TNH Foundation’s Grant Awards Top $1 Million

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— press release

Triangle North Healthcare Foundation’s Grant Awards Top $1 Million

By Val Short,
Executive Director
Triangle North Healthcare Foundation

Triangle North Healthcare Foundation has achieved a new milestone with the recent approval by the Board of Directors of $300,000 in grant awards to local organizations in the Foundation’s fifth grant cycle. The 2017 grant awards raises the total funds awarded by the Foundation to $1.1 million, since the Foundation began grantmaking in 2013. The 2017 grant awards were presented at a reception on October 12.

“The Foundation’s mission is to invest in grant projects and programs that will improve health in our region,” said Val Short, executive director for the Foundation. “The 2017 grant awards will fund projects that focus on community health and healthy lifestyles throughout our four-county region. Our hope is that these grant awards will result in improved health and healthier outcomes for children and adults in Vance, Warren, Granville, and Franklin counties.”

Most of the 2017 grant projects focus on chronic disease management and prevention, success in school, and substance use disorders. The TNHF grantees will provide a broad range of approaches to improving health– from programs that develop fitness and self-esteem in teens, to enabling access to primary care for homeless men, to teaching social skills and relationship boundaries for the developmentally disabled, to teaching water safety skills to Vance County second graders. “For all of our grant programs, health and wellness are at the heart of the work they will do,” said Short.

Triangle North Healthcare Foundation has established five major funding priorities that include, Chronic Disease Prevention, Nutrition and Physical Fitness, Success in School—as it relates to health and fitness, Mental Health and Substance Abuse, and Reproductive Health.

A list of the grant recipients and their projects for 2017-18 includes:

• Boys & Girls Clubs of North Central NC – SMART Girls Outdoors – a health, fitness, and self-enhancement program for girls ages 8-16, which is designed to encourage healthy attitudes and lifestyles that will enable adolescent girls to develop their full potential; program will partner with YMCA’s Girls on the Run.

• Community Partners of Hope – Health Interventions – a coordination of access to primary care, behavioral health, and dental services for 40 homeless men served by Hope House and the Emergency Shelter; skills for self-management of chronic illnesses will be taught to all participants.

• Community Workforce Solutions, Inc. – Healthy Boundaries – Safe Living – using the Circles curriculum to help individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities navigate social situations, learn healthy relationship boundaries, and to recognize and react appropriately to sexual abuse or exploitation.

• Franklin-Granville-Vance Smart Start – Teens Fit for Life – the existing Adolescent Parenting Program will expand to include a Nutrition & Fitness component in partnership with the YMCA and Cooperative Extension.

• Franklin County Health Department – MIT Care for a Healthier Franklin County – staff training to implement evidence-based practices of motivational interviewing, integrated behavioral and physical care, and trauma-Informed practice to improve patient-provider engagement and improve health in the priority areas of heart disease and obesity.

• Granville-Vance Public Health – 1)Improving Child Health & Academic Achievement in Vance County – collection and analysis of baseline anthropometric data in at least 7 elementary schools to be used to pilot child health and obesity prevention project in at least one elementary school; 2)Improving Birth Outcomes in Granville & Vance counties – expanding the evidenced-based Centering Pregnancy program to Vance County; provides prenatal care and learning activities to address and improve high rates of infant mortality and significant disparities in birth outcomes.

• Henderson Family YMCA – 1) Girls on the Run/STRIDE – a self-esteem, self- respect and healthy lifestyles program for girls & boys culminating in a 5k run/walk at the end of each semester; 2) Safety Around Water – teaches water safety and drowning prevention skills to 2nd graders in Vance County.

• NC Med Assist – Free Pharmacy Program & Over-the-Counter Giveaways – provides free medications and support for low income and uninsured individuals in the Triangle North Region. In addition two over-the-counter medicine giveaways will be implemented this year in Vance and Granville counties.

• Occoneechee Council, Boy Scouts of America – SCOUT Strong – expands existing alcohol & drug prevention program designed for boys and girls ages 5 to 20. Emphasizes healthy living, physical fitness and the dangers of substance abuse.

• Strength and Mending (S.a.M) Child Advocacy Center – Child Forensic Interviews – provides a centralized, child-centered approach to investigation that reduces the risk of trauma to the children who are victims of abuse; increases opportunities for healing for the child and non-offending family members.

• TROSA (Triangle Residential Options for Substance Abusers, Inc.) – Rebuilding Lives: Mental Health & Substance Abuse Recovery – provides a two-year residential recovery program with treatment, education, vocational training and care for residents of the Triangle North region who suffer from alcohol and substance abuse, free of charge.

• Westcare North Carolina, Inc. –Staff Certifications in Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy & Substance Abuse Counseling – training for staff to become certified in trauma-focused cognitive behavioral therapy so a higher level of therapy can be provided to the adolescent women who are served by this residential treatment facility in Manson for teen girls who are classified at a Level 2 adjudicated status.

Located in Henderson, Triangle North Healthcare Foundation provides grants to nonprofits organizations, governmental agencies, and schools in Vance, Warren, Granville, and Franklin counties. The Foundation’s grant funding mission has been made possible by the endowment that was established after Maria Parham Medical Center merged with the for-profit Duke-Lifepoint in 2011.

A new grant cycle will be launched next March, but in the meantime, the Foundation staff is available to discuss ideas for grant projects or to provide assistance with grant writing. Information about our grantees and future grant opportunities is available on the website at www.tnhfoundation.org or call 252-598-0763.

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VGCC registers potentially life-saving bone marrow donors

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— courtesy VGCC

Vance-Granville Community College, in partnership with the Project Life Movement, held a three-day, three-campus bone marrow registration drive in October. The service project was led by students and faculty in the VGCC Radiography program. The result was that 40 people joined the national registry of potential bone marrow donors.

Students, faculty and staff signed up and swabbed their cheeks to provide DNA samples at the events, held on Oct. 3 at the college’s South Campus, Oct. 4 at the Main Campus and Oct. 5 at the Franklin County Campus. The painless registration process took only a few minutes, but could save a life if a participant turns out to be a match for someone in need of a bone marrow transplant. Such treatments are the only hope for many people diagnosed with leukemia, lymphoma, sickle cell anemia and other blood cancers and diseases.

Second-year VGCC Radiography students, joined by Clinical Coordinator/instructor Stacey Soles (at far left) and Dorian Edwards, campus coordinator for Project Life (in back, at far right), welcomed fellow students, faculty and staff to join the bone marrow donor registry in the student lounge on VGCC’s Main Campus. (VGCC photo)

Project Life is a national movement that started with students at Davidson College and has spread to more than 25 other schools and has registered more than 13,000 donors. This was VGCC’s second college-wide bone marrow registration event held in conjunction with Project Life. The first was in the fall of 2015.

This year, VGCC students were joined at their events by Dorian Edwards, campus coordinator for Project Life. He helped train the student volunteers and process registrations. Edwards, who is also an assistant football coach at Kinston High School, likened being on the registry to “being a member of a football or basketball team, sitting on the bench, but being ready to be called into the game at any time.” Once a person registers, he or she is listed on the registry until they reach the age of 61, so many students may remain a potential lifesaver for 40 years. Project Life works with “Be The Match,” operated by the National Marrow Donor Program (NMDP). Be The Match has managed the largest and most diverse marrow registry in the world for more than 25 years.

From left, first-year VGCC Radiography students Caitlin West, Megan Whitman and Michael Leslie were joined by Project Life Campus Coordinator Dorian Edwards at the college’s South Campus as they welcomed students, faculty to staff to register on the first day of the drive. (VGCC photo)

For more information, contact Radiography Clinical Coordinator/instructor Stacey Soles at (252) 738-3515 or soless@vgcc.edu, or Ann Henegar at Project Life at (704) 299-6310 or www.projectlifemovement.org.

Franklin County Sheriff

Homicide in Youngsville (9-23-17)

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— Press Release Franklin County Sheriff’s Office

On Saturday, September 23, 2017 at approximately 10:52pm, deputies with the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office were dispatched to 26 Amandas Way, Youngsville in regards to a shooting. Upon the deputies arrival they observed an individual identified as Devin Christofer Bilodeau (DOB 04-18-96) suffering from a fatal gunshot wound.

Detectives with the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office and agents from the State Bureau of Investigation are actively investigating this incident and no arrests have been made at this time.

If anyone should have any additional information pertaining to this investigation, please call Detective Garrett at 919-340-4311 or the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office at 919-496-2186.