The Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation (Detroit, MI)

The Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan Foundation awarded grants to the following organizations:

  • Alternatives for Girls, Inc.—to improve maternal mental health through assessment and services. ($50,000)
  • Alzheimer’s Association Michigan Chapter—to support the “Arab American Dementia Outreach Program” to increase Alzheimer’s disease awareness and knowledge, reduce stigma, and decrease access barriers by providing culturally tailored dementia support services. ($15,000)
  • Avalon Healing Center—to increase mental and behavioral health services for sexual assault and trafficking survivors through an on-site Advanced Practice Provider. ($28,000)
  • Brilliant Detroit—to implement exercise and healthy food initiatives in four neighborhoods in Detroit, Michigan. ($20,000)
  • Bronson Health Foundation, Inc.—to increase awareness, assessment, and treatment of Perinatal Mood and Anxiety Disorders. ($50,000)
  • Catholic Charities of Southeast Michigan—to support increasing access to substance use disorder treatment for the Latino community at La Casa Amiga. ($418,000)
  • Center for Health Research and Transformation—to support the Michigan Opioid Partnership: Opioid Settlement Dollars and Unfunded Organizations project. ($126,945 cofunded by the Ethel and James Flinn Foundation.)
  • Crossroads Ministries, Inc.—to expand a fatherhood initiative, in-depth mentoring to moms, reproductive loss recovery, and sexual risk avoidance education. ($2,500)
  • Dexter Senior Center—to provide Dexter area residents with the support needed to age in place. ($180,000 cofunded by the Social Mission Department of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and the Ann Arbor Community Foundation)
  • District Health Department No. 2—to expand the “Healthy Futures Program” and provide additional services during a public health nurse home visit. ($50,000)
  • Eastside Community Network—to increase outreach and case management capacity to respond to the climate crisis. ($28,000)
  • Health Department of Northwest Michigan—to increase access to health care for school-age children by piloting telehealth services in rural Michigan school districts. ($30,000)
  • Michigan League for Public Policy—to measure the health and well-being of children to improve the lives of Michigan’s children and families via Kids Count in Michigan. ($50,000)
  • Michigan Public Health Institute—to increase provider referrals to at-risk patients with postpartum depression as part of the Southeast Michigan Perinatal Quality Improvement Collaborative. ($38,826)
  • Michigan Public Health Institute—to increase provider referrals to at-risk patients with postpartum depression. ($11,173.75)
  • Northern Michigan Children’s Assessment Center—to support child abuse prevention and awareness programs to staff at schools, daycare centers, physician offices, and other child-focused agencies. ($1,500)
  • Otsego County Commission on Aging—to improve the quality of life, physical functioning, and physical fitness among seniors. ($3,500)
  • Public Health-Muskegon County—to address infant mortality by expanding the “Mom Mentoring” and “Safe Sleep” programs. ($20,000)
  • TRAILS to Wellness—support for Year 2: Statewide Implementation of Transforming Research into Action to Improve the Lives of Students (TRAILS). ($50,000)
  • Tuscola County Health Department—to conduct a birth equity and system assessment to develop a birth equity ecosystem map and an action plan. ($11,173.75)
  • Tuscola County Health Department—to conduct a birth equity and system assessment to develop a birth equity ecosystem map and an action plan as part of the Region 6 Perinatal Quality Improvement Collaborative. ($38,826)
  • Upper Peninsula Health Care Solutions Inc.—to expand the Upper Peninsula Maternal Opioid (and other substances) Misuse Model. ($50,000)
  • Washtenaw Area Council for Children—to expand the scope and availability of abuse prevention education for Head Start and state-funded preschool programs. ($19,500)
  • Webster Township Historical Society—to support a healthy and fulfilling aging and intergenerational connection in Webster Township. ($180,000 cofunded by the Social Mission Department of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and the Ann Arbor Community Foundation)
  • West Willow/Journey of Faith—to facilitate community resiliency, intergenerational economic empowerment, collective problem solving complex social issues, and authentic activity engagement. ($162,750 cofunded by the Social Mission Department of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and the Ann Arbor Community Foundation)
  • Women’s Resource Center of Northern Michigan—to support programming for emergency and ongoing services for domestic abuse and/or sexual assault survivors. ($3,500)
  • Young Women’s Christian Association of Kalamazoo—to support a Community Health Worker to make home visits and assist clients in accessing community resources. ($50,000)
  • Ypsilanti Senior Center—to develop a partnership model for intergenerational work that begins with a reimagined Intergenerational Center. ($180,000 cofunded by the Social Mission Department of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan and the Ann Arbor Community Foundation)

Contact: Elba Huerta at foundation@bcbsm.com.

Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts (New York, NY)

Foundation for Opioid Response Efforts (FORE) announced $1,049,000 in grants to seven community-based organizations (CBOs) that are working to reduce overdoses and engage community members with opioid use disorder (OUD) in treatment and recovery. The grants are part of a new FORE program that aims to enhance the capacity of CBOs to deliver prevention, harm reduction, treatment, and recovery support services. Because CBOs are often underfunded and understaffed, these grants will be used to bolster staffing, address technology issues, and establish strategic partnerships that strengthen the delivery of OUD services within urban and rural communities.

  • Addiction Recovery Coalition of New Hampshire—to hire an additional Certified Recovery Support Worker who will provide much-needed peer support, connection to wrap-around services, and referrals to treatment providers, and help meet the growing demand for these services. ($150,000)
  • Avivo—to hire an additional Street Outreach Navigator. ($150,000)
  • Center For Counseling & Consultation—to fund a Substance Use Program Director, who will provide managerial leadership for administrative personnel tasked with enhancing operational effectiveness, stabilizing resources, and expanding its opioid use disorder and substance use disorder treatment services. ($150,000)
  • Frederick County, Division of Fire & Rescue Services—to enhance the COAST Program (a coresponse model that pairs a community paramedic and a peer recovery specialist) to provide services to more people and reduce barriers to accessing treatment through several goals, including additional training and education for EMS providers regarding substance use disorders. ($150,000)
  • Health Brigade—to strengthen Health Brigade’s organizational capacity to continue its Comprehensive Harm Reduction program, including funding strategies, peer supports, and linkage to treatment programs. ($150,000)
  • Meta House—to add a full-time Medical Assistant who will provide care to pregnant and postpartum women with substance use disorder or opioid use disorder. ($149,880)
  • Voices of Community Activists & Leaders (Vocal-NY)—to enhance the efficiency of its service delivery, so staff is prepared for increases in participants. ($149,420)

To learn more, click here.

Contact: Brian Byrd at bbyrd@forefdn.org.

The John A. Hartford Foundation (New York, NY)

The John A. Hartford Foundation (JAHF) approved grants for four initiatives totaling $7,735,595 that will improve nursing home care, launch a national Age-Friendly Health Systems research community, produce a documentary on aging in America, and ensure diagnostic excellence for older adults.

  • Generation Entertainment—to produce a documentary commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Pulitzer-prize winning book, Why Survive: Being Old in America, by Dr. Robert Butler, the first director of the National Institute on Aging and a pioneer in geriatrics. ($698,220 for two years)
  • Health Careers Futures, The Jewish Healthcare Foundation—to implement a contemporary version of the Teaching Nursing Homes model to demonstrate how enhanced partnerships between academic nursing programs and nursing homes can improve quality. ($3,333,033 for three years)
  • National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine—to advance diagnostic excellence for older adults as a part of larger diagnostic excellence initiatives funded by the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation. The National Academies will establish a Forum on Advancing Diagnostic Excellence and continue the National Academy of Medicine Scholars in Diagnostic Excellence program, with JAHF funding to support aging content in the forum and an aging-focused scholar each year. ($1,190,802 for three years)
  • University of California, San Francisco—to expand the evidence on the equitable implementation, scale-up, and impact of the Age-Friendly Health Systems 4Ms Framework (What Matters, Medication, Mentation, and Mobility). ($2,513,540 for three years)

Contact: Clare Churchouse at 212.324.7480 or clare.churchouse@johnahartford.org.

Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey (Millburn, NJ)

The Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey (HFNJ) awarded $470,000 to six New Jersey nonprofit organizations in the second quarter of 2023. All six of the grants were renewals of projects previously funded by HFNJ.

  • All Stars Project—to support a fourth year of Operation Cops and Kids. ($50,000)
  • Alvin Ailey Dance Foundation’s AileyDance for Active Aging—to provide fitness and recreation opportunities for older adults at five senior centers in Newark. ($50,000)
  • Branchbrook Park Alliance—to continue offering a series of fitness and wellness activities at the park including community walks, yoga clinics, and aerobics. ($25,000)
  • The HUBB HELP Trauma Recovery Center—for outreach, mental health services, trauma-informed practices, grief support, mindfulness, and victim advocacy to youth survivors of trauma and violent crime in Newark, New Jersey. ($105,000)
  • MEND—supports a second-year expansion of the innovative Mend on the Move program, which provides access to nutritious foods for individuals experiencing food insecurity in Essex County, New Jersey who otherwise would not be able to visit food pantries. ($65,000)
  • YouthBuild Newark—to continue a program that prepares young people disconnected from education and the job market to develop careers in health care. ($175,000)

The Health Foundation for Western & Central New York (Buffalo and Syracuse, NY)

The Health Foundation for Western & Central New York’s new initiative advances rural health equity in several counties in New York. These efforts will build the strength of regional rural health networks through $450,000 in grants, raise awareness of health care needs in rural central and western New York, and advocate for changes to systemic issues, including funding cuts, that contribute to health disparities in rural counties.

The foundation will award grants of $75,000 each to six rural health networks: Cayuga Community Health Network, Seven Valleys Health Coalition, and Madison County Rural Health Council in central New York; and Ardent Solutions, Healthy Community Alliance and Southern Tier Health Care System in western New York. In the spirit of trust-based philanthropy, these gifts will be awarded “no strings attached” and the recipients will determine how the funds are used.

Rural health networks are collaboratives of community-based organizations and health care providers addressing the needs of people in rural communities. These networks build on cross-organizational strengths to comprehensively provide health and social care services in areas that often suffer from health care provider and facility shortages, underfunded programs, and other resource challenges.

More than 86 percent of New York State is considered rural. New York’s rural communities have, overall, low numbers of primary care providers, high rates of uninsured people, and high rates of poverty, and people in rural communities are more likely to die from the five leading causes of death.

Over the past several years, rural health networks in New York have experienced a sharp decline in public funding, even as they faced additional community health needs resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2016, rural health programs were allocated $16.2 million. Since then, the executive budget has repeatedly reduced funding to these programs to $9.4 million. These funding cuts create serious challenges for rural health networks as they work to improve the lives of the people they serve and meet community-wide health equity goals, such as New York State’s Prevention Agenda.

The foundation will also fund a report of community health needs in rural central New York. The remaining $50,000 will be used for this report and for a public awareness campaign that tells the story of the personal impact of rural health disparities. Its goal is to influence and inform public investments and policymaking around rural community health.

Contact: Kerry Jones Waring at 716.380.7318 or kjwaring@hfwcny.org.

The New York Health Foundation (New York, NY)

The New York Health Foundation (NYHealth) selected 14 non-hospital systems across the state for grant awards totaling nearly $800,000 to support them in sharing open notes effectively with patients. Shared visit notes, often referred to as open notes, are an important way to help consumers become active participants in their own care. A recent federal mandate, the 21st Century Cures Act, requires health care providers to make clinical notes available to patients electronically and at no charge. However, the level of compliance and the proactive use of open notes to improve care vary among health systems.

Through these awards, NYHealth will provide non-hospital systems with funding, technical assistance, and peer-learning opportunities to not only comply with the federal mandate, but also use open notes to spark a culture change and more meaningfully engage patients.

To learn more, click here.

Contact: info@nyhealthfoundation.org.

Pottstown Area Health and Wellness Foundation (Pottstown, PA)

The Pottstown Area Health and Wellness Foundation awarded $1,325,800 to 43 projects and programs in the Pottstown, Pennsylvania area. The following are health-related grantees:

  • Birdsboro Community Memorial Center—for gymnasium repairs.
  • Boyertown Rotary Foundation—for a pickleball expansion at Boyertown Community Park.
  • Camphill Village—for Kimberton Hills Village support fund.
  • Chester County Food Bank—for Fresh2You Mobile Market and FreshRx.
  • East Coventry Township Parks and Recreation—for Tow Path Park Phase 1a improvements.
  • Expressive Therapy Concepts—for Smashville Badminton: kids and adult fitness program.
  • Family Services of Montgomery County—to support Project HEARTH (Helping Elderly Adults Remain in Their Homes).
  • Maternal and Child Health Consortium of Chester County—to ensure a healthy start and access to benefits for Pottstown families.
  • Mitzvah Circle Foundation—to support critical needs for healthy families, diaper bank, and period supply programs.
  • MontCo Anti-Hunger Network—to support Pottstown area food pantries’ connection to large scale food resources.
  • North Coventry Township—for Riverside Park boat ramp and adaptive kayak launch.
  • Pottstown Area Police Athletic League—to complete the construction of a permanent dek hockey facility.
  • Lower Pottsgrove Township—for Ringing Rocks Park paving and signage project.
  • Royersford Outreach—for general operating funds for building and program.
  • The Salvation Army, Pottstown—to support job readiness training and counseling.
  • Save Our Land Save Our Towns Enterprises—to grow and conserve Pottstown’s street trees.
  • Township of Upper Pottsgrove—to support Hollenbach Park phase 1 engineering.
  • TriCounty Community Network—for systems change for community collaboration.
  • TriCounty Community Network—to support resident engagement, power building, and health equity.
  • Washington Township Washington Park—for ADA access and parking improvements.
  • United Way of Boyertown Area—to provide equitable health and wellness to the Boyertown area homeless and near homeless.

The fall grant cycle will open September 1st with a simplified process for applicants. To learn more, click here.

Contact: John Robertson at jrobertson@pottstownfoundation.org.

RRF Foundation for Aging (Chicago, IL)

RRF Foundation for Aging approved $1.5 million in grants supporting aging-related efforts across the organization’s priority areas. Below are highlights:

  • American Society on Aging—to support growing momentum around the ASA Rise program, which trains and mentors emerging leaders of color in the field of aging. ($70,726)
  • National Consumer Law Center—to promote and preserve stable homeownership for older homeowners of color, by developing and advocating for policy changes and training consumer advocates. ($97,461)
  • Southwest Organizing Project—to engage in community organizing that focuses on advocacy to change debt collection practices and get more older adults enrolled in the property tax exemption program. ($75,000 over two years)

 

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