Trustees of The Duke Endowment in Charlotte, N.C., have awarded $3.8 million in grants to help organizations in North Carolina and South Carolina address critical community needs resulting from the coronavirus. The funding will bolster services and resources for demographic groups that have been disproportionately affected by the crisis.
“Historically marginalized communities are shouldering the worst of the pandemic’s challenges through disparate rates of illness and deaths, job losses, and occupations that place them at increased risk of infection,” says Duke Endowment Board Chair Minor Shaw. “Longer term, the impact is proving to be hardest on communities of color and the organizations that serve them. These awards will help provide support for people most affected by the virus’s heavy toll across our two states.”
The funding is designated for:
- Children’s Advocacy Centers of North Carolina and the South Carolina Network of Children’s Advocacy Centers: To meet increased demand for Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy by training 150 clinicians.
- Fiesta Cristiana United Methodist Church in Apex, N.C.: To serve the Latino community in a five-county area by providing referrals to legal support, employment and housing assistance, and connection to food and health resources.
- HALOS in North Charleston, S.C.: To address the pandemic-generated needs of kinship caregivers in seven South Carolina counties in partnership with Kindred Hearts of South Carolina.
- North Carolina Community Action Association: To help community action agencies in North Carolina address the basic needs of low-income families.
- North Carolina Community Foundation: To support the NC Healing Communities Fund, a statewide effort to bolster nonprofits in marginalized communities that have been severely impacted by COVID-19.
- Prisma Health-Upstate in South Carolina: To expand PASOs, a model that employs community health workers to deliver culturally appropriate services and resources to improve health outcomes among Hispanic families in the community.
- Society of St. Andrew-North Carolina Gleaning Network: To alleviate food insecurity in high-need communities.
- U.S. Committee for Refugees and Immigrants in Raleigh, N.C.: To mitigate the effects of COVID-19 among refugee and immigrant families.
The Duke Endowment is one of the largest private foundations in the Southeast. Its work in North Carolina and South Carolina focuses on four program areas: child and family well-being, health care, higher education and rural United Methodist churches. The foundation shares a name with Duke University and Duke Energy, but they are separate organizations.
Earlier this year, Trustees of The Duke Endowment awarded a $3.5 million grant aimed at helping Feeding the Carolinas alleviate hunger in the wake of COVID-19. The funding helped Feeding the Carolinas and its 10 food banks in North Carolina and South Carolina respond to increased demand due to the pandemic.
In addition, the Endowment awarded $2.5 million to address vital health care and social needs related to the coronavirus crisis. With that funding, $1.25 million is being dispersed through the North Carolina Healthcare Foundation, the charitable nonprofit affiliate of the North Carolina Healthcare Association. In South Carolina, $1.25 million is being dispersed through One SC, a fund created at Central Carolina Community Foundation in 2015 to respond to natural disasters.
“As a funder in North Carolina and South Carolina, the Endowment’s focus is finding the best way to help families and communities in this region,” said Rhett Mabry, the Endowment’s president. “During the pandemic’s early months, that was through statewide efforts to support our overwhelmed medical systems and social service agencies. With these new grants, we continue to emphasize meeting urgent needs among communities that have endured sustained challenges.”
