Heels Together hosted our 6th annual Investors’ Banquet and first virtual year of women helping women and awarded $20,000 to Hardin County Schools for the ExCel program.

Thanks to all our investors for making this grant possible and to those who participated virtually this year to make the award selection. The presentations from our other two finalists, Communicare and the Community Health Clinic were strong contenders.

The Excel program currently serves teen moms, helping them overcome the challenges and setbacks that come with teenage pregnancy. This grant will help them expand their outreach to address the needs of expecting teens from their first trimester of pregnancy through childbirth. This will be a comprehensive program of academic and mental health services, community partnerships and teen mentoring programs that proactively address the risk factors and accelerates the success of expecting Hardin County Teens.

Investors also heard from last year’s grant recipients, Elizabethtown Community and Technical College and the Hardin County Attorney’s Office with an update on their projects.

The grant awards were made possible by 51 local women who make a $1,000 annual gift to support initiatives, such as the ones awarded at the banquet, that benefit women and girls. Heels Together investors have now granted $130,000 in the past 6 years and grown our endowment to $185,000!

“By helping to serve these girls, these programs will not only benefit the girls receiving assistance, but their families and communities will as well,” said Davette B. Swiney, president and CEO of Central Kentucky Community Foundation. “We know that when women and girls thrive, communities prosper, and that is why we are passionate about Heels Together.”