$1M Grant to Support the Lorain County Crisis Continuum
At the annual meeting, the Community Foundation of Lorain County (Community Foundation) announced a $1M grant to support the Lorain County Crisis Continuum to the Mental Health, Addiction, and Recovery Services Board (MHARS Board). This grant is the largest grant in Community Foundation history.
During the early 2010s, community hospitals in Ohio began to consolidate into regional systems to improve efficiency and access to care. At the same time, physicians were actively working to reduce the number of blood transfusions requested for surgeries. These trends forced the closures of dozens of blood centers nationwide, including LifeShare Community Blood Services. In January 2015, the Phoenix-based Blood Systems, one of the nation’s largest non-profit transfusion organizations, acquired LifeShare Community Blood Services and sought a way to provide significant community impact and permanent benefit with its distribution of assets. The LifeShare Foundation Board voted to distribute $17.5M – all the organization’s assets – equally to the Community Foundation of Lorain County and the Lorain County Community College Foundation. The gift marks one of the most significant donations ever received by the Lorain County Community College Foundation and the most significant corporate contribution to the Community Foundation.
Quote from Michael Doud, Executive Director MHARS Board: “LifeShare Legacy Fund support for the start-up and operating costs associated with the crisis diversion center and crisis continuum of care will enable the Board to redirect some of its resources to develop additional recovery support services that will support the needs for children, adolescents, and adults as they are linked to ongoing community-based services. While it is understood that the development of a comprehensive crisis continuum of care will require additional time and resources, the commitment of the Community Foundation of Lorain County and Nord Family Foundation to address the crisis needs is apparent. Without their support, our ability to bring about a change in the delivery of crisis care would be significantly challenged”.
If you would like to make a donation or support this work contact our Development Officer, Laura Malone at 440.984.7390 or lmalone@peoplewhocare.org.
