FosterAdopt Connect receives $25,000 grant

FosterAdopt Connect has received a $25,000 grant as part of the Coover Regional Resiliency Grant Program, a partnership of the Community Foundation of the Ozarks, the Louis L. and Julia Dorothy Coover Charitable Foundation and Commerce Trust.
The grant, announced April 30 at Hatch Auditorium at the Library Center in Springfield, will support FosterAdopt Connect’s Mountain Grove resource center, which provides assistance, training and guidance to families in south-central Missouri.
“We serve seven counties in south-central Missouri, providing programs and services for traditional foster and adopted families, but we also provide services for kinship families,” said Carla Randall with FosterAdopt Connect. “This funding is vital, and we are forever grateful for it.”
In total, 23 nonprofits and school districts received $500,000 through the Coover Regional Resiliency Grants, which support agencies that serve low-income individuals and families in rural communities and are facing financial challenges due to the loss or significant reduction of federal and/or state funding. This year’s Coover Regional grant program was doubled by a match from The HWS Charitable Foundation Inc., a private foundation with a passion for improving economic outcomes of residents in rural communities. For a full list of recipients, go to cfozarks.org/coover26.
“As a member of the Greatest Generation, resiliency came naturally to someone like Mrs. Coover,” said Jill Reynolds, senior vice president at Commerce Trust and chair of the Coover Foundation grant selection committee. “I think she would be proud of the focus of this year’s program, and the work all of these organizations do to foster resiliency in our communities.”
Julia Dorothy Coover, a 30-year Commerce employee, founded the Louis L. and Julia Dorothy Coover Charitable Foundation in 1992 to honor her husband’s memory. The private foundation, managed by Commerce Trust, has funded more than $9.2 million in grants to benefit rural communities and school districts across the CFO’s service area since the partnership began in 2001.
The Community Foundation of the Ozarks is the region’s largest public charitable foundation serving donors, nonprofit partners and 55 regional affiliate foundations — including Mountain Grove Area Community Foundation — with $549 million in assets under management as of June 30, 2025.
The CFO’s mission is to improve the quality of life for everyone in central and southern Missouri through resource development, community grantmaking, collaboration and public leadership.