About the Basic Needs Giving Partnership

The Basic Needs Giving Partnership was established in 2007 to address the root causes of poverty in the region. The partnership brings together charitable resources from the U.S. Venture Open Fund for Basic Needs within the Community Foundation, the J.J. Keller Foundation and other partner donors.

Proceeds from the U.S. Venture Open help fund the U.S. Venture Open Fund for Basic Needs. Every year, the Greater Green Bay Community Foundation distributes a portion of this fund as grants, and the J.J. Keller Foundation matches the grant-making budget for additional grant-making into the local community. The Greater Green Bay Community Foundation, one of three area community foundations to receive funds, is responsible for determining how the funds will be distributed.

Basic Needs Giving Partnership Committee

The Greater Green Bay Community Foundation has established an independent, volunteer grants team not associated with or directed by U.S. Venture or the J.J. Keller Foundation to review and evaluate applications to this program. The grants team makes recommendations to the Greater Green Bay Community Foundation's Board of Directors for approval of all grants.

Collaborations funded by the Basic Needs Giving Partnership

• Responding Together to Homelessness in Brown County
  Collaborators: Brown County Homeless & Housing Coalition, Golden House, Ecumenical Partnership for Housing
  The coalition's mission is to provide leadership in the development, advocacy and coordination of community strategies to prevent and end homelessness. A dedicated resource - a system navigator and leader - will be created to focus on the coalition's mission and strategic objectives: address an inadequate supply of emergency and supportive housing options, provide a common voice in teaching and advocacy and build on providing strong leadership to align committees, resources and communications.

• Improving Mental Health for Low-Income Older Adults & Adults with Disabilities
  Collaborators: Foundations Health & Wholeness, Aging & Disability Resource Center

  This project represents a coordinated response to unmet mental health needs for low-income older adults and adults with disabilities in Brown County. Foundations will embed a resident clinician at the ADRC location 20-28 hours/week to provide outreach/casual support to build rapport and screen for mental health concerns; individual and group mental health counseling; community educational services; and intensive clinical supervision and training.

• Resiliency-Based Program for Youth (Algoma Wolf Den)
  Collaborators: School District of Algoma, UW-Green Bay Social Work Program, St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran School, St. Mary's Catholic School 

  A year-round resiliency program for at-risk youth in the Algoma community involves youth as leaders and targeted group activities focused on social and emotional learning. Lack of formal services necessitates an increase in early intervention, and low-intensity services geared toward improving social and emotional skills in youth. These programs are designed to develop those skills, which in turn foster emotional well-being overall.

• Youth Mental Health Matters
  Collaborators: Boys & Girls Club of Greater Green Bay, Foundations, UW-Green Bay Social Field Placement Program

  The collaboration will enable more effective and efficient delivery of youth mental health services by bringing counseling professionals and students in training into the Boys & Girls Club to connect with high-need populations in a trusted and accessible setting while expanding the Resident Training Program.

• Pathway to Self-Sufficiency
  Collaborators: Ecumenical Partnership for Housing, The Salvation Army, Golden House, Freedom House

  Families ready to leave shelter or transitional housing will receive support through increased guidance to self-sufficiency, continued case management, and long-term supportive housing. Ecumenical Partnership for Housing will become the landlord for families who would otherwise not have access to affordable housing.

• Community Resource Empowerment Program
  Collaborators: New Beginnings Work & Training Center, Oconto County Sheriff’s Department, Bay Area Workforce Development, FALSOconto Falls Alternative School
  A coordinated approach will assist people who are disconnected from the workforce, deficient in basic skills, underemployed or in need of assistance in attaining post-secondary education, specifically the incarcerated, noncustodial unemployed parents, alcohol and other drug abuse or mental health patients and victims of domestic or sexual abuse.

Back to main BNGP Page