Gulf Coast Community Foundation recently awarded nine leveraged grants totaling $462,000 for a range of major nonprofit programs and services. The funding will support local efforts to fight hunger, provide safe housing for struggling single mothers, expand trauma-focused services for children, and more. The board also approved $266,000 in community grants—smaller grants of $10,000 or less that benefit local nonprofit programs, events, and fundraising activities.  

The leveraged grants recipients are: 

All Faiths Food Bank

$25,000 to support the 2020 Campaign Against Summer Hunger. 

All Star Children’s Foundation

$100,000 to provide trauma-focused services for children in the foster-care system who have suffered child abuse and neglect. 

The Bay Park Conservancy

$150,000 to support the design, implementation, and activation of Phase One of The Bay Park on Sarasota Bay. 

Centerstone Florida 

$40,000 to support the Twelfth Judicial Circuit’s Comprehensive Treatment Court, a jail-diversion opportunity for adults with mental-health or co-occurring mental-health and substance-abuse disorders who are in the criminal-justice system. 

Easterseals Southwest Florida

$40,000 to integrate back-office systems as part of its collaborative partnership with InStride Therapy, which will enable the organizations to increase their therapy services and revenue. 

Education Foundation of Sarasota County 

$40,000 to support the Local College Access Network, a collaboration led by the Education Foundation to increase college access, attainment, and success for Sarasota County youth. 

Gulf Coast Partnership

$22,000 to create a landlord-engagement program to help provide safe housing to women suffering from homelessness, particularly women who have been victims of violence. 

United Way of Charlotte County

$25,000 to support a collective-impact consultant to assist low-income, female-headed households in accessing a variety of services from United Way-funded agencies in Charlotte County. 

Virginia B. Andes Volunteer Community Clinic

$20,000 to support a clinic services director to increase access to healthcare for uninsured senior women in Charlotte County. 

A full list of grant recipients is available on the Gulf Coast Community Foundation website.