Each year the Greenville Health Authority Board of Trustees awards Healthy Greenville and Healthy Greenville, Too grants to fund projects designed to make Greenville County the healthiest in the nation.
The Meyer Center provides therapy, education and nursing services during the school day.This year’s grants, totaling over $2.6 million, benefit initiatives to promote healthy activity and expand mental-health care, emergency medical response services, and services for special-needs children and individuals experiencing homelessness.
“The most rewarding part of serving on the GHA board is witnessing how our grants help change lives in this wonderful community,” says board of trustees Chair Lance Byars. “This year’s grant recipients are ensuring Greenville County has a healthier future, and in many cases, saving people’s lives. We cannot thank them enough for what they do.”
The following organizations received grant awards:
Conestee Nature Preserve, $100,000. This money will be used to create a playscape promoting healthy activities and habits. With no entry fee and located within Greenville’s city limits near Interstate 85, Conestee Nature Preserve is an ideal venue for the new amenity.
Gateway House Inc., $250,000. The objective of this project is to increase the number of members participating in programs to improve mental health and address weight and obesity issues. Programs include a structured, work-ordered day, nutrition planning and access to healthy food, wellness, and exercise programs.
Greenville County EMS, $91,737. Grant funding will expand mass gathering and special-operations capabilities by procuring an all-terrain ambulance vehicle. It will provide a more efficient and safer means of responding to and transporting ill or injured patients from crowded or wilderness venues to an area where hospital transportation is accessible.
Meyer Center for Special Children, $643,341. The Meyer Center’s service model provides school-based rehabilitative services that include therapy, education and nursing services for children with disabilities during the school day.
Neighborhood Cancer Connection (formerly Cancer Society of Greenville County), $316,337. The grant will increase access to mental-health counseling services for people at all stages of cancer to reduce stress levels, combat anxiety and depression, build social connections, and eliminate isolation.
Project HOPE Foundation, $56,215. The autism community faces escalated health risks due to social and communication struggles, self-limiting food choices, sedentary lifestyles and mental-health challenges. This project will provide a video-based health campaign for Greenville’s autistic students, designed by a therapist, and a series of physical activity challenges.
Triune Mercy Center, $187,070. Funding will allow Triune to hire three additional social workers over the next two years to directly address the needs of the homeless, addicted and disadvantaged in Greenville County.
USC Columbia Technology Incubator, $1 million. The incubator includes the USC Columbia Technology Incubator, USC School of Medicine, and South Carolina Center for Rural and Primary Healthcare Value-Based Enterprise Collaboration. This two-year award funds the creation of a community based, physician-led population health enterprise targeting a Greenville population. The collaborative effort will address care coordination, increased efficiencies in delivery of care, improved access, and improved clinical and economic outcomes.
The Meyer Center received a Healthy Greenville Grant to provide school-based services.Healthy Greenville, Too grants: The Center for Educational Equity, Fostering Great Ideas, Multiplying Good, Taylors Free Medical Clinic, Urban League of the Upstate and United Ministries received grants of $10,000 each for their work. Camperdown Academy, the Cancer Survivors Park Alliance, Children’s Cancer Partners of the Carolinas, Momentum Bike Clubs, Nicholtown Child and Family Collaborative, Prevent Child Abuse Pickens County (dba The Parenting Place), Public Education Partners, and the Slater Marietta Community Association/Farmers Market each received $5,000 for projects to support mental and physical health.
The Greenville Health Authority has awarded over $30 million in grants through its Healthy Greenville Grant Initiatives. To learn more about the Greenville Health Authority, visit the website at greenvillehealthauthority.org.
The Community Foundation of Greenville has served as the administrative home of Greenville Health Authority since 2019 and is proud to distribute grants in alignment with its mission each year.
