Grants & Programs

Each year, approximately $25,000 is awarded to students majoring in nursing, English, math & sciences, humanities, business, vocational technology and other courses of study. Over the years, students have come from every high school in the Alle-Kiski Valley. View our available Scholarships.

Recent First Responder Grants include sonar and radar for a local river and water rescue squad, emergency lighting for nighttime rescue operations for a volunteer fire company, funding to train new water rescue dive team recruits, police equipment, iPads for a volunteer ambulance company that enable hospital emergency physicians to monitor emergency patients enroute to the hospital, AEDs to police departments, Narcan to other first responders and many more.

Recent grants have been made to the Allegheny Valley Association of Churches, Animal Protectors of Allegheny Valley, Building Block of Natrona, Feeding Freeport, Lost Dreams Awakening, Neighborhood Resilience Project, Sheldon Park Resident’s Council and many other worthwhile missions.

In addition to being the lead COVID-19 staff member, The Foundation’s Community Nurse provides free health & wellness advice to a number of Alle-Kiski Valley residents each month. Topics include issues involving Medicare, Diabetes, Elder Care, Eye Care, Healthy Diets, Medication, Transportation, etc. Learn more about our Community Nurse Program.

Known by the acronym “HESA”, the highly popular and successful program provides Entry Level Firefighting Training (ELFT) as an elective, with full credit towards high school graduation, from Highlands Senior High School.

HESA students are transported from the high school to the Allegheny County Fire Training Academy a total of fourteen full days during the academic year. At the academy, students receive textbook as well as hands-on firefighting training. At the completion of the participating student’s three years of ELFT, they will have the required 180-hours of training needed to become a certified fire fighter

Dozens of young women and men have graduated from the program over the years, with many serving as volunteer fire fighters in the communities where they now reside.

The program has since been replicated in various school districts around the country.

AK PULSER dispatches its experienced and highly trained paramedics to the scenes of medical emergencies throughout the Alle-Kiski Valley to assist local ambulance and rescue squads.

Attendance is robust, with the Foundation’s William & Grace Walker Conference Room often filled to capacity. Recent topics like Teen Suicide Prevention, Medicare 101, Elder Care Law and CPR, are illustrative of the variety of offerings.

However, out of an abundance of caution due to COVID-19, the programs will soon be offered as online webinars. Programs include the following lecture series:

• H.W. Fraley Memorial Lecture
• Heatherlyn A. Marshall Memorial Lecture
• Frances & Anna Belle Beck Memorial Lecture
• Bernice & Joe Stimel Memorial Lecture

A goal of this initiative is to educate the community in ways to nourish themselves with healthier diets, regardless of their food budgets. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the Foundation has ramped up its food support efforts to include quarterly ham & potato giveaways, improved access to food distribution, grants to local food banks and other efforts, etc.

Recent First Responder Grants include sonar and radar for a local river and water rescue squad, emergency lighting for nighttime rescue operations for a volunteer fire company, funding to train new water rescue dive team recruits, police equipment, iPads for a volunteer ambulance company that enable hospital emergency physicians to monitor emergency patients enroute to the hospital, AEDs to police departments, Narcan to other first responders and many more.

Social services, first responders, drug abuse recovery & prevention groups, local business and industry and other community organizations will soon be able to regularly use the room free of charge.