Two homegrown Vancouver nonprofit agencies have received significant grant awards from an Oregon charitable foundation that’s winding down its work in Clark County.
Both awards from the Meyer Memorial Trust are aimed at overall agency growth. Community Mediation Services was awarded $110,000, which it will use to add an associate director, build fundraising capacity and expand its offerings into areas where the community needs help, according to executive director Nancy Pionk.
And The Northwest Association for Blind Athletes got $40,000, which it will use for general operating expenses, according to executive director Billy Henry — and to get blind and visually impaired people moving around on Vancouver Lake this summer and skiing at some local slopes next winter.
On four Saturdays in late July through early September, Henry’s agency will host an ongoing kayaking and paddle-boarding program at the lake. The outings will be entirely free, he said, as nearly all the NWABA’s activities are. And, this coming winter, the agency will start up its first ski program, he said.
In each case, Henry wants to provide more than novelties. People who turn out more than once will be able to get ongoing training, put in some quality practice time and develop some genuinely sophisticated skills, he said. Plus, they’ll have more opportunities to have fun with their peers.
“Until last year we were pretty much providing one-time opportunities,” he said. “But if we want to make a lasting difference in people’s lives, we need to provide ongoing opportunities.”
Shifting focus
NWABA’s dates on the lake have been set for July 25 (youths only) and Aug. 15 and 22. There will be one more date in September, Henry said. Visit http://nwaba.org to learn more.
“We are really excited to receive this gift because the Meyer Memorial Trust is no longer funding Clark County organizations,” Henry said.
Earlier this year, the Meyer Memorial Trust announced that it would phase out its gifts to Clark County and focus on Oregon — largely because the charity scene in Clark County has developed so much in the 33 years since Meyer launched. These Clark County grants had been applied for before that decision was made, according to Meyer.
Community Mediation Services, formerly a joint program of the city of Vancouver and Clark County, lost its public funding during the Great Recession and became a private, independent nonprofit; it still works with a variety of local partners to resolve issues such as small claims, parenting plans, property foreclosures, and meeting and process facilitation.
Pionk, the nonprofit’s executive director, said the new money will let the agency continue building its independence while offering new services. It wants to get into education and prevention as well as mediation of a broader spectrum of contemporary family problems than it does now — including divorce, parent-teen and elder issues, she said — but it needs to add revenue to support all that, Pionk said.
“We want to built a positive community and serve as a catalyst for change,” she said.
A new associate director will help with fundraising and free up some existing staff time to get into corporate mediation, facilitation and customized training sessions, Pionk said. Those are fee-for-service situations that should help bolster the agency’s overall budget, she said.
Right now, she said, the agency has three full-time staffers and about 50 volunteers. In 2014 it took referrals and successfully mediated 156 cases; there are many more ongoing foreclosure cases, she said. Learn more at www.mediationclarkcounty.org.
The Meyer Memorial Trust was created by the will of department store founder Fred G. Meyer, but the two have been completely independent for years.
