By Quinn O’Hara

Photo by Quinn O’Hara

The Clay Counts Coalition is a group of Clay County community members who organize, coordinate, and facilitate efforts to encourage a safe, drug free community.

The Coalition was recently featured in the North Central Regional Planning Commission’s, or NCRPC, 2024 Quarter 1 Newsletter.

The Coalition’s Community Mobilizer, Lori Martin, said the Coalition frequently partners with the NCRPC to write and organize grants to fund the Coalition. She said the Coalition was featured because of their use of a $125,000 grant they were awarded through the CDC Drug-Free Communities Support Program, which the NCRPC helped to write.

From there, Martin said “The Coalition became the hands and feet in Clay County, while Ohlde wrote the grant from her office in Beloit”

Martin noted that using grant funds to write other grants is prohibited. Thanks to $7,500 in CCIF Match Day donations, the Coalition was able to pay the NCRPC to help write the Drug-Free Communities Grant, which then awarded the Coalition $750,000 in grant funds. “That’s a 1,000% return, which is unheard of in any business model,” said Martin.