Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
The Indiana Association of United Ways, with support from the Lilly Endowment, has created an opportunity for community partners to come together, identify a community issue and collaborate in requesting planning and implement grants with which to address that issue.
The 4Community Collaboration Grant raises the opportunity and the expectations of making meaningful and measurable community change.
The United Way of Kosciusko County, along with community partners, recently was awarded this planning grant in the amount of $35,000. Each community partner contributed an equal amount of funding to meet this 5-to-1 match opportunity. The planning grant partners are Kosciusko County Community Foundation, Kosciusko 21st Century Foundation, Biomet Inc., Zimmer Inc. and United Way of Kosciusko County Inc.
A key community leader symposium was held in April 2005 to discuss the results of a current community-wide assessment and to determine which issues from the assessment to address. This community group identified substance abuse as the No. 1 issue that the community needs to address. During the next six months, a core group of community individuals will meet to discuss the topic of substance abuse (including illegal drugs, tobacco and alcohol) and formulate a plan to address this issue.
This group will solicit input and participation from other organizations in this planning stage, will identify existing programs, any areas that are not being addressed and will research programs that are not currently being used within the county as well as look at successful practices from other communities across the nation for possible implementation. Once the decision is made about how to address substance abuse in the county, a public meeting will be held to ask the community for their involvement in changing the current condition.
After the strategic plan has been developed, the United Way of Kosciusko County will seek additional community partners to assist in applying for the implementation grant. The community match grant is based upon 10 percent ($143,114) of the monies raised in the 2002 United Way campaign and is matched dollar for dollar. The maximum amount (if all matching funds are raised) available for this implementation grant would be $286,228. This grant money will be used to implement the plan to address the issue of illegal drugs in Kosciusko County, giving the community the opportunity to make sustained and measurable changes in a community condition.
