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AstraZeneca HealthCare Foundation Announces $3.6 Million in Grants to Improve Cardiovascular Health in Local Communities
Posted February 21, 2012
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WILMINGTON, Del.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The AstraZeneca HealthCare Foundation program, Connections for Cardiovascular HealthSM, today announced grants totaling more than $3.6 million to 20 US-based nonprofit organizations dedicated to improving cardiovascular health in local communities.
Connections for Cardiovascular Health was launched in 2010 through a charitable contribution of $25 million from AstraZeneca. The program awards grants of $150,000 and up to US-based non-profit organizations that are doing innovative work in the field of cardiovascular health.
"We must work to decrease the risk of and prevent cardiovascular disease in the United States, by providing resources to those in need," said James W. Blasetto, M.D., MPH, chairman of the AstraZeneca HealthCare Foundation. "These grant recipients are providing an innovative program to improve cardiovascular health in communities across the country."
The Connections for Cardiovascular Health grant recipients are:
Allegiance Health Foundation in Jackson, Mich.: The Health Improvement Organization/Community Hearts Project is designed to reduce cardiovascular risk factors of low-income, underinsured adults through integrating a health management component into the Project Access system of donated care for uninsured workers in Jackson County.
Cary Medical Center in Caribou, Maine: Healthy Hearts-Healthy Community is designed to encourage healthy life-style choices in rural northern Maine. The program works to improve access to healthcare for low-income families. The program intends to reduce incidence of cardiovascular-related morbidity, mortality, and cost burden and to increase quality of life while creating and promoting the identity of northern Maine as a dedicated model for improved cardiovascular health and disease outcomes.
Center for Black Women's Wellness, Inc. in Atlanta: Healthy Women 4 Healthy Families strives to reduce the incidence of cardiovascular disease and its associated risks among underserved, low-income African-American women who have borderline high levels of cholesterol, have a family history of early heart disease, or who are overweight or obese. The program increases their access to innovative and culturally effective interventions related to nutrition, weight and stress management, thereby improving health outcomes.
Christiana Care Health System in Wilmington, Del.: The Cardiovascular Outreach Prevention Program is targeted toward underserved, low-income African-American teens and adult women. The goal of the program is to engage teens to increase both their knowledge and confidence in their ability to make healthy lifestyle changes, as well as to teach them skills to improve the heart health of their mother or another important adult female in their lives.
Cornerstone Assistance Network in Fort Worth, Texas: Cardio Outreach is geared toward underserved, low-income residents of Tarrant County. The program is designed to include patients from its partner organizations, which will increase capacity and provide sustainable, comprehensive cardiac care to the poor and uninsured.
El Buen Samaritano Episcopal Mission in Austin, Texas: El Corazón de la Familia is targeted toward low-income Latino families and is designed to integrate the various cardiovascular health service components El Buen Samaritano offers into a seamless and comprehensive pathway of family-focused heart healthy activities.
Family Focus in Chicago: Healthy Hearts & Families is designed to decrease the risk of cardiovascular disease in underserved, low-income African-American and Latino families by bridging the gap between existing services and families in need through health education and connections to health care providers.
Flagstaff Medical Center in Flagstaff, Ariz.: Northern Arizona Diabetes-Heart Connection is geared toward underserved, low-income Native Americans, intended to reduce morbidity and mortality rates. The program will strive to improve wellness and overall health by identifying, screening and educating community members at risk for diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Florida Hospital Heartland Medical Center in Sebring, Fla.: Creating Healthier Hearts works to reduce cardiovascular disease in Hardee County by offering free heart health education and cardiac health screenings to all low-income and underserved Hispanic and Latino residents.
Foundation for Community Partnerships in Centreville, Md.: The Partnering for Youth Cardio-Fit Project (PFY) is geared toward rural middle school children and their families. Based on the science supporting cardiovascular health, program participants will learn the value of a personal, lifelong commitment to fitness and nutrition via the PFY After School Program. Participants will benefit from increased physical activity and knowledge of cardiovascular health and from opportunities to monitor and sustain personal wellbeing practices through intense training activities in fitness, nutrition and communications.
Gulf Coast Educators in Pass Christian, Miss.: The goal of the Chronic Disease Management and Prevention Program is to prevent and/or manage chronic diseases associated with obesity and diabetes by promoting healthy lifestyles among uninsured, underserved and highly vulnerable populations living in the Mississippi Gulf Coast counties of Hancock, Harrison, and Jackson.
Mallory Community Health Center in Lexington, Miss.: The Dr. Martha W. Davis Healthy Families Movement Program is designed to reduce the risk of heart disease among low-income, African-American women of childbearing age in Mallory Community Health Center's community. The program will implement a comprehensive cardiovascular wellness program that combines medical, nutritional and fitness counseling with a targeted stress management intervention. The program will also provide an array of enjoyable and engaging community-based opportunities for women to exercise, eat healthy, cultivate social support and lose weight.
Matthew Walker Comprehensive Health Center in Nashville, Tenn.: Dial Down Diabetes is targeted toward African-American and Latino women with a goal of developing a comprehensive community-based program for low-income adults with diagnosed diabetes, undiagnosed diabetes or prediabetes. The program is designed to enable patients to "dial down" the impact that diabetes has in their lives.
Sankofa Community Development Corp. in New Orleans: The goal of the Sankofa HEAL Project is to teach African-American youth and their families about the health benefits of eating fresh fruits and vegetables. The project is also designed to raise awareness about risks associated with being overweight and obese, or for associated health conditions, including hypertension, cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.
St. Mary's Health Wagon in Clintwood, Va.: The Health Wagon is designed to reduce cardiovascular health disparities, targeting adults who are uninsured and underinsured with limited access to health care in the Appalachian Mountains of southwest Virginia. The program will focus on early detection, prevention, education and improving access to best practices and protocols through e-health initiatives.
Sustainable Food Center in Austin, Texas: Sprouting Healthy Kids/Cultivating Healthy Communities is designed to assist low-income African-American and Hispanic community members. The program intends to promote cardiovascular health, sustainable foods, healthy nutrition and the prevention of obesity in children and families living in economically disadvantaged neighborhoods. The residents of these neighborhoods lack access to affordable, healthy foods and nutrition literacy.
The University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor, Mich.: Project Healthy Schools (PHS) expansion efforts are geared toward serving low-income, underserved African-American and other minority middle school students in Detroit. PHS is designed to improve the health of adolescents at a critical point by encouraging lifelong health behaviors in a school-based program that will support healthy children and families.
Visión y Compromiso in El Cerrito, Calif.: Healthy Families, Healthy Hearts uses the Salsa, Sabor y Salud research-based curriculum developed by the National Latino Children's Institute to improve awareness of heart healthy habits leading to better nutrition, increased physical activity, and reduced stress for low-income, underserved Latino families in the Los Angeles, San Bernardino, and Riverside counties.
West Virginia Healthright in Charleston, W. Va.: Pathways to Cardiovascular Health is designed to improve the health of 500 impoverished uninsured patients through clinical intervention. The majority of the clinic's impoverished, uninsured patients have one or more cardiovascular high risk factors.
Whittier Street Health Center in Roxbury, Mass.: The Cardiovascular Community Health Ambassador will improve access to cardiovascular education, screenings and care through community based interventions to address disparities in cardiovascular disease outcomes among African-American and Latino residents of Boston.
Organizations can learn more and apply online for a Foundation grant at www.astrazeneca-us.com/foundation. Applications must be submitted online no later than March 15, 5 p.m. ET.
About the AstraZeneca HealthCare Foundation
Established in 1993, the AstraZeneca HealthCare Foundation is a Delaware not-for-profit corporation and a 501(c)(3) entity organized for charitable purposes including to promote public awareness of healthcare issues, to promote public education of medical knowledge and to support or contribute to charitable and qualified exempt organizations consistent with its charitable purpose.
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