The motto of the Ottauquechee Health Foundation (OHF) is “Grants, funding and support–because good healthcare matters to us all.”
In the first half of this year OHF has provided over $36,000 in Good Neighbor Grants on behalf of over 25 community members who were unable to pay their health care costs.
The Foundation’s Loan Forgiveness program was initiated last year as a means of supporting the retention of new health care providers in town. So far this year $2,000 went toward the education loans of Physician Assistants at the Ottauquchee Health Center.
The Foundation continues to support community health needs by leasing its space at 32 Pleasant Street to health providers and health-related non-profit providers at rates below-market value.
During this period the Foundation also made ten Organizational Grants totaling $49,086 in support of programs that identify and help meet the health care needs for residents of our catchment area, which includes the towns of Barnard, Bridgewater, Hartland, Killington, Plymouth, Pomfret, Reading, and Woodstock and the village of Quechee. These grants ranged in size from $500 to $15,000 for a wide range of needs:
Zack’s Place – To support sending individuals and their caregivers to the Upper Valley Aquatic Center twice a month. ($1,920)
Barnard Academy’s Farm to School Initiative – To support the hiring of a coordinator to supervise expansion of the school’s vegetable gardens and to develop and educational component for the program re: healthy nutrition. ($1,100)
Good Neighbor Health Clinics – To support medical and dental care to low-income, uninsured residents in the OHF service area. ($9,000)
Woodstock Area Council on Aging / The Thompson Center – To support medical transportation services for seniors in the OHF area. ($15,000)
Mount Ascutney Hospital / Ottauquechee Health Center – To continue the popular ongoing literacy promotion program, “Reach Out and Read”, which provides free books to Ottauquechee Health Center pediatric patients for use as a developmental screening tool during check-ups as well as a means of promoting family reading in the home. ($1,350)
Upper Valley Haven – For healthy cooking demonstrations, recipes, and samples at the Haven’s Food Pantry, as a means of educating and encouraging consumption of nutritious, low cost, fresh foods. ($5,000)
Upper Valley Farm to School Network – To support the development of local community food and farming curriculum and activities and implement this curriculum in three WCSU elementary schools during the 2011-12 academic year. ($6,216)
Woodstock Nursery School – To support a benefit performance of Get a Life! Sane Wisdom for an Insane World, a presentation by stress-management expert Loretta LaRoche. ($500)
CONFR-Council on Fundraising – To support the attendance of participants from health organizations in the OHF service area at an autumn 2011 or spring 2012 NH Grants Institute conference. ($500)
Health Information and Referral Services / Community Care Coordinator – To provide partial funding for short-term, in-home caregivers to individuals in OHF service area. ($3,500)
Good Neighbor Grant applications are accepted and reviewed throughout the year. Organizational Grant proposals will be accepted for the Autumn with a deadline of September 30, 2011. Guidelines and application materials are available on our website or by calling the office at 802-457-4188.