Local nonprofits receiving grants to promote “health and wellness”
June 27, 2013 The City of Palm Springs and the Desert Healthcare Foundation, in partnership with President Clinton’s Health Matters Initiative, announced Thursday that just under $350,000 in proceeds from the Mayor’s Healthy Planet, Healthy You Race and Wellness Festival, including matching dollars from the Desert Healthcare Foundation, will be distributed to six local nonprofits working to promote health and wellness as part of the Initiative’s “Coachella Valley Blueprint for Action.”
The nonprofits receiving grant funds include:
• FIND Food Bank of the Coachella Valley – $40,000 for a food-assistance research & pilot project. The project will be consideringlocal market conversions, mobile Farmers’ Markets and othermodels to increase access to healthy, affordable food in foodinsecure areas. Funding will oversee an in-depth community-based research projects.
• Angel View, Inc. – $54,400 for a physical activity program forchildren and adults with developmental and physical disabilitiesand hire a full-time Physical Activity Program Coordinator tooversee physical activity for each Angel View client.
• Jewish Family Services of the Desert – $75,000 for a KidsFirstHealthy Life Project. The project will require professional staffto deliver the program, curriculum and materials, analyze andreport on program outcomes to measure success.
• Hidden Harvest – $44,250 for the renovation and restoration ofa 2-acre farm to grow produce locally and feed the hungry.
• United Cerebral Palsy of the Inland Empire – $75,000 for a teamto participate in the 2014 Tour de Palm Springs and purchase 15Freedom Concepts Adaptive Bicycles for clients with cerebral palsy.
• Desert AIDS Project – $55,884 for a substance abuse servicesprogram. The funds will support labor costs associated with programmanagement, implementation, evaluation, counseling and substanceabuse-related support groups and educational outreach.
The Mayor’s race and wellness festival, held last April in the Ruth HardyWellness Park, was so successful, next year it will move to Jan. 11-12,2014, just before the Humana Challenge Golf Tournament, becoming theprimary fundraiser for the Clinton Health Matters Initiative in the Coachella Valley.
“I am incredibly proud of the partnership between the City of Palm Springs,Desert Healthcare Foundation and the Clinton Health Matters Initiative,”said Mayor Steve Pougnet. “The success of this prolific partnership ishelping to dramatically move the needle when it comes to measuring andimproving overall community wellness and childhood obesity in the CoachellaValley and it’s incredibly exciting that local organizations will now be able tobetter promote health and wellness through these much needed grant funds.”
