Please join us in congratulating the four organizations — OPICA, ONEgeneration, Project Angel Food, and Saddleback Medical Center Foundation — that were awarded grants as part of Archstone Foundation’s second Capacity Building and Innovations (CBI) RFP, Stimulating Innovations and Building Capacity.
Capacity Building Grants assist nonprofits serving older adults in achieving new levels of effectiveness by strengthening their leadership and management. Innovations grants are a specific form of capacity building in which an organization will implement an evidence-based program or service not previously offered or modify or refine an existing program.
The three Capacity Building grants, each at $50,000 over one year, were awarded to:
- OPICA, which will use the funding to support technology improvements in its virtual programming and in-person activities for its Adult Day Program. This support will enable OPICA to make necessary improvements to their website and increase their capacity to serve a wider pool of participants as the need for continued virtual Adult Day programming remains. OPICA continues to provide memory loss programs, caregiving support groups, and individual counseling.
- ONEgeneration, which will use the grant to support its Intellectual/Developmental Disability and Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementia Workgroup Collaborative and Training Program. Specifically, the Workgroup Collaborative and Training Program will provide opportunities to implement a collaborative workspace between the disability and dementia systems and implement a series of nationally promoted educational webinars. Preventive and educational resources to better understand and support this rapidly growing community are critical to health care and for the incoming pipeline of future health care workers and caregivers, and the Archstone Foundation support will help ONEgeneration better respond to those needs.
- Project Angel Food (PAF), which will use the funding to assist in doubling their production and the number of clients served by 2030. This expansion will enable PAF to feed more Angelenos through the new Medi-Cal “in lieu of service” provision to be introduced in 2022, and to create a greater number of fee-for-service contracts. Increased capacity will also enable PAF to compete for federal research grants studying the effectiveness of medically tailored meals and nutrition services on the health of those with critical and terminal illness.
The Innovations grant, at $44,000 for one year, was awarded to:
- Saddleback Medical Center Foundation, on behalf of MemorialCare Saddleback Medical Center, (Saddleback). The funding will support the Hospital Elder Life Program (HELP), an effective and innovative model of care to reduce and prevent delirium and functional decline during hospitalization. HELP is an evidence-based program that provides organized, focused interventions with proven results, maximizes independence at discharge, and improves the geriatric skills of hospital staff. HELP will be offered to approximately 1,000 older adult patients annually to prevent and treat delirium.
Underlining a Great Need for Support Among Nonprofits
We have continued to see a large number of applications for the Capacity Building and Innovations Requests for Proposals, underlining a great need for this type of support among nonprofit organizations. Our staff also continue to review the application process and RFP description to look for areas where we can streamline and make improvements.
In this second round of general Capacity Building and Innovations grants, the Foundation received a total of 51 applications, of which 25 requests were for Capacity Building support and 26 were for Innovations support. Of those that submitted Letters of Inquiry, a total of three Innovations and four Capacity Building requests were invited to submit full proposals. We also noticed that 12 organizations submitted applications in both rounds 1 and 2, and of those, two organizations were successfully awarded funding in this second round.
The first round of funding for Capacity Building and Innovations grants supported projects with St. Barnabas Senior Center, California Coalition for Compassionate Care of California, and Via Care Community Health Center, Inc.
Capacity Building and Innovations RFP opportunities will continue to be offered twice yearly. One opportunity will be specifically dedicated to advancing racial equity, the other a more general opportunity. The first round of Stimulating Innovations and Building Capacity to Support Diverse Communities and Advance Racial Equity offered in 2021 provided support to three important projects.
A new round of funding for capacity building and innovations specifically dedicated to supporting diverse communities and advancing racial equity for older adults is now open. LOIs are being accepted through August 11, 2021, for projects that will begin December 1, 2021. Organizations not selected for funding may have the opportunity to participate in future capacity building support from Catchafire. Most people say they heard about these funding opportunities from our Archstone Announces email or from our website, so be sure you are signed up to receive future updates from the Foundation.
Special thanks to Mary Ellen Kullman, Tanisha Davis, Jolene Fassbinder, and Jasmine Lacsamana for their contributions to this blog post.
