October 5, 2022

The Allen and Milli Gould Family Foundation Makes $20,000 Grant to Help Those Recovering from Mental Illness

When clients of St. Joe’s seek help for mental illnesses, one of their goals for recovery is often reintegration into the community through meaningful physical, social, emotional, cognitive, and spiritual activities. At St. Joe’s, we have a team of recreation therapists who are focused on providing this type of programming across the Hospital and within the Centralized Rehabilitation Resource Clinic (CRRC) at the West 5^th Campus.

Clients living with mental illness often face financial barriers that can make achieving these recovery-focused goals significantly more challenging and that’s where our Client Empowerment Fund can help. Overseen by CRRC leadership, therapeutic recreation staff and advisors, the fund provides grants of up to $250 to support individuals with their recovery-focused goals. Clients are asked to complete an empowerment grant application to outline what the funding is for and how it will help them in their journey to recovery.

Recently The Allen and Milli Gould Family Foundation made a $20,000 grant to the Centralized Rehabilitation Resource Clinic. Fifteen thousand dollars of the gift will be used to create a strong base for the Client Empowerment Fund with enough funding to help nearly 100 patients. The remaining $5,000 will be used to purchase equipment and supplies for recreation therapy within the CRRC.

This idea stemmed from a discussion with Bryan Hardy who is one of the Allen and Milli Gould Family Foundation’s advisory board members. Bryan is a retired nurse who worked within the Mental Health and Addictions Program at St. Joe’s. He’s also an advocate for the benefits of therapeutic recreation such as the strategic game of chess.

The Gould Foundation supports worthy causes across many sectors in Hamilton – the city where Milli and Allen Gould opened the doors of their iconic fashion boutique, Milli, in 1964. The loyal support of the local population has enabled the Gould family to give back to the community over the years through meaningful gifts like this.