Poshard Foundation Marks 25 Years, $10 Million Given to Protect Abused Children
Foundation set to hand out $106,500 more in new grants, trains providers in trauma care
By Verna Slate, Williamson County Bureau
MARION, Ill. — Twenty-five years ago the Poshard Foundation set out to do something about child abuse in southern Illinois. It has since put $10 million behind that promise, the Southern Illinoisan reports, in a region that doesn't always have the resources bigger cities take for granted.
The foundation isn't slowing down. It's set to announce $106,500 in new grant awards to child abuse prevention agencies, according to KFVS12, and has brought agencies together to train providers in trauma counseling, the Southern Illinoisan reports separately — work aimed at making sure the adults meeting abused kids know how to actually help them.
That's the quieter, harder half of this kind of anniversary. Anyone can cut a ribbon. Keeping the money and the training flowing to caseworkers and counselors for a quarter century, in counties that have seen their share of hard times, is the real milestone.
The foundation has not detailed which agencies will receive the new round of grants. The Bureau will follow up once recipients are named.
— Compiled from reporting by the Southern Illinoisan and KFVS12.
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