Each year, the Foundation reviews the applications in the Parish Outreach category of the Spring Grant Cycle and considers applicants for a two-year grant. This means that the program selected will receive a grant this year and next year they will receive the same amount without submitting another application.
The recipient of the 2023 Two-Year Grant is Santa Teresa Parish’s “Everybody Loves a Baby” program.
California Bishops have called for an increase in support for pregnant women and the Santa Teresa parish community is responding to that call with the “Everybody Loves a Baby” (ELAB) program. The program supports vulnerable women who are pregnant or mothers to newborns and children under 5. Many of these women are refugees or asylum seekers who are not only navigating motherhood, but are also learning a new language, adapting to a new culture, and are trying to find housing and employment as well.
ELAB has focused primarily on meeting the practical resource needs of parents with a primary emphasis on providing hard to find items like strollers, car seats and breast feeding supplies. In the next two years, ELAB would like to expand its work by continuing to provide these resources in addition to meeting the social and emotional needs of new parents. The goals of the new groups and activites are to give parents an opportunity to build community and address the psychological issues that are typical in the perinatal and postpartum phase.
If you’d like more information about applying for a grant, visit our Spring Grant Cycle page.
If you would like to support the Parish Outreach Endowment which funds grants like this, click here to donate.