Funds give grants to community nonprofits
Three funds in the Idaho Community Foundation — the North Idaho Action Fund, the Bonner County Endowment Fund for Human Rights and the Bonner County Fund for Arts Enhancement — have awarded $85,350 to local nonprofits.
The North Idaho Action Fund supports organizations and projects working to improve the accessibility and quality of behavioral health programs in Bonner and Boundary counties. This is the first time grants have been distributed from this fund. It awarded $50,000 to four organizations. Recipients are:
• Bonner County Partners in Care Clinic, Inc. — $30,000 to pay for Bonner County master’s level mental health clinicians to answer an after-hours crisis line and to pay the crisis line director
• Community Coalition for Families — $5,000 to partner with Boundary County charitable organizations to provide vouchers to people with behavioral health issues in need of emergency shelter, food, and transportation assistance for out of town behavioral health appointments.
• Panhandle Health District 1 (Region 1 Behavioral Health Board) — $5,000 to provide suicide prevention training for Bonner and Boundary counties. This is a partnership Suicide Prevention Action Network Idaho North.
• Underground Kindness — $10,000 to provide free mental/emotional well-being classes at Sandpoint High School, the Juvenile Justice Center, and elementary/middle schools, bring in suicide-prevention related key note speakers, and develop curriculum and software for the program.
• The Bonner County Endowment Fund for Human Rights is for organizations whose activities reflect commitment to the ideal that everyone is equal under our state and federal laws and constitution regardless of race, color, gender, religion, sexual orientation or disability. It distributed $14,600 to four nonprofits. Recipients are:
• Arts Alliance, Inc. — $2,000 to provide on-the-job training for two low-income individuals in the Watch Us Grow Program and serve the 35,000 annual visitors to the Creations’ Community Art Studio and Indoor Play Area.
• Bonner Partners in Care Clinic, Inc. — $8,000 to pay for Bonner County masters level mental health clinicians to answer an after-hours crisis line and to pay the crisis line director
• Idaho Mythweaver — $1,600 to support Year 2 of the Native Heritage Film Series in partnership with the Sandpoint Branch of the East Bonner County Library District.
• Panida Theater — $3,000 to present four free films (one per season) to the public that highlight a human rights concern, along with an educational/art component and information about available community/state resources.
• The Bonner County Fund for Arts Enhancement, is for projects that demonstrate how the arts encourage creative and critical thinking, stimulate economic vitality and enhance the quality of life in a community. It distributed $17,750 to five nonprofits. Recipients are:
Academy of Northwest Writers and Publishers — $1,750 to help pay the honorarium for the Montana Shakespeare in the Parks troupe.
• Festival at Sandpoint — $4,500 to support The Festival at Sandpoint’s educational mission including the 5th Grade Outreach Program, Instrument Assistance Program, Youth Strings Orchestra, family concert, community orchestra and scholarships.
• Music Conservatory of Sandpoint — $2,500 to expand free or low-cost after-school programs for the Youth Orchestra & Children’s Choir (2nd grade+), and advanced Chamber Orchestra & Ensemble Choir (grades 6-12), with 25+ students using free loaned instruments.
• Panida Theater — $4,500 to bring in new live high-definition broadcasts of stage performances to expand arts education, literature and cultural events not currently available in North Idaho.
• Pend Oreille Arts Council — $4,500 to provide unique, culturally diverse educational opportunities in the performing arts for K-12th grade students in Bonner County at no cost to the student, parents or schools.