Several local organizations received an early Christmas gift under their trees this year.
The Greater Toledo Community Foundation on Monday announced the distribution of $1,117,119 through six grant funds to 46 organizations. To date this year, the foundation has awarded $20 million in grants and has invested close to half a billion in communities around northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan since its founding in 1973.
The Sight Center of Northwest Ohio was one of the organizations to be awarded funds. The South Toledo-based nonprofit is in its ninth decade of providing rehabilitative services for the sight-impaired. It was awarded more than $95,000 from three different funds Monday.
From the Margaret Toth Fund, $63,990 was awarded to support blind and low vision rehabilitative services. From the Sisters of St. Francis (Sylvania) Foundation Fund, $21,800 was awarded to support the Blind Ambition program that helps visually impaired individuals to secure employment. In addition, $10,000 from the Fund for the Elderly was awarded to support low-vision services for seniors.
Stacey Franks, executive director at the Sight Center, said that the awarded funds will be used to help to go above and beyond the original fundraising totals for the year, which were scaled back by the coronavirus pandemic.
“It is very meaningful,” Ms. Franks said of the added money. “We struggle all the time because 95 percent of the services we do are not covered by insurance. We serve 18 counties in northwest Ohio, and we are always struggling to cover and help people get people their independence back.”
Given the nature of its clients’ disability, the Vision Center most often conducts business in client homes.
The Sight Center’s experts cumulatively drive close to 40,000 miles per year to do their jobs, another expense-adding element.
Still, through the hardship her organization has faced, Ms. Franks is proud of what has been accomplished in the last year. This includes establishing an initiative to combat blindness in infants, in partnership with blindness organizations in Cincinnati and Cleveland, and a revitalization of the Blind Ambition program, which the Sisters of St. Francis gave funds toward.
“The current work environment and people not choosing to work have really improved the chances of the people we advocate for getting employment,” Ms. Franks said.
Another organization receiving funds was Justice for Sierah. This nonprofit, which received $5,000 from the Toledo Walleye Hockey Club’s Wishing Well Fund, was founded after Sierah Joughin. Ms. Joughin, a 20-year-old Metamora, Ohio woman, was kidnapped and murdered in 2016 by James D. Worley, of Delta, Ohio, who had previously served time for a Lucas County abduction.
“Our mission is to empower the community,” Tara Ice, founder and president of Justice for Sierah, said. “Safety knowledge is essential.”
Ms. Ice, who was Sierah’s aunt, led efforts for the passage of Sierah’s Law in the Ohio Legislature in 2018. This established a statewide public access violent offender database for law enforcement and citizens. To prevent cases such as Sierah’s from playing out again, it indicates where offenders live.
Over the last year, Justice for Sierah has gained a foothold in schools and in the community. Its Sierah Strong for the Community initiative is centered around giving out KidPrint IDs, which contain a photo, a fingerprint and vital statistics to children, ages 6-16. Started in in 2019, the program has helped 900 boys and girls throughout the area, working with partner organizations such as Girl Scouts of America.
The success of this initiative led to the creation of the Sierah Strong for the Schools. This arm of Justice for Sierah is not fully complete, but Ms. Ice said that much of the grant funding will go toward getting this program running. It will involve regular curriculum for self-awareness and self-defense.
“When we started the community program we felt it was important to our children,” Ms. Ice said. “However, one class didn’t feel like enough, so that's when we developed the curriculum to get into the schools, and our ultimate goal is that students will be taking the class every year, learning repetitively from kindergarten through eighth grade.”
Ms. Ice said that 18 area schools have signed up for the pilot version of this program, which bridges health and physical education classes. The full program should be ready to be rolled out next fall, she said.
“We're very grateful for the Wishing Well Fund,” she said. “We're excited to partner with them, they have a great program, and we're glad that they chose our organization to support.”
First Published December 21, 2021, 11:29 p.m.
