BCAF Grant Recipients

(October 1, 2023 – September 30, 2024)

1269 Café Ministries, located and serves in Manchester

1269 Café Ministries has been a Christian street outreach for the homeless and those on the edge in Manchester for the last twelve years. In 2021, the City of Manchester asked them to be an overflow space for the winter season. New Horizons, New Hampshire’s largest homeless shelter is full daily. From December 1, 2022, through March 31, 2023, the café sheltered 542 individuals for 7,023 nights in their overnight warming station operation. The numbers this year are based on projections, are expected to increase. A BCAF grant was provided to help cover operating expenses.

Behavioral Health & Development Services of Strafford County / Community Partners, located in Dover, serves Strafford County

Community Partners is designated by the State of NH as a Community Mental Health Center and Area Agency for Developmental Services in Strafford County. Their mission is to promote respect, wellness, full inclusion, and empowerment of individuals and their families who experience mental illness, emotional distress, developmental disability, chronic health need or acquired brain disorder. A BCAF grant was provided to help with their Respite Program so they can assist families in 2023. The Respite Program ensures that caregivers and families remain strong and receive the support they need while caring for the 24/7 needs of a disabled family member.

Birthright of Manchester, Inc., located in Bedford, serves Manchester Region

Birthright offers an interdenominational, non-judgmental alternative to abortion. They have a 24/7 emergency help line. Baby clothes, layettes, diapers sizes preemie through five are given free of charge to help mothers and sometimes fathers with the needs for their children. Birthright of Manchester has no paid employees, all are volunteers. A BCAF grant was provided to help with clothing and diapers for the children.

Boys & Girls Club of the North Country, located in Littleton, serves Greater Littleton

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Central NH was formed in 2015 when the Boys & Girls Clubs of Greater Concord took over operations and later merged with the Boys & Girls Club of the Lakes Region. In 2023, they merged with the Boys & Girls Club of the North Country. The organization will soon will be known as Boys & Girls Clubs of Central and Northern NH and the operations will be located in Concord. A BCAF grant was provided to go toward direct financial aid for the Boys & Girls Club of the North County. This grant will help to ease the burden for families as they transition over to a recurring-fee-based model and become licensed under the NH Bureau of Childcare Licensing.

Catholic Medical Center/Hope and Healing Fund, located in Manchester, serves Statewide

Catholic Medical Center has been at the heart of the West Side of Manchester – growing and changing with the times and leading into the future. Last year, CMC provided over $8.5 million dollars in support to care for the disadvantaged members of the community through various programs. A BCAF grant was provided to support their Hope and Healing Fund, which supports low income and/or uninsured patient needs related to transition of care.

Exeter Area Charitable Foundation, located in Exeter, serves Greater Exeter

The Exeter Charitable Foundation was created by the Exeter Area Chamber of Commerce in 1989 to raise money to provide warm winter clothing and bedding to children in need. Since then, the fund has grown to include twelve area towns and help over 750 local children. The funds are distributed to children in need in the form of a voucher to use at pre-determined local retail stores. A BCAF grant was provided to help fund their EACF’s Community Children’s Fund Clothing Voucher Program, which runs annually each fall. Guardians or parents redeem the voucher for warm clothing, footwear, and bedding only at participating merchants as they would a gift certificate.

Family Promise of Greater Concord, located in Concord, serves Greater Concord

Family Promise of Greater Concord strives to end homelessness for families with children in the capital region by providing overnight hospitality and support to achieve sustainable financial independence with support from their community. A BCAF grant was provided to assist their “Pathway Towards Independence” Program. This program is designed to provide stable housing and meals for homeless families in the community.

Harbor Homes, Inc., d.b.a. Harbor Care, located in Nashua, serves Greater Nashua

Harbor Homes, Inc., d.b.a, Harbor Care was founded in 1982 as a health and human service organization. They provide quality residential, health care, and supportive services to individuals and families who are homeless or living with mental illness. A BCAF grant was provided to help with basic supports – including food and healthcare – for the mothers of children of their residential substance use treatment center for pregnancy and parenting women (Cynthia Day Family Center). The program specializes in serving low-income and un-/under-insured households.

HAVEN, located in Portsmouth, serves 48 cities and towns

HAVEN, the largest violence prevention and support services agency in NH, is dedicated to addressing public health and wellness through violence prevention and improving the well-being of children and families. Their mission is to prevent sexual assault, domestic violence and stalking as well as to support and empower women, men, youth, and families to heal from abuse and rebuild their lives. Haven also provides a residential emergency shelter exclusively for victims of domestic and sexual violence and their children. Residents in the shelter receive direct client services including educational programming and financial literacy. A BCAF grant was provided for their emergency shelter and housing advocacy program.

Interlakes Community Caregivers, Inc., located in Center Harbor, serves Lakes Region

Since 1998, Interlakes Community Caregivers has been a volunteer nonprofit that provides nonmedical supportive services for residents of Meredith, Moultonborough, Center Harbor and Sandwich. A BCAF grant was provided to support and enhance the work of their volunteers who provide rides, run errands, and conduct friendly visits and check-in phone calls with local seniors who must rely on others to fulfill their basic needs to access to healthcare, nutrition, and mental wellbeing.

International Institute of New England (IINE), located in Manchester, serves Statewide

IINE is headquartered in Boston and comprise of three sites in Lowell, MA, Boston, MA and Manchester, NH. IINE has operated for over a century and is now one of the largest, longest, established, and most trusted social service organizations for new Americans in the region. They serve a unique population of very low-income immigrants including refugees, asylees, parolees, adult and children survivors of human trafficking, and unaccompanied children joining family members in NE communities. A BCAF grant was provided to support their Lifting Refugee and Immigrant Families Together Program. This initiative is dedicated to welcoming and providing initial stabilization services for forcibly displaced populations. Their programs include resettling, and integrating refuges into local communities, offering intensive case management, English language instruction, job training, and immigration legal services.

Kearsarge Area Council on Aging (KCOA), located in New London, services nine Kearsarge-area communities

Founded in 1992, the Kearsarge Area Council on Aging (KCOA) helps to promote, develop, and reinforce programs that support and enhance the health, well-being, dignity, and independence of older people. A BCAF grant was provided to help their transportation program, which offers free services to seniors in the Upper Valley, a geographic part of NH critically underserved by public, private, and charitable transportation.

L.I.F..E Ministries, Inc., located in Wolfeboro, serves 25 sounding towns

LIFE Ministries Food Pantry is an outreach program of seven local area churches that was founded in 1985. They operate a food pantry which provides food to eligible people in need, in quantities appropriate to family size and nutritional requirements. The pantry has broadened its scope of services to provide meals for the New Americans program in 2016, Vacation Station and Hope House in 2018, and The Ledges in 2022. A BCAF grant was provided to help their food pantry and meal programs.

The Mental Health Center of Greater Manchester, located in Manchester, serves Greater Manchester

The Mental Health Center of Greater Manchester partners with New Hampshire families who experience problems with mental illness, often with co-occurring substance abuse, to search for long-term solutions. With a mission to empower individuals to achieve recovery and promote personal and community wellness through an accessible, comprehensive, integrated, and evidence-based system of mental health. A BCAF grant was provided to help support a new initiative to help improve access and engagement in mental health services for adults 65+.

NeighborWorks Southern New Hampshire, serves Southern New Hampshire

NeighborWorks Southern NH has been helping the community for 31 years, addressing housing and neighborhood revitalization needs. Since 1992, the organization has created and acquired 504 affordable rental units in seven communities, provided homeownership and financial wellness education and counseling programs to thousands of NH residents. A BCAF grant was provided to help make available gift cards for food and gas for tenants who experience extenuating financial circumstances.

Project Home, located in Keene, serves Monadnock Region

Project Home is run by volunteers, that help asylum seekers move from detention centers into Monadnock Region communities and homes. As they await the outcome of their asylum cases, they receive free legal support. Their housing and food needs are met by Project Home until they receive permission to work and can begin to support themselves. A BCAF grant was provided to help meet the needs of their guests over the next 12 months. These needs include the cost of housing, food, medications, clothing, telephone, legal expenses, summer camp and daycare for children, vocational training for adults, etc.

St. Gianna’s Place, located in Londonderry, serves in Hudson

In the spring of 2016, four founding board members of St. Gianna’s Place saw a need to establish a safe harbor for pregnant women who do not have financial means or emotional support to raise their children. A BCAF grant was provided to help with operational expenses to run the home and continue to provide food, clothing, baby formula, and diapers to the families they serve.

St. Joseph Hospital, located in Nashua, serves Greater Nashua

St. Joseph Hospital is a Catholic health ministry, providing healing and care for the whole person, in service to all in their communities. A BCAF grant was provided to assist in their Christmas Basket Project, which provides families with food, clothing, toys, books, and gifts. The grant will provide food for the gift baskets. Last year they supported 59 families, including 110 children.

Seeds of Faith, Inc., dba Lydia’s House of Hope, located in Somersworth, serves Greater Somersworth

Seeds of Faith provides community outreach programs, which help the homeless and impoverished in a variety of ways. Lydia’s House of Hope was opened in Somersworth to help train and equip women and children with the necessary mind-set and skills required to move out of chronic homelessness. On average, they accept 30 new residents into their program per year, some with children and some without. A BCAF grant was provided to help purchase grocery cards, pantry items and toiletry items to provide their new residents who come to them with nothing.