The South-Central Child Advocacy Center accepted a $15,200 grant from the Louis L. and Julia Dorothy Coover Regional Grantmaking Program to help provide five-day-a-week services directly to families in crisis in Texas, Shannon, Oregon, Wright, Douglas, Ozark and Howell counties.
The Community Foundation of the Ozarks, in partnership with Commerce Trust Co., presented $200,000 in grants to 16 organizations working on rural poverty issues across the Ozarks at a Feb. 8 ceremony at Commerce Trust in Springfield.
Since beginning services to the south-central Missouri region in 2011, the Child Advocacy Center has served more than 300 kids who might otherwise not have been helped, said Program Director Micki Lane. But it has only been able to send case workers to these counties two days a week, meaning children and others being interviewed typically have had to make a three-hour (or longer) trek to Springfield to be interviewed, adding the burden of missing work, school or both. With two full-time case workers assigned to the region, Lane said the goal with this grant is to provide services in the seven-county area five days a week.
“We hate when kids have to miss school,” Lane said. “Every time I’m there, I remember why it’s important to serve families and children where they live.”
The Coover Grant Committee considered more than $498,000 in requests in selecting the agencies for this year’s funding.
“These 2013 Coover awards support hunger and nutritional program training, housing and shelter needs, medical prescription and dental services, children-centered needs and human services program strategies across the region,” CFO Board Chair and Commerce Trust Vice President Jill Reynolds said.
These grants are made possible through the generosity of the late Julia Dorothy Coover, who worked for Commerce Bank for 30 years. She established the Louis L. and Julia Dorothy Coover Charitable Foundation in 1992 to honor her husband’s memory. With this year’s awards, the Coover Charitable Foundation surpasses $3.6 million in grantmaking across the Ozarks since its founding.
The CFO, a public charitable organization with assets totaling $210 million as of Dec. 31, 2012, includes a network of 44 affiliate foundations such as the Community Foundation of West Plains Inc., the Willow Springs Community Foundation, the Alton Community Foundation, the Ozark County Community Foundation, the Jacks Fork Community Foundation, the Mountain Grove Area Community Foundation, the Houston Community Foundation and the Douglas County Community Foundation.