Start Corporation Annual Report
January 1, 2008 to December 31, 2008
From January to December 2008, Start Corporation continued to offer individuals with mental, physical, and emotional challenges an opportunity for independence and self-reliance. Start Corporation remains a leader in the non-profit sector providing services and programs for persons affected with brain disease and mental health issues. With much activity, Start Corporation ended 2008 with a renewed commitment to its mission and purpose. The upcoming year will hopefully be as good, if not better, as we continue to offer our services to the community.
Start Corporation is pleased to announce that a grant to assist persons affected by Hurricanes Gustav and Ike in the amount of $20,000.00 was awarded to the agency from the Entergy Corporation and the Foundation for the Mid South. This grant will be used to reconnect persons to community resources in order to help them to continue living independently in the community.
We were also awarded a $300,000.00 grant from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Rural Housing and Economic Development (RHED) Program. The grant will fund a project named Assumption Home Start. The funds will be used to acquire raw land in Assumption Parish and prepare the land for single family homes and HUD 811 rental units.
In 2007, we received funds from the Department of Veterans’ Affairs and the Federal Home Loan Bank of Dallas for a transitional living facility for veterans. In addition to this, in 2008, we received funding from the Louisiana Housing Trust Fund in the amount of $175,000.00 to complete the funding of the development. This program is currently under development and will hopefully be completed by the end of 2009. It will create twelve transitional housing units for homeless veterans.
Start Corporation has received two $20,000 grants from the Louisiana Campaign for Tobacco Free Living to help with Defy, a Louisiana youth movement for adolescents in their quest for tobacco free lifestyles and Disparate Populations, an advocacy and policy group for people over 50 and mental health professionals. The Defy grant will show adolescents how to infiltrate the streets with knowledge, spread the truth about tobacco, and the practices of the industry. An after school program will get adolescents started on August 20, 2008 in an interactive, web-based program for youth ages 10-17 who want to take a stand against tobacco.
The second grant will collaborate with Nicholls State University Golden Learning Opportunities for people over 50 years old and mental health professionals. Maison de Ville Independent Living Facility will be the location of an educational program for people over 50 who want to get involved in advocacy and policy change. Classes started on July 28, 2008 featuring art, exercise, and music therapy in an effort to prepare the older learner for active involvement in the community.
Tobacco-Free Living (TFL) activities are designed to engage non-traditional partners in a state-wide campaign to raise awareness and knowledge of the effects of secondhand smoke and to reduce the exposure to secondhand smoke at the community level.
