Local programs aimed at addressing the region’s opioid crisis and helping at-risk students graduate from high school won transformational grants Thursday, each earning $123,500 in funding provided by northern Michigan women.

Addiction Treatment Services (ATS) and Communities in Schools (CIS) were the winners of this year’s grants from Impact 100 Traverse City, an organization of 247 women who each contributed $1,000 in 2018. One hundred percent of the donations were pooled into a collective fund that backed two $123,500 grants, with local nonprofits invited to apply for funding to undertake a transformational project to further their mission. Five finalists were chosen through an application and committee review process to compete in each of Impact 100 TC’s five giving categories, including: Arts & Culture; Education; Environment, Preservation & Recreation; Family; and Health & Wellness.

Impact 100 Traverse City members gathered Thursday night at the Hagerty Center to hear 10-minute presentations from each of the finalists before using a secret ballot to rank their recipient choices. Accounting firm Rehmann tallied the votes, announcing ATS and CIS as the top two choices.

Both organizations gave emotive presentations that used powerful personal narratives to illustrate the need for their services. In the midst of a nationwide opioid epidemic, Residential Program Manager Matt Zerilli of ATS spoke about the nearly three-week waiting list that faces individuals who come forward seeking help for addiction to receive an assessment and get connected to treatment. “We need a better public health strategy when it comes to addiction in our communities and our country,” Zerilli said.

ATS aims to use its grant funding to cut the client wait time down to same-day assessments, additionally providing “wraparound services” that would immediately connect those struggling with addiction with support groups and other programs. The organization plans to hire three new employees for its PORCH (Providing Opportunities for Recovery and Community Health) program. Among other offerings, the program will provide those in recovery with a safe social place to gather – watching football games, having karaoke nights, and gathering for coffee – where alcohol or drugs aren’t a temptation.

Zerilli closed his presentation by asking one member from each table around the room to stand, indicating that those standing represented the number of individuals who died from opioid overdoses in the community last year. He then asked an additional two members from each table to stand, representing the parents of the victims. Another table member was asked to stand to represent the victim’s best friend, then a favorite teacher, then a coach. At the end of Zerilli’s presentation, everyone in the room was silently standing – many with tears in their eyes.

CIS representatives delivered a similarly impactful presentation, with Afterschool Coordinator Amber Carr of Kalkaska Middle School sharing her personal journey from being a high school student who struggled with drugs and whose life was turned around by CIS to now serving on the nonprofit’s leadership team, helping the next generation of students. CIS works to help at-risk high school students stay in school and graduate by addressing both academic and nonacademic barriers to their success. The group coordinates with teachers and staff – as well as businesses, health care providers, and nonprofits – to bring outside resources into schools, including laundry services, tutoring help, free meals, after-school programs, and mental health support.

The Impact 100 grant will help CIS retain five site coordinators and add three new coordinators, increasing the students served from 1,000 to over 2,800 at Kalkaska Public Schools, Central Lake Public Schools, Suttons Bay Public Schools, and Forest Area Community Schools. “This is amazing,” Carr told The Ticker after the grant winners were announced. “This is an organization that was so meaningful to me when I was a kid, when I was in the hardest time of my life as a teenager. To be able to work for them and give back, and to sustain site coordinators, is so powerful. I can’t believe that just happened.”

ATS CEO Christopher Hindbaugh was similarly enthused after the event, saying his organization has historically “been resistant to tapping into local philanthropy,” aiming instead to run an efficient organization and to “leverage medical reimbursement” to avoid taking away funding opportunities from other area nonprofits meeting basic needs. But he calls the PORCH program a “critical” need in the Grand Traverse region – one for which ATS has few other funding options. Hindbaugh says the Impact 100 grant will make an immediate difference for his organization. “We’ve had the concept of this program for a number of years, so this grant allows us to get going right away,” he says. 

Even those organizations who weren’t selected to receive funding Thursday could benefit from the program, organizers believe. Those groups – including Parallel 45 Theatre, Child & Family Services of Northwest Michigan, and Right Tree – were able to give personal pitches for their projects to the room’s 200-plus attendees, and will also be featured on Impact 100’s website. Impact 100 plans to post “wish lists” for all of the organizations online, allowing members to donate items, services, or funding that will help the finalists fulfill their missions.

The group is also already eyeing its next giving cycle. Membership enrollment for the 2019 season kicked off Thursday, with founder Wendy Steele saying she hopes to see the group grow to 500 donors annually. That would allow five grants to be awarded locally each year – one in each of Impact 100’s giving categories. “Every one of our finalists is remarkable,” she says.