Health Forward Awards $793,422 in Applicant Defined Grants

Date: October 2, 2014
Contact: Jennifer Sykes
Phone: 816-241-7006
KANSAS CITY, MO – The Health Forward Foundation (Health Forward) has awarded 16 nonprofit organizations a total of $793,422 in Applicant Defined Grants.

The following grants were awarded in July and August 2014:

Agency Amount Awarded Project Description
Alphapointe Association for the Blind $31,422 To support our occupational therapist to assess and provide in-home, low-vision rehabilitation services so elderly can remain independent in their own home.
Baptist-Trinity Lutheran Legacy Foundation $75,000 To provide short-term emergency medical assistance to low-income, underinsured and uninsured individuals.
Cass Community Health Foundation $75,000 To support salaries, supplies and equipment associated with opening a second safety net dental clinic in Cass County in Harrisonville, Mo.
City of Iola, Kansas $25,000 To construct a nine-hole disc golf course on abandoned flood lands owned by the City of Iola and to make improvements to an existing pickleball court in a city park. The project will also promote the use of these facilities through media and events.
DeLaSalle Education Center $40,000 To support staff and provide supplies and equipment necessary to improve student knowledge of the benefits of good nutrition and exercise; improve eating habits of students and their families; improve access to fresh produce for neighborhood residents; bring more locally grown, fresh produce into the DeLaSalle school cafeteria and other area school cafeterias; and promote the use of locally grown food to the community.
Health Care Coalition of Lafayette County $50,000 To begin building a rural network health system that meets the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services National Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS) standards. As a health care leader in Lafayette County, it is important for the Health Care Coalition (HCC) of Lafayette County to conduct an assessment in order to determine the current level of cultural competency to compare to what has been set as the national benchmark standards by CLAS.
Hope Haven of Cass County $63,000 To continue to ensure overall safety and security of shelter residents and employees by providing for two people to staff 3 p.m. to midnight and weekends shifts to meet the needs of residents while supporting mental health training.
Lafayette County Health Department $22,000 Saving Smiles helps children adopt better oral health habits through annual oral screenings, preventive treatment (fluoride varnish), health education, and referral for treatment/care coordination. Saving Smiles helps the community realize that good oral health is essential for good overall health.
Mid-America Regional Council Community Services Corporation $50,000 To build a stronger, more unified system of services to help end homelessness for individuals and families in metropolitan Kansas City.
Missouri Health Advocacy Alliance $58,000 To provide strategic leadership for the health advocacy field, enhancing the capacity of Missouri’s consumer advocacy organizations to affect policy change to benefit the state’s uninsured and underinsured populations.
N2N $34,000 To provide a part-time social worker to connect homeless and near-homeless neighbors with needed health services/resources and to help pay for prescriptions and other auxiliary health needs for neighbors
Partnership for Regional Educational Preparation-Kansas City $60,000 PREP-KC proposes the launch of a new initiative, KC HealthStart, that will scale the successful strategies of PREP-KC’s Health Sciences Accelerated Academy (HSAA) to prepare many more of Kansas City’s urban high school students for careers in Nursing and Allied Health.
Pathways Community Behavioral Healthcare, Inc. $40,000 To allow Pathways to support the salary and fringe benefit cost of a 1.0 FTE (comprised of two 0.5 FTE clinical staff) position to provide needed behavioral healthcare services to the underserved, underinsured and uninsured students of the Concordia and Santa Fe School Districts.
ReDiscover $75,000 To support the purchase of computer equipment to expand the capacity and improve efficiency of the agency.
Synergy Services, Inc. $35,000 To maintain this full-time recreational coordinator and expand the benefits of the Recreation and Resilience program by also hiring a part-time advocate who can work mainly on weekends. A portion will also allow Synergy to purchase youth-focused indoor/ outdoor physical fitness equipment for the Campus.
Thrive Allen County Inc. $60,000 To support and build upon the gains in health, healthy lifestyles and health care access achieved in Allen County in recent years now reflected in improvements in the County Health Rankings. Specifically to fund the core operations and grant writing capacity of Thrive Allen County to enhance Allen County efforts to continue to improve health outcomes for the low income and under-served residents through improved health care access, a built environment that supports walking and biking as healthy transportation, and policies and programs to promote increased physical activity and healthy nutrition.
Health Forward Applicant Defined Grants are awarded outside of the Foundation’s annual Requests for Proposals. The ADGs are reviewed monthly and allow organizations to define their own immediate grant needs in relation to the Health Forward mission. Organizations are allowed to apply for an ADG once per year and are capped at $75,000. In 2014, Health Forward will award a total of $4 million in Applicant Defined Grants.

“We are proud to award these Applicant Defined Grants to support organizations in our service area who are working diligently to help eliminate barriers to quality health for the uninsured and underserved,” said Bridget McCandless, M.D., Health Forward President/CEO.

For more information on applying for Health Forward Applicant Defined Grants, visit the Foundation’s website at www.healthforward.org.