Lilly Endowment拨款750万美元资助Elizabeth Dole基金会：三年期资助支持全美1430万军人及退伍军人照护者
Elizabeth Dole基金会10月27日在 Washington 宣布，获得 Lilly Endowment 拨款750万美元。这笔三年期资助将用于加强该基金会服务军人及退伍军人照护者的能力，帮助更多照护者确认自己的照护者身份、在社区中结识可信赖的同伴，并获得以生活质量改善为衡量标准的服务与支持。
军人及退伍军人照护者是伤病军人与退伍军人的配偶、父母、兄弟姐妹、家人与朋友，全美约有1430万人。他们支撑着伤病军人的健康、独立与尊严，但许多人长期缺乏认可、支持与经济保障。前参议员 Elizabeth Dole 于2012年创办该基金会，专门服务这一群体。基金会首席执行官 Steve Schwab 表示，太多照护者至今不知道有帮助存在、也不知道去哪里找；Lilly Endowment 当年资助的研究首次让全国看清这一群体的规模，这笔新资助将帮助基金会成为照护者容易找到、扎根社区、能协助他们跨过求助障碍的组织。
据基金会公布，这笔资金将投向四个相互衔接的方向：扩大品牌与数字触达，让照护者无论从哪里开始寻找都能找到基金会；依托全国性的 Dole Caregiver Fellows 及校友网络，扩大社区参与；升级技术与数据系统，更准确地掌握照护者需求并衡量其生活质量的改善；拓宽支持基础，让成效延续到资助期之后。Lilly Endowment 社区发展副总裁 Ronni Kloth 表示，军人、退伍军人及其家庭极具韧性，但服役与向平民生活的过渡常带来住房、育儿、食物、身心健康与就业等多重挑战，该机构乐于支持为这一群体提供关键帮助的组织。
基金会成立14年来，已通过其项目与活动联系近22000名照护者，向1500多人提供直接经济援助，并培训了12000多名医疗服务提供者接受照护者协同护理。Lilly Endowment 自基金会创办起即给予支持，其早期资助促成了兰德公司（RAND）首份全国性军人及退伍军人照护者研究，其后又资助了2024年发布的十年更新研究，以及 Mathematica 关于军人照护家庭儿童与青少年的研究。Lilly Endowment 是1937年由 J.K. Lilly Sr. 及其子 Eli 与 J.K. Jr. 以礼来公司股票捐赠设立的私人基金会，总部位于 Indianapolis，与礼来公司为相互独立的机构，主要支持社区发展、教育与宗教事业。
Lilly Endowment Awards $7.5 Million to the Elizabeth Dole Foundation: Three-Year Grant Supports 14.3 Million Military and Veteran Caregivers
The Elizabeth Dole Foundation announced in Washington on October 27 that it has received a $7.5 million grant from Lilly Endowment Inc. to strengthen its capacity to serve military and veteran caregivers. Over three years, the grant will help more individuals identify as caregivers, connect with trusted peers in their communities, and receive services and support measured against improvements in their quality of life.
Military and veteran caregivers, the spouses, parents, siblings, family members and friends who care for wounded, ill or injured service members and veterans, now number 14.3 million in the United States. They sustain the health, independence and dignity of those they care for, yet too many carry that responsibility with limited recognition, support and financial security. Senator Elizabeth Dole founded the foundation in 2012 to serve them. Steve Schwab, the foundation's CEO, said too many caregivers still do not know that help exists or where to find it, and that Lilly Endowment made possible the research that first showed the nation who these caregivers are. The new grant, he said, lets the foundation build the organization caregivers need now: one that is easy to find, present in their communities and able to provide support services that help them navigate the roadblocks to care.
The investment will strengthen four connected areas of the foundation's work: expanding brand and digital reach so caregivers can connect with support wherever they begin looking; building community engagement through its national network of Dole Caregiver Fellows and alumni; modernizing technology and data to better understand caregivers' needs and measure improvements in their quality of life; and broadening its base of support so the gains last beyond the grant period. Ronni Kloth, Lilly Endowment's vice president for community development, said service members, veterans and their families are extremely resilient, though military service and the transition to civilian life often pose significant challenges, including housing, childcare, food insecurity, mental and physical health and employment, and that the Endowment is pleased to help organizations that provide crucial support.
The foundation enters this stage of growth with 14 years of research, programs, partnerships and policy leadership behind it. Since 2012 it has engaged nearly 22,000 caregivers through its programs and events, provided direct financial assistance to more than 1,500 individuals and trained more than 12,000 health care providers in caregiver-integrated care. Lilly Endowment has supported the foundation since its founding: its early funding made possible the RAND Corporation's first nationwide study of military and veteran caregivers, and it later funded RAND's 10-year update, released in 2024, and Mathematica's research on children and youth in military caregiving families. Lilly Endowment Inc. is a private foundation created in 1937 by J.K. Lilly Sr. and his sons Eli and J.K. Jr. through gifts of stock in Eli Lilly and Company; it is a separate entity from the company, based in Indianapolis, and supports community development, education and religion.
来源：GSM·美国（原文链接）
图片来源：图：Elizabeth Dole 官方肖像（资料图，她于2012年创办以其名字命名的基金会）。照片：美国国会，公共领域（经 Wikimedia Commons） / Official portrait of Elizabeth Dole (file photo; she founded the foundation that bears her name in 2012). Photo: United States Congress, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Direct: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FilePath/Elizabeth_Dole_official_photo.jpg
