Cleveland Foundation support for Lake and Geauga counties reaches $2.8 million in 2017

Established in 1988, the Lake-Geauga Fund of the Cleveland Foundation has distributed more than $17 million over the past 29 years utilizing the advice of its appointed committee. Since its inception, the Fund has been a critical resource to communities in Lake and Geauga counties, as it has provided funding to jumpstart new ideas, guide organizational strategy, leverage additional dollars, and address high priority program needs.

Beginning in 2015, the board decided to fully integrate organizations in Lake and Geauga in the foundation’s monthly grantmaking process. Since that time, the Lake-Geauga Fund of the Cleveland Foundation has served as an additional resource with a more strategic grantmaking focus.

“Lake and Geauga counties are part of the core footprint of the Cleveland Foundation’s impact in our community,” said Stephen Caviness, Cleveland Foundation program officer. “In addition to the crucial, dedicated support of the Lake-Geauga Fund, we are pleased to support non-profit organizations in these two counties throughout the year through our traditional grantmaking pool and with the generous support of our donors.”

The board approved the following grants from the Lake-Geauga Fund of the Cleveland Foundation, with a particular focus on combating the opioid crisis:

• Catholic Charities Corporation ($24,290) – Helping Geauga County residents build the foundation to rise out of poverty via a new initiative called Stepping Ahead. The program combines employment, mentorships and social service support with the framework of the nationally-recognized Getting Ahead in a Just-Getting’-By World initiative, in which participants have demonstrated improvement in mental health and well-being, goal-directed behavior, and social support.
• DDC Clinic for Special Needs Children ($9,300) – Creating a more cost-effective method of diagnosing rare genetic disorders by helping fund the development of the initial panel testing kit and lab materials for 100 pilot screens. The goal is to provide physicians with faster and more effective diagnostic tools to test babies for a wide range of genetic disorders commonly found in Geauga Amish families.
• Lake Health Foundation, Inc. ($40,000) – Providing capital support to double addiction treatment beds in Lake County from 16 to 32. This will allow the community to better meet the demand of the growing opioid crisis as part of the Opiate Recovery Transition Program – a collaboration involving Lake Health, the Lake County Alcohol, Drug Addiction and Mental Health Services (ADAMHS) Board, Windsor-Laurelwood Center for Behavioral Medicine, Lake-Geauga Recovery Centers and Signature Health.
• Lake-Geauga Recovery Centers, Inc. ($19,000) – Alleviating client transportation challenges in Lake and Geauga counties with the purchase of a van. The van will help the organization overcome the relative lack of public transportation and the need for employees to use their personal vehicles. This is especially important when transporting clients registered as opiate dependent as they travel to various locations in their progression through the stages of treatment.
• Leadership Lake County, Inc. ($10,000) – Piloting a new model that aims to develop stronger non-profit leaders across Lake and Geauga counties, with a focus on women. The intent is to increase the capacity and strength of Lake and Geauga nonprofits to allow for expanded collaborations and increased effectiveness.
• University Hospitals Health System, Inc. ($70,000) – Piloting an Emergency Department (ED) intervention model to fight the opioid crisis in Geauga County. At UH Geauga Medical Center, an estimated 1,250 ED visits in 2016 were for medical problems related to substance use or addiction. Grant funds will be used to employ a full-time Intervention Specialist to be embedded in the ED during peak hours in order to provide assessment, referral and follow-up.

Nonprofits are encouraged to apply for funding from the Lake-Geauga Fund of the Cleveland Foundation via a yearly RFP process. For more information, visit www.clevelandfoundation.org/grants/lake-geauga/rfp/.

*Unaudited total.