Preliminary grant requests are due by August 18, 2021 for the second of two grant funding cycles in 2021. Interested applicants can choose from three portfolios: Programs & Services, Strengthening Partner Capacity, and Community Change. This will be the last grant cycle in 2021.
Please go to the Apply for a Grant page on our website for more information about this grant opportunity. If you would like to schedule a call with a Tower Foundation team member to discuss a possible submission click here.
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In responding to the demands of COVID-19,
the Tower Foundation suspended our traditional annual cycles for 2020. A significant share of that year’s grants allocation was directed to a number of local emergency funds that were able to get dollars out the door quickly and target pressing short-term needs. When the Board of Trustees approved a new slate of grant awards in June 2021, it represented the first new, programmatic grants in about a year and a half. We are pleased to announce the following grants:
- ACCESS of WNY for a High Fidelity Wraparound Program, providing mental health services in Lackawanna, New York.
- Cape Cod Community College Educational Foundation for a mental health awareness initiative and system of supports at the Barnstable County, MA campus.
- Learning Disabilities Association of Western New York for LEAD716, a program addressing the needs of children exposed to lead in Erie County NY.
- Massachusetts Audubon Society for a program providing internships for young people with intellectual and learning disabilities at three wildlife centers in Eastern Massachusetts.
- Niagara Falls Memorial Medical Center for Recovery Express, a program connecting people in recovery to needed services in Niagara County, NY.
- People Against Trafficking Humans, Inc. for making primary and behavioral health services available to clients at their Enrichment Center in Buffalo, NY.
- Tapestry Charter School for a specialized classroom to meet the needs of diverse learners on its Buffalo, NY campus.
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POLICY SERIES PROMOTES MENTAL HEALTH
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The Tower Foundation has joined forces
with the Thomas Scattergood Foundation, Peg’s Foundation, and the Patrick P. Lee Foundation to commission the ‘Think Bigger Do Good Policy Series.” The intent of the series is to produce timely and well-researched papers (available to the public at no cost) that address crucial behavioral health issues and promote effective advocacy. Each paper in the series identifies the problem and recommends clear strategies to advance the delivery of mental health and substance use disorder care.
All of these papers are original and thought-provoking. A recent examination of COVID-19, structural racism, and inequality in the mental health system offers syndemic theory as a framework to understand “how diseases and social conditions form, interact, and cluster to produce worse outcomes for certain populations.”
Links to the three most recent papers are provided here.
- COVID-19, Structural Racism, and Mental Health Inequities: Policy Implications for an Emerging Syndemic
- Policy Recommendations to Address Housing Shortages for People with Severe Mental Illness
- Systemic, Racial Justice-Informed Solutions to Shift “Care” from the Criminal Legal System to the Mental Health Care System
For more information about the series, visit https://thinkbiggerdogood.org/.
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GUEST BLOG: Center for Self Advocacy
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This July, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), turns thirty-one. To observe this milestone, we invited these reflections from Samuel Mattle, Executive Director for the Center for Self Advocacy, based in Buffalo, NY.
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