CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Foundation's Greater Cleveland COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund announced its latest round of grants on Friday, issuing $928,000 to 18 local organizations.
The Cleveland Baptist Association, DigitalC, Neighborhood Connections, and PCs for People all received the largest contributions at $100,000 each. Respectively, they will work to help houses of worship reopen safely, bring high-speed internet to low-income families, disseminate masks to Cuyahoga County residents in need, and help get low-cost computers to Cleveland Metropolitan School District students.
The other grants were dispersed as follows:
- Towards Employment ($85,000): To purchase IT equipment and additional supplies to provide adult literacy services via tele-tutoring and live video sessions to the agency’s more than 1,100 students.
- Achievement Centers for Children ($62,000): To equip both staff and clients with new laptops, webcams, monitors and software to allow for telehealth appointments for children and adults with disabilities in Greater Cleveland.
- Stella Maris, Inc. ($57,000): To provide emergency room and board for clients who cannot be placed in sober living, as well as the purchase of critical safety supplies and additional telehealth equipment in Cuyahoga, Lake and Geauga counties.
- Slavic Village Development ($50,000): To provide PPE to organizational staff, residents and businesses to aid with the safe reopening in the Broadway/Slavic Village neighborhood.
- American Cancer Society Hope Lodge ($46,000): To assist with the reopening of Hope Lodge, including sanitizing the facility, retrofitting the common areas to enable social distancing and providing PPE to both caregivers and patients who utilize the free facility near Cleveland’s cancer treatment centers.
- Heights Christian Church ($36,000): To support a collaboration with other churches and community organizations to increase the capacity of the Unity in Community food pantry program to address food insecurity in the Shaker Heights community.
- Islamic Center of Cleveland ($35,000): To continue to provide housing, utilities, food and necessary supplies to those in need in the Northeast Ohio area.
- Harvard Square Center ($30,000): To support the socially distant delivery of the center’s services and programming to its Southeast Cleveland clients, including delivery of food and hygiene kits, as well as virtual education and wellness programming.
- Esperanza Inc. ($25,000): To implement youth, postsecondary, and family engagement support programs for Hispanics in Greater Cleveland via videoconference.
- Enterprise Community Partners ($23,000): To provide safe, accessible tax services for low-income families in Cleveland due to the extension of the federal and state filing deadline, critical in order for families to receive their COVID-19 economic impact payments.
- Life Exchange Center ($23,000): To expand peer support services for adults in Cuyahoga County with mental health and/or addiction challenges to include telehealth and at-home kits with personal hygiene items and activities to assist during isolation.
- City Club of Cleveland ($22,000): To support the City Club’s food distribution partnership with Lutheran Metropolitan Ministries, an effort that is producing 10,000 meals every week for Greater Cleveland’s homeless population.
- Women's Recovery Center ($19,000): To support the organization as it continues to serve women and their families in Cuyahoga County by providing comprehensive addiction treatment, prevention, and education programs that are client-centered, family-based and recovery-focused.
- Vineyard Christian Fellowship ($15,000): For additional equipment and supplies to store and provide more fresh food for the organization’s drive-up food pantry.
Contributions to the Rapid Response Fund have totaled $8.7 million since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. With the effects of the situation expected to linger, the group has decided to extend its initial phase of grant making through the end of July.
Those wishing to donate can do so at ClevelandFoundation.org/Response.