By VERNON ROBISON
The Progress
After already awarding nearly $12,000 in grants to Moapa Valley organizations this year, representatives of the PACT Coalition from Las Vegas held a meeting last week to discuss how another $8,000 should be awarded to close out their fiscal year between now and the end of September.
In a meeting held on Tuesday, June 21 in the Overton Community Center, leaders of a variety of different community non-profits gathered to make a case for their organizations receiving a portion of the remaining funding.
PACT; which stands for Prevention, Advocacy, Choices, Teamwork; is a coalition which works to address substance misuse in the region through a broad range of support to communities. The entity acts as a pass-through agency for large state and federal grants, administering sub-awards to local agencies that provide direct prevention programming.
PACT Coalition Project Coordinator Elizabeth Moore began the meeting by outlining a list of local grants which had already been awarded.
“This fiscal year, we started off with a local budget of $20,000 (for Moapa Valley),” Moore said. “Here are some of the details on what we have done so far with that allocation.”
Many of these grants included assistance for community events which either directly addressed addictive behavior, or provided alternative positive activities for local youth.
These included funding for a Sober Grad Night party held last month; the recent TLC “Fight the New Drug” program; activities for ASPIRE, an organization providing support to local families of disabled adults; the Airport Day event at Perkins Field Airport last October and more.
“There is still $8,200 in funding that has to be spent by the end of September,” said PACT Coalition Deputy Director Chelsi Cheatom at the meeting. “So we would like to discuss ideas for activities and events that you want some help with in the community.”
Mary Kaye Washburn of the Moapa Valley Revitalization Project (MVRP) said that the organization was in need of an enclosed trailer to help with food distribution at the Mobile Food Pantry which takes place in the Grant Bowler Elementary School parking lot each month. The Mobile Food Pantry regularly distributes food to about 100 needy families in town.
Washburn explained that a community member had been lending MVRP the trailer that they have been using previously for the Food Pantry. But that trailer is now no longer available, she said.
“So we are desperately in need of a replacement for that,” Washburn said. “We use that to carry equipment for the food pantry.”
To purchase a trailer sufficient for this purpose the cost would be around $4,500, Washburn said.
Cheatom expressed support for this suggestion, but she reminded that the grants that PACT administers requires that funds be used on substance use prevention. She asked how the group could tailor the request to fit that use.
Washburn explained that the food pantry was a service program to relieve hunger and economic suffering in the community. She added that the trailer could also be made readily available to other groups putting on events including the MV Community Resource Fair, the Teen Leadership Corps 4H group and others.
Representing TLC, Wendy Mulcock said that the youth group is planning an August community event to raise funds for the Operation Underground Railroad organization which works to stop human trafficking. She requested $1,000 to help provide food and other supplies to the event.
Chance Munford of the Moapa Valley Fire District made a request for funds to help the district start its new Explorer program. This new program, to be open to high school seniors, provides an early start to youth interested in becoming EMTs, paramedics or firefighters, Munford said.
The district is seeking help with funding to purchase books, uniform t-shirts, training props, medical mannequins and other supplies for the program, Munford added. He requested $1,500-$2,000 for the program.
Nancy Postma with ASPIRE, also asked for $1,500-$2,000 to help fund vocational skills training and on-the-job experiences for local disabled adults.
Larry Griffiths, also of MVRP, said that he is making plans to hold the fourth annual Moapa Valley Resource Fair, which brings agencies and non-profits together to showcase services available to community members.
In hopes of increasing interest and attendance at the event, Griffiths is planning to hold it on the same time as the MV Pomegranate Arts Festival this year, the first weekend in November. He requested $600-$800 to help get the event off the ground again.
Cheatom and Moore carefully noted each of these requests, observing that they were generally within the established budget, and expressed optimism that all of the requests might find funding.
“We still have some determinations to make on our end as we finalize this budget for the year,” said Moore after the meeting. “But I was very impressed with all the ideas and I am hoping that we will be able to fund all, if not most of them.”
