The Brandywine Health Foundation is pleased to announce $425,000 in grant awards to twelve nonprofit agencies serving Coatesville area residents. These grants are in addition to $400,000 in funding for ChesPenn Health Services, this year’s portion of a $2 million commitment made to that Brandywine Center agency last year.

James H. Manning, Jr., Esq., Chair of the Brandywine Health Foundation’s Grantmaking Committee, remarked, “the economy requires that we step up to help those agencies with a proven track record of quality services for the uninsured and underinsured in our community. These are valuable organizations serving an increasingly needy population at a time when funding is tight. Thankfully the foundation’s generous supporters enable us to focus on those groups with top quality staff and programming that are having the greatest impact.”

This newest funding cycle puts the foundation’s total giving to over $8.1 million since its inception in May 2001. The following organizations received grants from the Foundation:

• $10,000 to the Blind Association (Pennsylvania Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Chester County Branch, Inc.) to provide vision exams and glasses to uninsured and underinsured individuals.
• $250,000 to Chester County Community Dental to continue to provide dental services to the underinsured and uninsured, serving more than 3,000 patients in over 8,200 visits each year, a doubling of patient visits in the last year. Community Dental also provides outreach and education services, including sealant services at area elementary schools.
• $45,000 to Child Guidance Resource Centers to provide community-based therapeutic, supportive and preventive behavioral healthcare services for children, adolescents and their families with mental health, developmental disability and residential needs in the Coatesville public schools as well as in the Chester County headquarters of the agency, located in the Brandywine Center. Over 800 children were served last year.
• $10,000 to Coatesville and Downingtown Area Senior Centers to coordinate the new Chester County Senior Center Collaborative. The Collaborative will work to strengthen the existing senior center network that provides avenues for healthy aging through programming, nutrition and education to Chester County residents.
• $10,000 to Coatesville Center for Community Health to provide operating support to this collective of safety net providers collaborating to provide health care services and health education programs for low income residents in the Coatesville area.
• $10,000 to Domestic Violence Center of Chester County to support services in the Coatesville Satellite Office, providing crisis intervention, domestic violence education, counseling, legal information, advocacy and referral services to victims of abuse and their dependent children. Services include the Rapid Response program, which provides 24 hour accessibility to DVCCC for victims of abuse, working with local police and hospital staff to educate them on the availability and scope of the agency’s services.
• $10,000 to Family Service of Chester County to provide bilingual, bicultural counseling services on a sliding scale basis at the agency’s office in the Coatesville Center for Community Health.
• $25,000 to Maternal and Child Health Consortium Healthy Start Program to facilitate health care access for pregnant women in need of early and ongoing prenatal care; pediatric care for their babies and toddlers; and links them with other needed services to improve the physical and mental health of their families.
• $15,000 to Neighborhood Health Agencies’ Senior Health Link to provide visiting-nurse outreach services to low-income and uninsured frail senior citizens, using experienced nurses as well as student nurses from the county’s nurse training programs – to introduce them to community nursing as a career.
• $10,000 to Nurse-Family Partnership of Chester County Health Department to provide outreach services to 100 first-time mothers in the Coatesville area using this national model with documented positive outcomes in promoting healthy birth outcomes and healthy parenting of children in low-income, high-risk families.
• $30,000 to Planned Parenthood Coatesville Health Center to provide family planning services, gynecological care and HIV+ primary care to more than 2,300 patients from the greater Coatesville area, 95 percent of whom are low-income and either uninsured or on Medical Assistance. Services are provided in the Coatesville Center for Community Health.

For more information on the foundation’s grantmaking priorities, please click here.