Health district to consider grant funds at June board meeting

The Fallbrook Regional Health District June 10 voted to award for than $1.2 million in grant funding to 28 separate programs to serve health and wellness needs of the Fallbrook area.

Some of the organizations that will receive funding include the Fallbrook Food Pantry, which was awarded $120,000 to assist with alleviating hunger in Greater Fallbrook, and the Foundation for Senior Care, which will receive more than $250,000 for adult day care, senior transportation programs and a care advocacy program, as well as an additional amount of around $52,000 to be shared with the Fallbrook Food Pantry for a senior and disabled adults nutrition program.

Other organizations awarded grant money are the Boys and Girls Clubs of North County, which will get $15,000 for a summer water safety program; D’Vine Path Life, which will get more than $17,000 for its “I Can” program, which provides vocational and life skills to people on the Autism spectrum and people living with disabilities; and the REINS therapeutic horsemanship program, which will get just under $80,000 for a speech therapy program.

The health district provides grant funding through its Community Health Contracts program. According to the district’s website, Community Health Contract funds must benefit the residents of the communities served by the Fallbrook Regional Health District, which has a 110-square- mile service area and sphere of influence covering Fallbrook as well as Bonsall, De Luz and Rainbow.

To qualify, applicants must either be a registered nonprofit, or a commercial business that can demonstrate it has the ability to provide a service not provided by any nonprofit.

This year, the district has adopted a new reviewing process for the grants — two board members score each grant on a scale of 1-100, Fallbrook Regional Health District told Village News earlier this month. Applications with scores above 70 were recommended as eligible for funding, although things were competitive this year; applications with scores above 70 were requesting about $1.4 million, about $200,000 more than the amount the district has budgeted for grants.

Howard Salmon, chairman of the Strategic Planning Committee as well as the full board of directors, said last month that he thought the review process this year was “far and away a much better process than we have ever had,” and thanked Mason and health district staff for their work.

Salmon said the health district should work with applicants that scored below 70 to help improve their applications in future years.

“We should give them real specific feedback as to why they didn’t fit, or where’s what you might think about doing next time to make your proposal stronger,” Salmon said.

The full list of organizations that received funding — some of which are listed more than once because they applied for grant money to pay for multiple programs — is as follows:

Fallbrook Food Pantry Alleviating Hunger in Greater Fallbrook $120,000, D'Vine Path Life I Can Program $17,520, Champions for Health, San Diego County Medical Society Foundation Project Access San Diego $16,500, San Diego County Medical Society Foundation, DBA Champions for Health Community Wellness Immunizations $6,984, Foundation for Senior Care Adult Day Care $53,827.99, Foundation for Senior Care Senior Transportation Services $101,280.62, REINS Speech Therapy $79,500, Senior/Special Needs Animal Assistance Project Endeavor Senior Companion Animal Outreach $5,000, Foundation for Senior Care Door-Through-Door program $70,508.33, Boys & Girls Clubs of North County Summer Water Safety Program $15,000, Foundation for Senior Care Care Advocacy Program $98,650.53, Trauma Intervention Programs of San Diego, Inc. $10,000, Fallbrook Smiles Project Celebrate Health $46,740, Palomar Family Counseling Service Healthy Bodies, Healthy Minds $66,580.80, Boys & Girls Clubs of North County Triple Play Program $45,000, Neighborhood Healthcare Senior Diabetic Podiatry Education $15,000, Palomar Family Counseling Service Grandparents Raising Grandchildren $37,251.80, Foundation for Senior Care & Fallbrook Food Pantry Senior & Disabled Adults Nutrition Program $52,167.07, Fallbrook Senior Citizens Service Club Home Delivered Meals Program $124,284.46, Michelle's Place Cancer Resource Center Cancer Support Services $40,350, Fallbrook Land Conservancy Vibrant Volunteer Program $13,859,

Be Well Therapy Be Well Yoga for Cancer Recovery $20,444, REINS Healthy Volunteer Program $37,500, Fallbrook Food Pantry FFP Learning Center-Educational Nutrition Programs $35,300, Fallbrook Senior Citizens Service Club Congregate Meals Program $50,971, Fallbrook Union High School Wellness Center $25,000, Hospice of the Valleys Fallbrook Community Support Program $23,254, Fallbrook Land Conservancy Preserve and Trail Walkability Enhancement $11,035.50.

Will Fritz can be reached by email at [email protected].