3D—Immigration Development Center, Entrepreneurial Training, Moorhead, Minn., $2,000
Teaches low-income immigrant women how to open their own businesses and find jobs while improving self-image and quality of life.
3E—Project Free Clinic, Sustaining Program for Medical Care, Hibbling, Minn., $1,500
Provides basic medical care and educational programs, including wellness programs for uninsured girls and women of all ages.
Region 4
4A—Lutheran Family Services of Nebraska, RSafe® Trauma, Treatment & Support, Omaha, Neb., $2,000
RSafe® is LFS’s evidence-based, behavioral health treatment program that offers trauma treatment and therapeutic support for families impacted by child sexual abuse.
4B—The Kitchen, Inc., Women’s Hygiene, Springfield, Mo., $1,000
Provides feminine hygiene products to women within The Kitchen Inc.’s multiple housing programs (of otherwise homeless women and girls).
4D—Legacy Counseling Center, Grace Project Women Living with HIV/AIDS, Dallas, Texas, $2,000
Educates women, decreases the spread of HIV, increases medical adherence and fosters grassroots leaders, using a supportive network of services.
Region 5
5D—Butterfly House, Improving Home, Ames, Iowa, $3,000
A home for women leaving incarceration, usually from Mitchellville state prison, offering a safe and supportive home where they develop hope and learn to become self-sufficient contributing members of society.
5K—Lutheran Office for Public Policy, Safe Harbor Campaign, Madison, Wis., $2,000
Raising ELCA Wisconsinites’ awareness and creating advocates to address the problem of human trafficking with a focus on child sex trafficking.
Region 6
6D—Harbor House/300 Beds Inc., Transitional Housing, Toledo, Ohio, $2,500
Recovery housing program provides transitional housing and supportive services to homeless and chemically dependent women.
6F—Lower Lights Ministry, Rachel’s House, Columbus, Ohio, $2,500
Previously incarcerated women receive transitional housing to experience the love of God in a physically and emotionally safe environment, empowering them to establish healthy relationships with God, family and community.
Region 7
7B—The Center for Wisdom’s Women, Wise Woman Cooking Club, Lewiston, Maine, $2,400
A drop-in center provides a safe and sacred place that supports and empowers women by expanding their capacity providing cooking classes for healthy eating on a budget.
Region 8
8G—Ascension Psychological & Community Services, Sister’s Circle, Washington, D.C., $1,000
Weekly group therapy facilitated by a licensed clinical psychologist to disadvantaged women in the Washington, D.C., area.
Region 9
9B—Cabarrus Cooperative Christian Ministries, Mother & Children Housing Ministry, Concord, N.C., $2,000
Provides housing, tools and support to empower single homeless mothers and their children to move to independence.
9B—Mamafrica Designs, Thrive: Investing in Women, Chapel Hill, N.C., $2,000
Supplements and enhances Mamafrica’s employment programs for women in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) via comprehensive daily wellness courses.
9D—AWHEEC, Breast Cancer Project, Clarkston, Ga., $2,000
Provides culturally and linguistically sensitive workshops on health education and breast health to African refugee women with a history of torture and trauma.
International grants by country
Cameroon
Tatum Women Development Association, Ebola Virus Sensitization for 250,000 People, $1,750
Trained volunteers supply bedding, sanitization supplies, nutritional food, hygiene and the education of the use of these things by women and girls affected by Ebola.
India
Snekithi Charitable Trust, Empowerment of Barefoot Doctors, $1,000
Meets health needs of remote villages by providing training in health care techniques to 60 tribal girls. It also offers medical kits to provide medical services in their own tribal hamlets.
Society for Rural Health & Development, Promoting PreNatal, PostNatal Practices, $1,000
Serves 10 villages with education on prenatal, natal and postnatal care of the mothers and infant immunization.
PRASAD Chikitsa, Rubella Vaccination Project, $1,000
Provides education, vaccination and treatment to adolescent girls, women of child-bearing age and pregnant women in the Tansa Valley to reduce rubella infections, rubella related miscarriages and congenital rubella syndrome in babies.
Communicare, Safe Motherhood & Child, $1,000
Motivational camps for tribal women that seeks to reduce infant mortality rate and provide prenatal and postnatal education.
Kenya
KOOLO Widow’s Self Help Group, Indigenous Hens & Hatchery, $1,750
To establish a parent stock of 120 birds for hatchery eggs production and build capacity for disease control for widows’ self-help group.
Uganda
Acts 1:8 Ministry, Water Towers, $2,100
This U.S. based project provides families in Uganda with easy access to clean, safe drinking water. In Uganda alone, approximately 23,000 children die each year from unsafe drinking water.
Uganda Village Project, Promoting Productive Health, $1,500
Transportation and stipend for a female staff and government health center nurse to travel once each quarter to meet with women in rural communities to provide reproductive health education and access to contraceptives.