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Three Valleys Community Foundation celebrated Giving Tuesday last week by doing just that—giving.
Its grant committee identified mental health as the focus area and 13 non-profit organizations were given grants up to $25,000. The targeted grants totaled $144,200, not bad for a foundation that formally launched two years ago.
The total grants of $840,370 are even more impressive. The foundation leadership has done an excellent job of marshalling corporate and individual resources. Those grants went to a total of 49 organizations.
Foundation co-founder and board member Susan Houghton updated those attending on the state of giving in the San Ramon, Livermore and Amador valleys. The goal of the geographically based foundation is for about 2% of the community GDP (Gross Domestic Product) to be invested locally in the non-profits that are so important to both the safety net and to quality of life.
Five years ago, economic development organizations calculated the local GDP at $42 billion, about the same as the Raleigh, Durham triangle in North Carolina. Houghton reported that it has since grown to $49 billion, no surprise given the burgeoning start-up culture here that has companies maturing in place. Those range from manufacturing to software and everything in between.
Where the foundation still has lots of opportunity and work to do is that the local non-profit share of that is less than 0.5%. As CEO Bowers put it, we can join together to give, grant and grow to impact our community.
An aside, the Tri-Valley Nonprofit Alliance, at its meeting last month, selected Houghton for its lifetime achievement award. Her work with 3 Valleys followed her effort as co-founder of Sunflower Hill, which has built Irby Ranch for adults with developmental or intellectual disabilities. It also has other projects in the pipeline. Well-deserved.
The meat of the fast-paced program focused on mental health with a few remarks from school schools chief Tony Thurmond, who noted the state is hiring 10,000 mental health professionals and will train you. He was followed by Alex Briscoe, a principal with the California Children’s Trust. Briscoe said a major change was coming to mental health in California this month when schools would be included as service providers for MediCal. That will mean 96% of children will be eligible for paid mental health services.
The overwhelming challenge—see Thurmond’s comment—is there’s no way there are enough therapists for 1-on-1 appointments. Briscoe said that it’s no surprise of the deteriorating condition of mental health among young people—it’s demonstrated for years in the state’s biannual health survey. The pandemic lockdown poured gasoline on that fire, he said.
Briscoe, who has worked in the field for years, favors a group approach with the teens working with trained facilitators (who could be a couple of years older) to hear each other and support each other. That’s got both legs and leverage and the state has invested millions.
The event took place at the Barbara Fracisco Mertes Performing Arts Center at Las Positas College and I trust the foundation already has leaned on its board member, Las Positas Foundation Executive Director Kenneth Cooper, for its 2024 reservation.
