Coastal Community Action Program Receives $150,000 from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

ABERDEEN, Wash. -- Coastal Community Action Program (CCAP), a private not-for-profit community-based organization, announced today the receipt of a $150,000 donation from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. This gift will support CCAP's mission to enhance the quality of life for families, the elderly, children and youth, and people with disabilities in Grays Harbor, Wash. and surrounding coastal communities.

"By supporting our operating budget, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has ensured that CCAP can continue to provide much needed resources to our most vulnerable community members in Grays Harbor," said Neal Schanbeck, Executive Director of CCAP.

"Coastal Community Action Program has a long history of improving the lives of all people in the Grays Harbor community," said William H. Gates, Sr., Co-Chair & CEO of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. "We are honored to support such a wonderful organization."

"The Coastal Community Action Program has recognized the need to work together with public and private entities; this gift will help us create a synergy that will benefit all people in our communities," said Schanbeck.

Coastal Community Action Program has been a community advocate since 1965, enhancing the quality of life for families, the elderly, children and youth, and people with disabilities in Grays Harbor and Pacific counties. CCAP provided essential services to support dislocated timber workers and fishermen in the Harbor during the 1970s and 1980s. Today, CCAP is collaborating with other Harbor agencies to reduce welfare caseloads; feed the hungry; house the homeless; reduce drug and alcohol abuse; assist in retraining the unemployed; and help seniors to stay in their homes longer by providing assistance and meaningful community involvement opportunities.