Dubois County Community Foundation Awarded $4.4 Million Grant From Lilly Endowment

FROM LOCAL SOURCES

JASPER -- The Dubois County Community Foundation has been awarded a Large-Scale Community Leadership Grant of $4.4 million.

The award is through the seventh phase of Lilly Endowment Inc.’s Giving Indiana Funds for Tomorrow (GIFT VII) initiative.

The grant will support efforts to significantly improve access to services that address mental health and substance abuse disorders in Dubois County and the surrounding region.

The Community Foundation will be awarded the full grant payout in 2020. Disbursements to community partners will begin in 2021 and continue through 2025.

Those recipients include Memorial Hospital and Health Care Center, LifeSpring Health Systems, Dubois County Community Corrections, Dubois County CARES and Next Step Recovery Home.

“The lack of access to mental health services and substance abuse treatment in the county and surrounding region is an urgent and critical need,” said Clayton Boyles, executive director of the Community Foundation.

“Through this large-scale funding opportunity, we’ve been given the opportunity to drastically change the trajectory of many lives in our region. Lilly Endowment’s partnership through this grant will be a catalyst to moving forward a holistic plan built by our community to address this complex issue,” said Boyles.

The scope of this initiative includes strategies that are diverse and broad, including but not limited to evidence-based, cognitive behavior programs for substance abuse treatment, residential treatment facilities, recovery housing, workforce attraction and retention of mental health professionals as well as public education and prevention efforts.

“We listened to our community and what surfaced was the prevalence of behavioral health issues and the shortage of resources,” Boyles said. “The lack of access to mental health services and substance abuse treatment in our county has a significant ripple effect on our families, employers, public systems, nonprofit resources and overall quality of life in our community.” Boyles said.

“The 11 grants Lilly Endowment is funding through the highly-competitive component of GIFT VII hold great promise of helping community foundations strengthen the leadership roles they play in improving  the quality of life for their communities’ residents” said Ronni Kloth, Lilly Endowment’s vice president for community development. “We are truly impressed by the collaborative projects these community foundations have developed to address the compelling needs they have prioritized and look forward to seeing the impact of their efforts in the years to come.”