JUDSON CENTER AWARDED $150,000 GRANT FROM FLINN FOUNDATION FOR INFANT MENTAL HEALTH PILOT PROGRAM
Agency’s President & CEO receives foundation’s Mental Health Hero Award
Farmington Hills, MI – Nonprofit human service agency Judson Center is the recipient of a two-year, $150,000 grant from the Detroit-based Ethel and James Flinn Foundation for the creation of the “Our Early Years Infant Mental Health Program.”
The Judson Center award is among 60 grants totaling $3 million presented to mental health organizations in 2025 by the Ethel and James Flinn Foundation’s Board of Trustees.
“We are extremely grateful to the Flinn Foundation for its commitment to our efforts to expand our behavioral health care and services,” said Judson Center President & CEO Lenora Hardy-Foster. “Our pilot program in Oakland County will focus on providing services to families in the child welfare system and those at risk due to adversities such as poverty or trauma. The goal is to help parents and other caregivers repair relationships with their children, strengthen the emotional and developmental well-being of very young children, and improve family stability.”
“We are proud to support our grantees’ efforts to expand services and strengthen our mental health system,” said Andrea Cole, President and CEO of the Ethel and James Flinn Foundation. “Our investment in their work is an investment in healthier individuals, stronger families and more resilient communities.”
Additionally, the Flinn Foundation selected Judson Center President & CEO Lenora Hardy-Foster as a recipient of its 2025 Leonard W. Smith Mental Health Hero Award. She is one of four local leaders honored for showing extraordinary commitment to caring for others while navigating the complex realities of community mental health.
The award is named for the late Flinn Foundation Trustee Leonard W. Smith. According to the foundation, he was a “leader who believed in service, compassion and the power of stepping back to renew one’s purpose.”
Each honoree’s organization will receive a $25,000 grant award of which $10,000 goes to the leader so that he or she can take two months away to reflect, renew and recharge in any manner they choose. The remaining $15,000 will be used by the respective organizations to help with operations while the honoree is away.
“I am truly honored,” Hardy-Foster said in an interview with the Flinn Foundation. “Any time you’re recognized for the work you’ve done and the impact you’ve made in the community, it’s extremely rewarding. It made me reflect on my life — I’ve been devoted to the nonprofit sector for over 40 years. I never expected this to be my career path, but making a difference in the lives of children, adults and families has always brought me deep gratification.”
About Ethel and James Flinn Foundation
The Ethel and James Flinn Foundation is a private foundation that uses its resources to improve the quality, scope and delivery of mental health services in Michigan. Its mission is to advance effective, well-researched best practice mental health treatment and programs that meet the needs of people in Michigan. The Ethel and James Flinn Foundation was established in 1976 by Ethel “Peggy” W. Flinn. Her intent was to remember her parents, Ethel and James and her brother, Jim Flinn Jr., and to consolidate and direct the families’ philanthropy toward the purposes already expressed by her parents in their trust’s documents: “research into the causes and/or research into the treatment of nervous and mental diseases.” Learn more at www.flinnfoundation.org