PHOENIXVILLE, PA – The mission of the Phoenixville Community Health Foundation is to improve the health and quality of life of people within the greater Phoenixville area. The Board of Directors of the Foundation met on Wednesday, January 20, 2010 for a business meeting and authorized two special grants totaling $35,000. The first was a special grant to Doctors Without Borders for $10,000 designated for the Haitian earthquake relief. This was a Level One grant creating direct access to health care. The second grant was to the Phoenixville Public Library for emergency operating funds. This was a $25,000 grant, $15,000 of which is to be allocated immediately and $10,000 as $1/$1 match with new funds. This was a Level Three grant for civic, social and economic needs of the community.
In other grant-related business the Board of Directors lifted several grant-making restrictions that were instituted in 2009 n response to the economic recession. The Foundation will once again accept proposals from non-grantee organizations, and will accept proposals for all levels of funding: access to health care and human services and well as civic, social, economic development and technical assistance to the non-profit community. At the same time the Board released the moratorium on funding for the Delaware County Community College tuition assistance program. It also authorized the development of a third edition of The Help Book through the Open Hearth, Inc. organization.
The Board also thanked Board member spouses Janet Reading, Cindy Cirone and Chris Giannone for spearheading the Foundation Board’s Adopt-A-Family initiative. This year seven families with eighteen children were adopted by the Board of Directors for the holiday season. Wells Fargo Capital Management Division was the primary sponsor of the program, along with the individual donations of Board members.
With the grants awarded at this January meeting, the total amount of philanthropic funds returned to the greater Phoenixville area since 1998, when the Foundation began operation is now at $20 million.