Atrium Health Floyd-Polk Foundation awarded more than $1.3 million in grants to Atrium Health Floyd Medical Center and Atrium Health Floyd Polk Medical Center which will be used to support 33 community agencies as part of their inaugural Community Impact Grant cycle for 2024. The awards were announced Wednesday, Sept. 11, at an event at Coosa Country Club.

 Atrium Health Floyd-Polk Foundation was established in 2021 as a result of the strategic combination of Floyd and Atrium Health. The Foundation currently has assets valued at more than $200 million. Annual investment earnings on the assets were used to support Atrium Health Floyd Medical Center and Atrium Health Floyd Polk Medical Center, which in turn, awarded grants to area agencies to address disparities in care and social determinants of health in northwest Georgia and northeast Alabama. In the affiliation between Floyd and Atrium Health, the parties along with the Hospital Authority of Floyd County and Cedartown-Polk County Hospital Authority wanted to create a lasting way to positively affect the health of the citizens in our communities to avoid serious health issues at younger ages.

The plan is for the grant process to continue on an annual basis. Through a contract with local Georgia Atrium Health hospitals, the Foundation reviews grant applications to determine which may have a significant impact on the health of our community. Mary Helen Heaner, a businessperson and volunteer with deep roots in the community, chairs the Foundation.

Registered non-profit, public charities and educational institutions serving Bartow, Chattooga, Floyd, Gordon and Polk counties in Georgia and Cherokee County, Alabama are eligible to receive grant funds. Applicants' projects address disparities of health care, access to health care or health-improvement programs, including those that focus on mental health and suicide prevention; access to care; transportation; food security; housing security and heart health.

Grant funds will be used throughout northwest Georgia and northeast Alabama to address needs that affect the health of these communities. While some grant recipients have a county-specific mission, many of the grant recipients have a region-wide focus, and these awards reflect the diversity of those efforts. Recipients include the following organizations and projects:

• A Teen's Choice's year-long Choices, Accessibility, Stability and Healing (CASH) program, which helps youth understand their mental health, social ties, reactions to current events and historical knowledge to help students blossom and gain financial education, was granted $34,510.

• Atrium Health Floyd's Safe Patient Discharge Assistance Program, which provides assistance to those without means including homeless patients, received $25,000.

• Bloom Our Youth's community-wide support for at-risk youth to provide therapeutic mental health services and foster care support for nearly 3,000 foster children, was awarded $50,000.

• Boys and Girls Clubs Project Learn programs in Chattooga, Floyd and Polk counties, which provides STEM and financial literacy programs for youth and adults, received $85,000 in grant funds.

• Cancer Navigators' patient database, which will enable the cancer-assistance charity to serve patients in need more adequately, was awarded $10,000.

• Cedartown United Fund, which provides basic needs to homeless and underprivileged families, was awarded $10,360.

• Child and Senior Advocacy Foundation's Crisis Assistance Temporary Housing program to assist individuals and families in Cherokee County, Ala., who are homeless, at risk of homelessness or fleeing domestic, sexual violence or human trafficking, received a $10,000 award.

• ESP Rome's Hooray Summer Camp for children with developmental disabilities, giving their caregivers much-needed respite, was recognized with a $45,000 grant.

• Exchange Club Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse's or Rome's Parent Advice Connection and Empowerment (PACE) program which prevent adverse childhood experiences by empowering parents with advice and connections to community resources, will receive $50,000.

• Family Care Center's Sourcing Staples program, which provides necessary staples to Cherokee County, Ala., families facing food scarcity, was awarded $45,000.

• Family Crisis Center of Walker, Dade, Catoosa and Chattooga counties' Safe Housing for Chattooga County victims of domestic violence, which provides safe housing for 40 Chattooga Countians who have fled an abusive relationship, received a grant of $40,000.

• Floyd Health Care Foundation's Youth Mental Health Initiative, providing a pilot of Positive Action curriculum bundles to elementary schools and middle schools, impacting 1,800 students, will receive $25,000.

• Free Clinic of Rome's Opening New Doors program, which seeks to provide lifesaving medications and other assistance to patients who rely on the clinic for medical care, was granted $60,000.

• Friends of the Library Sara Hightower Regional Library's Cedartown Public Library renovation received a grant of $100,000.

• Georgia Healthy Family Alliance's Tar Wars – Northwest Strike Force program, funding Tar Wars anti-tobacco and anti-vaping education for 3,200 youth, was awarded $20,000.

• Habitat for Humanity–Coosa Valley's Habitat Home Build No. 61, received $12,500, which covers a quarter of the cost of a new home that will be built in our community for a family.

• LivingProof Recovery's NextDoor for Men recovery residence will receive $50,000.

• Lookout Mountain Community Resources Enriching Our Society's (CARES) Building a Bridge for a Better Community program to assist resident of Chattooga County with food security and assistance with immediate housing needs, awarded $15,000.

• Mercy Care Rome was awarded $25,000 to cover the cost of 50 senior adults to attend its Adult Day Health Program, which provides medical care, socialization, exercise and meals.

• NAMI Rome's signature expansion program, providing supplies for the mental health organization's work at Restoration Rome and the Davies Shelters, recognized with a $13,451 grant.

• Northwest Georgia Housing Authority's Mary Helen Heaner Activity Center, which will be the site of a Polk County site for a Boys and Girls Club, received an award of $100,000.

• Northwest Georgia Hunger Ministries' Backpack Buddies program, which provides approximately 2,000 weekend supplemental food packages weekly to students in public schools in Floyd, Chattooga and Polk counties as well as a summer feeding program when school is not in session, was granted $80,000.

• Northwest Georgia Regional Cancer Coalition's Fighting Hunger, Nourishing Hope: A Cancer Fighting Food Pantry which provides free, nutrition education and food items tailored to the unique needs of cancer patients and their families, was awarded $25,000.

• Open Door Home's Health Access program will receive $20,475. The program assists with costs associated with transportation, uncovered medical expenses and initial costs of health physicals for youth who are placed with the agency.

• Polk County Council for Children and Families' One Door Polk Family Resources program, which enables families in Polk County to be more self-sufficient and productive by increasing access to resources including food, literacy, mental health care and more, received a grant of $25,000.

• Rebecca Blaylock Nursery School's Child Development Center program, which provides low-cost childcare for families, will receive $50,000.

• Restoration Rome's Creating Trauma-Responsive Communities through Trust-Based Relational Intervention (TRBI) program was awarded $75,000. The program promotes healing in individuals and communities by meeting the complex needs of those who have experienced early adversity, toxic stress and relational trauma.

• Summit Quest Adventures' Youth and Family Cancer Support Programs, which assist children and families facing a cancer diagnosis, was granted $10,000.

• The Children's Advocacy Center of Cherokee County's (Alabama) program remodel was awarded $45,000. Grant funds will be used to fund construction that will ensure child abuse victims and their non-offending caregivers have a safe, neutral child-friendly facility where they can receive specialized services related to their trauma.

• The Salvation Army of Rome's Pathway of Hope Program, which assists struggling families striving to gain sustainable stability, received $25,000.

• Vital Grace's New Hope project, which provides individual and group counseling services to individuals who have hair loss due to cancer treatment or other diagnoses, was recognized with a $50,000 grant.

• William S. Davies Homeless Shelter's counseling program, which supports members of the community facing housing insecurity, poverty or who cannot afford professional counseling services, will receive $75,000.

Questions about the grant cycle, grant process, applications or qualifications should be addressed to Donna Martin, foundation grants and program manager by email ([email protected]) or by phone 706-509-3287.