Healthy Lakewood Foundation Responds to COVID-19

[Jim O'Bryan]

The Healthy Lakewood Foundation (HLF) has announced that it will focus its 2020 grantmaking on community needs stemming from the outbreak of the COVID-19 crisis.

Funds will be awarded immediately to help support two organizations that are directly helping Lakewood residents who are in great need during this crisis. A grant of $50,000 will be awarded to the Lakewood Community Services Center (LCSC) to support increased food procurement and distribution. A grant of $25,000 will be awarded to the Department of Human Services, City of Lakewood, for resident emergency needs stemming from the public health crisis.

The Foundation will be taking a phased approach for the remainder of the year to respond with additional grants to meet further needs as they become clearer as the crisis unfolds.

“The board places its full confidence in LCSC and the City of Lakewood Human Services Department to identify residents most at risk and provide increased services and basic needs support in this time of crisis,” says HLF Board President Jeanine Gergel. “We trust the leadership of these two entities to be able to quickly provide help to those most in need.”

HLF will continue to assess community needs through proactive outreach with community leaders and service providers to identify funding opportunities for future phases of crisis response grantmaking throughout 2020.

“We will be keeping our ears to the ground for additional opportunities to support the community, once the full implication of this pandemic on individuals and families unfolds over the coming weeks and months,” says Ms. Gergel. “We take our responsibility as a foundation devoted to the health and wellness of the Lakewood community seriously and recognize our duty to be as responsive as possible at this critical time.”

About the Healthy Lakewood Foundation: The Healthy Lakewood Foundation (HLF) is a 501(c)3 nonprofit community foundation. HLF was created to ensure remaining assets from the conversion of the Lakewood Hospital will continue to benefit the health and wellness of residents in the City of Lakewood. HLF was established in September 2018 as part of the master agreement following the closing of Lakewood Hospital. HLF was formed from the Foundation Planning Task Force and through their recommendation to the City of Lakewood and the Lakewood Hospital Association.

To contact HLF, please visit http://www.healthylakewoodfoundation.org or email healthylakewoodfoundation@gmail.com

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[Bridget Conant]

How much money did they get to play with?

75,000 is a drop in the bucket.

[Jim O'Bryan]

How much money did they get to play with?

75,000 is a drop in the bucket.

Bridget

I had a long talk with one of the members of Healthy Lakewood, and then a long talk with one of the "founders."

It would seem, that the Coronavirus has caught them, like the rest of us, not on their game yet.

They are still setting up the Foundation that was created merely to spend the $500,000 a year from the Cleveland Clinic.

They are volunteers, that meet. There is no office per say.

So when the Coronavirus hit, they had no plan.

During the conversations I mentioned many of the things I have heard from you and others and wondered myself.

The very real answer was, "Please give us time to set this up and get it going correctly. There are many things that still need to be done, and things that take time like establishing working relationships with others in this world." It seemed like a reasonable request to me.

I spoke with Michael Bentley, and while many of us have known about this "thread" in the hospital sale when Jay Foran started the Healthy Lakewood Task Force, whose study has never been published, though I have a copy. Was closed down, and reemerged as the Task Force Panel, they started the actual meetings to decide what the Foundation would look like, and how it would work. BUT they left the actual design and what it would do up to the first board which is in place now to decide the day to day functioning of the Foundation.
So this explains where we are at with Healthy Lakewood, and it underlines that they still need space to finish.

One of the most serious discussions during the set-up phase was spend down versus perpetuity. I believe the Foundation sided with perpetuity. This would allow them to build their bank account, and start working off of interests, other donations etc. allowing the Foundation to build financial muscle so to speak to serve Lakewood better and longer.

I was actually pleasantly surprised to read the announcement when I got it. I thought any support from them would come later in the year. For them to meet, do this, and announce it shows that their hearts are in the right place.

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[Mark Kindt]

Bravo! Congratulations to the Healthy Lakewood Foundation for its decisive action to aid Lakewood.