Health Forward Awards $1,156,333 in Applicant Defined Grants

KANSAS CITY, MO – The Health Forward Foundation (Health Forward) approved $1,156,333 in applicant defined grants to support organizations who strive to eliminate barriers to quality health care and promote healthy lifestyles.
Health Forward awarded the following grants:

$75,000 to Communities Creating Opportunity for its Health Communities Initiative. Funding will be used to engage a wide base of uninsured and under-insured constituency around health care interests to build the community organization needed to impact policy and affect funding decisions.
$75,000 to the Gillis Center to help Gillis increase its capacity as it moves toward the adoption of best practices that are evidence-based and trauma-informed in its Residential and Day Treatment programs.
$75,000 to the Kansas City Free Health Clinic to improve access to high quality and culturally appropriate care for under- and uninsured patients, with particular emphasis on patients with limited English proficiency and those with chronic diseases.
$75,000 to Legal Aid of Western Missouri for its Migrant Farmworker Medical Case Management, where staff serve as medical case managers for Spanish-speaking, migrant farmworkers and their families who come to Lafayette County each year for the apple harvest.
$75,000 to the National Foundation for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for its Preventing Child Maltreatment through a Cellular-Phone Technology-Based Parenting Program. This research project will determine if adding technology to an existing child abuse prevention program can improve program outcomes. Specifically, the University of Kansas is researching the effect of adding cell phones to existing Project Safecare programs in the hopes of improving program fidelity and increasing positive parenting behaviors.
$75,000 to Partnership for Children to support health-related advocacy work on behalf of indigent and underserved children in Kansas City, Missouri.
$75,000 to Southwest Boulevard Family Health Care Services to provide social service and mental health services and referrals.
$74,250 to Alphapointe Association for the Blind for its Senior Adult Services program that helps continue independence for those who experience age-related vision loss.
$72,000 to Midwest Foster Care and Adoption Association for Strengthening Our Families (SOF), which will assist foster and adoptive families in creating healthy, long-term, nurturing homes.
$60,000 to Developing Potential for its Increase Access to Services Project, designed to ensure the essential, but unfunded, services of nursing care as well as occupational, physical, and speech therapies for adults with developmental disabilities in the Kansas City metropolitan area.
$50,000 to the Communities in Schools of KCK/Wyandotte County to implement its Families and Schools Together (FAST) program in two elementary schools in Kansas City, KS. FAST is an 8-week, multi-family, early intervention/prevention program designed to build protective factors to enhance resiliency against school failure, juvenile delinquency, child abuse and substance abuse in families.
$50,000 to the Olathe Family Resource Center/Johnson County Community College to provide classes and child care for Hispanic parents. Families will be offered classes on wellness, disease prevention, parenting, survival skills, budgeting, and community culturation.
$50,000 to Planned Parenthood of Kansas and Mid-Missouri for a Volunteer Program.
$50,000 to Unified School District 258-Humboldt for Healthy Humboldt, which will gather household health data on students and their families.
$49,500 to Comprehensive Mental Health Services for Medical Enhancement for Co-Occurring Disorders, a program that provides 75 indigent, uninsured clients with primary health care services including lab work, medical tests, prescribed medications, assessments, checkups, and short-term care.
$41,452 to the Child Protection Center, Inc. for an Intake Coordinator and Operating Support.
$38,165 to Intensive Family Counseling for a part-time Development Director and Grants Specialist.
$35,000 to Saint Luke’s Hospital Community Service Clinics for a Post Discharge Outpatient Services Clinic, which provides care for patients needing outpatient rehabilitation therapy including physical, occupational and speech therapy, equipment to support the needed therapy, outpatient infusion services, wound care services, prosthetics and orthotics and other much needed services.
$30,966 to TLC for Children and Families, Inc for Functional Family Therapy, which provides therapy to youth in its residential facility who are preparing to reintegrate with their family and transition home.
$30,000 to the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Kansas City for SMART Moves (Skills Mastery and Resistance Training), a prevention program that helps young people avoid four of the most immediate threats to their well-being: alcohol, tobacco, other drugs and teen pregnancy.
In 2008, Health Forward will fund a total of $4 million in Applicant Defined Grants (ADG). Proposals are accepted and reviewed on a regular basis throughout the year. Organizations are allowed to submit one applicant-defined proposal per calendar year. The maximum amount that can be requested is $75,000.