Gilmer County Family Connection was recently able to split $5,000 worth of grant funding among five local nonprofits.
The local chapter of Georgia Family Connection presented five $1,000 minigrants to the organizations, all of which work in some way with children and families, confirmed Tiffany Watson, Gilmer Family Connection director.
Grant recipients are The Craddock Center, New Beginnings for Gilmer County, Kids Ferst, Gilmer Community Food Pantry and Mountain Wisdom. The competitive minigrant program was made possible through Resilient Georgia, a statewide coalition that focuses on mental health and trauma awareness.
The Craddock Center, of Cherry Log, and Kids Ferst of Gilmer County both provide early childhood literacy programs.
Craddock Center Director Kirk Cameron said the $1,000 grant helped the center carry out its first Summer Send-Off program in May.
“The goal of this program to provide our children an opportunity to continue learning even as their formal learning programs suspend for the summer. Each of our 1,100 children received a brand-new Golden Classics book, a reading log to record the books they read during summer and arts and craft supplies to make hand puppets,” added Cameron.
In 2014, several Gilmer churches banded together to form New Beginnings, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit that, so far, has built seven temporary housing units for families and individuals to live in while they search for permanent housing.
The group is currently working toward starting a local homeless shelter and kitchen, Watson noted.
The Gilmer Community Food Pantry served 3,570 families and gave out 420,645 pounds of food in 2020 alone.
Just this week, one of the facility’s freezers stopped working and the previously frozen meat it held had to be discarded, noted Allen Triebel, food pantry director. The grant provided enough funds to replenish that lost food, Triebel confirmed.
Mountain Wisdom, a nonprofit committed to fostering healthy teens and families, holds two leadership-building nature camps for boys and girls each year.
Jay Zipperman, Mountain Wisdom director, said 20 young men attended the organization’s Ultimate Adventure Camp, and 14 young women attended its Young Women’s Empowerment Journey Camp this summer.
“We partial scholarship about two-thirds of our participants, so those (grant) funds really helped,” he added.
Watson said this is the first minigrant disbursement she’s done since coming on board as Gilmer Family Connection director, and she would like to pursue more grant opportunities in the future.