Fellowship Place awarded $100,000 Responsive Grant from the Community Foundation for Greater New Haven

The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven (CFGNH) has awarded Fellowship Place a two-year grant in the amount of $100,000. Awarded through the Foundation’s largest, annual competitive grants process, Fellowship Place was one of 43 nonprofits chosen to receive funding from the over 2.4 million awarded in one-year and multi-year grants.

“Each year The Community Foundation’s competitive grantmaking process highlights all the great work being done by nonprofits in our community and poses very difficult decisions for us in choosing which grants to support. As always, in making these decisions we have sought to find a balance among our community’s many opportunities and needs” said William W. Ginsberg, President & CEO of The Community Foundation for Greater New Haven.

The awarded funds are to provide general operating support for Fellowship Place’s core programs.

Congratulations Fellowship Place members, for your outstanding achievements in pursuing your career goals.

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In October, Fellowship Place hosted our annual Career Development Awards Ceremony at the Fellowship Place Clubhouse to honor members for their outstanding achievements in pursuing their individual career goals. Recognitions and awards included successful employment, academic achievement, volunteering in the community, completing an onsite internship, and graduating from the Career Development Program. The keynote speaker gave an inspiring personal account of his own challenges and successes in pursuing his own career path, and encouraged his peers to continue their efforts to return to work or school.

Fellowship Place Supports Hunger Action Month

Fellowship Place Go OrangeFellowship Place has joined the Connecticut Food Bank in their efforts to raise awareness about hunger in our community. As part of this initiative, our agency is hosting a months long virtual food drive on the Connecticut Food Bank’s website. To make a donation, please visit: Fellowship Place Virtual Food Drive

Throughout the year, Fellowship Place receives ongoing support from the CT Food Bank. Over the past year, we have been able to purchase over 25,000 lbs of food from them at a low cost to us, which helps us provide three well-balanced, nutritional meals a day for people who attend psychosocial programs on our Elm Street campus.

CHEFA Funds Support Campus Meal Program

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Fellowship Place awarded a $61,000 grant from the Connecticut Health and Educational Facilities Authority as part of its 2014 Nonprofit Grant Program.

Fellowship Place is one of 56 nonprofit providers throughout the state selected to receive a grant from the Connecticut Health and Educational Facilities Authority (CHEFA) as part of its 2014 Nonprofit Grant Program, focused on the areas of food, housing and medical care.

CHEFA funds will support the Fellowship Place campus meal program, to help eliminate hunger and meet the basic nutritional needs, for people with chronic mental illness attending our campus daily for their therapeutic & social rehab activities. “Our Healthy Meals initiative is just one way that Fellowship Place supports our clients’ efforts to stay on track for recovery from mental illness or a co-occurring substance abuse disorder,” said Fellowship Place Executive Director, Mary A. Guerrera. She added, “Fellowship Place is grateful for CHEFA’s interest in the health and well-being of this very vulnerable population in our community.”

“The need is great as evidenced by the 123 non-profits that submitted letters of interest for the grant program. Since 2003, CHEFA has provided more than $26 million in grant funding and targeted investments to Connecticut nonprofits, more than $10 million of which has been awarded through this program alone.” said Jeffrey A. Asher, CHEFA’s Executive Director.

CHEFA is a quasi-public agency created by the State Legislature to help Connecticut healthcare and educational institutions, and other not-for-profit entities obtain tax exempt financing. CHEFA is self-sustaining and receives no taxpayer funds.

For more information, please contact Melissa Holroyd, Fellowship Place Development Director at mholroyd@fellowshipplace.org

Fellowship Place participates in Greater New Haven Opening Doors, a Regional Alliance to Prevent and End Homelessness.

100 day challengeFellowship Place participates in Greater New Haven Opening Doors, a Regional Alliance to Prevent and End Homelessness. This summer Fellowship is joining forces with other service providers to assess and connect the most vulnerable homeless people in our community with housing & support services. Our goal is to match approximately 75 chronically homeless individuals with available housing by July 30. Fellowship Place is proud to be able to contribute some of its resources to this community effort.

Bailey Orell, Intake & Homeless Services Coordinator, is shown interviewing a client to assess her needs and barriers to getting housed. Bailey is serving as a Housing Liaison for the Opening Doors project.

Mariel Hemingway joined Fellowship Place and presenting sponsor Northwestern Mutual, for “Dinner and a Movie with Mariel”

On June 4, 2014, Mariel Hemingway joined Fellowship Place and presenting sponsor Northwestern Mutual, for “Dinner and a Movie with Mariel” at the Omni Hotel in New Haven, CT.

The successful evening kicked off with a dinner with Ms. Hemingway, followed by a screening of her film “Running From Crazy”, a documentary by two-time Academy Award-winning director Barbara Kopple and Executive Producers Oprah Winfrey and Mariel Hemingway, about the family of Nobel Prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway and their multi-generational struggles with mental illness. Post screening, Ms. Hemingway engaged with the audience, to answer questions about the movie. This event marked Fellowship Place’s 10th Annual Solnit Memorial Lecture, honoring the legacy of Dr. Albert J Solnit, by educating the general public about mental illness and recognizing men and women who work to eliminate stigma and improve the quality of life for children and adults with mental illness.

 

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Above Right- from left to right: Fellowship Place Founder Phyllis McDowell, Fellowship Place Board President Ronald Netter, Fellowship Place Executive Director Mary A. Guerrera, and Mariel Hemingway

AboveLeft: Presenting Sponsor Northwestern Mutual’s Gene Frost & wife Karen, and Mariel Hemingway