HELENA — The Helena Area Community Foundation, in partnership with the City of Helena, recently approved Covid-19 recovery grants from the COVID Recovery Fund for multiple non-profits throughout the Helena area.
“Sometimes in our daily life, it feels like Covid is a thing of the past, and other times in our daily life it feels like it's still ongoing. So how can we think about recovery from it?” says Executive Director of the Helena Area Community Foundation, Emily Frazier.
The grants are meant primarily for non-profits within the city limits. The grants are intended to alleviate issues due to the Covid-19 pandemic and give organizations a leg up on their respective visions.
Cohesion Dance Project was one of the non-profits to receive grant funding. Due to the pandemic, the money coming in from performances dropped. The grant money will be used to fund their outreach program for schools, senior living facilities, and other environments to help inspire movement and ways in which folks can get in touch with themselves creatively.
“This grant is definitely going to help us like I said, kind of sustain and grow that outreach program. It's going to allow us to support additional teaching staff, as well as provide matching funds for other grants that we've been awarded specifically for the outreach program but that require matching funds. And so, without this type of grant we would have to come up with that in another way,” says Artistic Director at Cohesion Dance Project Tanya Call.
In total, 30 nonprofits received funding. They are expected to match the funds provided by the city, which ranged anywhere from $2,000-$14,000. The CARES Act provided the city with funds for various city projects, which in turn left Helena with the original funds intended for those projects. The city decided to use that money to support the community through local non-profits.
“Any little bit like this makes a difference and to know it came from the city is really powerful and helps us know that the community is supporting the nonprofits here in Helena,” says Call.
A second round of funding is planned to take place this fall.
