The Clarksville-Montgomery County Community Health Foundation – a public advocacy board entrusted with disbursing public assets flowing from Clarksville Volunteer Health Inc. – approved almost $469,000 in grants this week, including $127,800 for the organization’s first-ever Fort Campbell grant recipient.
Clarksville Volunteer Health is the 20 percent minority joint-venture partner in Gateway Medical Center, and is an entity that exists to transfer revenues and receipts from publicly owned assets in Gateway to the Community Health Foundation for distribution to various health-related initiatives.
Sarah Schwartz, the local Health Foundation’s grant coordinator, said applications were due Nov. 1 for the organization’s January cycle of grants.
“We had quite a few new applicants,” Schwartz said. “We awarded $468,873 in this round.”
Reboot Combat Recovery this week became the organization’s first recipient on post. “We just added Fort Campbell to our grant area last year,” Schwartz said. “They are quite an impressive group and have become so successful in their approach to (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) that they have military bases all over the country calling them. They are going to Washington, D.C., in February to train a group there.”
Reboot exists “to help service members and their families heal from the spiritual and moral wounds of war associated with PTSD and combat trauma.” It was founded in 2011 in Montgomery County, and since that time has served over 400 individuals, at no charge, through a 12-week combat trauma healing course, one-on-one mentorship meetings, monthly reunions and biannual retreats.
Reboot currently has locations at Fort Campbell, Nashville, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina and Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. “This grant request for $127,800 was fully awarded and would specifically be for Montgomery County and Fort Campbell citizens,” Schwartz said.
Other recipients
Other recipients in the January grant cycle include:
•Tennessee College of Applied Technology: TCAT has received a one-time grant for $70,206 to fund a second full-time instructor in the practical nursing program for three trimesters (13 months). The Foundation had previously funded a nursing lab, classroom and computer lab for the LPN program.
•Manna Café: Manna Café was awarded $68,030 for a program called “Operation Pomegranate.”
“Manna already has an organized, established infrastructure and history of excellence in the community and a commitment to providing healthy food to the poor,” Schwartz said.
In 2013, they served more than 26,000 hot meals and distributed in excess of 1.3 million pounds of food in their boxes. They “rescue” food from being wasted and give it to low-income and homeless individuals. Operation Pomegranate would provide the missing piece to the puzzle, Schwartz said, by educating clients in choosing and using nourishing food to increase health.
Many of their clients lack the knowledge to prepare healthy food. Operation Pomegranate will allow Manna to collect more healthy food in a climate-controlled, safe manner and allow them to add needed education and training that will encourage and enable people to choose and use healthy food. They chose the name “Operation Pomegranate” in recognition of one of the most delicious, nutritious, yet underused and “misunderstood” foods.
•Austin Peay State University Primary Care: APSU School of Nursing was awarded $13,435 to continue their Primary Care program.
The program will provide access to health care at Matthew Walker Community Health Center for underserved people in Montgomery County who would otherwise not receive primary care due to lack of funds to pay. Their goal is to improve the health status of their patients with hypertension and diabetes.
“The program will also provide an opportunity for nursing students to practice and deliver an innovative model of care that allows the students to practice as a nursing team that drives outcomes for patients,” said Schwartz.
Faculty nurse practitioners, MSN and BSN student teams will work together to deliver primary care and disease management. The students will have the opportunity to learn evidence-based primary care, care coordination and management of chronic disease.
There are 13 members of the Community Health Foundation’s Board of Directors that makes decisions on disbursing grant funds, 11 of whom are appointed to serve as volunteers by the Clarksville City Council and Montgomery County Commission.
The 13 members are, Chairman Mike O’Malley; Dr. Jennifer Lowe Ellis, vice chairman; Kaye Drew, secretary; Marcos A. Arancibia; Anne K. Black; Khandra Smalley; Priscilla G. Story; Jack B. Turner; Joey Smith; Suzanne Uffelman; Ben Kimbrough, Sr.; Clarksville Mayor Kim McMillan and Montgomery County Mayor Jim Durrett.
Jimmy Settle, 245-0247
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