The Community Foundation of the Ozarks awarded $500,000 to nonprofit organizations to help children and foster families in the Springfield area.
The multi-year grants are going to local organizations including the Kitchen, FosterAdopt Connect, and CASA of Southwest Missouri.
The Connecting Grounds Church received $43,000 for its Family Connections program, which works to reunite children in the foster care system with their families. Holly Madden is the director of that family program.
“The grant is going directly to fund the expansion of this program," Madden told KSMU. "So we’re able to pay a stipend for another staff member to come on and really support our local chapter so I can actually focus on the expansion pieces of that, and then it’s just going to go to help empowering our families to support them, to love on them.”
Another organization awarded funding was the Springfield Greene County Park Board’s SPARC program, which got $30,000 to train its staff on how to help with kids' mental and social health needs in before and after school programs. The grant funding was through CFO's partnership with the Musgrave Foundation and US Bank.
