Ross Gallabrese GRANTS AWARDED — Three area nonprofits are sharing in $100,000 distributed Monday by Trinity Health System. On hand for the presentation were, from left, Bobbyjon Bauman, president of the Ohio Valley Youth Network and executive director of the Sycamore Youth Center; Ann Quillen, executive director of the Ohio Valley Health Center; Dwayne Richardson, interim market president of Trinity; and Suzie Jackson, founder and president of Homeward Bound of Steubenville.

STEUBENVILLE — Three local organizations received a boost in their efforts to improve the lives of community members Monday.

Those nonprofits — the Ohio Valley Health Center, the Sycamore Youth Center and Homeward Bound of Steubenville — will share $100,000 awarded by Trinity Health System as part of the CommonSpirit Health Community Health Improvement Grants Program.

“We are so excited to share this blessing with these three organizations, and these are organizations that provide worthwhile services,” said Dwayne Richardson, interim market president for Trinity, after the grants were presented in the lobby of Trinity Medical Center West.

The Ohio Valley Health Center will receive $40,000, while the Sycamore Youth Center and Homeward Bound will each receive $30,000 through the program, which is run through Trinity’s parent company. It is designed to improve community health, advance health equity and support vital local services through targeted charitable contributions.

“Supporting access to vital services delivered by nonprofits in our community helps ensure individuals and families are able to obtain the services that they need and contribute to overall well-being,” Richardson said.

Bobbyjon Bauman, president of the Ohio Valley Youth Network and executive director of the Sycamore Youth Center, said the funding will help provide services to area youth.

“The funding is going to contribute greatly toward running our 64 after-school programs that we provide free of charge to underresourced children in our community,” he said.

“Every single day, the majority of kids who come into the Sycamore Youth Center come from underresourced or challenging circumstances — they are kids who are falling through the cracks,” he said. “These are kids who aren’t involved in sports or other after-school activities and they gravitate toward the center. It gives them something positive to do, as well as build relationships and trust with adults.”

He added that it has been a blessing to see how the programs have changed the lives of young people.

“It’s a mentoring thing that organically takes place,” Bauman said.

The grant money will help the Ohio Valley Health Center continue its work of providing health care to uninsured and underinsured residents.

“We’re grateful to CommonSpirit Health — the funds that they generously gave us today will go toward our Free to Be Healthy Program,” said Ann Quillen, the center’s executive director.

That program, she explained, helps those who suffer from diabetes or hypertension, allowing the center to secure medication and medical equipment such as blood pressure cuffs or glucose testing supplies. The free medical clinic also provides lab work and assistance with food and other issues patients might have.

“We have more than 800 active patients, and we have provided care during more than 30,000 patient visits during the last 20 years, so we have made a huge impact on the community,” she said.

Quillen said medically insured individuals who suffer from chronic disease can have difficulty with work.

“So, when they can get the medical care that they need and deserve, it allows them to have a productive life, have their jobs and they can take care of their families,” she added.

While the Sycamore Youth Center and Ohio Valley Health Center have served the community for decades, Homeward Bound of Steubenville is a newer nonprofit focused on helping the city’s poor and homeless through low-barrier transitional housing and one-on-one support.

“This grant is very significant for us,” said Suzie Jackson, its founder and president. “We’re just a little more than a year old, so this funding will allow us to make a much-bigger impact much sooner. We designed it to be a very low-budget, community-oriented nonprofit, so the funds we have received from Trinity will go very far, since the organization was set up to be a low-budget, scrappy sort of organization.

“We’re using things from thrift stores, finding as many volunteers as we can and reducing the point of cost as much as possible,” Jackson added. “This check will allow us to start housing homeless men much sooner.”

Jackson said the organization aims to improve the lives of area residents.

“Our goal is to take our homeless clients out of emergency housing and give them a place to live, give them food to eat and clothes to wear, connect them with counselors and get them a job interview — basically, to connect them with all of the local resources they need to get them back onto their feet and into their own private housing,” she added.

Making a difference in the lives of community members is the goal of the grant program, Trinity officials said.

“The Community Health Improvement Grants are a tangible example of how CommonSpirit Health is living its mission and investing to address our communities’ demonstrated health needs,” said Michael Bilton, system director of community health and community benefit for Trinity. “By financially supporting and, in many cases, actively partnering with local organizations in the communities served by our hospitals, we are able to help strengthen prevention, access to care and vital services for people in crisis.”