WQIO Ohio's Super Station
he Franklin County Commissioners unanimously approved five resolutions at their General Session meeting that provide $5,834,192 in grant funding to 20 different community agencies that support Franklin County residents. Sixteen of the grants totaling almost $4 million are via the commissioners’ usual Community Partnerships grant process to award county general fund money, and four are COVID-19 recovery grants allocating federal passthrough dollars.
“Franklin County provides our community’s social safety net via our health and human services agencies,” said Board of Commissioners President, John O’Grady. “But families also rely extensively on nonprofit organizations in the community, and we rely on those agencies to support our families in need with assistance right where they’re at.”
The Community Partnership grants are awarded via a competitive process to support local community-based organizations that provide services to effectively and efficiently address the commissioners’ core principles and Rise Together Blueprint action steps and goals. This year’s recipients include Feed The Kids Columbus, which partners with 28 local schools to feed children whose families are food-insecure, Heart of Ohio Family Health Centers, which tailors medical and social support for low-income patients, and Junior Achievement of Central Ohio, which provides financial literacy, career and work readiness, and entrepreneurship programing for students in kindergarten through 12th grade. A full list of recipients is below, and the full text of the resolution and grants is available online.
“It feels like the worst of the pandemic’s health effects have passed, but many Central Ohio residents are still recovering from its social and economic effects,” said Commissioner Kevin L. Boyce. “It’s vital that we’re able to direct these funds to this diverse group of agencies that are meeting the needs they see in their individual communities for families that often don’t have many other resources to help them climb the ladder of economic success.”
The COVID-19 recovery grants approved today are for $300,000 to support preschool programing at the Childhood League Center, $329,651 to Big Brothers Big Sisters of Central Ohio, $999,700 to the Franklin County Agricultural Society to make ADA compliance improvements at the Franklin County Fairgrounds, and $500,000 to the Mid-Ohio Food Collective to provide emergency food assistance to residents in need.
“Working with our nonprofit community partners is one of the best ways we can support our neighbors because they have a pulse on the community and community needs, due to the close relationships with the very people who make this county so special. Franklin County is a wonderful place to live, work, and play, and it is incumbent on us as leaders to ensure that all of our families have the tools they need to not just survive, but to thrive,” said Commissioner Erica C. Crawley.
More information about the commissioners Community Partnerships program can be found here, and the full text of the resolutions and grants is available here. For more information about all the ways the commissioners work to support Franklin County families every day, you can find the annual State of the County Report at Report.FranklinCountyOhio.gov.
