The Harriet Ballou Charitable Foundation (HBCF), located at 15 Cowesett Road in Warwick, has announced its official launch as a non-profit, philanthropic organization dedicated to supporting senior populations in Rhode Island.

The foundation’s primary mission is to help create support for resources such as funding and advocacy to organizations and initiatives that help to strengthen and enhance the living conditions of elderly individuals in Rhode Island’s local communities.

“It started out as an elder care home in 1900,” said Executive Board Member Tim Saccoia. “It was successfully run until 2021. Then it was decided by the home’s board of directors, after some really careful thought and deliberation after some Conversations with advisors, that it was the responsibility of the steward of the home’s funds to preserve them as much as possible.”

Originally founded by Harriet Ballou, John A.G. Wightman, Henry Greene, William Preston, and Leonard Taylor as a non-profit corporation in Woonsocket to serve as a home for “respectable aged persons, who from any cause are unable to support themselves,” the facility managed to do its job for over 120 years before being forced to close its doors.

With the closing of the home, the board chose to do their best to continue honoring Ballou’s legacy and to pivot their goals from providing a living space to helping other agencies across the state that support seniors to find funding and provide better living conditions to Rhode Island’s elderly.

“We’re just trying to get the word out, create awareness and encourage people to apply,” Saccoia said. “We’re looking at organizations that support elder care causes. Local organizations or state-run facilities, anything that touches the senior population, are really who we’re looking to impact. We’ve just started this so we’re yet to have a good sense of how many organizations are going to be interested or what their needs are really.”

Saccoia said that the HBCF is currently in the process of doing research into the applications the foundation receives and doing research into seeing what types of applications it receives or what types of funding can be found that support elder care services. The process, he said, is still new to the HBCF, but they are dedicated to doing what they can to help fund these types of organizations.

HBCF urges nonprofits and government agencies that work with seniors to go to their website for the application form on their website, balloufoundation.org/apply.

“We are trying to figure out the best way to bring this opportunity to the public,” Saccoia said. “It’s kind of a challenge right now because it’s new for us. We’re just reaching out and trying to create ways to reach the most organizations.”