Nonprofits serving children and homeless receive grants from Mercy Medical Center Merced

Feb 5, 2010 — Merced Sun-Star

Carol Reiter

Feb. 3, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- A focus on children and the homeless led to Mercy Medical Center awarding $77,956 in grants to local nonprofits.

Mercy, with parent company Catholic Healthcare West, awards grants to community organizations each year. This year, the problem of the homeless was at the forefront of agencies receiving grant money.

Sierra Saving Grace Homeless Project of Sierra Presbyterian Church got a grant of $17,362 from Mercy. Candice Adam-Medefind, director of the homeless project for the church, said the money will be used to help house homeless people with health care problems.

"We have helped house seven medically needy people," Adam-Medefind said. "We will be adding at least five more in the next couple of weeks."

Adam-Medefind said the main problem with the homeless isn't the 80 percent of them who are only homeless temporarily. It's the 20 percent who are chronically homeless, she said.

"The challenge with these people isn't getting them into homes," she said. "It's having the support services that keep them housed. We will be able to use this money for those services."

Community Social Model Advocates also got a grant from Mercy for the homeless. Lori Newman, executive director of the agency, said the nonprofit operates alcohol and drug recovery homes for both women and men.

"The money will be used for the women's program," Newman said. "A lot of homeless women have substance abuse problems. This will really help us during these trying economic times when it's hard to get money for our programs."

The youth of Merced County weren't forgotten in the awarding of grants. The Boys and Girls Club of Merced County received $10,418, and the program it will support came directly from students.

"Some students from Golden Valley came to us and requested to do a health summit," said Tony Slaton, executive director of the club.

The money will be used to pair youth with professional mentors in various fields, Slaton said.

"A health summit will be the final project," Slaton said. "This was the young people's idea, that's why we felt it was important."

Janice Wilkerson, coordinator of the grant program for Mercy, said Catholic Healthcare West gave more than $3.5 million in 271 grants this year. Eligible organizations had to be nonprofit and sponsor a project or program in response to the health needs of the county.

"We think it's very important to give this money," Wilkerson said. "It's part of our mission to partner with others in the community to improve the quality of life."

A total of 13 local organizations gave letters of intent to Mercy for the money, Wilkerson said. The requested amount of money was more than $200,000, but the hospital had only $77,956 available. Those 13 organizations were whittled down to six.

"We couldn't give the full amount, so we made it fair by giving the same percentage for each amount requested," Wilkerson said.

The grant program was started by CHW in 1990. So far, it has awarded more than $34.6 million in grants, Wilkerson said.

"When we support other nonprofits, we can achieve so much more for our community," Wilkerson said.

Reporter Carol Reiter can be reached at (209) 385-2486 or creiter@mercedsun-star.com.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0264-41810414