Partners announce final round of phase 1 Greater Cleveland COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund grant recipients

Coalition designing potential phase 2 of fund to support ongoing needs of nonprofit partners confronting the impact of the pandemic

Release Date: 7.17.2020

CLEVELAND – The Greater Cleveland COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund coalition announced today the final round of phase 1 grants to support the nonprofit community. In total, $900,000 was awarded to 13 organizations and groups serving Cuyahoga, Lake and Geauga counties. Since the Fund’s creation in mid-March, partners have granted more than $8.6 million to nearly 160 nonprofit groups and organizations. The latest round of grant recipients includes:

Food & Shelter

  • Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority (CMHA) ($75,000): To hire additional resident employees to help clean and sanitize buildings across CMHA’s 60 housing developments, which serve 55,000 low-income residents across Cuyahoga County.
  • Lutheran Metropolitan Ministry ($90,000): To provide staffing and technology that will allow the organization to conduct its workforce development and other programming remotely and to build capacity to continue safely serving vulnerable populations in Greater Cleveland during the pandemic.
  • Paschal Baylon Roman Catholic Parish ($20,000): To purchase additional food, masks, hygiene products and other supplies for the unsheltered homeless population of Downtown Cleveland and surrounding areas.
  • United Church Homes/South Haven Woods ($10,000): To purchase cleaning supplies and enhanced nutrition for low-income residents, who are older adults or people of all ages with disabilities.
  • West Park Baptist Church ($32,000): To provide additional staffing, PPE, and cleaning supplies for increased food distribution in the West Park/Bellaire Puritas community.
  • Zion Hill Baptist Church ($30,000): To purchase food and personal care products for families struggling due to COVID-19, and to also provide for staffing and transportation for Mt. Pleasant community distribution.

PPE/COVID Testing

  • Olivet Housing & Community Development Corp. ($40,000): To expand its COVID-19 testing services as a community-wide free testing site and to purchase and distribute PPE supplies to those in the Fairfax neighborhood who do not have access to, or cannot afford to purchase, items such as masks, hand sanitizer, gloves and thermometers.
  • United Black Fund of Greater Cleveland ($100,000): To partner with The Khnemu Foundation to unify more than 50 faith-based partners through the FACTS CLE (Faith and Community Together Serving CLE) network, which will purchase, store, assemble and distribute more than 25,000 PPE kits for vulnerable residents in the city of Cleveland and inner ring suburbs.

Children & Youth

  • Starting Point ($200,000): To create a rapid relief fund that will provide mini-grants to early care and education programs throughout Cuyahoga County to respond to their needs, including PPE, staffing and pandemic-related materials, as these programs reopen and are challenged to navigate COVID-19.
  • The Diaper Bank of Greater Cleveland ($33,000): To continue to safely address the growing need for diapers, wipes, infant supplies and supportive services for children and families disproportionally impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • Northeast Ohio Adoption Services ($20,000): To support programs reducing the heightened and potentially life-threatening risks of foster care youth/young adults.

Connectivity

  • East Cleveland Public Library ($50,000): To modify the physical facility and provide PPE in order to be COVID-19 compliant and to purchase additional hot spots and digital equipment to be used by patrons and older adults in senior facilities near the library.

Small Community Grants

  • Neighborhood Connections ($200,000): To provide grants ($500-$5,000) to small nonprofit organizations, faith-based congregations, and grassroots and neighborhood civic groups throughout Cuyahoga, Lake and Geauga counties for a broad range of essential human needs such as healthy food and safe shelter. Since receiving its first round of funding on April 10, Neighborhood Connections has awarded 134 grants totaling more than $450,000.  

Funding partners urge other foundations, corporate entities, individuals and organizations to contribute to the fund via ClevelandFoundation.org/Response, where you can also view a list of partners to date. Donations of any amount are welcomed, and all contributions are tax deductible.

The Rapid Response Fund continues to learn how the collaborative can continue to help Greater Cleveland recover from COVID-19 and come back stronger. The Fund’s 80+ funding partners are conducting a #CLEResponds listening campaign to get insight and feedback from the community at large, in order to better understand COVID-19’s continued impact and to identify Cleveland’s most pressing needs. The community can help by answering two questions:

  • What is the most pressing need you and/or your community is currently facing?
  • What is the #1 thing Greater Cleveland’s leaders must focus on to help our region recover from COVID-19 and come back stronger?

Residents of Greater Cleveland can respond to the questions using this link.

For more information or to donate, visit ClevelandFoundation.org/Response.

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