INNOVATION | ENTREPRENEURSHIP | LEADERSHIP
GRANTS
These organizations and grants catalyze impact and create value for people across mental/behavioral health, education, and economic revitalization.
2024 Grantees
Mental & Behavioral Health Grantees
First-Episode Psychosis Regional Forum Year II | Innovation & Leadership | Single Year Grant Purpose: Institutionalize the Philadelphia Regional Forum for Advancing Early Psychosis Care and develops a strategy to activate a network of regional funders.
Mental Health in Legal Education Convening | Leadership | Single Year Grant Purpose: Convene key stakeholders in the legal profession to shape a comprehensive program focused on supporting workforce mental health in the industry and legal higher education.
First-Episode Psychosis Programming | Innovation & Leadership | Single Year Grant Purpose: Strengthen PERC’s first-episode psychosis (FEP) and Clinical High Risk for Psychosis (CHR-P) services, help them pursue new venues of psychosis screening and referral, and promote knowledge and interest in psychosis care for providers in training.
Mental Health and Well-Being in UVA Athletics | Innovation & Leadership | Single Year Grant Purpose: Two related programs for the University of Virginia Athletics Sports Psychology Department including the WINS initiative to address stigma, increase comfort in handling mental health-related concerns, increase willingness to access support, and support healthier cultures across UVA Athletics and a postdoctoral fellowship to improve access to and utilization of mental health and wellness resources for student-athletes.
Education Grantees
General Operating Support | Innovation & Leadership | Single Year Grant Purpose: General operating support for the Freire Schools’ mission to provide a rigorous education in a safe, creative, and supportive environment that enables and inspires all children to achieve.
Capital Campaign - Sixth Man Center | Entrepreneurship & Leadership | Single Year Grant Purpose: Capital grant and bridge loan for The Alan Horwitz "Sixth Man" Center Capital Campaign, which serves as Philadelphia Youth Basketball’s headquarters and provides youth enrichment experiences to thousands of youth annually.
Female Empowerment Programs | Entrepreneurship & Leadership | Single Year Grant Purpose: Expanded offerings for female participants and the creation of intentional, female-centered spaces within existing programs.
Women's Lacrosse Scholarship | Leadership | Multi-Year Grant Purpose: A full scholarship for an athlete for the University of Virginia women’s lacrosse team.
Economic Revitalization Grantees
Expansion of Services | Innovation | Single Year Grant Purpose: Expand capacity to provide additional key mental health and community supports that Hopeworks participants need to thrive.
Grantee
Spotlights
PERC
As part of its support of developing and expanding the reach of mental health programming, the Widger Family Foundation provided a grant to the University of Pennsylvania’s PERC program (PERC) for its leadership and innovative work in early psychosis care in Greater Philadelphia. PERC has expanded FEP capacity, CSC services, and care duration to allow it to reach more patients, including those uninsured or underinsured; offer services in the community, including providing educational sessions about early psychosis and access to FEP care; and extend duration of CSC to a 3rd transitional year to provide longer term care to individuals experiencing FEP.
Philadelphia Youth
Basketball
Philadelphia Youth Basketball (PYB) leverages the iconic basketball game to deliver life-changing opportunities and experiences. Built of, by, for, and with the communities it serves, PYB provides a safe, nurturing environment for young people to develop the skill sets and mindsets they need to succeed on the court and in their education, careers, and lives. The Widger Family Foundation has committed general operating support, programmatic funding and capital towards PYB’s campaign to build its Alan Horwitz “Sixth Man” Center. The Center will centralize PYB’s program offerings, which go beyond basketball to include classes on financial empowerment, sessions about civil dialogue, a multimedia lab, opportunities to access mental health resources, and more. The Foundation also provided a low-interest loan further to support the building and furnishing of the Center.
University of Virginia
Sports Psychology
The University of Virginia Athletics Department (UVA) has consistently been a leader in student-athlete mental health. Led by the renowned sports psychologist Dr. Jason Freeman, UVA seeks to holistically address the health and well-being of every UVA student-athlete, empowering them to thrive at the university and beyond. To aid in this goal, the Widger Family Foundation provided a grant in 2024 for two pilot programs within the Sports Psychology Department. The Wellness IN Sports (WINS) Initiative offers QPR and MHFA education and awareness training to reduce stigma, increase comfort in handling mental health-related concerns, increase willingness to access support, and sustain healthier cultures. Supplementing training, fidget “toys” will provide research-backed outlets for UVA student-athletes to self-regulate their emotions, concentrate and maintain cognitive function, and provide relaxation. The second half of the grant supports a sports psychology postdoctoral fellow who will increase student-athletes access to and utilization of mental health and wellness resources. In addition to adding capacity to the sports psychology staff, the fellowship will give the Sports Psychology Department the opportunity to educate the next generation of providers.
2023 Grantees
Mental & Behavioral Health Grantees
First-Episode Psychosis Programming | Innovation & Leadership | Multi-Year Grant Purpose: Grow and strengthen CHOP’s First Episode Psychosis (FEP) Program to treat patients in the Philadelphia suburbs and improve the quality and accessibility of FEP care in the region.
First-Episode Psychosis Programming | Innovation & Entrepreneurship | Multi-Year Grant Purpose: Bridge the gap between struggling youth and clinical care by proactively identifying and engaging youth who are experiencing early signs of mental illness and by offering instant support from a clinician and access to high-quality local resources.
First-Episode Psychosis Regional Forum Year I | Innovation & Leadership | Multi-Year Grant Purpose: Institutionalize the Philadelphia Regional Forum for Advancing Early Psychosis Care and develop a strategy to activate a network of regional funders. Bringing together key stakeholders, the forum sought to define a collective vision for psychosis care in the Greater Philadelphia region, identify key opportunities to work collectively to enact solutions, and develop an actionable plan to enable effective systems transformation and deliver better outcomes and care.
General Operating Support | Innovation & Leadership | Single Year Grant Purpose: Catalyze impactful funding in mental health, addiction, and well-being through Mindful Philanthropy.
Expansion of Philadelphia Presence | Innovation, Entrepreneurship, & Leadership | Multi-Year Grant Purpose: Expand The Phoenix's Philadelphia programming and renovate a dedicated building that will serve as The Phoenix’s headquarters for the Mid-Atlantic region.
First-Episode Psychosis Programming | Innovation & Leadership | Single Year Grant Purpose: Expand PERC's FEP capacity, coordinate specialty care (CSC) services, care duration, and community services (i.e., supported employment and education, and case management), and extend the duration of CSC to a 3rd transitional year.
Education Grantees
General Operating Support | Innovation & Leadership | Single Year Grant Purpose: General operating support for the Freire Schools’ mission to provide a rigorous education in a safe, creative, and supportive environment that enables and inspires all children to achieve.
Foundation for Individual Rights & Expression (FIRE) | Leadership | Multi-Year Grant Purpose: A multi-year grant through Stand Together helped strengthen Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE’s) ability to support free speech movements.
K-12 Programs | Innovation & Leadership | Multi-Year Grant Purpose: Civic education and out-of-system education entrepreneurs.
Women's Lacrosse Program | Leadership | Multi-Year Purpose: General operating support for the University of Virginia women’s lacrosse team.
Grant Purpose: The naming gift from Chuck and Barbara Widger has supported scholarships for students with leadership skills and an interest in business and law, endowed a professorship based in the Law School but working across disciplines, and created an "innovation fund" for new academic programs. Additional donations have supported professional development and leadership programming in legal education, advanced faculty research, and a new program for young alumni to establish endowed student scholarships.
Economic Revitalization Grantees
STF's Catalyst Program | Innovation | Multi-Year Grant Purpose: Empower social entrepreneurs to drive change from the bottom-up in their communities through Stand Together’s Catalyst Program.