ORGANIZATIONS RECEIVE FUNDING TO SPOTLIGHT HEALTH-RELATED POLICY ISSUES DURING 2006 PUBLIC POLICY DEBATE
NEW BRITAIN (03/16/06) - The Board of Directors of the Connecticut Health Foundation (CT Health) approved $2 million in grant awards during its board meeting today. Grants were awarded in the Foundation’s three priority areas --children’s oral health, children’s mental health, and racial and ethnic health disparities, and other health-related grants to organizations that respond to the our strategic plan objectives.
Health-Related Policy Grants -- Nine community-based organizations were awarded $25,000 each to integrate health-related policy issues into the community dialogue during the political season in 2006. Grantees will be focusing on issues such as: the lack of adequate, accessible funding of mental and physical health problems; increasing cost of health insurance employers must pay to provide quality health coverage to their workers; language barriers in the Latino community; and reducing lead poisoning in children and mandatory lead screening of children. The organizations funded include:
Asian Family Services (Hartford)
Bridges…A Community Support System (Milford)
Citizens for Economic Opportunity (Farmington)
Community Health Center, Inc. (Middletown)
Connecticut Primary Care Association (Hartford)
Connecticut Association for United Spanish Action, Inc. (Hartford)
Connecticut Center for Patient Safety (Hartford)
Foundation for Educational Advancement (Simsbury)
Yale-Griffin Prevention Research Center (New Haven)
Children’s Mental Health
FAVOR, Inc. (Rocky Hill), a statewide family support and advocacy organization, was awarded $486,873 over two years to help local grassroots family support groups, coalesce parents and other caregivers to identify system issues that will be used to build a public policy agenda.
LEARN -- The Southeast Mental Health System of Care (Old Lyme and New London), in its fourth year, has shown substantial growth in building collaborative capacity, was awarded $120,000 to identify and improve services for children with severe mental health problems. Specifically, they will examine intake and discharge procedures and evaluate the effectiveness of treatment and service planning.
Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities
Connecticut Department of Public Health (Statewide), received $539,317 over two years to improve state data collection and planning efforts to impact racial and ethnic health disparities.
Association of Yale Alumni in Public Health (New Haven) received $30,000 to conduct an assessment of the policy, practices, and procedures for recruiting and retaining historically under-represented faculty members at the Yale School of Public Health.
Griffin Hospital - (Lower Naugatuck Valley), was awarded $24,853 to implement a culturally and linguistically responsive health education and support program for Latinas.
Hispanic Health Council (Hartford), received $150,000 to develop a policy and advocacy division within the organization. Named the Latino Policy Institute, the division will conduct research, build a constituency, and develop a policy agenda to meet the needs of the growing Latino population.
Other Health-related Grants
Greater Hartford Legal Aid, Inc. (Hartford), a consortium of four other legal service agencies, received $400,000 over two years for general operations to implement a comprehensive set of services (litigation, consultation, education, and advocacy) to ensure the rights of the historically underserved and unserved.
On-Line Journalism (New Haven), was awarded a one-year $40,000 grant to use the internet to bring Connecticut-based news on health to its residents. It also will allow the end-line user to respond through a special “activist tool kit,” which allows the reader to take action on an issue or story. This project is sponsored by the Universal Health Care Foundation.
The Connecticut Health Foundation (CT Health) is the state’s largest independent, non-profit grantmaking foundation dedicated to improving the health of the people of Connecticut through systemic change, program innovation and health policy analysis. Since it was established in July of 1999, CT Health has awarded 286 plus grants in 39 cities and towns totaling close to $23 million in three priority areas – children’s mental health, reducing racial and ethnic health disparities, and oral health.
For additional information about these grants, please contact Maryland Grier, Public Affairs Officer, at 860.224.2200, ext. 32 or at maryland@cthealth.org.
