CareSource Foundation announces Kansas winners of Inaugural Grant Challenge

New initiative awards total of $165,000 to Kansas organizations making significant community impacts.

(DAYTON, OH – November 15, 2021) – The CareSource Foundation has announced the winning Kansas organizations of its inaugural CareSource Foundation Grant Challenge.

“We are proud to support these organizations and honor the impact they are making on the health and well-being of children and families in their communities who have some of the most complex needs,” said CareSource Foundation CEO Dan McCabe, who also serves as CareSource’s chief administrative officer.

Greensburg-based Youth Core Ministries received the top award of $50,000 to support their efforts to prevent children from entering the foster care and juvenile justice systems and stabilizing families to reintegrate children back into their biological homes to prevent the generational cycle of foster care and poverty.

“We are so grateful to be the winning recipients of the Care Source Grant Challenge,” said Deborah Factor, CEO of Youth Core Ministries. “We won because of the incredible community support, donors, volunteers, the families and kids we serve whose tenacity in voting daily made this a reality. What a huge thumbs up from the communities we serve. These funds are an important boost towards our efforts to resolving poverty through our Core Community programs. Our deep thanks to the Care Source Foundation.”

The CareSource Foundation also awarded four additional organizations with second and third place awards, which collectively garnered 75 percent of the public votes that determined the winning organizations. Nearly 15,000 voted during the grant challenge’s two-week voting phase.

• Kansas Children’s Service League, Wichita – $25,000 Award
• Care Beyond the Boulevard, Shawnee – $25,000 Award
• Holy Family Medical, Wichita – $20,000 Award
• Kansas City Dream Center, Kansas City – $20,000 Award

The CareSource Foundation launched the grant challenge in August as a new initiative allowing Kansas community members to nominate nonprofits based on their community impact aligned with a specific focus area and vote on the winning organizations. Over 50 nonprofits were nominated from across the state with 10 moving on to the voting phase.

In addition to the five winning organizations, five semi-finalist organizations that participated in the public voting phase will also receive $5,000 gifts from the foundation to honor their impact:

• Bethel Neighborhood Center, Kansas City
• Capper Foundation, Topeka
• Just Food of Douglas County, Lawrence
• SENT, Topeka
• YOUTHRIVE, Overland Park

Through the grant challenge, the CareSource Foundation hopes to inspire innovation to reduce health disparities and move the needle on health equity, especially for those with special care needs, both health and social. Initially, the challenge launched in Kansas and Iowa.

The CareSource Foundation has partnered with nonprofits since 2006 to provide much-needed services to low-and moderate-income families, encourage healthy communities, develop innovative approaches to address critical health issues, and enhance the lives of a diverse array of children, adults and families.