WMHC Grant
Apply for the WMHC Grant
WMHC awards a one-time $10,000 grant to a 501(c)(3) organization in one of the five boroughs of New York that champions and supports women through mental health services. Organizations that decide to apply will be asked to submit information about their mission, their services and who they serve, and how they would utilize the grant if awarded. Unique to this year, organizations will be asked to provide ideas for organizational partnership with WMHC, such as ways that WMHC members could volunteer with them in 2023.
We are currently accepting applications. Applications must be received by March 31st, 2023.
Previous recipients of WMHC Grant include:
Chances for Children’s mission is to provide clinical group and dyadic services for families with young children to strengthen understanding, enhance sensitivity, and nurture relationships. Chances for Children serves pregnant mothers and parents with children from birth to age five in the Bronx. Through our extensive network of community partners, we reach families with mental health struggles large and small and provide parent-child therapy and group programs for families in need. We provide services and in English and Spanish and both in person and via telehealth. Ours is a strengths-based, preventative approach.
Chances for Children is a female-led nonprofit organization serving low-income pregnant mothers and parents and their children from birth to age five who live in the Bronx. Founded in 2000, our work began with teenage mothers and their young children in NYC high schools. Since inception, we have sought to provide culturally sensitive infant mental health services to families - 78% of the families we serve are Latino and our clinical team is 58% Latino as well, including Co-Executive Director Silvia Juarez-Marazzo, LCSW, NCPsyA.
Voices of Women
The Voices of Women (VOW) is a survivor-led organization that works to improve domestic violence policy, its implementation, and the services survivors turn to for safety, justice, and assistance. The grant will support VOW’s Survivor Policy Lab. A training program to help survivors of gender-based violence become community organizers and learn effective city and state legislative advocacy.
The Survivor Policy Lab will bridge connections between policy-making, survivor leadership, and systems change. Survivors will learn the tenets of community organizing, about the injustices survivors face, exchange ideas, and develop strategies for systemic change to local and state legislative policies—all in pursuit of a safe and equitable society for survivors and their children. The Survivor Policy Lab is an inclusive space with a specific focus on working with communities that are excluded from traditional policy-making spaces.
Women in Need
Women in Need (WIN) works to holistically transform the lives of homeless mothers and their children by providing safe housing and supportive services to 4 of the 5 boroughs of NYC. WIN runs 11 shelters and over 300 supportive housing units throughout NYC. This year’s grant will specifically support WIN clients at risk of experiencing postpartum depression. Part of the funding will be directed towards “starter kits” for nursing mothers, which includes breastfeeding tools and accessories to aid successful breastfeeding. The remainder of the funding will go towards training WIN’s social work and client care staff on breastfeeding and lactation support, in order to encourage proactive parenting planning and combat the effects of postpartum depression.
Lenox Hill Neighborhood House
The LHNH is a 126-year-old settlement house that provides a wide range of human services to Manhattan’s east side. The Women’s Mental Health Shelter is a 24-hour shelter that offers medical, behavioral health, legal, nutrition, recreation, housing and social services to homeless women. Casa Mutua is a residence for men and women 18 and over who have a severe mental illness and are coming out of chronic homelessness. The grant will directly support mental health services for 80 residents of the Women’s Mental Health Shelter as well as the 25 women tenants in Casa Mutua. Since the start of the pandemic, additional psychiatry and counseling support has been made available, in addition to the purchase of cell phones for clients to stay in touch with their service providers. Funding will go towards the maintenance of expanded mental health services so that tenants can remain stable, healthy, and safe.
The Alex House
The Alex House is a Brooklyn-based organization devoted to the provision of social support and leadership development of young and expecting or parenting mothers ages 15-25 who reside in economically depressed neighborhoods. The objective of their peer-based program is to promote long-term family sufficiency and a safe environment for mothers to thrive. The $10,000 award formed a Parent Educator stipend so an eligible mother can be successfully mentored to provide active listening skills and emotional support to other young mothers.
Make the Road New York
Make the Road New York (MRNY) has been working for over 25 years to ensure immigrant and working class communities in New York City are awarded the dignity and justice they deserve through numerous programs including education, organizing and ensuring access to services. The $10,000 awarded by WMHC to Make the Road New York was specifically used to address the growing need to assist immigrant women gain access to mental health care.
NY Abortion Access Fund
The New York Abortion Access Fund (NYAAF) exists to support a woman’s ability to decide her own reproductive destiny. They provide funds to clinics throughout the state of New York that have identified individuals in need of financial assistance. NYAFF was awarded a grant of $2000 in 2017 to assist women so they have the right to choose no matter their financial ability.
During the Covid pandemic, the Executive Committee donated the money usually spent on these meetings to the following food banks:
World Central Kitchen
WCK is working across America to safely distribute individually packaged, fresh meals in communities that need support— for children and families to pick up and take home, as well as delivery to seniors who cannot venture outside. WCK is also activating restaurants to help meet this demand by providing jobs for their staff and meals for those in need.
Family-to-Family
Family-to-Family, Inc. provides food, personal hygiene products, and other basic life essentials to American families struggling with the challenges of poverty. By connecting donors one-to-one with specific families in need, Family-to-Family’s mission is to bring a large and seemingly intractable problem- poverty- into personal focus, making concrete and meaningful results possible… one family at a time.
Feed the Front Lines
Feed the Front Lines NYC delivers free, nutritious meals prepared by local restaurants to healthcare workers and New Yorkers experiencing food insecurity.
The SAC committee members are:
- Jane Hammerslough, LMFT
- Patricia Valencia, LMHC