CFO to distribute $120K in community grants

Community Foundation of the Ozarks is scheduled tomorrow to present nearly $120,000 in grant funding to four joint projects working to address issues in the Springfield-Greene County Community Focus Report.

The winning projects were narrowed down from 12 applications for CFO’s first Metro Springfield Collective Impact grants, according to a news release.

Three of the four projects will receive $30,000, while the fourth is slated to get $26,991.

One $30,000 grant would fund the Passport to Readiness project, designed to prepare children for kindergarten. The organizations partnering on the project are Shady Dell Early Childhood Center; Community Partnership of the Ozarks; Council of Churches-Childcare Aware; Every Child Promise; Mayor's Commission for Children; Ozarks Area Community Action Corp.-Head Start; Ozarks Technical Community College Early Childhood Center; Springfield-Greene County Health Department; Springfield-Greene County Library; Springfield Public Schools Early Childhood Centers; Parents As Teachers; and SPS Early Childhood Special Education.

Court Appointed Special Advocates of Southwest Missouri, The Victim Center and Rare Breed were selected for a $30,000 grant to work with homeless youth who have been crime victims, according to the release.

The final $30,000 grant would go toward improvements of the Grant Beach Neighborhood Association’s Hovey House, which supplies fresh produce via Ozarks Food Harvest and a community garden. In addition to the association, the partnering organizations are Springfield Community Gardens, Habitat for Humanity and the Gigglebox Project.

The $26,991 grant would provide integrated behavioral health services for low-income patients with no insurance. The Betty and Bobby Allison Ozarks Counseling Center, Missouri State University, Mercy and the National Alliance on the Mentally Ill of Southwest Missouri are working to make the project happen, according to the release.