The Provident Bank Foundation (PBF) is thrilled to announce the recipients of its First Cycle 2019 Major Grants, totaling an impressive $215,000 for projects and programs throughout New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

A Major Grant funds programs that address one or more of PBF’s funding priority areas—Community Enrichment, Education, and Health, Youth & Families.

Major Grants provide between $5,000 and $25,000 in funding and support to organizations that have identified an immediate need in the community and for the individuals they serve. “The first cycle of Major Grants for 2019 are going to some truly incredible programs. The recipients chosen provide everything from mental health services for elementary school children, wellness support for oncology patients and cancer survivors, to home maintenance and repairs for lower income families,” said Jane Kurek, Executive Director, The Provident Bank Foundation. “It’s an honor to be able to provide funding for programs that offer so much to the communities served by Provident Bank and we are thrilled to be able to support these efforts.”

The recipients of PBF’s First Cycle 2019 Major Grants are as follows:

NEW JERSEY

Bridge, Inc. (Essex County) — $15,000 — The Peace Model Project is teaching elementary school students in the Caldwell-West Caldwell School District social and emotional skills designed to prevent future risky behavior and increase healthy coping skills. The Bridge has embedded a counselor in each district elementary school who takes a whole child approach, addressing behavioral, academic, emotional, and/or social challenges for individual children or entire classrooms. Through the Peace Model Project, The Bridge is developing new models for school-based mental health services in elementary schools while increasing the availability of early intervention for children and families and de-stigmatizing mental health.

Center for Great Expectations (Middlesex County) — $20,000 — The Center for Great Expectations’ Adult Women and Children program utilizes a trauma-informed care model in response to the high incidence of trauma-related histories in their clients, recognizing that substance use is a maladaptive response to the trauma they’ve experienced. CGE treatment programs assess the extent and impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and provide trauma-informed care, incorporating parent-infant mental health into its family treatment plans. CGE’s goal is to foster safe pregnancies and healthy deliveries and to provide psychoeducation to help facilitate the connection between trauma and addiction.

Connection For Women And Families Inc. (Union, Essex, and Morris Counties) — $10,000 — The Pathways Cooks program provides direct services and support to women with cancer and their families. Pathways Cooks volunteers prepare and deliver nutrient-rich, organic meals—free of charge—to women undergoing cancer treatment and their families. Three meals are delivered each week to women’s homes, providing enough food for each member of the family while helping to ease the burden for both patients and their caretakers as they go through treatment. As a result, women undergoing cancer treatment will maintain optimal strength and everyday function, as well as an ability to focus on healing.

Daytop New Jersey (Somerset County) — $10,000 — Funds from The Provident Bank Foundation will be used to provide scholarships to women who do not have a source of funding to pay for life-changing services at Crawford House. A cornerstone of the program’s success is the activity of creating individual treatment plans. Residents identify their strengths and needs with the help of their counselor using the eight domain Person Centered Recovery Plan. The plan is used as a roadmap of activities needed to guide all aspects of a resident’s recovery life including physical health, mental and emotional health, social and family situations, education/employment, and legal issues.

Fairleigh Dickinson University (Bergen, Hudson, Passaic, and Morris Counties) — $15,000 — The Pre-Collegiate STEM Discovery Program at Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) is an initiative to increase diversity in college and the STEM workforce. Annually, the program enrolls 180 middle and high school students underrepresented in STEM into science courses on weekends at FDU’s campus. The program recruits STEM corporate executives as mentors, provides project-based learning related to students’ lives, provides scholarships to students enrolling in FDU, and educates parents about supporting their college-bound children.

George Street Playhouse (Middlesex County) — $15,000 — The CREATIVE DRAMATICS theatre arts integration program at Highland Park Public School’s Irving Primary improves K-1 students’ academic and social/emotional development. Program goals include training teachers in creative approaches to cultivating students’ social and emotional development and emerging literacy skills, and empowering students to effectively collaborate with their peers to fulfill creative tasks and give and receive feedback that demonstrates an understanding of concepts. Ongoing professional development sessions will enable teachers to successfully integrate theatre arts strategies into their future lesson plans and creatively reinforce the concepts and vocabulary taught during CREATIVE DRAMATICS.

Lunch Break (Monmouth County) — $15,000 — Lunch Break’s Client Choice Pantry allows clients to shop for food based on family size, health, and nutritional needs. This innovative method gives clients a sense of control and empowerment and helps to foster self-esteem during a time of great difficulty. The Client Choice Pantry offers a greater opportunity for volunteers to engage closely with whom Lunch Break serves, while reducing waste and improving the quality of life for low income individuals and families. Funding will support the purchase of staple food products and fresh produce, avoid supply shortages, keep the pantry shelves stocked, and turn no one away who walks through their doors seeking help.

Madison Area YMCA (Morris County) — $10,000 — The Madison Area YMCA’s LIVESTRONG program is a small group, 12-week recovery fitness and wellness program designed for adult cancer survivors and those currently undergoing treatment. As cancer treatments improve, the number of people living beyond a cancer diagnosis continues to grow rapidly. YMCA LIVESTRONG has proven to help survivors meet or exceed their physician-recommended amount of physical activity, significantly increase their cardiovascular endurance, improve survivors’ quality of life, and decrease their cancer-related fatigue. Participation in LIVESTRONG at the YMCA is often a cancer survivor’s first step in the journey toward recovery.

Morris Habitat for Humanity (Morris County) — $10,000 — Morris Habitat for Humanity’s Neighborhood Revitalization/Aging in Place program helps low-income home owner families maintain their homes. Projects have included home repairs and weatherization, construction projects, and community park renovations. Funding from The Provident Bank Foundation will support repairs to improve the accessibility, safety, and energy efficiency of low-income seniors’ homes. Living in unsafe and unhealthy homes can mean emotional and financial devastation, and a simple modification like a smoke detector or hand rail can enable seniors to maintain their financial stability and independence while living safely in the home and community of their choice.

New Jersey Community Development Corporation (Passaic County) — $10,000 — Funding from The Provident Bank Foundation will launch the Make the Grade Academy, an after-school tutoring program for students at Clifton High School. New Jersey Community Development Corporation (NJCDC) will hire three teachers who will provide 30 weeks of after-school tutoring support to students in the areas of math, language arts, and science. The Make the Grade Academy will be a part of NJCDC’s Teen Center at Clifton High School, which provides mental health counseling services, college and career advisement, and workshops on a variety of health and wellness topics.

Newark Beth Israel Medical Center (Essex, Hudson, Union, and Middlesex Counties) — $15,000 — Newark Beth Israel Medical Center will provide oncology nutrition support to approximately 575 newly diagnosed oncology patients throughout their treatment. A part-time Registered Dietitian will capture all new patients prior to treatment and provide them with education, nutritional supplements as needed, nutrition counseling, and vouchers for fresh produce from NBIMC’s The Beth Greenhouse. An integral part of the program is helping oncology patients feel well physically and mentally through proper nutrition counseling that is customized to their specific needs.

Princeton Healthcare System Foundation Inc. (Middlesex County) — $10,000 — The Diabetes Care Program is a comprehensive diabetes management program for patients who use Princeton Healthcare System’s Bristol-Myers Squibb Community Health Center as their primary care facility. For diabetes patients, adherence to medication and treatment plans is critical to avoid health crises, but some of the most effective diabetes medications are expensive and not always available to those without insurance. Funding from The Provident Bank Foundation will be used to provide essential prescription assistance for medications and supplies, and will also expand prescription assistance to approximately 40 pregnant mothers in need of these specialized medications.

Rising Tide Capital (Hudson, Union, Middlesex, and Essex Counties) — $15,000 — Rising Tide Capital focuses on the economic wellbeing of society’s most vulnerable people who see entrepreneurship as a pathway out of poverty. The Provident Bank Foundation’s grant will be used to support the implementation of Rising Tide Capital’s signature Community Business Academy (CBA) and Business Acceleration Services. CBA provides hands-on training in the basic concepts, tools, and skills needed to plan for and run a successful business. Graduates of CBA then receive year-round Business Acceleration Services, including consulting, networking, coaching, and advanced seminars, in order to start and grow their business.

Teach For America-New Jersey (Essex County) — $7,500 — Teach For America's mission is to build the movement to eliminate educational inequity by enlisting our nation's most promising future leaders in the effort. Funding from The Provident Bank Foundation will support the recruitment, hiring, certification, and placement of teachers into high-need schools in Newark. Teachers will be trained in best practice pedagogy, rooting their work in culturally relevant, trauma-informed classroom support. Additionally, funds will provide ongoing professional development to ensure teachers achieve significant academic gains with their students. Throughout the year, teachers will receive 1:1 and group support from coaches and development workshops.

Trinitas Health Foundation (Union County) — $10,000 — The Trinitas Behavioral Health Adult Inpatient Unit provides patients in need of acute psychiatric hospitalization with intensive structured twenty-four hour care that combines medical, psychotherapeutic, and psychosocial interventions delivered by a multi-disciplinary team. Funds from The Provident Bank Foundation will improve the patients’ experiences while they attend services such as group therapy, art therapy, occupational therapy, and recreational therapy, and will be used for upgrades to an adult group therapy room that includes new flooring, ceiling, walls, doors, and lighting. As mental illness treatment often involves extended hospital stays, it’s important to provide a welcoming, inviting environment which can improve the recovery process.

YMCA of Metuchen, Edison, Woodbridge & South Amboy (Middlesex County) — $10,000 — The YMCA of MEWSA recognizes that there are increasing global demands on youth to have an academic understanding of science, technology, engineering, art, and math skills during their formative years. With funds from The Provident Bank Foundation, the YMCA will offer Scratch (coding/programming) and Robotics/Python programs for free to children between the ages of 7-15 from underserved families. These programs guide and support children’s curiosity away from passive instruction and more towards the concepts at the heart of STEAM: curiosity, creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking, which will build life skills that serve children throughout their school years and later in life.

PENNSYLVANIA

Potential, Inc. (Bucks County) — $7,500 — Potential, Inc. is committed to ending service waitlists for children with autism diagnosis in their community and increasing access to quality treatment. Funds from The Provident Bank Foundation will be used to recruit, hire, and train qualified individuals to become nationally certified Registered Behavior Technicians (RBTs) through Potential’s Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) Bootcamp training program. For every one RBT that Potential trains and hires, two children with autism diagnosis will come off the waitlist and access the specialized treatment services they need and deserve.

ProJeCt of Easton, Inc. (Northampton County) — $10,000 — An estimated 12.5% of adults in the Lehigh Valley lack basic literacy skills, and nearly 50% of those adults live in poverty. ProJeCt of Easton’s Literacy Program for adults and families bolsters participants’ determination to transcend these circumstances with intensive support. Adults who enroll in the program and maintain a commitment to their education receive academic instruction and one-on-one case management for themselves and their families. The entire family needs support in order to stay on a path to success, and through the Literacy Program, ProJeCt leverages the many resources the community provides to help families achieve the success they deserve.

The Provident Bank Foundation supports not-for-profit groups, institutions, schools and other 501(c)(3) organizations. These organizations provide valuable services to the communities served by Provident Bank. PBF is committed to strengthening and sustaining its relationships with communities in the Bank’s marketplace.

For more information and guidelines on these funding opportunities, visit www.theprovidentbankfoundation.org or call (862) 260-3990.

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About The Provident Bank Foundation

The Provident Bank Foundation was established in 2003 by Provident Bank to enhance the quality of life in the region through support of not-for-profit groups, institutions, schools and other 501(c)(3) organizations that provide services in communities served by the Bank. Since inception, the Foundation has granted more than $24 million to not-for-profit organizations and institutions working toward stronger communities. For more information, visit www.theprovidentbankfoundation.org or call (862) 260-3990.