Stuart gives a half-million dollars to nonprofits serving children and the homeless
STUART — Agencies serving children and homeless people are sharing a half-million dollars from the city.
Tent City Helpers, Martin County Healthy Start Coalition, Little Lights Dentistry and the Gertrude Walden Child Care Center will each receive a portion of the money that came to the city through the American Rescue Plan.
The federal American Rescue Plan provided $360 billion to help state, local, territorial and Tribal governments provide for their people and shore up the American economy in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Officials could not confirm how much the city received.
Little Lights Dentistry
"We're very proud to be included," said Lori Sang, executive director of Little Lights Dentistry, the only pediatric dental practice in Florida to offer free comprehensive care to uninsured and low-income children.
Sang's organization is receiving more than $250,000 from Stuart to expand its practice as it sees an increase in the number of children needing care.
Little Lights serves children as young as a year old and until they graduate from high school. Little Lights will use the money to expand into a storage space at St. Joseph Catholic Church & School, where it operates.
Sang also wants to bring in an orthodontist and other specialists so the organization can avoid sending children to private practitioners, which would make receiving care more time consuming.
Gertrude Walden Child Care Center getting more than $100,000
The Gertrude Walden Child Care Center will receive almost $110,000 to expand its services. The center currently has a waitlist because of a shortage of space.
But it failed a fire inspection in the new space it was trying to add. This money will pay for a fire-safety system, according to city records.
With the new fire system, the center can eliminate the waitlist and get those "wonderful little kids in school," said Executive Director Thelma Washington.
Health coalition to open maternity center
Martin County Healthy Start Coalition, which provides resources and support for the health of pregnant women and infants, will get about $66,000 from Stuart.
Healthy Start will open a maternity center to provide coordinated and comprehensive prenatal care, Samantha Suffich, CEO of Martin County Healthy Start Coalition, said following Monday's approval by commissioners.
"I'm actually pretty elated," she said.
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It's the start of a big vision for them, Suffich added.
Tent City Helpers, which helps homeless people in Martin County, will receive almost $70,000 to give out insect repellent and emergency shelter packages and provide a transit access program.
A call seeking comment from the group was not returned Monday.
Stuart previously allocated $500,000 to a nonprofit
SafeSpace, which helps victims of domestic violence, received $500,000 in American Rescue Plan money in a previous allocation by the city, said Commissioner Christopher Collins after Monday's meeting. Commissioners approved that in February.
After that allocation, Collins urged the commission to pause and consider how the rest of the money would be spent.
Twelve nonprofits applied for the money allocated Monday, asking for nearly $2.5 million. City officials created a matrix to choose which would receive the money, Collins said.
Keith Burbank is TCPalm's watchdog reporter covering Martin County. He can be reached at keith.burbank@tcpalm.com and at (720) 288-6882.
This article originally appeared on Treasure Coast Newspapers: City commissioners approve $500,000 to help children, homeless people
