First Bank Power of Good Grants

Brunswick Partnership for Housing provides long-term, temporary housing, and life-skills classes to help the homeless population live independently. Grant funding will allow the shelter to provide more rooms and become a certified trauma-informed organization, offering better care and rehabilitation for program participants.

C³ is a collaborative nonprofit that connects community agencies to provide quality, targeted support services for children’s health and well-being. The grant will support children who have experienced violence or trauma by working with their families to provide a network of resources available to help their child.

Children’s Flight of Hope believes distance and travel costs should never be barriers to care. The grant will help fund flights for families with children facing severe medical issues requiring specialized care and travel. This provides access to top physicians and offers these children the best chance for hope, healing, and bright futures.

Eagle’s Wings Food Pantry works tirelessly to alleviate food insecurity in Beaufort County by providing more than 14,500 meals to local families every year. The grant will help the pantry purchase additional food, ensuring low-income residents do not have to worry about providing their families with healthy, nutritious meals.

Esther House of Stanly County shelters victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, and human trafficking, while empowering them to rebuild their lives. The grant will be used to continue supporting these victims through emergency response care by providing food, clothing, and shelter, while continuing to be their advocate within a long-term support system.

Girls With Knowledge empowers youth through a transformative program that helps shape their values and become strong, confident leaders of tomorrow. The grant will help provide a space for girls to access this program, receive mentorship, and connect with their community through various volunteer efforts.

Guilford Education Alliance advocates for public schools in Guilford County to prepare students for a brighter future. The grant will help fill funding gaps, provide teachers free school supplies, and offer telehealth programs at schools in impoverished areas, ensuring every student is healthy and prepared for success in school.

Helping At-Risk Kids serves vulnerable youth in Buncombe County who are in or aging out of the foster care system, as well as those who don’t have stable housing. The grant will provide temporary shelter for families facing homelessness and offer summer camps and programs for their children, ensuring they receive the activities they need to be happy and healthy.

Love and Respect Community for Recovery and Wellness helps those in addiction recovery get connected with the resources they need so they can focus on healing. Grant funding will be used to create a video series for the nonprofit’s website to reduce the stigma associated with seeking help and encourage those who are ready for recovery to begin their journey.

Mountain Area Residential Facilities serves adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD). The grant will support its partnerships with Manna, the Humane Society, Brother Wolf Animal Rescue, and Buncombe County Parks and Recreation to engage individuals with IDD through fun, positive activities. Additionally, it will provide transportation to these activities and work.

My Kid’s Club empowers underserved students to grow in character through opportunities for academic success, civic engagement, and habits that prioritize healthy living. The grant will sustain after-school and summer programming to low-income students in 1st through 8th grades in coastal North Carolina.

Note in the Pocket provides quality clothing to homeless and impoverished children and families to ensure they have seasonally appropriate apparel. The grant will provide mini wardrobes to students in need in Wake and Durham Counties, allowing the students to focus on succeeding socially and academically.

One Love Strong supports families with babies in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) allowing them to focus on the care of their child. The grant will help the organization provide families with assistance for doctors’ appointments, and offer a support network for parents and family members who experienced preterm or urgent births.

The Ronald McDonald House supports families with children experiencing long-term hospital stays. The grant will continue to provide housing and free meals for these families at the Ronald McDonald House in Columbia. Additionally, relatives will have access to the Ronald McDonald Family Room in the hospital for resting, recharging, and refueling with complimentary snacks.

Transportation can often be a barrier to receiving recovery assistance. Southeastern Life Center provides transportation, food and nutrition, medication, and housing to support those in recovery. The grant will continue to provide a network of drivers certified in peer support, ensuring individuals in need can travel in a safe space to get where they need to go.

Stirrup Hope is an equine-facilitated learning program that uses equine therapy to teach techniques for managing trauma triggers to individuals with disabilities, autism, anxiety, or trauma. Participants learn self-regulation and breathing techniques they can use in other aspects of their lives. This grant will be used to expand the farm to accommodate additional therapy equine and serve more individuals.

Tenacious Grace helps women who have experienced incarceration get back on their feet and return to their lives and families. The grant funding will help renovate a new group home, allowing the organization to double its current capacity and expand its rehabilitation services to support more women in the community.

The Arc of High Point provides a support system for young adults with intellectual or other disabilities to empower them to become independent. The grant will help fund its Employment Training Program, offering vocational training and one-on-one support coaches who are present on the jobsite to ensure these employees thrive.

The Carying Place helps families facing homelessness by working with them to achieve financial independence. The grant will support its 16-week program which provides families with temporary housing, financial literacy classes, and guidance to actively pursue their goals. The organization also helps families secure livable wage jobs, trade jobs, or assists them with their return to school.

Vision To Learn provides eye exams and eyeglasses at no cost to students in low-income communities. The grant will support the organization’s mobile clinics to offer vision screenings, exams, and free glasses to elementary, middle, and high school students in Charleston and Dorchester counties. This will continue to ensure that students can see the board, read a book, and participate in class.

WNC Food Systems Coalition helps fill the gaps in current food distribution networks by offering mobile food pantries, and acting as an advocate for small-scale farmers. Grant funding will be used to help expand its mobile food pantry infrastructure, increasing its reach so it can serve more people in the community.

Arms Around ASD provides vital services and a safe space for those on the ASD spectrum so they can develop the executive functions they need to thrive in life. The grant will help the nonprofit offer financial wellness courses, fun activities like gardening and dance, and medical care services like acupuncture, dental screenings, and more.

Carlie Rogers is a second-grade teacher at Lucy T. Davis who is passionate about instilling a love of reading amongst her class. Through the Power of Good grant, Ms. Rogers is building a comfy space for her students to read, and First Bank donated nearly 200 books to get her library started.

Chatham County Arts Council’s Artists-in-Schools initiative helps professional teaching artists provide interactive, engaging workshops for students. With support from the grant, the nonprofit can help more students discover outlets for expressing their emotions and form new pathways for learning.

Children & Family Resource Center’s SMART START program provides new parents with resources that encourage the happy and healthy development of their children. The grant will help the nonprofit distribute more formula and diapers, provide scholarships for single parents pursuing higher education, and offer family mental health navigator services.

Community Housing Solutions provides home repairs to residents in the greatest need so they can have a safe and accessible place to live. The grant funds will support its Aging Gracefully partnership with Cone Health, which provides mobility accessibility repairs and access to occupational therapists so elderly residents can stay in their homes longer.

Greer Community Ministries provides senior dining services so elderly citizens can come together to enjoy a warm meal and socialize with friends. Grant funds will help them install motorized doors on their dining hall bathrooms so patrons can use the facilities independently and with dignity.

The grant for Home Health and Hospice Care Inc. will support its Wings Camp where children experiencing grief can go to heal and seek support. It will also help to fund the Crystal Coast Hospice House where patients and their families’ physical, emotional, and spiritual needs are tended to.

The Power of Good grant will help support Home Solutions of Davidson County’s services, which include home repairs and accessibility modifications, foreclosure prevention counseling, and homebuyer education workshop so low-income families can have a safe place to live.

Homeward Bound of Western North Carolina is the only daytime emergency shelter available to those experiencing homelessness in Asheville. The Power of Good grant will support its work at the AHOPE Day Center where the region’s most vulnerable individuals can be identified and prioritized to receive housing services.

Hope of Glory Ministries is getting help furnishing and supplying its new facility where its Community Co-op Program operates. The program provides a place for families in need to shop for free groceries, attend educational classes, and receive mentorship so they can become financially stable.

The House of Hope goes above and beyond to provide more than just a safe, temporary shelter to people facing homelessness. With the grant, they will continue to provide financial education, job training, certificate programs, and job opportunities so the individuals they’re helping can thrive.

Innovation Early College High School wants its students to feel comfortable, focus on learning, and be successful in job and college interviews. With the grant, the school is stocking a closet with clean clothes, personal hygiene products, and professional attire so students have the supplies they need to feel confident in the classroom and beyond.

Third-grade teacher Kathryn Poston is using a Power of Good grant to bring VEX Robotics’ educational kits to Lucy T. Davis Elementary School. Her new Robotic Revolution program will teach students computational skills so they can learn STEM fundamentals through the engineering and coding of their own robots.

The Power of Good grant will support Lighthouse Ministries’ Working Mothers program that helps to establish stable home environments to prevent child abuse and neglect. During the eight-week program, mothers will attend financial classes and have monthly check-ins with mentors to help them stay on top of their goals.

The Montgomery County Schools Book Bus travels around the county to provide pre-kindergarten through 10th-grade students free books. Grant funds will help stock the bus with additional books so kids have more options and can develop a love of reading.

NeighborHealth Center is a nonprofit working to meet the health care needs of underserved people in the Raleigh area. It will use the grant to give a book to each child at their annual checkup, support the Backpacks for Kids initiative, and provide parents with dental wellness education.

Funds from the grant will support Northside Food Cooperative’s Outdoor Market, a community-owned store that makes affordable and healthy groceries available to families. It will also support the Fresh Bucks program that provides dollar-for-dollar matches for EBT funds spent at the market to help low-income families stretch their budgets further.

The Project HOPE Foundation provides a lifespan of services and programs for people with autism and their families. With the grant, the nonprofit is purchasing iPads for its therapists to create individualized plans for clients and to assist with communication amongst nonverbal patients.

The Sandy Mush Community Center (SMCC) works to increase educational and health opportunities and preserve the historic Sandy Mush School and grounds. SMCC has a monthly food pantry featuring meat, milk, eggs, seasonal produce, and more. The grant will help SMCC purchase additional nutritious foods to distribute through its food pantry.

Star Elementary School educates pre-kindergarten through fifth-grade students. With funds from the Power of Good grant, the school will build a new playground that can be used by its students and the entire Star community.

The Craven Apiary Foundation empowers women to pursue the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics (STEAM). It will use the grant to set high school seniors up for success, including assistance with college essays and resume reviews, college and job interview prep, and STEAM scholarships.