Staunton Farm Foundation awards $1.2 million to fund organizations’ mental health programs and initiatives

Staunton Farm Foundation announced its latest round of grants on World Mental Health Day last week. The timing was just happenstance, though, as the Pittsburgh-based organization has been dedicated year-round to helping people who live with mental illness and/or substance use disorders for nearly a century.

In this second round of funding, it awarded 19 grants totaling nearly $1.2 million to agencies and organizations throughout Allegheny, Beaver, Butler, Fayette, Westmoreland and Washington counties. The awards included four new organizations among those who previously received funds: Chabad House on Campus Inc., Young Black Motivated Kings and Queens, Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Greensburg, and The Education Partnership.

“It is an honor to support these deserving organizations that are transforming conversations and spaces around mental health across our region,” Joni Schwager, the foundation’s executive director, said in a news release. “We are fortunate to be able to fund many exciting programs, from helping mothers with postpartum depression to providing teachers with social-emotional learning tools and so many more.”

Established as a family foundation in 1937, Staunton Farm Foundation exists thanks to Matilda Staunton Craig, known as Aunt Daisie, who wanted her estate to be used to benefit people with mental illness. Following the direction set in her will and in response to current needs, Staunton Farm Foundation trustees make grants to support treatment, services and systems improvements for children, youth and adults with behavioral health issues, according to the foundation website.

Schwager said this is the second of the foundation’s larger grant cycles. It also gives out smaller awards of $25,000 or less in June, and organizations receiving those can still apply in the other rounds. In total, Staunton Farms Foundation gives out $3 million on average yearly.

Because of the limited number of behavioral health organizations in the 10 southwestern Pennsylvania counties eligible for the grants, Staunton Farms Foundation regularly has repeat applicants for grants. She is heartened by and appreciative of the four new organizations that her organization will help as well as the repeat awardees.

For example, the news release stated that Young Black Motivated Kings and Queens will expand its mental health services by creating a designated therapeutic space — including therapy rooms, an art therapy studio, and a multipurpose therapy room for modalities such as play and music therapy — for both youth at the De’Avry A. Thomas Community Center and the broader community. It is based in Penn Hills.

Schwager said the foundation had given the organization small grants before as it had offered afterschool programs among other activities. But it had obtained an older building and is now able to create this new and needed therapeutic space, which pleases her and the foundation board.

She had never head of Chabad House on Campus Inc. before the organization applied this year. “They are doing terrific work on Pittsburgh and Allegheny County college campuses,” the executive director said. “They are training students to work as peers, and they are themselves getting more help in mental first aid. A lot of things you need to prepare when you go to college, things you didn’t know before. A lot of the social and emotional things happen when you go to college …. There’s just not enough resources on campus to meet mental health needs.”

The Education Partnership’s teacher resource center will be able to ensure teachers can provide their students with all sorts of supplies they need in the classroom, from notebooks to backpacks. That type of help, according to the organization’s website, elevates their learning environment and empowers every student to succeed. Part of the money awarded will enable professional development opportunities for teachers, another important initiative, too, Schwager said.

Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Greensburg, the fourth new organization, will provide therapeutic resources in some elementary and high schools, Schwager said, in Westmoreland, Armstrong, Indiana and Fayette counties. The money will help it onboard a new counselor.

Informational materials on the grants highlighted three repeat organizations. JCC of Greater Pittsburgh’s 10.27 Healing Partnership will collaborate with LIGHT Education Initiative to elevate the voices of families and survivors of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting by working with schools and organizations to present lived experiences that build empathy and understanding of modern-day antisemitism. The Jewish Family & Community Services’ UpStreet program, which opened its first physical location last year and saw 90% of nearly 200 teens and families return for drop-in support, will formalize its practices, strengthen its operation model and develop a sustainability strategy. The Monroeville Public Library will build on the previous year’s achievements by expanding its Mental Health & Wellness programming to more target audiences, extend the program to additional locations, and create more offerings such as grief support, therapy sessions, mindfulness classes. 

The remaining grant recipients are Adelphoi, First Step Recovery Homes Inc., Gwen’s Girls, Healthy Start Inc., Reimagining Reentry Inc., East End Community Center, Education Law Center of Pennsylvania, Kingsley Association, Melting Pot Ministries, The Center Midland, Venture Outdoors and Washington Health System Teen Outreach.

Each organization’s request meets the foundation’s current priority areas: advocacy, innovation, communication and collaboration, the news release stated. Schwager has been with the foundation for 26 years, and while issues and the foundation have changed, the 2008 closure of Mayview State Hospital and 10% in funding cuts to Allegheny County mental health providers 10 years ago hurt and continue to deter treatment accessibility and availability.

She said the Mayview sale money — it came about because leaders said people who need mental health care should be in the community, not an institution — ended up largely in the state’s general fund. The Allegheny County funding cuts were never restored. Access and service availability in the more rural counties have not improved to meet the need. For those on public assistance, only a limited number of providers will see them, and waiting lists for appointments and treatments remain long.

“There’s never enough resources and never enough money,” Schwager said. “The public mental health system is managed by a different entity than the physical health system. For some people, it’s not the money. It’s the access. In the rural areas, they don’t have [an adequate public] transportation system.”

As a result, “We continue to ask our nonprofits to do more with less.”

Staunton Farm and other foundations have given grants to assist those providers, and they added innovations as a result of the pandemic, including bringing telehealth into schools.  “But older adults aren’t there. For them, transportation is a huge barrier [to getting help and treatment],” she noted.

Where the need arises for mental health care is still somewhat a mystery, Schwager said. “I don’t think we know: Is it nature or nurture? What creates some of the mental health issues we have? People who grow up in traumatic or low-income households have different stressors than those who don’t.”

Social determinants factor down to necessities.  “Do you have access to healthy food, living wages, adequate childcare, [or did you] grow up in a neighborhood that is extremely violent? How have you bonded with your parents as a child?

“It’s more than your physical health. It’s your environment.”

While the pandemic brought forth the reality of depression and anxiety that resulted from the closures and shutdowns, the stigma around talking about mental illness remains. “People don’t want to go for help, don’t want neighbors to see them walking into an agency. So many people don’t understand what mental health is.”

She and others are grateful that prominent celebrities and politicians — Demi Lovato and U.S. Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania, for example — coming forward with their mental health difficulties and illnesses are making a difference. “That goes a long way to making people feel comfortable [and ready to deal with their illness].”  

The foundation has given applicants media grants in other funding cycles, too, to spread information about where and how people can seek help.

Much of Aunt Daisie’s family had struggles with and losses from mental health illnesses, which spurred her to create the foundation. Without the knowledge and medications available now, during her time people either had to stay home and be cared for by family or be sent to a state hospital. “She offered a solution for people not so sick but who needed respite,” Schwager explained. “Fresh air and sunshine is a good thing.”

The foundation has a detailed family history, including Aunt Daisy’s prenuptial agreement with her husband to protect her estate that prevailed in court. Its board still has a majority of family members leading it, with just one currently living in Pennsylvania.

“It’s great, a wonderful legacy,” Schwager said.  “The younger people, all they knew is what they learn from their family [about Aunt Daisie].  These people come to Pittsburgh and do this great work without taking their great work back to their home communities.”