February 18, 2023
The Greater Lee’s Summit Healthcare Foundation (GLSHF) announced the nonprofit recipients of the 2023 GLSHF Grant Awards on Monday, Feb. 13 at the Stansberry Leadership Center in Lee’s Summit.
Patrick Kueny, chair of Greater Lee’s Summit Healthcare Foundation, said, “This is a special year for GLSHF. We are celebrating 20 years of service to the community. These six Lee’s Summit nonprofits are doing extraordinary work to help make Lee’s Summit a healthy community for adults, children, and families.”
Grants are being awarded to six health-focused nonprofits for a total amount of $62,495 in grants.
The awardees are:
ReDiscover
Project: Health Care Home program
Grant Amount: $18,150
ReDiscover may best be known for mental health care, but what you may not know is that mental health professionals at ReDiscover also serve as an integral part of the diabetes care team for many of their clients. Diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in Jackson County, Missouri. The GLSHF grant supports ReDiscover’s Health Care Home program. This program is an innovative care coordination model customized to meet the needs of low-income clients with chronic conditions, such as diabetes. ReDiscover’s program will provide vital equipment and supplies to people who have diabetes or are pre-diabetic, even when they cannot afford to purchase the items themselves.
Pro Deo
Project: Seed Crew Project
Grant Amount: $9,500
Pro Deo is a youth center that not only focuses on the needs of at-risk teens who attend Pro Deo’s after-school programs, but also builds relationships with families of teenagers and the local community. The GLSHF grant will fund Pro Deo’s Seed Crew Garden Project. The Project is designed to support and expand the success of the Pro Deo Rotary Learning Garden. This project will empower teens to create life-long healthy eating habits as well as prevent food insecurity. Teens are taught how to grow vegetables, understand nutrition, and discover ways to make nutritious meals from their garden.
Peace Partnership
Project: Clinical Services Expansion
Grant Amount: $8,000
Peace Partnership’s mission is to walk alongside the children, individuals, and families in the local community, and to provide affordable mental health services to help them make sense of the life complexities they are experiencing or have experienced. The GLSHF grant supports Peace Partnership’s Clinical Services Expansion by helping purchase the necessary technology, therapy tools, and educational opportunities required for expanding the practice so that Peace Partnership can serve an additional 50 to 60 clients in 2023.
John Knox Village
Project: Patient Lift Assist
Grant Amount: $5,000
John Knox Village is a not-for-profit retirement community that offers older adults a full continuum of lifestyle options from independent living…to assisted living and rehabilitation…to memory care and licensed skilled nursing care. The GLSHF grant will help provide a mobile lifting chair that can be used when an individual has fallen. The Raizer Mobile Lifting chair is a pneumatic device that helps staff safely lift patients of all sizes off the floor in seconds without causing further injury to that patient and without harming the staff members who are doing the lifting.
Developing Potential
Project: Building Lives Campaign
Grant Amount: $10,000
Developing Potential’s mission is to provide quality day habilitation services to adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities… supporting these individuals to reach their potential and achieve a dignified, adult lifestyle. The GLSHF grant will support the development of wireless technology systems which will enable Developing Potential staff to provide care to patients safely and securely while bringing real-time data and communication to the forefront.
University Health Lakewood
Project: Heart Health Project
Grant Amount: $11,845
University Health Lakewood is an academic health center that provides accessible, state-of-the-art quality healthcare to our community regardless of an individual’s ability to pay. Their Rapid Response Team responds to medical emergencies throughout the hospital and 95% of the time those responses use the electrocardiogram (or the EKG). The EKG assesses heart rhythm and blood flow and diagnoses a heart attack, abnormalities, and heart failure, using electrodes to measure the heartbeat’s electrical activity. The GLSHF Grant will support the purchase of a new EKG for the Rapid response team and will help provide timely access in the detection and monitoring of patients’ heart health.
Jon Ellis, Chair of the Grant Application Review Committee at the Greater Lee’s Summit Healthcare Foundation, said, “We are grateful for every nonprofit professional in Lee’s Summit for the work that they do to make Lee’s Summit a healthy place for everyone. GLSHF is dedicated to promoting health and well-being in the Lee’s Summit area. We partner with local organizations who are making a positive impact in the community. Since we began in 2003, GLSHF has awarded a total of $2,060,883.38 in grants and scholarships.”
More information about grant applications and scholarship applications can be found at www.healthyleessummit.org.
GLSHF board officers are Patrick Kueny, Chair; Lynette M. Wheeler, Vice Chair; Carol Morrissey, Treasurer; and Dr. Bruce R. Williams, Secretary.
Board members are John Beaudoin, Dr. David Buck, Gabriel Clements, Jennifer Craig, Jon Ellis, Carla Gibson, Jane Griffin, Dr. Mark Hoffman, Dr. Laurel Hogue, Eric Jones, Lia McIntosh, Daniel D. Rexroth, Jeanné Willerth and Terry Trafton.
