KING 5 and TEGNA Foundation Award $47,500 in Community Grants to Aid 10 Western Washington-Area Nonprofit Organizations

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

January 9, 2024

KING 5 and TEGNA Foundation Award $47,500 in Community Grants to Aid 10 Western Washington-Area Nonprofit Organizations

Seattle, WA – KING 5 and the TEGNA Foundation, the charitable foundation sponsored by TEGNA Inc. (NYSE: TGNA), has awarded ten area nonprofit organizations community grants totaling $47,500. 

Community grants in Western Washington are aimed at alleviating community concerns such as mental health challenges, particularly for children and teenagers.

The grant recipients are:

• Space Between: The grant will go towards funding a 16-week school-based program for mindfulness. In one school year, they hope to reach 1,850 students, 1,300 educators, and 250 parents/guardians at twelve schools, most of which are Title 1. Their work focuses on fostering a supportive, positive school environment.

• Upower: The grant will go towards fitness and wellness education classes to underserved youth. This organization provides youth-focused development in public schools, juvenile detention centers, and treatment centers. Upower’s vision is to confront systemic and institutional inequalities by offering the physical, social-emotional, and academic benefits of physical activity and play.

• National Alliance on Mental Illness: The grant will support a youth mental health conference that will connect health leaders, providers, parents, educators, and community partners. NAMI Eastside is committed to building a community that prioritizes youth mental well-being.

• Kindering Center: The grant will support CHERISH, a program that supports foster children from birth to five. CHERISH therapists minimize trauma, stabilize placements, and facilitate healthy transitions between homes. This program combines infant and early childhood mental health care and early support services.

• Safe Crossings: The grant will fund the Children’s Grief Support Program. Safe Crossings offers home visits, telehealth, and one-on-one counseling for children, parents, and extended families. The program helps children prepare for the death of someone they love and provides those grieving children with care after a death occurs.

• King County Sexual Assault Research Center: The grant will help offer trauma-focused therapy to survivors of sexual violence. The program is available to children, youth, and adult victims in both Spanish and English. In 2022, they served 370 survivors.

• Businesses Ending Slavery and Trafficking: The grant will go towards the Not Alone Public Awareness Campaign that aims to reach victims of human trafficking. Signage will feature messaging in seven different languages in public restrooms, airport terminals, libraries, businesses, and more than one hundred buses. BEST also provides training to prevent trafficking in places of employment, and in the last year, 213 victims were identified.

• Elizabeth Gregory Home: The grant will support the only shelter north of downtown Seattle that offers all amenities to women in need. Open 6 days a week, the Elizabeth Gregory Home helps five hundred women each year. The organization offers onsite mental health counseling, access to meals, clothing, laundry, showers, telephone uses, computers, bus tickets, IDs, intake appointments, and onsite healthcare and medical services.

• Humanities Washington: The grant will help fund the Prime Time Reading Program, a six-week, statewide family literacy program for low-income parents and their children. The program will help youth read at grade level by 4^th grade. 15-20 families (45-60 children) are recruited from local elementary schools and invited to 90-minute sessions of reading and storytelling.

• Summer Search: The grant will go towards two multi-week excursions for 168 students from low-income backgrounds. The participants are selected from three high school districts in Highline, Renton, and Tukwila. The program focuses on the mental, emotional, and physical wellbeing of the students by prioritizing mentorship.

“We are honored to support these local organizations as they continue their incredible work in the mental health space,” said Christy Moreno, president and general manager of KING 5 Media Group. “By telling their stories, we hope to not only further their reach but also raise awareness to the issues affecting our Pacific Northwest communities.”

“We are proud to support KING 5 as they serve those in need in the Pacific Northwest,” said Dave Lougee, president and CEO, TEGNA. “Our stations partner with their local communities to help nonprofits build on their mission not only through TEGNA Foundation grants, but also through station fundraising efforts and storytelling. It is a privilege to collaborate with organizations that are making a meaningful difference in the lives of individuals and families within our communities.”

The TEGNA Foundation Community Grants program addresses diverse local needs in communities served by TEGNA. Grants awarded fall into one of the following United Nations Sustainable Development Goal Categories: Good Health and Well-Being, Quality Education, Zero Hunger, and Decent Work and Economic Growth.

Community Grants are vetted by a committee of employees at each station, including the station general manager, and approved by the TEGNA Foundation Board of Directors. Stations also amplify the impact of the TEGNA Foundation’s charitable contributions through reporting and employee volunteerism. For information or to apply for a TEGNA Foundation Community Grant, click here.

About TEGNA Foundation

The TEGNA Foundation is a corporate foundation sponsored by TEGNA Inc. (NYSE: TGNA), an innovative media company that serves the greater good of our communities. Through its programs, TEGNA Foundation helps to improve lives in the communities served by TEGNA Inc., invests in the future of the media industry, encourages employee giving and contributes to a variety of charitable causes. For more information visit www.TEGNAFoundation.org.

About KING 5

KING 5 Media Group is a multi-platform media company based in Seattle, WA. It includes NBC affiliate KING 5, independent station KONG-TV and multiple digital platforms, including king5.com. KING 5 was the first television station in the Pacific Northwest, founded in 1948 by Dorothy Bullitt, now owned by TEGNA Inc. (NYSE: TGNA), an innovative media company that serves the greater good of its communities. Today, KING 5 is the dominant media company in the region, delivering the largest local news audience and the most local programming across all screens. For more information, go to www.king5.com.

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Grace Kelly

Marketing Coordinator

gkelly@king5.com