ChristianaCare awards major grants to eight community organizations

To make a positive impact on health in the community, ChristianaCare has awarded eight local organizations grants through the Harrington Value Institute Community Partnership Fund.

“At ChristianaCare, we serve together to make a positive impact on health in all of the communities we serve,” said Bettina Tweardy Riveros, Esq., chief health equity officer and senior vice president of Government Affairs and Community Engagement at ChristianaCare. “One of the ways that we do this is by identifying organizations who are already making a difference, and then providing them with the support and resources they need to make them even more effective. The Harrington Fund is one of the key ways that we nurture these strategic partnerships.”

In its latest round of annual giving, The Harrington Fund provided two grants that support the implementation of programs in their entirety:

• A grant of $92,602 will enable The Summer Learning Collaborative to develop evaluation metrics and data systems that will support the expansion of its literacy intervention program. This Wilmington-based nonprofit partners with community agencies and schools to provide programming for students when school is not in session.
• A grant of $74,954 will enable Wilmington, Delaware’s Social Contract, which partners with community-based organizations to conduct trauma screenings and implement strategies to overcome treatment barriers for children.

The Harrington Fund also provided planning and capacity building grants to four organizations:

• A grant of $5,000 will support the Wilmington HOPE Commission in the development of its Healthy Re-entry/Healthy Family program. The Wilmington HOPE Commission program seeks to improve the health of people as they reenter communities after being involved with the criminal justice system, improve the health of the family unit, and reduce recidivism using evidence-based programming. The Wilmington HOPE Commission provides rehabilitative treatment services and programs designed to promote successful re-entry through risk and needs assessments, cognitive behavioral treatment, educational and peer support, vocational readiness training and behavioral health services.
• A grant of $5,000 will support the Metropolitan Wilmington Urban League, for the development of its Achievement Matters Youth Agribusiness Program, which educates elementary, middle school and high school students on business development and entrepreneurship through the creation and management of a community garden. The organization empowers people of color to achieve economic self-reliance.
• A grant of $5,000 to Cornerstone West Community Development Corporation will support its West Side: Get Active Outside program, which focuses on rehabilitating city parks in the West Side of Wilmington such as Father Tucker Park, 4th & Rodney Park, Tilton Park and others by developing park leaders, hosting community events, renovating playground equipment via a community design process, and safeguarding the parks through neighborhood stewardship. Cornerstone West CDC serves as a catalyst for community revitalization and is the backbone organization for West Side Grows Together, a coalition of residents, civic associations, community-based organizations, neighborhood planning councils and businesses working together to improve the quality of life in Wilmington’s West Side.
• A grant of $5,000 to Lori’s Hands will strengthen the organization’s research framework that measures the effectiveness of its in-home companionship and assistance program for Newark, Delaware, residents living with chronic illness. Lori’s Hands uses the context of service learning to help college students understand chronic illness and community health through meaningful volunteer experiences with people who are living with chronic illness.

The Harrington Value Institute Community Partnership Fund also will provide a second year of funding to support two programs:

• A $99,990 grant will support ChristianaCare’s William J. Holloway Community Program, which cares for people with HIV and Hepatitis C by leveraging partnerships and educating the community about prevention. The program has partnered with Westside Family Healthcare, a federally qualified health center nonprofit, to expand Westside’s Chronic Hepatitis C Virus program, which trains Westside workers to provide evidence-based education, screening and successful treatments for patients.
• A grant of $86,244 will support the Corner 2 Corner program, a collaboration of Delaware’s Red Clay School District and other organizations that uses adult ambassadors who monitor the streets to create safe routes to school for children. The program also provides social and emotional learning interventions for students to eliminate bullying and improve healthy attitudes and behaviors.

The Harrington Value Institute Community Partnership Fund also offers a 12-month experiential training program designed to support under-represented minority, pre-med students from Delaware who have graduated from college and are interested in pursuing clinical and translational research careers. The Harrington Fund has selected two interns for this year’s program:

• Franklin Iheanacho of Newark, Delaware, who graduated from the University of Delaware in 2018 with a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences.
• Kristyn Mitchell of New Castle, Delaware, who graduated from Howard University in Washington, D.C., with a bachelor’s degree in nutritional sciences.

The fund supports research and program development in population health to address community needs, such as eliminating barriers to health for the disadvantaged or underserved and reducing disparities in health.

The fund is overseen by ChristianaCare’s Value Institute, which conducts real-world research on today’s most pressing health care issues. The Value Institute’s mission is to develop, deliver and evaluate innovative practice and policy solutions that improve the experience, efficiency and effectiveness of health care for patients and providers alike.

The Harrington Fund was established in 2015 in honor of the late Charles J. Harrington, who served as chair of the Board of Trustees and chair of the executive committee to the Medical Center of Delaware, now ChristianaCare.

The Harrington Fund is one of many ways that ChristianaCare impacts health through partnerships with community organizations. In December 2019, ChristianaCare announced $2 million in funding for community organizations through its Community Investment Fund. And in January 2020, ChristianaCare announced the launch of Unite Delaware, a technology platform that connects health and social service providers to more efficiently meet the needs of people in the community.