Vail Communities says new state and private funding will keep its Minneapolis and St. Paul clubhouses open for now after the nonprofit faced closure. <\/p>\n
The nonprofit said the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) surprised them in a March letter by saying more money was off the table, leaving Vail Communities facing closure as of this month.<\/p>\n
Following 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS reporting in April, DHS has seemingly reversed course in the nick of time to keep the mental health support hubs, known as clubhouses, open while the nonprofit works on a more permanent solution.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat was like, yay, it\u2019s a good update,\u201d said member Sara Sprenger.<\/p>\n
Sprenger said the change, which came at the end of May, was a surprise too, adding that at the time, staff was prepared for job losses and members were losing hope that the clubhouses could find a way to stay open.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then all of a sudden, it just got restored with a little money. A lot of money, actually,\u201d said Sprenger.<\/p>\n
What changed?<\/p>\n
DHS emailed 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS saying it secured $400,000 in \u201cbridge funding\u201d to keep Vail Communities operating through the end of the year.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think a lot of the community pressure helped make that shift,\u201d said Ashley Trepp, president and executive director of Vail Communities. <\/p>\n
\u201cI wish we hadn\u2019t had to get to the crisis point to be able to have that good news,\u201d she continued. \u201cIf anything, it really rallied us around our mission and really validated the fact that our, as I said, our mission matters.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trepp also said a community member who saw news coverage of the possible closure donated another $500,000. Benefactor Corey Sauer had not heard of Vail Communities before reading about it in the news, according to Trepp.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was really surreal and almost too good to be true,\u201d said Trepp. \u201cIt solves the problem for a while.\u201d<\/p>\n
Funding questions remain<\/p>\n
Trepp said the combined $900,000 will cover Vail Communities\u2019 budget until next summer, including staff, meals and programming. She said the funding gives the nonprofit time to work on a longer-term solution for its Minneapolis and St. Paul hubs, which serve 500-600 active members, many with serious and persistent mental illness.<\/p>\n
DHS was not available for an interview Friday, but provided the following answers to 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS\u2019 questions:<\/p>\n
Where did the bridge funding come from? (What pot of money, per se? Within DHS or pulled from elsewhere in state budget? And if so, where from?)Did the bridge funding require any cuts to anything else: services, etc.?What changed DHS officials\u2019 minds from the notice letter in March, saying funding would not be extended, to finding and securing bridge funding?<\/p>\n
The bridge funding came from Mental Health Block Grant funding. Out of concern for the community, DHS made the decision to extend the contract to align with the release of the RFP. The funding did not impact other programs.<\/p>\n
Is the date set for this month for opening the RFP? If so, when is it? Are you able to share the language of the RFP? (Details of program requirements, how many organizations\/hubs could qualify, how long the funding would be for if approved, deadline for applying, roughly when DHS will decide and make the award, etc.)<\/p>\n
The RFP should post in the next few weeks\u00a0on this webpage.<\/a>\u00a0We aren\u2019t able to share details, language or other information about it until it is finalized and posted.<\/p>\n A DHS spokesperson said the agency still plans to open a request for proposal (RFP) process in June for clubhouse-type programming. \u201cThe department is planning to open the RFP for applicants in June so that the contract can start on or near January 1, 2027,\u201d a spokesperson said in an email to 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS in late May.<\/p>\n As of now, Vail Communities runs the only clubhouse-model programs in Minnesota. Trepp said Vail Communities plans to apply when the RFP opens and is also exploring other funding options for future years.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tFor Related Stories:\u00a0Mental Health<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Minnesota Department of Human Services<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Nonprofit<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0Ren\u00e9e Cooper<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vail Communities says new state and private funding will keep its Minneapolis and St. Paul clubhouses open for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":687351,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[60],"tags":[97,259,260,298577,11224,256171],"class_list":["post-687350","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth","tag-minnesota-department-of-human-services","tag-nonprofit","tag-renee-cooper"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687350","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=687350"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/687350\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/687351"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=687350"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=687350"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=687350"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}