(Left to right, standing) Wendy Puzarne, Jewish Family & Children’s Services; Mary Walton, Interval House; Bill Cruikshank, Meals on Wheels of Long Beach; Thyda Duong, Interval House; Alan Terway, Westside Neighborhood Clinic; Jeff Antonoff, Alpert Jewish Community Center; and Denise Dahlhausen, For the Child.(Left to right, seated) Barbara Lieberman-Jones, Children’s Dental Health Clinic; Felton Williams, Chair, St. Mary Community Grants Committee; and TuLynn Smylie, WomenShelter of Long Beach. (Not shown) Linda Gutierrez, Behavioral Health Services Inc. at Flossie Lewis Center.
4:50pm | On January 10, St. Mary Medical Center awarded $102,748 in grant funds to assist eight Long Beach non-profit agencies at a luncheon held in their honor at the John Parr Health Enhancement Center on the campus of St. Mary Medical Center. This is over $6,000 more than last year’s awards. The grants are part of the Catholic Healthcare West (CHW) Community Grants Program which was started in 1990 as a means for CHW hospitals to partner with their community service agencies to meet the needs of the underserved, especially women, children and the homeless. The grant recipients include: Children’s Dental Health Clinic, Westside Neighborhood Clinic, For The Child, Behavioral Health Services Inc at Flossie Lewis Center, Meals on Wheels of Long Beach, WomenShelter of Long Beach, Jewish Family & Children’s Services at Alpert Jewish Community Center, and Interval House.
Felton Williams, Chair of the St. Mary Medical Center Hospital Board of Trustees’ Community Grants Committee, which identifies and selects those who receive grants, said, “Our connection with the community and outreach began with the vision of the St. Mary founding sisters. Today’s awards demonstrate our continued commitment to the mission of the Sisters of Charity of the Incarnate Word, who founded St. Mary in 1923.”
St. Mary Foundation President Drew Gagner, who oversees the Community Grants Program, said, “These are access organizations that make up a magnificent community mosaic. Together, as a cohesive team, we can do more for the underserved and marginalized.” He added, “These grants will provide support for non-profit agencies that are struggling to sustain their programs and services.”
The grant recipients will use their funding in various outreach efforts, including: providing primary healthcare for men, women, children and families; subsidizing dental treatment and dental surgery for needy children; increasing access to healthcare services for victims of domestic violence and their children; supporting bilingual and culturally-sensitive counseling for Spanish-speaking victims of domestic violence; providing psychotherapy services to underserved women struggling with substance abuse and mental illness; providing treatment and prevention services for child abuse, neglect and trauma; delivering meals to isolated and vulnerable individuals; and providing psychotherapy, physical exercise and socialization for uninsured persons with depression and mental illness.