Impact100 Southern Indiana presented a $116,000 check Thursday night to Greater Clark County Schools Educational Foundation (GCCSEF) and BAYA (Beautiful as you are) who are partnering on the project Greater Together: Improving Mental Health of Girls in Clark County.
Emily Oliver-Jones, Executive Director of GCCSEF and Trish Thomas-Frederick, Founder of BAYA, accepted the grant during the Impact100 Annual Award Celebration from Impact100 Southern Indiana president Melissa Speck and vice-president Leah Huber.
The grant will allow GCCSEF and BAYA to provide weekly workshops for middle and high school girls throughout the Greater Clark County School District. The workshops will focus on providing girls with strategies to improve their self-esteem and make better decisions. The project’s goals include reducing suicide, improving high school graduation rates, and focusing on a life plan through and beyond high school.
The amount of $116,000 is the largest grant to be funded by Impact100 Southern Indiana to date. Over six years the women-founded, led, and focused nonprofit, has awarded raised $573,000 to nonprofits serving Clark, Floyd, and Harrison counties. Under the Impact100 model, the women who donate to become members also vote to decide which nonprofit will receive the high-impact grant. A live vote was held Thursday night after presentations from the three finalists and the winner was announced.
The three finalists competing for the grant were Greater Clark County Schools Educational Foundation and BAYA Beautiful as You Are; Jeffersonville Township Public Library, and LifeSpring Health Systems. Each finalist proposed a project that would serve unmet community needs, provide transformational change, and could be completed within two years.