Northland Foundation awards 46 grants to support a thriving northeastern Minnesota

Between April 1 and June 30, 2021, the Northland Foundation awarded 46 grants totaling $571,635 to benefit the people and communities within its service area. These numbers do not include 13 already announced Maada’ookiing grants awarded to Indigenous individuals through the foundation’s newest initiative.

The grants were awarded April through June 2021 and were broken into several categories.

COVID Relief and Recovery

Cook County Early Childhood Coalition in Grand Marais was awarded $5,000 through the COVID Relief and Recovery (CRR)category. All told school and community organizations in Northeastern Minnesota received $98,544 through CRR.

These CRR grants were awarded in partnership with the Minnesota Department of Education on behalf of the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) Fund for emergency wrap-around early care and education services. The grants are designed to support northeastern Minnesota children ages 0-8 from underserved populations impacted by the COVID- 19 pandemic.

“Supporting the healthy development of children and youth has been a Northland Foundation priority for 35 years now,” stated Erik Torch, Director of Grantmaking. “This spring’s funding adds to the more than $13.6 million to date in Children and Youth grantmaking, dedicated to nurturing our region’s next generations.”

Integrated Rural Community Aging Program – Community Planning and Care Coordination

Only two grants were made through the Northland Foundation’s Integrated Rural Community Aging Program to increase access, awareness, and availability of services to help older adults and their family caregivers age successfully in their setting of choice. The foundation is partnering with seven lead aging services organizations across northeastern Minnesota to support community-based work.

North Shore Area Partners, Silver Bay was picked for one of the two awards. North Shore Area Partners was granted $65,000 to support efforts to help increase awareness, availability, and access to aging services and supports in the Silver Bay area.