Friday, February 01, 2008
Foundation Boosts Support for Health Reform Across South
Author: Elaine Shannon
The Public Welfare Foundation has launched a $4.9 million initiative to build support for broad-scale health reform across the South.
As one of the nation’s leading grantmakers in state-level health reform, the Foundation’s Health Reform Program for 2008 centers on building the capacity of health advocates in parts of the South where increasing numbers of people have no health insurance, due to poverty, racial and ethnic disparities and premium costs that are rising beyond the reach of small business employers. The initiative builds on the Foundation’s work over the past 15 years to nurture organizations representing the consumer voice in health policy.
In 2008, as other foundations are ramping up their funding of advocacy for health coverage in some states, the Public Welfare Foundation is shifting a major part of its focus to Southern states where the challenges to systemic change are formidable and few other foundations are currently engaged.
At its Feb. 1 meeting, the Board of Directors of the Public Welfare Foundation approved health reform grants to 17 organizations in those states. In a departure from the practice of previous years, when many grants were for one year, the Foundation committed those grants for two or three year terms, as a means of helping grantees expand their staffs and formulate longer-range strategies.
The awards, by state, are:
Alabama:
• Arise Citizens’ Policy Project, Montgomery, Ala., $600,000 over three years
• Alabama Appleseed Center for Law and Justice, Montgomery, Ala., $225,000 over three years
Florida
• Florida Community Health Action Information Network (CHAIN), Hollywood, Fla., $360,000 over two years
• Florida ACORN, Miami, Fla., $140,000 over two years
• Human Services Coalition of Dade County, Miami, Fla., $150,000 over two years
Georgia
• Georgia Budget and Policy Institute, Atlanta, Ga., $200,000 over two years
Kentucky
• Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky, Louisville, Ky., $500,000 over two years
Mississippi
• Mississippi Health Advocacy Program, Jackson, Miss., $300,000 over two years
• Mississippi Center for Justice, Jackson, Miss., $200,000 over two years
North Carolina
• North Carolina Justice Center, Raleigh, N.C., $500,000 over two years
South Carolina
• South Carolina Fair Share Education Fund, Columbia, S.C., $300,000 over two years
• South Carolina Appleseed Legal Justice Center, Columbia, S.C., $200,000 over two years
Tennessee
• Tennessee Health Care Campaign, Nashville, Tenn., $500,000 over two years
Texas
• Center for Public Policy Priorities, Austin, Tex., $200,000 over two years
Virginia
• Virginia Interfaith Center for Public Policy, Richmond, Va., $400,000 over two years
• Virginia Organizing Project, Richmond, Va., $60,000 over two years
• Virginia Poverty Law Center, Charlotte, Va., $60,000 over two years
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