(DENVER) -- The Caring for Colorado Foundation is awarding $2.3 million in its second round of grants this year to support health and health care access in communities across Colorado. All of these grant dollars are being used to provide or increase direct health services to Coloradans.  “With this grant round, we have expanded capacity and access to medical services in rural communities, increased mental and oral health services and continued to preserve and enhance the health care safety net for some of Colorado’s most vulnerable populations,” said Caring for Colorado President and CEO Chris Wiant. 

Among the grantees are safety net providers ensuring that mothers have prenatal care and delivery services when they otherwise may not (Denver’s Clinica Tepeyac) and those providing high quality, comprehensive dental care to children in need (KIND). Grants are also going to agencies that help refugees access the health care system (African Community Center and Colorado Asian Health Education and Promotion). Finally, four Federally-Qualified Health Centers, some serving Colorado’s more rural areas, are also among the grantees. (Plains Medical Center in Limon, Valley-Wide Health Systems in Alamosa, Mountain Family Health Centers in Rifle and Pueblo Community Health Center in Pueblo.)  “This intricate safety net of providers is critical to Colorado’s overall picture of health, and we must continue to support their existence through awareness and funding,” Wiant said.

Grants to 41 non profit and government agencies are detailed by counties or areas served below.

Caring for Colorado Grants-July 2009

Adams County

African Community Center $38,139: Serving Adams, Arapahoe and Jefferson counties. This Caring for Colorado grant will provide a health coordinator that will serve 500 refugees. Health coordinators help refugees establish medical homes, access medical transportation services and enroll in health insurance programs as appropriate. Refugees serviced through this agency come from 20 different countries including Sudan, Burma, Burundi, Congo, Ethiopia, Iran, Russia and Somalia and have settled in the Denver-metro area.

Assistance League of Denver $5,000: Serving Adams, Arapahoe, Denver, Douglas and Jefferson counties. This CFC grant will support the Hospital Equipment Lending Program (H.E.L.P.), of the Assistance League of Denver.  Doctors, nurses, social workers and hospitals refer clients to H.E.L.P. to get their needed durable medical equipment because they have no insurance or a limited insurance policy.  H.E.L.P. lends hospital equipment when there is no other source.  During the last fiscal year, 3,898 pieces of equipment were loaned to over 1,000 clients.

 

Health S.E.T. $40,000: Serving Adams, Denver and Jefferson counties. Health S.E.T. (Service, Empowerment, Transformation) provides free health care, social services and vision support services to low-income senior citizens residing in Denver subsidized senior high-rises to help them to live independent, healthy lives.  This grant will support the Health Promotion Clinics for seniors. The clinics are held each month in 18 subsidized senior high-rise buildings in the Metro area, and provide free health services to seniors. 

Karis Community $10,000: Serving Adams, Arapahoe, Denver, Douglas and Jefferson counties. Karis Community is a residential program serving severely mentally ill adults in the Denver area. Karis provides a home for people as they transition into work, and eventually independent living. This grant supports the clinical staff needed to provide individual and group therapy for Karis residents. 

Seniors’ Resource Center $35,000: Serving Adams, Arapahoe, Denver and Jefferson counties. The Seniors’ Resource Center is a non-profit agency serving older adults and their families in the Denver Metro area and surrounding mountain communities. This CFC grant focuses on providing transportation to medical services. The grant leverages a matching federal grant to expand the agency’s capacity to provide new rides and helps purchase three, new energy efficient vehicles. Last year, SRC provided 141,676 one-way rides for seniors.

Arapahoe County

African Community Center $38,139 (See Adams County) 

Assistance League of Denver $5,000 (See Adams County) 

Karis Community $10,000 (See Adams County) 

Kids in Need of Dentistry $33,667: Kids in Need of Dentistry (KIND) provides high quality, comprehensive dental care to children in need.  KIND runs school-based dental sealant programs, stationary safety net dental clinics and a mobile dental program called Miles for Smiles.  With this grant, Miles for Smiles will provide comprehensive dental care to children seen at Doctor’s Care, a safety net medical clinic located in Littleton.

Seniors’ Resource Center $35,000 (See Adams County)  

Archuleta County

Colorado Prevention Center $40,000:  This CFC grant will help implement a cardiovascular disease prevention program called Heart Healthy Solutions. Approximately 800 people will be screened for cardio-vascular disease risk, and 400 at-risk individuals will be offered case management and health care services provided by doctors at Pagosa Mountain Hospital. The program is part of a statewide effort to screen up to 50,000 Coloradans and prevent up to 1,200 heart attacks and strokes in the state.

Boulder County

Boulder County Community Services $49,733: A grant to the Boulder County Healthy Kids program is designed to help increase access to health care for children eligible for Medicaid and CHP+. The project will work to enroll more than 1,200 eligible Boulder County children, parents and pregnant women in public insurance programs and will connect each with a regular source of health care.

Boulder County RSVP $20,000: Serving Boulder, Gilpin and Weld counties. Caring for Colorado funds support the Medical Mobility program and a mobility coordinator. With the help of volunteer-escorted rides, the program offers rides to clients who contact the program.  Volunteers stay with the clients at the healthcare facility and returns them safely home again. With this grant, at least 5,000 medical rides will be provided for at least 800 (unduplicated) clients.      

Boulder Valley Women’s Health Center $20,000: Serving Boulder and Broomfield counties. This grant will support Boulder Valley Women’s Health Center’s subsidized programs to ensure services stay accessible to low-income and uninsured women and teens in Boulder and Broomfield counties. With this funding, more than 5,000 patients will receive comprehensive reproductive health care services.

Broomfield County

Boulder Valley Women’s Health Center $20,000 (See Boulder County) 

Chaffee County

Chaffee County Health and Human Services. $100,000: This grant will support the renovation of the old Salida Hospital building as part of a joint project between the City of Salida and Chaffee County to create the Community Services Complex. The project will address the community’s need for coordinating services by co-locating health and human services agencies, and thereby promoting better outcomes for patients.

 Denver Metro

Clinica Tepeyac $50,000 over two years: Clinica Tepeyac is a community based safety net healthcare provider for uninsured low-income, primarily Latino people in the Denver metropolitan area. This CFC grant supports the clinic’s Prenatal Care Program through which Clinica collaborates with the Exempla Certified Nurse Midwives and St. Joseph’s Hospital. Bi-lingual nurse midwives provide care at Clinica through one-on-one patient visits and group education programs. The grant will help provide prenatal care and deliveries for 300 women, most of whom would not otherwise receive adequate prenatal care.

Colorado Asian Health Education and Promotion (CAHEP) $60,000: This grant supports a new community clinic through which the Colorado Asian Health Education and Promotion program provides some clinical services and patient navigation into the broader health care system. The grant helps to provide thousands of health screenings and supports bilingual patient navigators and medical consultants to provide culturally and linguistically competent patient navigation services. CAHEP serves Asian Pacific Americans of all ages living in the Denver area, El Paso and Larimer counties, including members of the Asian-Indian, Korean, Thai, Filipino, Chinese, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Burmese, Lao, Japanese, Bhutanese, Pacific Islander, Nepalese and Hmong families. 

Denver Children’s Home $25,000: This grant will support an intensive in-home therapy program for children with severe and persistent mental health problems. The Denver Children’s Home’s other services include residential services, day treatment, and an on-site school for children unable to be in a regular classroom setting due to their emotional needs.

Emily Griffith Foundation $26,356: This grant will help provide classroom medical equipment for the Health Occupations Licensing and Certificate programs at the Emily Griffith Opportunity School including training for Home Health Aides, Certified Nursing Assistants and Licensed Practical Nurses. Currently, 900 students enroll annually in one or more of the eight Health Occupations licensing and certificate programs at the school. The Emily Griffith Foundation, Inc. was established in 1990 to provide financial support to Emily Griffith Opportunity School.  

Health S.E.T. $40,000 (See Adams County) Serving Adams, Denver and Jefferson counties.

Karis Community $10,000: (See Adams County)

MDS Counseling Center $40,000: This Caring for Colorado grant will help fund the Options Program at the MDS Counseling Center that expands access to mental health care for low-income, uninsured, working-poor individuals and families.  The Options Program serves people who are not being served by the public mental health care system and who lack adequate health insurance or the financial resources necessary to access services through the private sector. Last year, the Options Program provided counseling to nearly 600 low-income, uninsured individuals and families. 

Mental Health America of Colorado $96,896: Mental Health America of Colorado (MHAC) is working in conjunction with area hospitals and funders on the Triage Project, a 24/7 community-based system of crisis intervention services in which people experiencing health and/or substance abuse crisis can be safely and effectively stabilized and linked to follow-up care and services. The Triage Project will include a Metro Crisis Call Center projected to handle more than 100,000 calls annually, three Metro Crisis Centers for urgent psychiatric care projected to serve more than 17,000 clients annually and a Metro Crisis Services Shared Health Information Technology System that will have the capacity to exchange health records among seven-county regional healthcare providers.

Mount Saint Vincent Home $25,000: This grant will fund therapeutic services at Mount Saint Vincent Home (MSV), a residential and day treatment center for children who have severe mental health and psychiatric needs.  Many of the children treated at MSV have experienced severe trauma or abuse and have serious psychiatric illnesses. MSV employs a new therapeutic approach that addresses how trauma affects the brain and provides individualized treatments that attempt to re-pattern the way a child experiences and deals with stress. 

Regis University $62,000: This CFC grant will help equip the Regis Pharmacy Teaching Lab for the clinical doctorate pharmacy program. The lab will provide a relevant environment in which faculty prepare students in two critical areas.  First, the lab is where students practice and refine their ability to compound prescriptions.  Second, pharmacy students will learn to properly dispense medications and practice how to counsel patients about their therapy.  Fifty students will be enrolled in the first class to use this lab in the fall of 2009.

Seniors’ Resource Center $35,000 (see Adams County) 

Women’s Lighthouse Project $20,000: The Women’s Lighthouse Project (WLP) was created to respond to the disparity in health access for women living with HIV/AIDS. This CFC grant funds a program called the Client Treatment Advocacy Project which helps women living with HIV/AIDS access health care and other support services.  Each client receives assistance from a client advocate to help her navigate the health care system. Women participating in the program consistently demonstrate improved health outcomes. 

 Dolores County

Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains (PPRM) $50,000 (see Montezuma County) 

Douglas County

Assistance League of Denver $5,000 (see Adams County)

Karis Community $10,000 (see Adams County) 

El Paso County

Centro de la Familia $43,000: Centro de la Familia is the only organization in El Paso County that offers culturally appropriate mental health services for mono-lingual Spanish speaking and Native-American populations.  CFC funds will support a bilingual mental health therapist for a program that provides counseling for more than 300 clients.

CU Aging Center $50,000: This CFC grant supports the CU Aging Center’s collaborative work with Peak Vista Community Health Center for integrated mental health and primary health care for senior citizens within Peak Vista’s health care system. Approximately 700 patients will benefit from this integrated model. 

Fremont County

Valley Health Center at Coaldale $55,000: Serving Fremont County and eastern parts of Chaffee County. The Valley Health Center at Coaldale, with its single exam room and over crowded office space is the local health provider serving Coaldale, Howard and Cotopaxi; the only such provider for thirty miles in either direction. This grant will help to fund the purchase of property and a facility in Cotopaxi, and help expand a rural health clinic for an isolated and large geographic region.

 Gilpin County

(See Boulder County RSVP $20,000)   

Gunnison County

Gunnison County Health and Human Services, Multicultural Resource Office $49,088: Serving Gunnison and Hinsdale counties. The Multicultural Resource Office (MCRO) was developed in response to cultural shifts in the community and the community’s challenges in providing access to health and human services for low income and minority populations. This CFC grant will support a fulltime bilingual health navigator position within MCRO to assist poor, uninsured and underinsured Spanish speaking individuals and families with access to healthcare by reducing cultural and linguistic barriers. 

Hinsdale County

Gunnison County Health and Human Services, Multicultural Resource Office $49,088: (See Gunnison County)

Huerfano County

La Veta Fire Protection District-EMS Huerfano County $57,500: This grant will help purchase a new four-wheel drive Advanced Life Support ambulance for The La Veta Fire Protection District. The District provides approximately 100 emergency transports per year for the towns of La Veta and Cuchara and the surrounding 225 square miles of its rural service area. Currently, the District has one 17 year-old ambulance.

 Jefferson County

African Community Center $38,139: (See Adams County) 

Assistance League of Denver $5,000: (See Adams County) 

Carin’ Clinic $31,000: This grant will help support a nurse practitioner at the Carin’ Clinic, designed to provide affordable, high-quality health care services to children between birth and 19 years of age for low-income families who have no access or limited access to health care. The Clinic is located within Arvada Middle School, and it will provide 1,436 patient visits during the grant year.

Health S.E.T. $40,000: (See Adams County) 

Karis Community $10,000: (See Adams County) 

Mountain Resource Center, $17,000: Serving Jefferson and Park counties.The Mountain Resource Center (MRC) has been the single point of entry for a comprehensive array of health and human services for 16 years. This grant will partially support a full-time health care case management position to help families gain access to regular medical and oral health care, and develop a schedule for consistent preventive care, nutrition education, and other health care and human services their children need.  Instead of waiting until a medical crisis forces an emergency room visit to Lakewood or Denver, families can gain the confidence of knowing their children can have a medical home in their own community.  With CFC funding, 300 children representing 200 families will be provided case management services.   

Seniors’ Resource Center $35,000: (See Adams County) 

La Plata County

Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains (PPRM) $50,000: (See Montezuma County) 

Larimer County

Women’s Resource Center $25,000: The Women’s Resource Center is dedicated to increasing access to health care for low-income, medically underserved women through outreach, education, connection to care and advocacy in Larimer County.  This grant will help support the Health Assistance Care Program which reduces barriers and improves access to women’s health care and cancer care through patient navigation and connection to low-cost health care services. 

 Mesa County

Child and Migrant Services $23,000: This grant will support Programa Promoviendo Buena Salud, a program that uses lay health educators to work with migrant and seasonal farm workers and their families in Mesa County. The lay educators also connect their clients with primary, oral and mental health care at Marillac Clinic, as well as to transportation services for treatment and area social services.

Hilltop Community Resources $35,000: This grant will provide support for B4 Babies and Beyond, which assists low-income families in Mesa County with accessing primary and preventive health care services.  With this funding, assistance in accessing prenatal care and enrollment in eligible health care coverage programs will be provided for at least 900 low-income women.  The program will also provide medical transportation and translation services for non-English speaking women. 

Hospice & Palliative Care of Western Colorado $40,000: This CFC grant will support the Living with Cancer Program of the Hospice and Palliative Care of Western Colorado (HPCWC). HPCWC is the only comprehensive hospice & palliative care organization serving Mesa, Montrose, Delta and Ouray counties that provides care regardless of ability to pay. The Living with Cancer Program targets cancer patients who are undergoing treatment, but have limited options for support in adapting to their illness. This grant will increase access to palliative care services and care coordination by providing an interdisciplinary team of physicians, nurses and social workers who are certified in hospice and palliative care.  

Mesa State College, Grand Junction $50,000: A grant from CFC will be used to purchase digital x-ray equipment to use in training additional students in Mesa State’s Radiologic Technology Program. The program is a two-year degree program that includes classroom studies and clinical experience. This is the only Radiologic Technology program offered on the western slope of Colorado and is also the only Radiologic Technology program between Denver and Salt Lake City. Twenty students a year are admitted to the program.  This expansion will result in the admission of up to an additional 15 students a year.

Montezuma County

Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains $50,000: Also serving the counties of Dolores, San Juan, San Miguel, and La PlataThis CFC grant for Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains (PPRM) will support women’s health services at the clinic in Cortez. Seventy five percent of the patients seen live at less than 100% of the federal poverty level. Ninety-percent of those served are uninsured.  

Park County

Mountain Resource Center, $17,000: (See Jefferson County) 

Pueblo County

Total Longterm Care/ PACE Program: $100,000: This CFC grant supports the creation of a new “Program of All-Inclusive Care for the Elderly” (PACE) in Pueblo. It will serve elderly clients by offering comprehensive coordinated care to qualifying individuals. Participants’ care needs are coordinated by an inter-disciplinary team, and care is delivered at a single location. This grant helps to purchase and renovate a building to implement the program. Once completed, up to 250 people will be served daily.

Rio Blanco County

Rangely District Hospital $25,000: This CFC grant will help replace aging equipment in the Rangely District Hospital Laboratory. The facility is a 25-bed, Critical Access Hospital and Level IV Trauma Center that provides primary and emergency healthcare services for residents and visitors in Northwestern Colorado. Without the lab services, patients would have to travel 60 miles or more for blood draws and testing services. Of the 12,000 patients served annually, nearly 2,000 at the hospital qualify as underinsured or uninsured patients.

 San Juan County

Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains (PPRM) $50,000: (See Montezuma County) 

San Luis Valley

San Luis Valley Area Health Education Center $48,130: Serving Alamosa, Conejos, Costilla, Mineral, Rio Grande and Saguache counties. One of the health issues in the San Luis Valley is recruitment and retention of medical providers. The San Luis Valley Area Health Education Center (SLV-AHEC) created a pipeline program designed to introduce high school students to health career opportunities. This CFC grant supports the “Grow Your Own” Summer Health Careers Institute through which students from each of the Valley’s 14 school districts are recruited to participate in a year-long program of education, work and clinical experiences in medical and allied health fields. Students will be followed for three years following completion of the program to track their academic and work experiences.

San Miguel County

Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains (PPRM) $50,000 (See Montezuma County)

Weld County

Boulder County RSVP $20,000: See Boulder County

Metro Denver and 19 other counties:

American Diabetes Association – Colorado Area–$30,000: Serving Denver Metro and the following counties: Alamosa, Clear Creek, Eagle, El Paso, Garfield, Lake, La Plata, Larimer, Mesa, Montezuma, Montrose, Ouray, Park, Pueblo, Saguache, San Juan, San Miguel, Summit and Weld. This CFC grant will support Por Tu Familia the evidence-based Latino outreach program of the American Diabetes Association. As part of the program, free cholesterol, blood pressure and CVD screenings are provided to approximately 800 people, and health promotion and disease prevention information is provided to more than 10,000 Latinos.

Statewide

Colorado Commission on Aging $50,000: This CFC grant continues a multi-media initiative called Senior Source, that utilizes television, the internet, call-in lines and on-site seminars to educate Colorado residents about issues and resources for seniors.

Colorado Community Managed Care Network (CCMCN) $50,000: CCMCN is a network of 12 Federally Qualified Health Centers with 63 community health center clinic sites. These health centers provide primary health care services to the medically underserved throughout Colorado. This CFC grant will support an evidence-based pilot project designed to integrate a new substance abuse screening and treatment protocol into community health centers at several clinic sites. Research indicates that even brief interventions from a healthcare provider can reduce both the substance abuse and associated health care utilization.  

Colorado Foundation for Public Health and the Environment $29,160: This grant will support a series of television and radio health education messages and televised news editorials in Spanish that will address key aspects of oral health care. Health education messages will highlight services by local agencies that provide oral health to underserved populations. The messages will be broadcast on Entravision, the state’s largest group of Spanish language television and radio stations 

Colorado Foundation of Dentistry for the Handicapped $25,000: The Colorado Foundation of Dentistry for the Handicapped will use these grant dollars  to support the Donated Dental Service program, which pairs volunteer dentists throughout Colorado with disabled, elderly or medically compromised Coloradans who are unable to afford much-needed dental care. This CFC grant will help support the staff members who serve as liaisons for the program; determining eligibility, finding the volunteer dentists, linking patients to their care and following patients to ensure their needs are met. Through this grant, 450 people will complete their dental treatment plans.

July 9, 2009 Contact: Renee RockfordDirector of CommunicationCaring for Colorado Foundation720-524-0770 OR 1-800-463-7713 

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