LOWELL – The Greater Lowell Community Foundation (GLCF) announced it deployed a new round of COVID-19 related grants, providing an additional $150,000 to seven nonprofits in Greater Lowell addressing mental health needs. These grants were part of the latest round of distributions from the GLCF COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund.
Grants were determined through a competitive process with community members serving on the selection committee. GLCF solicited applications from nonprofits and local programs addressing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health in Greater Lowell.
“GLCF received more than $700K in grant requests for this cycle – the needs are enormous as the community deals with the mental health implications of COVID-19,” said GLCF president & CEO Jay Linnehan. “We are grateful to our volunteer selection committee that used their collective expertise to review many worthy applications to make some hard decisions relating to grant funding.”
The seven nonprofits receiving grants to address mental health needs are:
- Adolescent Consultation Services (Cambridge) for Direct Mental Health Services for Court-Involved Children in Greater Lowell – $25,000
- Alternative House (Lowell) for Support for Child Survivors – $15,000
- Boys & Girls Club of Greater Billerica for Club Social Worker – $50,000
- International Institute of New England (Lowell) for Lowell Refugee Youth Mental Health Initiative – $30,000
- ThinkGive (Concord) for SEL program expansion to five Greater Lowell sites serving under-resourced youth in 2022–2023 – $5,000
- UTEC (Lowell) for Improving mental health for proven-risk adolescents – $20,000
- Westford Health Department for applying under the shared grant service NorthWest Coalition (Lowell, Westford, Acton, and Dracut) Youth Mental Health First Aid trainings – $15,084
Among the grants funded, Boys & Girls Club of Greater Billerica received a grant to support a club social worker. “Mental Health is often overlooked, young people, today, more than ever, are facing pressures, stress and other mental health issues, post pandemic,” said Michelle Vichot, CEO, Boys & Girls Club of Greater Billerica for Club Social Worker. “We are so grateful to GLCF for their impactful generosity as we work on this critical issue together.”
Additionally, International Institute of New England received a recent $30,000 grant for their program: Lowell Refugee Youth Mental Health Initiative. “IINE has special programming for refugee youth and this grant support of our Lowell Refugee Youth Mental Health Initiative will allow us to add new strategies and resources to better support their healing from experiences of forced migration and other early traumas,” said Alexandra Weber, LICSW, Senior Vice President, International Institute of New England. “GLCF’s support will allow us to better educate staff, youth, and parents on risk and protective factors to promote youth emotional well-being.”
Since March of 2019, through grants from the GLCF COVID-19 Emergency Response Fund and the Massachusetts COVID Relief Fund, the foundation has supported more than 140 local nonprofit organizations with grants totaling over $7 million.
