Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team
Los Angeles, California
Asian Pacific AIDS Intervention Team/ Special Service for Groups (APAIT/ SSG) was established in 1987 by a group of concerned individuals who noted a lack of culturally-appropriate support and services available to HIV-positive Asians and Pacific Islanders (APIs). APAIT was the first API AIDS Service Organization (ASO) in Los Angeles County and today represents the largest, most comprehensive API ASO in Southern California. The mission of APAIT is to positively affect the quality of life for Asians and Pacific Islanders living with or at-risk of contracting HIV/AIDS by providing a continuum of prevention, health and social services, community leadership, and advocacy to the Southern California region. Funding from the Johnson & Johnson Community Health Care Program will be used to expand APAIT’s Case Management Program by providing one-on-one counseling, treatment adherence, nutritional education, food assistance, prevention for positives, translation services, medical accompaniment, and assistance in obtaining public benefits. Through these services, clients will prevent, reduce or maintain the progression of the disease.
The Florida School of Traditional Midwifery’s Birth Center
Gainesville, Florida
The Birth Center of Gainesville (BCOG), owned by the Florida School of Traditional Midwifery is a health care provider dedicated to improving the lives of the women, infants, and families in the North Central Florida area. By collaborating with other local agencies including the Alachua County Health Department and the United Way sponsored Pleasant Place, the BCOG helps homeless, pregnant and/or parenting teenage mothers and their babies to gain self-sufficiency, develop healthy family practices and break the cycles that often lead to homelessness, dependency, abuse and multiple pregnancies. Funds granted to the BCOG will be used to serve high-risk, low-risk, pregnant, and teenage women in economically depressed areas with educational classes and supportive counseling services. Project Embrace (Education Moms: Believing, Realizing, And Changing Everyday) aims, through a public awareness outreach campaign, to provide solutions to the community’s needs and to inspire change through empowerment and knowledge among its participants.
HEALS, Inc.
Huntsville, Alabama
HEALS (Health Establishments at Local Schools), Inc. was incorporated in October 1998, and was a pioneer in bringing the concept of school-based health clinics to Huntsville and Madison County, Alabama. Free medical care allows students in three clinics to receive check-ups, immunizations, acute care for illness and injury and prescription medications. On-site dental care ensures students receive cleanings, fillings, x-rays and have access to preventative care education. Social services providers work with a goal of enrolling and keeping children on health insurance, while also offering crisis counseling and various services to parents. Additionally, a mental health component provides long-term counseling, substance abuse management and behavioral testing for learning disabilities. With the funding from the Johnson & Johnson Community Health Care Program, HEALS will open its fourth medical clinic, serving children in a declared Health Professional Shortage Area where an estimated 82% of its clientele lack health insurance.
Kennedy Health System
Cherry Hill, New Jersey
Kennedy Memorial Hospitals – University Medical Center (KMH-UMC), established in 1965, has evolved from a single community hospital into an integrated health care delivery system with 614 licensed beds in several locations throughout the state of New Jersey. Despite increased risk for diabetes and its complications, KMH-UMC noticed that African Americans were under-represented in the comprehensive diabetes education programs operated through the organizations’ two diabetes control centers. Consequently, the organization has proposed to extend its diabetes control initiatives by creating the Learn to Live Well program. The overarching goal of the project is to improve the health status and clinical outcomes of African Americans diagnosed with diabetes, or at elevated risk for the disease, through culturally-sensitive education offered at churches. The Community Health Care grant will help to ensure that individuals in the identified population will demonstrate enhanced knowledge of preventative and health-promoting behaviors, improved blood sugar levels, decreased visitation to KMH-UMC’s emergency departments and increased awareness of the need for regular medical visits.
Lennox School District Healthy Start
Lennox, California
The Lennox Healthy Start Community Center (LHSCC) provides over 12,000 direct health services contacts each year to one of California’s most densely populated Hispanic communities. Lennox, a residential and industrial suburb of Los Angeles, is known for having the highest concentration of gang violence, drug-related crime, prostitution and poverty of any LA metro area. Domestic violence is “the number one public safety issue impacting women and children” in this region. Lennox educators are often the first to respond to reports or suspected incidents of domestic violence, but are currently the least prepared to help victims. To address this, the Lennox Healthy Start Community Center proposed to develop a program that would form seven highly trained, school-based, Crisis Intervention Teams to intervene in 200 domestic violence crises annually. The Community Health Care grant will allow LHSSC to train school staff, community members and staff of partner agencies to better identify, respond to and support mothers and children who are victims of domestic violence.
Marion Area Counseling Center, Inc.
Marion, Ohio
The Marion Area Counseling Center (MACC), Inc. is a community behavioral health center providing mental health and substance abuse treatment services to children, adolescents, and adults of Marion County, Ohio. In the 30 years since its inception, MACC has implemented a number of programs geared toward juvenile offenders, including anger management, life skills training, substance abuse support, adolescent sex offender services, and family preservation counseling. An observation of the juvenile justice system in North Central Ohio showed that youths entering correctional facilities were not routinely being screened for mental health problems, yet it was estimated that up to 60% had mental disorders and that up to 1,345 youths in the juvenile justice system in 2003 were in need of mental health, and, in many cases, substance abuse treatment. The Community Health Care grant will help the Marion Area Counseling Center respond to the needs of this significantly underserved population.
Panhandle Area Health Network
Marianna, Florida
The Panhandle Area Health Network (PAHN) provides health care services to five poor and rural counties in Northwest Florida. The organization, with its mission to “increase community member’s access to quality health care,” is especially important in this region where larger towns are an hour to an hour-and-a-half’s drive in any direction. Studies have shown that the counties served by the PAHN report high rates of chronic disease and that the age-related death rates for heart disease and vascular disease for residents of the region are among the highest in Florida. A grant from the Community Health Care program will facilitate the creation of a community outreach campaign with the goals of increasing awareness of the links between heart disease and behavioral risk factors, screening for at-risk individuals, educating to promote behavioral change, connecting indigent patients with affordable pharmacy programs, establishing employer-based Peer Support Groups, and addressing the disparity in heart disease among women and African Americans.
Spanish Catholic Center
Washington, DC
The Spanish Catholic Center (SCC), a faith-based social service agency, assists low-income, uninsured, non-English speaking immigrants in the areas of health, education, employment, immigration and social needs. Hispanics represent the fastest growing minority population in the Washington, DC metropolitan area and heart disease is the leading cause of death among members of this population. A new project named HEART (Hispanic Education and Awareness of Risk for Thrombosis), made possible by a Community Health Care grant, seeks to identify and ultimately reduce the incidence of cardiovascular risk factors among low-income, medically underserved Hispanics in the District of Columbia. Specific objectives include reaching out to low-income Hispanics who do not access preventative health care services; increasing awareness about high risks for cardiovascular disease; expanding health access among members of this minority group; and facilitating the adoption of cardiovascular health-promoting activities among Hispanic adults and children.
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