SYRACUSE, N.Y. — A group of 10 Onondaga County nonprofits will use grant money awarded from the county’s COVID-19 Response Fund. 

Ryan McMahon, Onondaga County executive, on March 9 announced the awards during an event held at AccessCNY, located at 1603 Court St. in Syracuse.

As the county explained in its news release, the COVID-19 Response Fund sought to “address the human-service needs and improve quality of life for the populations in Onondaga County disproportionately impacted by the COVID19 pandemic.”

The effort had a “specific focus placed” on the county’s youth and senior-citizen populations. The fund had $1 million available, with maximum funding awards of $100,000 each.

Grant recipients

Onondaga County provided a list of the 11 grant awards to 10 recipients and a description of how the nonprofits will use the funding. 

AccessCNY will use two funding awards. The one grant, totaling nearly $99,000, will connect people who live with a developmental disability, acquired brain injury, or mental-health diagnosis, with needed services including increasing attendance at medical appointments, decreasing food insecurity, and reducing feelings of social isolation.

The second grant, a more than $94,000 award, is for caregiver training. The funding will allow AccessCNY to increase outreach and collaboration across systems and develop curriculum to provide educational resources and supports to unpaid caregivers of individuals with a mental-health diagnosis.

ACR Health will use its $100,000 grant for a mobile health-services team. The money will help the organization enhance outreach, education, harm reduction, and prevention services for people with opiate-use disorder and/or those at increased risk for HIV/STDs.

Aurora of Central New York, Inc. will use its $100,000 for a safe outreach project for people with vision and hearing loss. The grant will allow Aurora to ensure proper access to — and utilization of — mental and physical-health services using appropriate sign language interpretive services for the Deaf New American Community and American Deaf individuals. It will also use the funding to help reduce isolation for seniors with vision or hearing loss by providing training in adaptive and assistive technologies.

CirCare was awarded a nearly $79,000 grant for a parent project. It will use the money to implement the Parent Project Model, an evidence-based curricula helping parents develop strategies to handle “some of the most difficult” behaviors exhibited in their school-aged children.

Contact Community Services, Inc. plans to use its $100,000 grant award for a TeleCare project to make telephone-reassurance calls for isolated and vulnerable older adults, including daily wellness checks and medication reminders.

Elmcrest Children’s Center was issued a $100,000 grant for non-traditional childcare at Northside Early Education Center. The organization will use the money to implement a pilot program to provide center-based licensed childcare during non-traditional hours (5 p.m.-12 a.m.) for parents working second shift.

Empower Parkinson, Inc. will use a more than $77,000 grant award for expansion of services for people with Parkinson’s Disease. The funding will help pay for efforts to expand provision of services including boxing, other fitness activities, education, support, and socialization for people living with Parkinson’s Disease.

PEACE, Inc. plans to use its $100,000 grant award for a program focused on aging-in-place senior home modification. The funding will help PEACE improve the physical environments of Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP) eligible seniors so that they’re able to stay in their own homes safely. This includes activities such as ramp installation, doorway widening, and modifications to accommodate medical devices.

Reach CNY, Inc. will use its grant of nearly $51,000 for a childbirth-education program for refugee and immigrant women and families. The funding will help Reach CNY use certified childbirth educators and trained medical interpreters to provide childbirth-education classes for pregnant women in Onondaga County whose first language is Somali, Arabic, Swahili, or Kinyarwanda.

Syracuse Northeast Community Center was awarded a $100,000 grant to improve and expand existing basic needs and senior services while working toward implementation of a full “food farmacy program” model.