Board of Directors Approves $3.2 Million at its Fourth Quarter Meeting

NEW BRITAIN (December 20, 2006) -- The Board of Directors of the Connecticut Health Foundation (CT Health) approved $3.2 million in grant awards during a recent quarterly board meeting. Grants were awarded in the Foundation’s priority areas of children’s mental health, oral health, racial and ethnic health disparities, and other areas responding to CT Health’s mission to improve the health status of all Connecticut residents:

Children's Mental Health:

• Child Health & Development Institute of Connecticut (Statewide) received a three-year $450,000 grant to support the Connecticut Center for Effective Practice’s activities to enhance Connecticut’s capacity to improve the effectiveness of treatment provided to all children with serious and complex emotional, behavioral and addictive disorders.
• Connecticut Institute for Communities (Danbury) received a one-year $50,000 planning grant to develop, with two partner organizations, an application to establish a Federally Qualified Health Center to serve the greater Danbury area.
• Norwalk Community Health Center (Norwalk) received a two-year $200,000 grant to develop a new program to improve the mental health of children ages 5 to 8 through screenings and early interventions.

Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities:

• Connecticut Coalition for Environmental Justice (Hartford) received a $50,000, one-year award for general support to improve urban environments and reduce environmental health disparities through grassroots education and advocacy.
• Community Foundation of Greater New Britain (New Britain) received a one-year $9,500 grant to act as fiscal agent for the Connecticut Health Foundation’s Leadership Fellows Program, a one-year knowledge and skill-building program designed to create leaders, who will pursue careers in public policy, public health practice, community advocacy, academia, or any other related field.
• Griffin Hospital (Derby) received a two-year $50,000 award to test the effectiveness of a health literacy-based educational intervention among congestive heart failure patients through an experimental design.
• Naugatuck Valley Project, Inc. (Waterbury) received a one-year, $60,000 grant to address community medical interpretation needs through organizing and advocacy, and partnering with local health care institutions.
• Addressing Health Disparities through Systems Change for Diabetes Prevention and Management in Community Health Centers initiative --Four community health centers were awarded two-year grants to address diabetes in their communities:
  • Community Health Center, Inc. (Middletown) received $400,000 to reduce health disparities in underserved, high risk diabetic patients by integrating the latest concepts in telephonic disease management from the commercial health market in New Britain and Meriden clinics.
  • Community Health Services (Hartford) received $199,940 to engage and retain underserved and medically transient African American and Hispanic North Hartford clients in diabetes prevention and management through their Family Diabetes Prevention Program, an educational outreach program.
  • Fair Haven Community Health Center (New Haven) was awarded $399,806 to adapt the Chronic Care Model for diabetes prevention in a high risk, adult, female, Hispanic population in New Haven.
  • StayWell Health Center (Waterbury) received a $307,333 grant to implement components of the Chronic Care Model to improve quality of diabetes care and prevention at six adult medicine clinics with a focus on African American men.

Oral Health

• Community Health Center, Inc. (Middletown) was awarded a one-year $25,000 grant to increase access to dental services for children insured under HUSKY.
• Generations Family Health Center (Willimantic) was awarded a one-year $25,000 grant to increase access to dental services for children insured under HUSKY.

Other Health-Related Grants

• Organizational Leadership Capacity Grants -- Each of the following organizations received an 18-month $50,000 grant to support transformational leadership in health and health-related nonprofits aimed at ensuring the quality of services and improved health outcomes:
  • Bridges, A Community Support, Inc. (Milford)
  • Center for Medicare Advocacy, Inc. (Willimantic)
  • Community Health Services, Inc. (Hartford)
  • Connecticut Center for a New Economy (New Haven)
  • Connecticut Health Policy Project (New Haven)
  • End Hunger Connecticut (Hartford)
  • Fair Haven Community Health Center (New Haven)
  • Families United for Children’s Mental Health (Colchester)
  • Generations Family Health Center (Willimantic)
  • Ledge Light Health District (Groton)
  • United Community and Family Services (Norwich)
    
• ChildSight® Connecticut (New Haven), a program that provides vision care to Connecticut’s vulnerable populations, received a one-year $30,000 general support grant.
• Connecticut Voices for Children (Statewide) was awarded $463,635 over three years to support its health-related research and dissemination efforts.
• Foundation for Connecticut Women, Inc. (Hartford) received a $7,000 award to design a publication, A Guide to Women’s Health Rights in Connecticut.
• Human Services Council (Norwalk), a human services planning agency, was awarded a $10,000 grant to update its Community Indicators Report.
• One Connecticut (Statewide) received a $7,500 award to support general operations.
• The Watershed Partnership (Guilford) was awarded a $5,000 grant to support “The Partnership Safe Grounds Campaign” whose goal is to stop exposure to lawn pesticides and products in Connecticut in an effort to decrease morbidity and mortality associated with these chemicals.
• Witness Project of Connecticut, Inc. (Bridgeport) was awarded a $15,000 grant to support general operating expenses, which will be used to address education and early detection of breast and cervical cancer among low-income and uninsured women.

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 348 grants in 43 cities and towns totaling over $28.2 million primarily in three priority areas – children’s mental health, 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.