Foundations Offer Technical Assistance to Address Cultural Competency

Date: November 9, 2011
Contact: Pattie Mansur, REACH Healthcare Foundation
Phone: 913-432-4196
The REACH Healthcare Foundation and the Health Forward Foundation (Health Forward) will provide technical assistance awards in 2012 to health and human service organizations interested in improving their understanding and practice of cultural competency. The foundations will fund one year of technical assistance for up to 10 organizations to help them strengthen their capacity to serve diverse populations.

The application for technical assistance is open to nonprofit organizations working within the foundations’ interest areas and six-county geographic region. That region includes Allen, Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas, and Cass, Jackson and Lafayette counties in Missouri. Organizations eligible to apply include safety net health care clinics, behavioral health organizations, higher education institutions, advocacy organizations and collaboratives, and other health and human service entities.

A workshop to explain the Cultural Competency Initiative and the technical assistance application is scheduled for Friday, Nov. 11, 10:30 a.m.-12 p.m. at the REACH Foundation offices, 6700 Antioch Road, REACH Conference Room (2nd floor), Merriam, Kansas, 66204.

Application to Apply.

The deadline to apply is 4 p.m. Friday, Dec. 16.

The Cultural Competency Initiative was introduced by the REACH Foundation in 2008 as part of its focus on increasing health care access and reducing health disparities. The impetus for the initiative came out of a growing recognition of the connection between cultural competency and health disparities, and health outcomes. Health Forward joined the initiative in 2010, expanding the number of organizations involved.

For more information, contact Carla Gibson, REACH Senior Program Officer, (913) 432-4196, or Adriana Pecina Health Forward Program Officer, (816) 241-7006.