Grants

Grant Application Instructions

The Women’s Giving Circle, a component fund of Your Community Foundation for North Central West Virginia, welcomes grant applications for organizations in Harrison, Taylor, Marion, Preston and Monongalia Counties in West Virginia that are addressing one or more of the following needs of women in our community:

• Increasing life skills of women and girls through education, economic empowerment, physical and mental health, and strategies for prevention of violence and crime
• Encouraging the healthy development of girls
• Promoting gender equity in our community

Empowering Women Through Philanthropy

The Women’s Giving Circle of North Central West Virginia is pleased to announce our tenth annual community grant opportunity. This year’s grants total $19,280.00 and the awards range from $2,000 to $5,000. Awards were presented to five local charitable organizations: Health Access, Inc; St. Ursula Food Pantry and Outreach.; Girls on the Run of North Central West Virginia, Inc.; Stars & Strides Therapeutic Equine Center, Inc; and The Shack Neighborhood House, Inc. (Mon County Starting Points) Adventurous Girls.

Since its inception in 2014, the Women’s Giving Circle has gifted over $164,950.

In 2015, our first grant cycle, seven organizations received awards totaling $10,000 for their projects to support women and girls. In 2016, six organizations received awards totaling $11,500. In 2017, six organizations received awards totaling
$14,000. To date over $164,950 has been awarded. Grant funding has increased annually. With continued membership growth our future granting can be evermore generous.

2024 Grants Awarded

Girls on the Run of North Central West Virginia, Inc.

GOTR collaborates with schools to offer programming and resources that promote healthy
youth development, including social and emotional learning and physical activity. This school–community partnership is compatible with the Whole School, Whole Community, Whole Child Model , which advocates educators, communities, families, and policy makers to work together to ensure children are healthy, safe, engaged, supported, and challenged. “Research on the effectiveness of GOTR provides evidence that GOTR is having a positive impact on emotional, social, and physical competence (e.g., expressing feelings, more outgoing, improved running); confidence (e.g., feeling better about self); connection (e.g.,
choosing the right friends); character (e.g., acting more nicely to others); and caring behaviors (e.g., accepting of others).”

Health Access, Inc
Giving a Women a Reason to Smile” is a dental program that will enable those women in
the Clarksburg based recovery program to come to the Health Access Dental Clinic and
receive the quality dental care required to move forward with a physically and emotionally
healthy life. This care will include full dental x rays, dental cleanings, restorations, extractions and removable prosthetic dentures if warranted. The women will also be provided with needed dental supplies for proper home care, such as toothbrushes, toothpaste, floss and denture cleaning supplies.

Stars & Strides Therapeutic Equine Center, Inc

Our program will benefit at-risk teenage girls aged 13-17, aiming to positively impact their lives and futures. We concentrate on enhancing self-worth and establishing healthy boundaries for girls from impoverished families. Advancements in these aspects will aid in steering them away from situations with a high risk of domestic violence, contributing to reduced crime rates in our communities. Our mission is to empower these young women to forge futures that break free from the cycles of poverty, addiction, and victimization, and strengthen their overall mental health and resilience. To engage participants, we plan to
collaborate with local schools, CASA, and the Child Advocacy Center. We believe starting with a small group of 8 would allow for maximum participation and full attention on each participant.

St. Ursula Food Pantry and Outreach
We serve babies, moms and many elderly women. We want to give them their freedom, by
providing tampons, pad, bladder control pads and adult depends. Our clients can go anywhere they want if they have these products. It gives them the freedom to go out and do regular things that most people do. These items cannot be purchased with food stamps and most of our clients receive food stamps. We follow the government’s guidelines for eligibility, so our clients are at poverty level or below. This past year, I was able to buy pads from the mountaineer food bank which made our money last longer. We did purchase a lot of tampons, pad, and especially poise, which were a big hit. Our clients are so happy to receive these items every month.

The Shack Neighborhood House, Inc. (Mon County Starting Points) Adventurous Girls

Adventurous Girls is a program created to empower middle school aged girls in Monongalia County and help them build self-confidence, leadership skills and lasting friendships. This program targets girls dealing with stressors such as low socioeconomic status, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), parental incarceration, substance use at home, domestic violence, divorced parents, academic struggles, and involvement in foster care. This
program aims to provide a safe and nurturing environment in which the girls can form positive relationships while learning practical skills and growing supports for their own personal toolkits