New Hampshire Audubon is proud to announce that it has been awarded $24,479 as part of the Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation National Paralysis Resource Center (PRC) High Impact Priority Quality of Life Grants and Direct Effect grants cycles. Seven High Impact Grants totaling $232,266 and 73 Direct Effect Quality of Life Grants totaling $1,244,263 were awarded. The Quality of Life Grants Program supports nonprofit organizations that empower individuals living with paralysis.
N.H. Audubon will use the grant for providing push-button mechanical door operators for front and back entrances to the McLane Center in Concord as well as the Massabesic Center in Auburn. These door operators will allow people using assistive devices for mobility to freely move around the two centers to access interpretive educational material as well as exterior exhibits including ambassador animals. Finally, the funds will also provide a crushed gravel pathway on the exterior of the Massabesic Center to access aspects of their growing Garden of the Senses.
“New Hampshire Audubon is honored to receive this award and hopes that even more people will visit the two centers to forge a connection to nature and to family members, friends and loved ones,” said Doug Bechtel, N.H. Audubon president. “New Hampshire Audubon sincerely thanks the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation for this opportunity to improve our facilities for all.”
The Reeve Foundation National Paralysis Resource Center has a number of grant programs under the Quality of Life program awarding grants in different category areas, varying in amounts. The High Impact Priority Quality of Life Grants fund projects in the following areas: Transportation, Respite/Caregiving, and Disaster Response, Nursing Home Transition and Employment, while the Direct Effect Grants support a wide range of short-to mid-term projects and activities that will clearly impact individuals living with paralysis and their families.
“There are several components that go into these projects,” said Mark Bogosian, director of the Quality of Life Grants Program. “If we can provide programmatic and other financial supports, even in the short term with the Direct Effect grants, these organizations can now focus on executing their mission, leading to greater success, expansion and sustainability.”
The Reeve Foundation funded a wide variety of projects from employment programs to accessible playground projects and adaptive sports programs. Since the Quality of Life Grants Program’s inception, 3,153 grants totaling over $26 million have been awarded. Funding for these new cycles of grants were made possible through a cooperative agreement with the Administration for Community Living.
The Christopher & Dana Reeve Foundation is dedicated to curing spinal cord injury by funding innovative research and improving the quality of life for people living with paralysis through grants, information and advocacy. For more info, visit ChristopherReeve.org or call 800-539-7309.
New Hampshire Audubon is a nonprofit statewide membership organization dedicated to the protection of New Hampshire’s natural environment for wildlife and for people. For information on N.H. Audubon, call 224-9909 or visit nhaudubon.org.
N.H. Audubon
