The Gogebic Range Health Foundation granted nearly $1 million over five years in Iron and Gogebic Counties.
Much of the funding went toward trail building with the idea that improving the built environment creates healthy communities.
Executive Director Kassi Huotari says that will still be a priority moving forward, but they also want to make sure they’re addressing other health gaps.
Since she started as Executive Director this summer, she’s been meeting with local nonprofits and community health individuals about where those gaps are and how the foundation can help.
“You hear a little bit of a different thing from everybody, but there was a lot regarding youth engagement and mental health initiatives. We're just kind of seeing the ramifications that COVID had in our community,” said Huotari.
The Health Foundation will be focused on four main issues when grant applications open next year:
· Youth engagement and mental health
· Economic empowerment
· Community food systems
· Connect communities
“We're very excited. We're really in that transformational stage of our organization, and I'm really excited about it,” said Huotari.
The economic empowerment will include implementing the Bridges Out of Poverty system. Huotari says it’s been done in Houghton area. It’s a 16-week program for people at poverty level or lower designed to set them up for financial stability.
Another issue Huotari has heard brought up a lot is lack of fresh food. The health foundation wants to try and help community gardens, food co-ops, farmer’s markets, and other initiatives that help secure food in the region.
Connected communities is where the health foundations will support trail projects like Project Connect.
“But this connected community’s piece could also be accessibility initiatives, other accessibility trail maintenance work. That's kind of our more vague one, that we can kind of fit different things in if there's specific needs in our community for that,” said Huotari.
The health foundation recently received a grant for more than $48,000 from the Michigan Health Endowment Fund to support that transformation.
Those funds will be used to attend conferences, outsource financial management which is currently done on a volunteer basis, and leadership development.
“I'm going to go through some rather rigorous training on different nonprofit things like executive leadership trainings, board development trainings, things with fund development and endowment development to try to increase those, so that moving forward, we'll have more money to work with when we try to grant funds out to the community,” said Huotari.
Right now, the Gogebic Range Health Foundation is in the middle of its Giving Tuesday campaign.
Huotari says an anonymous donor will match up $15,000 and the foundation’s board pledged another $3,000. In total, she’s hoping raise more than $36,000 now through December 3rd.
“Every dollar that we bring in from now until December 3 will go back into grant making,” said Huotari.
Applications for grants from the Gogebic Range Health Foundation will open in early 2025.
Huotari encourages programs that fit within their focus area that are new and trying to get off the ground to apply.
Depending on how well fundraising goes between now and the end of the year, the health foundation hopes to give out between $30,000 and $40,000 in grants in early 2025.
