Kaiser Permanente’s Mid-Atlantic region is providing $895,000 in grants to community organizations and non-profits throughout the Mid-Atlantic region in support of community health initiatives. The 15 grants support programs that improve health and well-being throughout the region. The health system, which has more than 770,000 members in the region and 33 medical centers, provides grants each year to organizations that support the environmental and socioeconomic drivers of health in Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia as part of its ongoing commitment to improving community health.
“For more than a decade, Kaiser Permanente has invested to improve health in our communities, with a particular focus on communities that experience inequities and injustice. We know that health is a product of our environments and that access to quality health care must be paired with access to quality of life,” said Celeste James, Kaiser Permanente’s executive director of Community Health for the Mid-Atlantic Region. “The organizations we’ve awarded are working to address socio-economic conditions to drive, not only better health, but life outcomes.”
The COVID-19 pandemic has increased the need for support in 2020. Kaiser Permanente’s 2020 grants in the mid-Atlantic region will support the following organizations and initiatives:
- Wesley Housing Development Corporation of Virginia: Bringing Affordable Housing and Healthcare Access to Bailey’s Crossroads, Va.
- Bailey’s Crossroads Health Access Partnership: Culmore Clinic: Reducing Barriers to Healthcare Access in Bailey’s Crossroads/Culmore, Va.
- Medical Care for Children Partnership Foundation: Comprehensive Health Services for Children in the Bailey’s Crossroads and Culmore Communities
- Liberty’s Promise: Empowering Immigrant Youth in Culmore/Bailey’s Crossroads to Succeed
- The Foundation for Fairfax County Public Schools: Justice High School Health and Medical Sciences Expansion Planning Grant
- Housing Initiative Partnership, Inc.: Purple Line Corridor Outreach & Counseling Initiative
- Windward Fund: Washington Regional Food Funders: Creating a healthier, more equitable, and more sustainable food system
- Family Services Inc.: Improving Mental Health and Resiliency for At-Risk Youth and Families: Thriving Germantown Community HUB
- Central Kenilworth Avenue Revitalization Community Development: Health and wellness activities targeted to the Hispanic community in Greater Riverdale led by native Spanish speaking community organizers.
- Latino Economic Development Corporation of Washington, D.: Purple Line Small Business Resilience Program
- United Way of Central Maryland: The Impact of the Benefits Cliff on Maryland’s ALICE Families
- South Fairfax Regional Business Partnership, Inc.: Bailey’s Crossroads MicroLoan and Technical Assistance Program
- University of Maryland Baltimore Foundation, Inc.: University of Maryland SMHP School Mental Health Expansion at Vivien T. Thomas Project
- Associated Catholic Charities, Inc.: Expanded School Mental Health Program
- IM.E. Organization, Inc.: Community Health Program – Lockerman Bundy
At the core of Kaiser Permanente’s commitment to improving health and well-being is robust support of community and social health initiatives.
This includes strategies to address social factors that impact a person’s total health, such as access to basic nutrition, a place to live, and economic opportunities. Kaiser Permanente focuses its community investments in neighborhoods and ZIP codes where there are significant and preventable barriers to good health. Since its inception 75 years ago, the organization has maintained a deep and abiding commitment to health equity and the elimination of health disparities. Through its integrated care delivery approach as well as its community health focus, Kaiser Permanente is working to identify, address and anticipate individuals’ and communities’ social health needs to positively contribute to total health.
“We are proud to partner with these community organizations in the effort to achieve total health. There are a wide range of individual, local, and societal factors that can affect one’s social health. Physical, mental, and social health are interconnected. If one suffers, it affects the others,” said Kaiser Permanente president for the Mid-Atlantic region, Ruth Williams-Brinkley. “Supporting projects that address these key social factors that impact a person’s health, like having a place to live, access to basic nutrition, economic opportunities and thriving schools – are a critical part of our mission to create communities that are among the healthiest in the nation.”
In June, Kaiser Permanente launched the Mid-Atlantic Community Network through a partnership with Unite Us. The new network provides a comprehensive and free community resource linking social service organizations, health care providers and public agencies in the region to help community members meet their social health needs. The network launched in DC and suburban Maryland in June and will expand to Baltimore and Northern Virginia later this year and in 2021.
About Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America’s leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, Kaiser Permanente has a mission to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We currently serve 12.4 million members in eight states and the District of Columbia. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal Permanente Medical Group physicians, specialists and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the-art care delivery and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education and the support of community health. https://about.kaiserpermanente.org/
