Jacksonville's Women’s Giving Alliance recently awarded more than $400,000 to mental health providers.
One of the grantees plans to use the money to help victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse with addiction problems.
When survivors end up at St. Augustine’s Betty Griffin House shelter, many arrive with alcohol or drug dependencies.
“Oftentimes we’ll see survivors who are in trauma, and this really increases the survivors’ risk for substance abuse,” Betty Griffin CEO Joyce Mahr said.
A $100,000 gift from the Women’s Giving Alliance will allow people at the shelter to get free counseling and case management to work toward sobriety.
“This is one of the gaps in services that we’ve seen in shelter, and this is why we wanted to bring this program into the shelter itself,” Mahr said.
A counselor from Stewart-Marchmann will be available to shelter residents.
Four other mental health providers also received gifts from the Women’s Giving Alliance:
- Delores Barr Weaver Policy Center ($100,000) to create a girl-centered practice collaborative that develops a continuity of care model to reduce the use of the juvenile justice system as a mental health provider for girls;
- Hubbard House RISE! program ($100,000) which delivers individual and group mental health counseling services to women accessing Hubbard House domestic violence support services;
- Jewish Family & Community Services ($100,000) for sliding fee scale mental health counseling that will provide individual and family treatment for women and girls, both at the center and in women’s homes;
- Volunteers in Medicine ($22,000) for the Healing the Mind, Body, Heart and Soul program that combines mental health screening, counseling, medication and psychiatric services to working, uninsured women in Duval County
The Women’s Giving Alliance is now shifting its focus toward organizations that will help prevent and stop poverty among women and girls. It’s set to open a request for grant proposals in December.
