Grants awarded to At Home by High and Catholic Social Services
Columbus, OH (February 7, 2024)—The Isabelle Ridgway Foundation, a Supporting Foundation of The Columbus Foundation, has announced two grants supporting organizations that serve aging African Americans in the central Ohio community.
Through strategic grantmaking, coalition building, and sponsoring research, the Isabelle Ridgway Foundation seeks to improve the quality of life of aging African Americans and the systems that impact them. Since its inception in 2017, the Isabelle Ridgway Foundation has awarded more than $730,000 in grants to help African American seniors in central Ohio age with dignity.
A grant of $75,000 was awarded to At Home by High to build organizational capacity and support operating expenses. Formed in 2017, At Home by High is a grassroots member-based organization that provides support, promotes connectedness, and enables independence for older adults through services like transportation, social gatherings, and local outings.
A grant of $25,000 was awarded to Catholic Social Services to support marketing and recruitment efforts for the Foster Grandparent Program, which provides local seniors an opportunity to combat isolation, contribute to the community by tutoring and mentoring youth, and receive a stipend for their work. The funds will support the organization’s efforts to recruit more senior participants from the Linden area and the South and West sides of Columbus. Catholic Social Services has been serving families and seniors in central and southern Ohio for 75 years.
“Guided by values of compassion, respect, and service, the work that Isabelle Ridgway started more than a century ago remains just as necessary today,” said Dr. Mark A. Lomax, II, Director of Arts & Generational Grantmaking at The Columbus Foundation. “Through its targeted and thoughtful grantmaking, the Isabelle Ridgway Foundation supports local organizations that promote the health, well-being, and independence of aging African Americans in our community.”
Isabelle Ridgway
Isabelle Ridgway founded the Old Folks Home of Franklin County in 1912 and worked diligently to meet the needs of the aging, homeless, and poor. She died in 1955 at the age of 97, but her memory and life’s work continued through the Isabelle Ridgway Care Center until it was sold in 2015, and now through the Isabelle Ridgway Foundation.
About the Isabelle Ridgway Foundation
The Isabelle Ridgway Foundation was created in 2017 by the board of the Isabelle Ridgway Care Center to continue the mission of the center’s founder, Isabelle Ridgway. Ms. Ridgway believed in a world where we treat the aging as our elders. As a Supporting Foundation of The Columbus Foundation, the Isabelle Ridgway Foundation forms coalitions, sponsors research, and supports grants to improve the quality of life and systems that impact aging African Americans in the Columbus area. Visit isabelleridgway.org to learn more.