Community Foundation of Sarasota County Awards $475,000 to Support Continued Hurricane Ian Recovery

Grants address ongoing long-term efforts to restore stability in Sarasota, Charlotte, and DeSoto counties

SARASOTA, FL – As the second anniversary of Hurricane Ian approaches, the Community Foundation of Sarasota County’s Suncoast Disaster Recovery Fund continues to support ongoing unmet needs in the hardest-hit areas of the region, most recently through grants totaling $475,000 to Rebuilding Together Tampa Bay, EPIC Community Resource Center, United Way of South Sarasota County, and SunCoast Communities Blood Bank.

Ian’s estimated damages were initially figured at $50 billion across the state of Florida. As needs emerged, costs continued to rise, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and today the storm is considered to have caused $115 billion in damages. Along with destroyed and damaged personal property, many relied upon services in the area have been disrupted because the storm’s damage rendered public buildings—like daycare centers, medical facilities, and schools—uninhabitable.

New grants from the Community Foundation address those revealed needs and will continue to be available to nonprofit organizations delivering programs, services, and support in areas that have been designated Suncoast Disaster Recovery Fund priorities:

• Home repair and housing needs
• Case management
• Mental and behavioral health support
• Children and youth services/education
• Legal services and navigating insurance
• Long Term Recovery Group (LTRG) and COAD support

“For many people, Ian is in the rearview, but so many of our neighbors are still living in the wreckage of the storm two years later,” said Kirsten Russell, Vice President of Community Impact at the Community Foundation. “Entire communities are still awaiting things we take for granted, like roof repairs, and living day-to-day in search of a safe place to sleep, a trusted caretaker for their children, a next meal. The Suncoast Disaster Recovery Fund continues to be a resource for organizations delivering these vital services to some of our most hard-hit and vulnerable neighbors.”

Indeed, in some of the most impacted communities, like Englewood and Arcadia, the number of households living at or below the ALICE threshold (Asset-Limited, Income-Constrained, Employed) are well above average. This population in Arcadia, which was severely damaged through wind and floods, is 65 percent, while in Sarasota’s Englewood, 44 percent of households are at or below the ALICE threshold. These are families that, while employed, struggle to afford necessities.

Natural disasters disproportionately affect economically marginalized households, leading to more serious consequences. One goal of the Suncoast Disaster Recovery Fund is to invest in recovery that can mitigate widening gaps between low SES households and those that are more economically secure.

Grants from this cycle have been awarded to the following:

• Rebuilding Together Tampa Bay, providing licensed, insured home repair to low-income homeowners, to rehab and repair 15 houses in DeSoto County.
• EPIC Community Resource Center, a faith-based organization in Englewood that supports low-income households in a variety of ways. Funding will support expanded case management, and a health and wellness program delivered through collaboration with Samaritan Counseling Services of the Gulf Coast and Strong SRQ.
• SunCoast Communities Blood Bank, which provides life-saving blood services. The project will help restore blood supply in hard-hit Port Charlotte, which experienced a disruption to blood collection that has persisted since Ian.
• United Way of South Sarasota County, a community fund and resource hub serving South Sarasota. The grant would support its coordination of a collaborative Long-Term Recovery Group.

The need remains

In the days leading up to Ian’s historic landfall, Florida’s gulf coast braced for what forecasters warned would be catastrophic hazards.

Recognizing that while relief efforts would be immediately deployed, taking care of the important business of clearing debris, restoring power, and ensuring initial health and safety needs would be addressed, the Suncoast Disaster Recovery Fund took a different approach to healing.

Relief efforts are necessary for a society to get back up on its feet, but recovery efforts—healing lives holistically, addressing physical, mental, social and spiritual wellbeing—can take years. That was the thinking, offered in part by guidance from the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, that prompted activation of the Suncoast Disaster Recovery Fund. A joint venture between The Patterson Foundation and the Community Foundation of Sarasota County, the Suncoast Disaster Recovery Fund raised more than $5 million in just a few months post-Ian, and, after taking time to learn best practices for long-term recovery, the initial grants supporting this focus were awarded in March 2023.

“Over time, this funding has helped open new daycare centers, restore necessary youth services, repair houses and human service centers, replace flooded out home appliances, provide more caseworkers, expand mental health counseling—it’s just run the gamut,” said Russell. “But as much as has been done, the need remains. Recovery from Ian persists even as we’re addressing damage from new storms.”

For more details about the organizations supported through this fund specific to Hurricane Ian recovery, visit https://www.cfsarasota.org/Suncoast-Disaster-Recovery-Fund.

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About the Community Foundation of Sarasota County: The Community Foundation of Sarasota County is a public charity founded in 1979 by the Southwest Florida Estate Planning Council as a resource for caring individuals and the causes they support, enabling them to make a charitable impact on the community. With assets of $489 million in more than 1,580 charitable funds, the Community Foundation awarded grants and scholarships totaling $40 million dollars last year in the areas of education, the arts, health and human services, civic engagement, animal welfare and the environment. Since its founding, the Community Foundation has been able to grant more than $435.8 million to area nonprofit organizations in our community thanks to the generosity of charitable individuals, families, and businesses. For more information, visit www.CFSarasota.org or call (941) 955-3000.