Western Reserve Health Foundation Awards $102,000

YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – The Western Reserve Health Foundation will donate nearly $102,000 to six area health and wellness initiatives, the foundation announced Thursday.

“We are pleased to support a broad range of heal-related programs with this round of grants,” said foundation Chairman Phillip Dennison in a statement. “For the first time, applicants could direct their request to the issue-specific areas that align with the specialized areas the foundation supports.”

The Neil Kennedy Recovery Center was awarded $20,000 to support yoga classes and a wellness garden, where the classes will take place. Classes will be taught by professional instructors and relate yoga to recovery. Patients will cultivate the garden “using their creativity to make it a reflection of the people that use it.”

Youngstown Area Goodwill Industries was awarded $23,000 for its children’s vision screening program to test for amblyopia, or lazy eye. Goodwill will purchase new testing equipment, replacing old machines that require verbal responses and testers interpreting answers, which can  lead to inaccuracies.

Four other awards were also announced: $27,900 to Youngstown State University for its partnership with Midlothian Free Health Clinic, $15,000 to the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp. to hire a coordinator for its Safe Routes to School program, and $16,000 to Akron Children’s Hospital for two programs.

The Safe Sleep Program was given $6,000 for its Safe Sleep Summit, to provide safe sleeping kits to families, and to train area day cares, pediatricians, family practitioners and community agencies. Another $10,000 was given to the hospital’s Pediatric Cancer Family Support Fund.

Pictured: As part of Goodwill Industries’ vision screening program, a child is given a vision test. A $23,000 grant from the Western Reserve Health Foundation will pay for new screening equipment.

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