Amarillo Area Foundation is proud to share the recipients for the second cycle of the 2025 Discretionary Grants. This grant cycle included proposals in all three of our focus areas—Education, Health, and Economic Opportunity. These organizations are continuing the important work that is our mission: improving the quality of life for Texas Panhandle residents. $1,536,750 was granted in this cycle. Thank you to these organizations!
Thanks to a generous offer from the High Plains Christian Ministries Foundation (HPCMF), Buckner Children and Family Services has the opportunity to purchase a property at 6900 Wolflin Avenue in Amarillo to develop the Buckner Children and Family Services Campus. Consolidating services on the property at 6900 Wolflin, formerly known as the Arbors, would allow Buckner Amarillo to also expand its services by eventually providing a Family Hopes program (which focuses on prevention of placement in the foster system), a Next Steps program (transitional housing for young women and eventually young men aging out of the foster care system), and by allowing them to increase their Family Pathways apartments.
To support the Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters (HIPPY), an evidenced based home visiting program, for purchasing curriculum, books for families, and hosting literacy events with HIPPY families.
The DHDC Kinderstudio was originally opened in 2015 and has served as the museum’s dedicated early childhood space. The space is also currently utilized by Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) for family and infant therapy sessions. With this remodel, DHDC’s Kinderstudio will be better equipped to support more agencies seeking a neutral space for expanded therapy sessions and learning evaluations. The focus of the classroom space in the Kinderstudio is hands-on learning with an emphasis on early childhood literacy.
This grant support will help add Canadian to the Rural Nursing Education Consortium (RNEC), create a new Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) testing site in Perryton, and purchase additional nursing beds.
Conversational City Lab will expand their free human-centered civic technology services by adding a full-time staff member. The new staff will focus on programs for digital training and tech support for underserved communities, collect data, and more effectively seek grant funding, while allowing the director to be the strategic lead in expanding services into other counties.
This grant will support early intervention, staff training, and student scholarships that will address staff retention, new talent support, and expand childcare access.
This award will support Texas 2036 as it advances its extensive research on childcare needs and the current state of childcare across Texas. The funding request is not intended to fully underwrite the statewide research effort but helps ensure that rural areas of the Texas Panhandle are represented in the data collection. The project will prioritize deep engagement with Panhandle-based parents, childcare providers, employers, and local leaders, ensuring a research and policy agenda grounded in the unique realities of Amarillo and its surrounding counties.
ACH hired a Treatment Director in 2024 to expand and adapt to the government’s Texas Child-Centered Care (T3C) so that children receive immediate access to trauma-informed (Tl) assessments, counseling, and specialized therapies such as sensory integration, play therapy, and Tl parent coaching which are not covered by Medicaid. This access avoids the 3-week to 2-month wait time for Medicaid supported therapies and therefore alleviates compounded issues from delayed critical counseling services. The ACH Treatment Director will also support the new Foster Care Homes Program under ACH’s new Child Placing Agency (CPA) License.
This project will serve approximately 50 unduplicated (282 duplicated) Texas Panhandle adult clients who are considered medically indigent and have no way to pay for medication assisted treatment (MAT) for their substance use disorder. The evidence-based MAT program is designed to ensure individuals can safely withdraw from their opioid or alcohol use through a reduction of the physiological and psychological features of withdrawal, is coupled with counseling and recovery support, helps prevent overdose deaths, and fosters long-term stabilization.
High Plains Food Bank (HPFB) launched the Fill the Gap campaign in April 2025 to respond to the abrupt cancellation of 13 USDA truckloads – approximately 645,000 pounds of food that was originally scheduled for delivery to HPFB throughout 2025. The campaign provides immediate funding to replace those lost deliveries with purchased, shelf-stable, high-need, nutritious food items, ensuring continued food access for families across the Texas Panhandle.
Hilltop Senior Citizens Association (HSCA) provides free congregate meals for seniors and food insecure walk-ins, meal deliveries to homebound seniors, and a food pantry open 5 days a week, Monday through Friday. As a trusted partner of the HPFB, a participant of the SP4K buying co-op, and a collaborator with Transformation Park and others, HSCA serves around 15,000 clients annually in a safe environment with their available resources and volunteered time.
Amarillo MOW contracts with BSA hospital to prepare all hot meals for delivery. With meal prices increasing this past year from $2.50 to $4.75 per meal, this grant will help cover meal costs for those needing meal scholarships.
With recent reductions in food bank supplies due to USDA cuts, PMOW relies on food purchases from Ben E. Keith, United Supermarkets and Fiesta Foods to supplement their meal supplies. Grant funding will support the increased cost for food purchases.
