Photo provided by grantee
To provide funds for a case manager (2019) and assist households, with an emphasis on those directly impacted by COVID-19, to obtain and/or maintain permanent housing (2021).
2019 Impact: “Providing case management services to assist homeless households in securing emergency shelter and aid in obtaining and maintaining permanent, safe, affordable housing has been especially important during this time of COVID-19 crisis. While affordable housing options have been further decreased during COVID, HERE has still been moderately successful in securing needed housing for our program participants.”
2020 Impact: “The Housing Acquisition and Stabilization Program helps households obtain and/or maintain permanent housing by paying for deposits, rental assistance, and rental arrears. Some 18 households containing 21 adults and 7 children have been assisted through this NHF-funded portion of the program. This is 20% more than the 15 households originally targeted for this grant. Of the 18 households helped, 5 were prevented from becoming literally homeless through assistance with rental arears. Members of the other 13 households were able to transition from homelessness to permanent housing through help with rental deposits and/or first month’s rent.”
Photo taken from grantee’s website
To provide funds for a tiny house project to teach program participants about building and marketing (2019) and to acquire additional staff to support a growing number of Jackson County students in need of access to food, education support, and mental health services as a result of COVID-19 (2020).
Impact: “As predicted, youth continued to struggle with remote learning and isolation. HIGHTS worked closely with schools and community partners to identify youth who were not logging into their devices and not engaging in school. The additional staff allowed for critical safety and wellness checks on some of the higher-risk youth. Moreover, programs began including academic time so youth could improve their grades and stay engaged. Staff coordinated support responses with teachers and school counselors to negotiate later deadlines for assignments which often gave the youth hope. Staff verbalized have helped make a positive impact on the youth’s mental health and academics. As mental health services increase, we have identified the growing need to develop an after-hours on-call system as the staff receives crisis calls in the evening.”
Photo provided by grantee
To provide funds for home repair and mold remediation (2019), while at the same time developing a training video to teach others how to safely perform the same procedure (2020). Healthy Homes funds were for use to repair and maintain the region's housing inventory, specifically for those earning 60% or less than the area median income, which varies from county to county.
Grant Impact: “Concurrent with our repair and re-construction work, Hinton Construction Ministry Coordinator Nick Oliver became licensed as a North Carolina certified contractor and passed several construction-related courses on mold remediation in buildings. With that background, Hinton produced a training video on mold remediation and safe and healthy housing. The video will be used to train mission volunteers in Hinton’s safe and healthy housing building ministry program. This summer (2021) we expect approximately 350 mission volunteers to participate in Hinton’s building ministry program and learn from the training video produced with the support of the Nantahala Health Foundation.”
2021 Health Homes Impact:
To assist with the construction of the Franklin Hospice House, which will address three healthcare concerns in far western NC: 1. lack of quality end-of-life inpatient care, 2. inadequate access to mental health support, and 3. health risks of caregiving. Photo provided by grantee.
To expand International Friendship Center services to include bi-lingual career and professional development to meet marginalized families' need for training and access to jobs with fair pay; to offer assistance to homeowners in need of home repairs to promote safety and health.
Grant Impact: We collaborated with area GED and ESL providers to build a curriculum focused on the needs of women, including English skills, computer literacy, financial literacy, Dress for Success, etc.
Photo provided by grantee
To purchase thermal hot pads to ensure the safety of home-delivered meals (2019) and to install protective barriers to increase safety at three congregate meal sites (2020).
2020 Impact: “We were able to purchase 22 four-way dividers, which are being used for our congregate dining site at the Department on Aging in Webster, the congregate dining site at the Cashiers Senior Center, and for programs at the Adult Day Program.”
To establish a Community Health Worker Apprenticeship program to support recovery and re-entry efforts of individuals returning to society, specifically the six WNC counties and the Qualla Boundary, after time spent in prison and/or drug rehabilitation facilities.
Grant Impact: “Rebekah Franklin is a Care Manager at AMCHC, working toward her CHW certification. In her current coursework, she is maintaining a 99% average! Funds from NIMble grant have supported her coursework. We’re proud of Rebekah’s outstanding grades, especially given that the average for all students is 66%.”
A Note about the Images on this Page: Unless otherwise indicated, images on this page are intended to represent work being accomplished in our communities.