RRTC Partner Receives Grant to Deliver Groceries to Detroiters During COVID-19
Warriors on Wheels (WoW) of Greater Detroit—an advisory partner of the IDEAL RRTC—received a grant award from the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation to expand their outreach to people with disabilities in Southeast Michigan.
The COVID-19 pandemic has made securing daily essentials, like food, housing, and transportation, more difficult for individuals and households around the world. These challenges to daily living are compounded exponentially for people with disabilities. One local non-profit advocacy organization run by and for people with disabilities, Warrior on Wheels (WoW) of Greater Detroit, mobilized efforts to deliver groceries for free to Detroiters unable to shop during the COVID-19 statewide quarantine
A $9,000 grant from the Craig H. Nielsen Foundation will enable WOW to scale up their existing COVID-19 outreach to provide groceries, personal protective gear, and remote peer-support services, to an additional 100 households in the Greater Detroit area.
The Craig H. Nielsen Foundation supports programs and research to improve the quality of life for those affected by and living with spinal cord injury. The Foundation quickly designated $2.5 million for emergency relief funding during the pandemic to support current Nielsen Foundation grantees working to provide basic needs, personal protective equipment, medications and medical supplies, and accessible health and home care for people with spinal cord injury during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Center for Disability Health and Wellness is a current Neilsen Foundation grantee and together with the Warriors on Wheels director and IDEAL RRTC advisor Lisa Jackson, applied for the Emergency Relief Funding to support WOW’s outreach efforts.
“Funds from [the Nielsen Foundation] will allow WOW to pay for the groceries, sanitizing supplies, and face masks for low-income individuals with spinal cord injuries and other disabilities and their families, and to expand shopping and delivery services while maintaining a virtual community and peer-support services to those isolated in their homes,” says Michelle Meade, Ph.D., IDEAL RRTC Director and member of the Warriors on Wheels of Greater Detroit Board of Directors.