AMARILLO, Texas (KAMR/KCIT) – The Amarillo Area Foundation recently announced its distributions to local nonprofit organizations for its first discretionary grant cycle of 2024, which focused on the areas of education, health and economic opportunity.
“These organizations are continuing the important work that is our mission: improving the quality of life for Texas Panhandle residents,” said the AAF of the grant recipients, “Over $1,787,075 was granted in this cycle. Thank you to these organizations!”
During the round of discretionary grants, the AAF awarded $435,000 to education-focused organizations, $152,675 to economic opportunity-focused organizations and programs and $1,199,400 to health-focused organizations and programs.
The largest grants, as noted by the AAF, were two $250,000 grants awarded to mental care and behavioral health service expansion around the rural areas of the Texas Panhandle and one $240,000 grant awarded to Ogallala Commons to contribute to its efforts to establish food hubs and a functioning foodshed system around the region.
“One of the grant recipients of this round was the Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute, and this is working on their year three, and it’s going to help provide mental health resources to our rural areas,” said AAF Director of Grants and Community Investment Sarah Griffin. “Which were really trying to help in that area. Right now, people are having to travel quite a distance to come to Amarillo for services and so we want to make sure that the rural communities are well established with resources.”
The organizations that received the first round of discretionary grants from the AAF included:
Education
- Amarillo College Foundation – $125,000 to support AC’s Advocacy Resource Center;
- Buckner Children and Family Services – $40,000 to support the Amarillo Family Pathways program;
- Martha’s Home – $30,000 to aid in providing targeted support for women in post-secondary education experiencing homelessness through the Present Needs Future Success program;
- Refugee Language Project – $150,000 to upskill nontraditional students by creating a program for refugees to become certified on-demand translators; and
- West Texas A&M University Foundation – $90,000 to provide matching support for AmeriCorps‘ work-based learning program.
Economic Opportunity
- Cactus Nazarene Ministry Center – $60,000 to support the expansion of the after-school care program for junior high students;
- We Find In Love – $57,675 to support the Extra Hours after-school program at The PLACE; and
- The RANGE – $35,000 to provide support for phase one of its Regional Broadband Accessibility Study project.
Health
- Eastridge Mission Center – $30,000 to support the expansion of its kitchen used to feed children and older adults;
- Ogallala Commons – $240,000 to support the 2024-2025 Rebuilding Texas Foodsheds project, which seeks to collaborate with communities and local food producers to respond to widespread food insecurity across the region;
- Project Feed the Kids – $45,000 to support the summer food program in Dumas, Cactus and Etter;
- 7 Star Horse Therapy – $50,000 to provide support for clients who cannot afford equine-assisted psychotherapy, horse care, counseling sessions and counseling contract labor;
- Downtown Women’s Center – $50,000 to support renovations to Haven House Too to allow for expansion of the recovery program;
- Hemphill County Hospital District – $175,000 to support the Empowering Lives counseling program for students and teachers in Canadian ISD;
- Hope Lives Here – $20,000 to support the Harley’s Legacy program in training 12 teams of veterans and service dogs;
- Panhandle Behavioral Health Alliance – $89,400 to support the PBHA’s Year Two funding for improving mental health access across the Texas Panhandle;
- Meadows Mental Health Policy Institute for Texas – $250,000 to fund the Year Three of the Mental Health Initiative for the Collaborative Care Model; and
- Aspire A Mindful Place – $250,000 to support the renovation and transformation of a 1948 iconic church in Borger into a behavioral health complex.
Executive Director of We Find in Love Emma Rohrs shared the money will officially establish an after-school program to help serve their refugee clients at The Place. According to Rohrs their initial target demographic was adults, but they were met with a need to serve children as well.
“We just kind of started letting them come and then the numbers just started growing, and the need just really showed itself,” said Rohrs. “We just took it on and wanted to continue to support these kids and have a safe place for them to go after school. During the summer, and during breaks, where we can work with them on their English, just learning to be part of Texas, and it’s obviously very different language and culture.”
According to Rohrs the base of their foundation is art.
“We are empowering through art, service and communities,” explained Rohrs. We find art in love, we find service in love, and we find community in love.”
Being able to expand their services provides invaluable opportunities and services to students.
“We’re gonna get some tablets to do some educational games with the kids, some indoor play activities, because our facility itself doesn’t have any room to add on any kind of playground or anything,” said Rohrs. “So, we want to be able to add some physical fun things that we can do with the facility that we already have.”
Rohrs continued, “we made books last year, where we gave the kids a chance to kind of express how they felt about having to leave home in a safe place. They knew that not only did the other kids understand but no one was going to judge them or be confused or think it was weird.”
As explained on its website, the AAF and the Don and Sybil B. Harrington Foundation award discretionary grants three-to-four times per year and accept applications for any of the three strategic impact areas of education, healthcare and economic opportunity. More information on the grant requirements and application process can be found here.
The next discretionary grant applications open on July 15.
The AAF has also continued to accept donations to and distribute from its Panhandle Disaster Relief Fund, which aims to supply funding and resources to families and communities impacted by regional disasters including the 2024 wildfires.
For the latest Amarillo news and regional updates, check with MyHighPlains.com and tune in to KAMR Local 4 News at 5:00, 6:00, and 10:00 p.m. and Fox 14 News at 9:00 p.m. CST.
