The Iowa West Foundation in Council Bluffs has announced grants totaling more than $5.2 million to twenty-two nonprofits and government entities working in southwest Iowa and eastern Nebraska.

The fourth-quarter grants include $2.7 million to the Christian Home Association-Children’s Square U.S.A. to renovate its academic center and build three residential cottages for treatment of children with behavioral challenges. "Mental health is a focus area specifically called out in our strategic plan," said Iowa West Foundation president and CEO Pete Tulipana. "Children's Square is significant to our community and to our mental health infrastructure regionally."

The foundation also awarded $40,000 to Big Brothers and Big Sisters of the Midlands to recruit adult mentors for children between the ages of 7 and 18 in Pottawattamie or Mills counties, and $170,000 to the Housing and Emergency Taskforce 2015, a collaboration between Heartland Family Service, Interfaith Response, West Central Community Action, and Connections Area Agency on Aging, to provide emergency energy and housing assistance to low-income families, the homeless, and those near homelessness in Council Bluffs. In addition, the City of Glenwood was awarded $50,000 to add a "lazy river" to its Charles E. Lakin Aquatic Center, while the City of Council Bluffs will receive $115,000 to add a splash-pad attraction to Fairmount Park and rehabilitate the Trolley Building in Broadway Park.

For a complete list of the foundation’s fourth-quarter grants, see the Iowa West Foundation website.