Tri-County Times | Fenton, MI Hannah Ball Staff Reporter
Flint — Prism Project, which is the only long-term, home-like environment in Michigan that provides help and resources to child survivors of sex trafficking, is the recipient of a historic $57,000 grant from Impact100 Genesee County.
On Thursday, Sept. 26, Impact100 Genesee County held its inaugural Big Give Event at the Flint Farmers Market to decide the winning nonprofit and present them with a check.
“This is going to make a huge impact and I’m so blessed to see the community come together. It’s going to change the lives of these children and it’s going to break the cycle. Thank you so much,” said Sylvia Blythe, founder and executive director of the Prism Project.
Impact100 Genesee County is a women’s 501(c)(3) collective giving organization. In their first year, the 57 members each donated $1,000 for a total of $57,000.
Katie Kool-Wray, founder of Impact100 Genesee County, said, “I am absolutely humbled to be standing before you tonight with a $57,000 grant. This evening is the culmination of months, of years of hard work, dedication, and passion by so many. It’s a celebration of what happens when women come together with a shared vision to make a meaningful difference in our community.”
Dozens of nonprofits applied for the grant. The Impact100 Genesee County committee did multiple reviews on the non-profits, including financial reviews and site visits.
“We are equally excited with the network that we have built with the organizations and the people that we have met on this journey. We are so inspired by the non-profits that we encounter. There is so much dedication and commitment to make our community a better place,” Kool-Wray said. “To our five finalists. I say congratulations. Whether you walk away with a grant or not, please know that your impact is already felt and we are so grateful for the work that you do.”
The five finalists were the following: The Prism Project; Adopt-A-Pet in Fenton, which provides shelter and medical care to dogs and cats; The Disability Network, which seeks to revolutionize communities to be inclusive; The St. Francis Prayer Center Flint, which provides mattresses, personal hygiene products and food to those in need; and Clara’s Hope, which supports families who adopt children.
Representatives from each non-profit gave a six-minute speech. Afterward, the 57 members voted.
Blythe and Ashley Chandler, director of finance and executive assistant, gave a presentation about the Prism Project.
“300,000 children are at risk of being trafficked each year, children in the foster care system being of those most vulnerable. There are over 13,000 children in just Michigan’s foster care system right now. The average age of a child when entering trafficking is 12 to 17, others being younger,” Chandler said.
“The majority of programs throughout the nation do not provide restorative care for human trafficking. It is also very difficult for families and foster care families to provide the extensive care required for this type of complex trauma…Simply said, there are not enough resources available for child survivors,” Chandler said.
Prism Project seeks to help child sex trafficking survivors heal holistically, physically, spiritually, mentally and emotionally. They provide trauma-informed care, transport kids to medical appointments, to outings, school classes and they work diligently to foster family relationships.
They plan to use the money for a health and wellness expansion and renovate their tennis court into a multi-purpose recreation area and create a fitness room designed for the youth they serve.
“Research shows that without help, a child’s life expectancy from initial trafficking to death is only seven years,” Blythe said.
The founder of Impact 100, Wendy Steele, attended the event and announced Prism Project as the winner.
Steele founded the organization in the summer of 2001 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Steele said she grew up in a family where they were told “each of us has a responsibility to leave the world a little better than we found it.”
She was a banker at the time who knew many of the non-profits and saw how grants in the $5,000 to $15,000 were helpful, but it didn’t allow them to “really lift their head off their desk, look to the horizon and execute on a strategic plan.”
“I knew in my heart of hearts that not only did the community need what these women had to offer — their minds, their hearts and also their checkbooks —Women needed to feel what it was like to go from wringing your hands and worrying about all the problems that we face, to actually becoming part of the solution,” Steele said.
More than 20 years later, she attended the inaugural Big Give event for Impact100 Genesee County, which is the 72nd or 73rd Impact 100 chapter.
The goal of Impact100 Genesee County is to have 100 members to be able to award a nonprofit $100,000.
For more information, go to impact100geneseecounty.org or email information@impact100geneseecounty.org.
