RIHEBC Awards $516,000 in Project Grants to 7 Local Health, Education, and Community Service Organizations

By Jenn | February 25, 2021

PROVIDENCE, R.I. – The Rhode Island Health and Educational Building Corporation (RIHEBC) has announced the awarding of $516,946 in Project Grants to 7 local nonprofit health, education, and community service organizations to complete major projects that will help them grow and expand services to better meet the needs of Rhode Islanders during COVID-19 and once the pandemic abates.

“The COVID-19 pandemic has hit Rhode Island’s nonprofit health care and educational organizations hard, but our state needs the vital services they provide and that’s why RIHEBC created the Project Grant program in November,” said RIHEBC Board Chairman Joseph Dewhirst. “These grants will help schools serve more students, mental health providers to serve more patients, nursing homes to better serve their residents, and expand access to dental care for low-income Rhode Islanders. RIHEBC’s mission is to serve our Rhode Island’s nonprofit health and educational organizations, and that’s exactly what we’re doing by stepping up with these grant resources during this very challenging time.”

“Between $483,054 in ‘What’s Important Now (WIN)’ grants awarded to 51 nonprofit health, education, and community service organizations in January, to our Project Grant recipients announced today, RIHEBC has awarded $1 million in grant funding to help these organizations through the COVID-19 pandemic and position them for success when the pandemic abates,” said Kim Mooers, Executive Director of RIHEBC.

“Oral health is often the ‘window’ to an individual’s overall physical health,” said Joanne McGunagle, President and CEO of Comprehensive Community Action Program in Cranston. “By increasing dental access and capacity by expanding our dental operatories, we can decrease our waitlist and provide essential and holistic oral health to our targeted community. CCAP is grateful for this opportunity.”

“With this grant, we turn a big empty black room on our first floor into a theater, and we will — for the first time in our school’s 10-year history — be a performing arts school with a performing arts space,” said Andrew MacMannis, Assistant Head of School at the Trinity Academy for the Performing Arts in Providence. “We have seen the devastating impact that COVID-19 has had on the arts community. In addition to providing a space for our students to make art, this project will allow our blank space to become a dynamic space for artistic practice and performance, where our artist-scholars can grow, and where the artistic community can convene, but also heal and learn together.”

“The need for behavioral healthcare services for our community’s youth and their families has outgrown our capacity to provide these essential services,” stated Thrive Behavioral Health’s President & CEO Dan Kubas-Meyer. “If undetected or left untreated, early behavioral problems in children, adolescents, and young adults can develop into more serious mental health conditions that can impact not just their wellbeing, but their learning and academic achievement. This grant funding will enable our Youth & Family Program to expand its capacity to assist this vulnerable population.”

Project Grant Award Winners:

  • $100,000 – Comprehensive Community Action Program (CCAP) – Expansion of CCAP’s Cranston dental center by adding three dental operatories to the current array of five, allowing for eight treatment rooms.
  • $56,949 – The Groden Network – Six 20Kw generator sets for 6 of group homes and facilities.
  • $99,077 – Pawtucket School Department – New food service equipment to accommodate expected increase in students at the “Swing Space” as the district begins the construction and renovation of school facilities.
  • $92,650 – Rhode Island Nurses Institute Middle College (RINIMC) – Expansion and renovation of RINIMC’s building to accommodate increased enrollment and demand.
  • $9,041 – Scandinavian Communities Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing Facility – Modernization of elevator at the Rehabilitation and Skilled Nursing Facility.
  • $65,000 – Trinity Academy for the Performing Arts (TAPA) – Build-out of a black box theater for student and community performances.
  • $94,229 – Thrive Behavioral Health, Inc. – Development of unused space at 2756 Post Road, Warwick offices into five therapeutic session offices and three group rooms.
Posted in news