ProMedica to Make Community Investment in the Junction Neighborhood with Support from the Owens Corning Foundation

The ProMedica Ebeid Neighborhood Promise and ProMedica Foundation are pleased to announce a resident-driven $2.8 million community grant investment in the Junction neighborhood in Central Toledo. The goal of the investment is to help support a neighborhood that traditionally has experienced disinvestment, which has disproportionally affected people of color. Reinvesting in neighborhoods like the Junction is a critical step in creating infrastructure and opportunities for all of our neighbors.

To support this community, the Owens Corning Foundation helped fund the grant investment program. “We realize the positive impact this investment will have in the neighborhood and the greater community, and we are pleased to join forces to help make a lasting difference,” said Don Rettig, president of the Owens Corning Foundation.

Kicking off the program in fall of 2020, ProMedica sought grant applicants that could help in the areas of education and training, health and wellness, jobs and finances, stable housing and basic needs for the Junction neighborhood.

To ensure the grant application review process included resident input, ProMedica engaged community partners and neighborhood leaders through several community meetings. The stakeholders were instrumental in the process, reviewing neighborhood-level data and plans and administering a survey to gauge neighborhood need.

Shantae Brownlee, a Junction neighborhood resident and stakeholder who participated in the community meetings, said, “The process of selecting the programs that would make the most impact on our community was extensive, but I’m proud of the selections and looking forward to real change.”

ProMedica received more than 40 applications. Twenty projects and 18 organizations were identified to receive funding based on the goals, predicted outcomes and programming that addressed specific health and human service challenges facing the Junction community.

The MLK Kitchen for the Poor is among the organizations receiving funding. The Kitchen currently serves meals to more than 200 people each day, from school-aged children to the elderly. The grant investment program will fund its food box and hot meals program. “This past year, more than ever, we have been seeing people in need of basic necessities. Providing hot meals and food boxes makes a tangible difference in the health of our community. My late father opened the Kitchen in 1969, and this funding will continue his legacy,” said Harvey Savage, Jr., executive director, The MLK Kitchen.

Another organization to receive grant funding is the Neighborhood Health Association, which provides access to quality medical care for anyone in need. The grant program will fund the “Saving Ourselves” program, which seeks to staff a full-time community organizer. The organizer will connect Junction residents to basic needs and organize residents in the development and implementation of a strategy for changing the health status of the community. “Providing the right access allows us to empower and educate while aggressively working to eliminate health care inequities,” said Doni Miller, chief executive officer, Neighborhood Health Association.

The first installment in the grant payments for the two-year cycle will start January 2021, enabling organizations to begin programming at the beginning of the year. Funding is for a minimum two-year period and contingent upon successful, demonstrable achievement of outcomes.