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Grinnell Community Foundation Works to Fill Gaps in Mental Health Care

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The Tuesday after Thanksgiving has been dubbed #GivingTuesday, and in light of that fairly recent development, many end-of-year fundraising campaigns are getting a boost. This hour on Talk of Iowa, we hear from a few community foundations in Iowa about the work they are doing. 

"For good, forever."

"Community foundations serve a specific geographic area. In the state of Iowa, we have at least one, and sometimes more than one in each of our ninety-nine counties," explains Kari McCann Boutell, who is president of the Iowa Council of Foundations. 

These organizations work on building endowments and grant funds to serve local areas that cater specifically to local needs. 

In this program, we also hear from Kaye Englin, who is president and CEO of the Community Foundation of Northeast Iowa, and Nicole Brua-Behrens, who is Executive Director for the Greater Poweshiek Community Foundation. 

Brua-Behrens says that in Grinnell, the foundation has worked with local stakeholders to fund mental health services and try to meet a growing need for mental health care. Their foundation has also helped create a backpack program called TigerPacks to send home food for students who are food insecure. 

Lindsey Moon is IPR's Senior Digital Producer
Charity Nebbe is the host of IPR's Talk of Iowa