COLUMBIA—The Sisters of Charity Foundation of South Carolina recently awarded Caritas grants for the fall 2016 grant cycle.
“In omnibus caritas” means in all things charity. Since its inception in 1851, the congregation of the Sisters of Charity of St. Augustine has sought to put into practice these simple but all-encompassing words. As a ministry of the Sisters of Charity, the foundation offers Caritas grants to provide support to organizations dealing with situational poverty and/or meeting basic needs of individuals and families in South Carolina. These grants are awarded twice per year.
The following organizations have received funding from the fall cycle of 2016’s Caritas grant funding.
Association for the Blind and Visually Impaired: Assisting individuals who are blind or visually impaired to lead safe, dignified, independent and rewarding lives by helping them to adjust to vision loss and to gain employment. (Berkeley, Dorchester, Charleston)
Birthright of Georgetown: Funding will help supply diapers to disadvantaged moms and their babies. (Georgetown, Williamsburg)
Bluffton Jasper County Volunteers in Medicine: Funding will help provide health care services to uninsured and low income individuals. (Beaufort, Jasper)
Bluffton Self Help: Funding will support their emergency financial assistance program. (Beaufort, Jasper)
Caring and Sharing Inc.: Funding to purchase a walk-in cooler for food distribution to the needy. (Georgetown, Williamsburg, Florence)
Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Charleston Pee Dee Regional Office: Catholic Charities Pee Dee’s comprehensive client choice wellness pantry strives to provide healthy foods along with nutrition education workshops, fresh produce distribution, SNAP enrollment assistance, homeless day bags, and monthly boxes to senior citizens that are enrolled in the Commodity Supplemental Food Program. (Horry, Georgetown, Williamsburg)
Charleston Legal Access: Charleston Legal Access is closing the justice gap by offering low-cost legal services to those just above poverty that do not qualify for free legal services but who cannot afford a private attorney. Funding will support legal services at this nonprofit, sliding scale law firm. (Charleston, Dorchester, Berkeley)
Children’s Recovery Center, Inc.: The Children’s Recovery Center provides a safe, child-friendly environment where children feel less anxiety when sharing the details of their abuse and are able to begin the healing process. Funding will support programming designed to reverse negative outcomes for children and families who are already living in poverty, aiding them in developing skills to process these events so as to become productive adults. (Georgetown, Horry)
Community Kitchen Inc. of Myrtle Beach: The Community Kitchen serves two hot nutritious meals daily, breakfast and lunch, five days a week. Along with supporting the kitchen, funding will also support an emergency clothing closet to further assist clients in need. The outreach also provides encouragement, direction, nutritional assistance, and emergency clothing to promote growth and wholesome independence with respect and dignity. (Horry)
Daily Bread Ministries: Funding will support Greer Family Shelter. Programs will provide early intervention to enable families and veterans to move from being homeless to employed-with-home. The facility will provide four separate apartments for participants and meeting space for a 90-day program conducted by trained counselors working under a licensed mental health professional. (Greenville, Spartanburg)
Doors to Freedom: Currently, Doors to Freedom is working with survivors of sex trafficking by assisting them in preparing for their GED, High School Diploma or Vocational Certificate. (Charleston, Berkeley, Dorchester)
Eau Claire Shalom Ministries: Funding will support Tutor Eau Claire, a program committed to serving people in the community who struggle with reading, no matter the race, gender, religion or ability to pay. (Richland, Lexington, Sumter, Kershaw, Fairfield, Laurens)
Fair Haven Home for Men: Fair Haven Home for Men operates an intensive residential 90-day program in St. Stephen for men who are homeless, alcoholic, addicted to drugs, or any combination of these conditions. Funding will provide participants with food, clothing, and medication. (Berkeley, Dorchester, Charleston, Colleton, Williamsburg)
Family Promise of Anderson: Family Promise of Anderson County helps homeless families with children stabilize their lives by accessing the resources needed to acquire safe and affordable housing. Funding will support case management services with the ultimate goals of helping guests gain sustainable employment, obtain the services needed to support their family (e.g., child care, transportation), and secure safe and affordable permanent housing. (Anderson, Pickens)
Family Support Services of Horry County Inc.: Funding will help expand the organization’s Mother to Mother program to include mothers over the age of 25 as clients. (Horry)
Free Medical Clinic of Aiken, Inc.: The Community Medical Clinic of Aiken County is able to provide free medications to patients in poverty through Patient Assistance Programs and through the Dispensary of Hope. (Aiken)
Freedom Readers Inc: Freedom Readers is a literacy program that focuses on students who need specialized tutoring and mentoring in literacy skills. Funding from this grant will be used to establish and expand new sites in Horry, Georgetown, and Richland. (Horry, Georgetown, and Richland)
Good Samaritan Clinic: The mission of the Good Samaritan Clinic to is to provide help as healing to those in need by providing quality medical, dental, and pharmaceutical care to individuals and families in Columbia who cannot afford health insurance and medical care. (Lexington, Richland)
Good Samaritan Medical Clinic: Funding will support Good Samaritan Medical Clinic’s free clinic services for the low income and uninsured in Chester, Lancaster and Union Counties. Funds will assist in the provision of primary health care, GYN care, and physical therapy care for residents of the affected communities. (Chester, Lancaster and Union)
Great Falls Referral Assistance Service Project (GRASP): To widen its program reach through education, GRASP intends to provide workshops in two key areas: financial literacy and nutrition. Funding will support financial literacy workshops and nutrition workshops. (Chester, Fairfield)
Greenville Free Medical Clinic: The Greenville Free Medical Clinic proposes to expand a successful comprehensive cardiovascular and chronic disease program that is in place at the main clinic site in downtown Greenville to the three primary care satellite sites located in outlying communities in the county. (Greenville)
Healthy Smiles of Spartanburg: Healthy Smiles of Spartanburg is collaborating with Spartanburg County School Districts, churches, and community organizations to expand the free mobile dental clinic pilot program, bringing oral healthcare to low-income children in medically under-served and high need areas. Funds will support the pilot mobile dental clinic, school-based screening programs, HSS free dental clinic, providing critical access to care for low-income, uninsured children who are in need of preventative and restorative care. (Spartanburg)
HELP of Summerville: HELP of Summerville gives immediate emergency assistance to those whose need is urgent and who have no other resource of assistance. Funding will be used for HELP’s emergency assistance program, providing families with funds to pay rent, utilities, medical bills, and other short term crisis expenses. (Dorchester)
Hope in Lancaster, Inc.: Funds will support Hope in Lancaster’s “Fresh and Healthy Food Initiative” program. The Food Pantry offers food to those clients in order to free up funds and to supplement their food budget while they are recovering from their short-term emergency. (Lancaster, Chester)
Hopewell Senior Day Care Center: Funds will be used to support Hopewell Senior Day Care Center’s Healthy Start Program. The program provides daily meals to senior citizens suffering from diabetes, hypertension, high cholesterol, and other chronic health issues that are exacerbated by poverty. (Williamsburg, Georgetown)
Hospice and Palliative Care Foundation of South Carolina: Funds will support their financial assistance program that seeks to improve the quality of life for families affected by terminal illness. (Statewide)
Loving America Street: Funds will be used to purchase updated industrial washers and dryers, continue renovations, and begin employing more Eastside residents. (Charleston)
Lowcountry Furniture Bank: Funds will go toward the purchase of wholesale mattresses to complete the bedroom sets for young children living in poverty, many of whom have never had their own bed before. (Charleston, Berkeley, Dorchester)
Maia Moms: Funding will be used for programming that includes dinner, childcare, and all curriculum materials at no cost to low-income mothers. (Charleston)
MARYS House: Ministry Alliance for Regaining Your Safety: MARYS House provides a safe haven for victims of domestic violence. Funds will go toward costs associated with basic program needs: shelter, transitional housing, food, clothing, hygiene items. (Abbeville, Aiken, Anderson, Cherokee, Chester, Edgefield, Greenville, Greenwood, Laurens, McCormick, Newberry, Oconee, Pickens, Spartanburg, Saluda, Union, York)
Operation Home: Operation Home provides critical home repairs to low-income homeowners living in vulnerable housing situations. Grant funds will be used to address these needs and change vulnerable living situations to safe, healthy, and accessible living situations. (Charleston, Berkeley, Dorchester)
PEACHCenter Ministries Inc.: PEACHCenter Ministries provides emergency food assistance to clients on a regular basis. The funds requested will be added to the budget for food purchases. (Cherokee)
Pee Dee Community Project: Funds will support Pee Dee Community Project’s reading comprehension and tutoring program that will blend interactive technology (Reading Eggs software) with reading tutors (Coastal Carolina students & Carvers Bay High School students) to connect with and inspire students as they improve their reading skills. (Georgetown)
Roscoe Reading Program: The Roscoe Reading Program is unique in its use of therapy dogs within a school system. Roscoe Reading serves the students of its schools by providing a safe, rewarding, and fun learning experience. (Berkeley)
Sandalwood Community Food Pantry: Funds will support the purchase of Sleeping Packs for the growing number of homeless clients who frequent the pantry. (Beaufort)
St. John Community Food Ministry: Funding will support food purchases for their pantry. (Williamsburg)
Step By Step Ministry Hope Project: Step by Step Ministry Hope Project is an ongoing program that ministers to homeless women, many of whom have been incarcerated, have a substance abuse history, and/or mental illness. Funding will provide the shelter with additional food storage space and support participant work transportation costs. (Greenville, Anderson, Laurens, Pickens)
Taylors Free Medical Clinic: The free, full-service medical facility provides primary, preventative, and specialty care, and an in-clinic pharmacy to the medically unserved in Greenville County. Funding will support operations of the clinic so they are able to serve clients, improve community health, and increase patient knowledge and capability to lead healthier, more productive lives. (Greenville)
Teachers’ Supply Closet: Teachers’ Supply Closet provides a free “store” where teachers in the Tri-County area are able to shop twice a year. The closet assists not only teachers and students, but entire families by reducing the burden of cost of quality school supplies. (Berkeley, Charleston, Dorchester)
Lighthouse Ministries: Assisting individuals and families in financial crisis with rent, utilities, prescription medication or traveler’s aid. (Florence)
The Women’s Shelter: Funding will be used to support The Women’s Shelter’s “Emphasis on Exit Strategies” program. Along with providing a safe haven and stable environment, the shelter offers programs that meet clients’ needs, increase capabilities, and improve outcomes. This program assists participants with overcoming obstacles that keep them from accessing higher education, skilled jobs, and affordable housing. (Richland, Lexington)
United Center for Community Care: The United Center for Community Care is a space housing 11 nonprofit agencies providing unified services and meeting critical community needs. Funding will support general operating expenses for this facility to insure these agencies are able to continue operating their programs efficiently and effectively. (Greenwood)
York County Christian Women’s Job Corps: Funding will support the job corps’ “Seven Steps toward Self-Sufficiency Program.” The ministry’s program seeks to provide women restoration, focusing on providing a lifetime change, not just a temporary relief of their needs. (York)
Photo provided: Vincentian Sister Sherry Barrett, Norman Elder, and Vincentian Sister Madeline Kavanagh proudly display the spaghetti squash for a food give-away held July 16 at St. Cyprian Church in Georgetown. The event was a collaborative effort with Catholic Charities’ Pee Dee Office to provide healthy foods.
Join in the movement to #fightpovertysc. Go to http://fightpovertysc.com/ today for more information.
