“The grant will help fill the unmet mental health needs of returning service men and women and their families,” said Judy Curtis, media relations manager for Scott & White.
Scott & White officials will announce the details of the two-year grant at 11 a.m. today at the North Tower Lobby of Scott & White Hospital, a press release said.
The Dallas Foundation created the fund at the beginning of this year in an effort to assist active and former military personnel serving in Iraq or Afghanistan, according to the foundation Web site.
More than $2.8 million has already been spread across Texas to non-profit organizations. In August, the foundation allotted more than $500,000 to Mental Health America and American Red Cross.
Under that grant, The Dallas Foundation estimates about 700 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and family members will receive free mental health services.
Scott & White’s grant isn’t the first grant Bell County has received from The Dallas Foundation’s fund either.
During the first round of grants given in May, the foundation awarded more than $600,000 to schools in Bell and Coryell counties to serve 1,800 children at schools surrounding Fort Hood.
When it comes to taking care of soldiers after returning from war, the Dallas Foundation notes on its Web site the lack of help soldiers receive.
“They put themselves into harm’s way to defend a country that the vast majority of us believe is worth preserving. They volunteer months and years of their lives, knowing that they may be sent to Afghanistan or Iraq, a place where they will face gunfire and RPGs and roadside bombs,” the foundation Web site said.
“Of course we would support such men and women. They deserve nothing less. Until they come home. Then, we leave too many of them substantially on their own to reconnect with families, jobs and bills,” the site continued. “They need something. They need our support.”
The Dallas Foundations’ grant region includes Dallas/Fort Worth, Killeen, Fort Hood, Texarkana, Wichita Falls and surrounding areas.
“Thousands of North Texas men and women are fighting for us every day in Iraq and Afghanistan, and find themselves and their families stretched thin, emotionally, physically and financially,” John Ware, an Army veteran, member of the Dallas Foundation board of governors and chairman of the TRIAD Fund Advisory Committee, said in February. “It is our greatest hope that the TRIAD Fund at The Dallas Foundation will help alleviate some of that burden. We owe it to our servicemen and women.”
The Dallas Foundation will still provide nearly $2.2 million in grants for service men and women and their families in Texas.
