Oak Ridge, Tenn. — Twenty-five East Tennessee nonprofits received a total of $180,000 from the Consolidated Nuclear Security (CNS) Community Investment Fund at a ceremony on Sept. 17.

In 2015, CNS worked with the East Tennessee Foundation (ETF) to create an innovative and effective method for contributing to the community in a way that would engage Y‑12 employees. Since its conception, the fund has awarded more than 200 grants to more than 140 nonprofit organizations and educational institutions in 20 East Tennessee counties, totaling a combined $1.4 million in award money. Each year, a Y‑12 employee committee recommends the grant recipients.

“From the beginning, the CNS, Y‑12 Community Investment Fund has been a wonderful partnership between CNS and the East Tennessee Foundation,” said Rich Tighe, CNS president and CEO. “ETF’s knowledge of the nonprofit community across East Tennessee has allowed CNS to expand its community outreach to groups and places we might not otherwise reach that deserve our support.”

This year, the committee chose two focus areas — victim advocacy and support services for youth and young adults who are impacted by adverse childhood experiences. The grant awards reflect this focus.

Recipients provide services to 20 counties

The services offered by the grant recipients reach 20 East Tennessee counties, with 20 of the grants covering multiple counties. This year’s recipients and their intended uses of the award money are as follows:

• Boys & Girls Clubs of the Tennessee Valley: to provide nutrition and cooking skills education and food donations through the Healthy Lifestyles Nutrition and Cooking Clubs program in order to improve the health and wellness of at‑risk youth and mitigate the negative effects of food insecurity among members and their families who are fighting hunger.
• Campbell County Children’s Center: to secure a part‑time victim advocate, who will be the first person many victims come in contact with when faced with tragedy.
• CASA Corridor of East Tennessee: to implement research‑based training programs to prevent substance abuse among abused and neglected children and adolescents who are being served by advocates in the CASA program.
• CASA Monroe: to fund the annual Fostering Futures Project, which provides extensive educational services, mentoring opportunities, and support to older youth who have grown up in crisis situations and are at high‑risk for future delinquent behavior.
• CASA of Campbell County, Inc.: to recruit, train, and mobilize volunteer advocates to work cases appointed weekly by the juvenile court system of Campbell County.
• CASA of the Tennessee Heartland, Inc.: to provide trained, court‑appointed volunteer mentors through the Fostering Futures Initiative to empower foster youth who are between the ages of 14–21 and at risk of aging out of the foster care system to live independently of the system.
• Childhelp Tennessee: to pay for the students’ curriculum for Speak Up, Be Safe (SUBS) child abuse prevention education.
• Compassion Counseling: to offer therapeutic support through the Healing Hearts program for children impacted by adverse childhood experiences.
• Empower Cocke County: to provide a whole‑family approach to victim support through direct resource linkage, case management, and stable transitional support housing by expanding already successful advocacy services.
• Florence Crittenton Agency: to implement the Mental Health and Substance Abuse Recovery for Girls program, which serves adolescent women in state custody who are struggling with serious, life‑threatening mental health and substance abuse problems as a result of childhood trauma.
• Fostering Hope TN: to combat hunger and food insecurity among foster children by providing emergency food assistance to foster families in crisis through the Hope Over Hunger program.
• Girls Incorporated of the Tennessee Valley: to fund EmpowerHER: Building Resilience through Social and Emotional Learning, which promotes long‑term health and success through empowering school‑aged girls to thrive academically, socially, and emotionally.
• Girls on the Run Greater Knoxville: to implement Heart & Sole (a program that reaches middle school girls and supports them through a quality, physical‑activity‑based, positive youth development program) at least three Title 1 Knoxville‑area elementary and middle schools over the next year.
• Good Samaritan Center of Loudon County: to support the Stable Housing Program for “working poor” families who are in stable housing or trying to get into housing they can afford but need additional financial support for (e.g., rent, utilities, deposits, connections, etc.).
• Grow Oak Ridge: to establish a therapeutic gardening program at Oak Ridge Schools’ Preschool to mitigate the negative effects of childhood poverty, anxiety, and food insecurity by exposing both children and their parents to the positive social, emotional, and physical benefits of growing vegetables and eating healthy.
• Helping Mamas, Inc.: to distribute feminine hygiene products through the Period Poverty Program to women and girls in need.
• HOLA Lakeway: to add a mental health component, including art therapy and a holistic approach, to the existing youth program, which addresses the significant challenges faced by immigrant and refugee families in rural East Tennessee.
• Iva’s Place, Inc.: to support the Domestic Violence Safe Haven Shelter Transitional Housing and Victim Services Program, which provides safety and shelter to address the negative effects of domestic violence, neglect, mental illness, hunger, and housing instability.
• Mental Health Association of East Tennessee: to provide adverse childhood experiences (ACES) interventions in schools through Mental Health 101, which supports youth in determining their ACES exposure, developing positive coping strategies, and getting the help they need.
• New Midway Baptist Church: to serve more than 100 families per week through the church’s From the Heart food pantry, which supports the food‑insecure population in the community.
• SafeSpace: to provide both civil and criminal legal advocacy for victims of domestic violence in the Sevier, Jefferson, Grainger, and Cocke County courts by helping victims navigate the justice system.
• Scott County Shelter Society: to purchase groceries and pay emergency financial needs for victims fleeing domestic violence.
• Second Harvest Foodbank of East Tennessee: to purchase nutrient‑dense food for the Food for Kids backpack program in 17 counties, helping the organization meet the goal of providing at least 670,000 meals to more than 14,000 students.
• Shangri‑La Therapeutic Academy of Riding (STAR): to support the STRIDES Life Skills program, which began in 2007 and provides tools for at-risk youth to better manage their lives and foster positive relationships.
• Shora Foundation: to provide trauma-informed therapy sessions through the Healing Pathways Clinic to children and young adults aged 6–22 in the East Knoxville community.