January 2019 Newsletter
Local Foundations Partner to Fund West Suburban Community Health Workers
Community Memorial Foundation and Healthy Communities Foundation have jointly invested $535,000 in a pilot program to engage a community health worker network in the Western Suburbs. Community Health Workers, or CHWs, are frontline public health workers with established, trusted relationships within their communities. These relationships enable the workers to serve as liaisons between community members and local health and social service providers, with the goal of facilitating access to services, and improving the quality and cultural competence of service delivery.1
Funding will be used to support community health workers at the following nonprofit organizations: Aging Care Connections, Alivio Medical Center, BEDS Plus, Healthcare Alternative Systems, and Mujeres Latinas en Acción. Community Health Workers at these organizations will connect west suburban residents to a diverse range of services, including adult and family health care, homelessness prevention, behavioral health care, and crisis prevention. Three of the five organizations also provide bilingual/bicultural services (Spanish). The program will be coordinated by Health and Medicine Policy Research Group, a seasoned organization who led the adoption of Illinois’ first CHW legislation. It will be evaluated by the Chicago-based Sinai Urban Health Institute.
1 “Community Health Workers.” AMERICAN PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATION, www.apha.org/apha-communities/member-sections/community-health-workers.
2019 Spring Grant Cycle is Now Open
The Foundation is currently accepting letters of intent and applications for our spring 2019 grant cycle.
As a reminder, organizations must submit a letter of intent (LOI) if any of the following apply:
- The organization has never received a program or general operating grant from Community Memorial Foundation
- The organization has not received a program or general operating grant from Community Memorial Foundation in the past three years
- The organization intends to request more than $25,000 from the Foundation
Requests that do not meet the above criteria are not required to submit a letter of intent and may simply complete an online application.
Spring Cycle Letters of Intent must be completed online before 5:00pm CST on February 15, 2019.
Spring Grant Applications are due by 5:00pm CST on March 15, 2019.
Click here for more information on how to apply, or to begin an online application or letter of intent.
New Funding Priority
In 2019, the Foundation will continue to focus on our previous funding priorities, but have also added a new priority for programs that “enhance and expand knowledge of, and connection to, existing local resources”, thereby yielding more access to coordinated care. Please click here to review the Foundation’s 2019 Funding Priorities in entirety.
Present your work at APHA 2019
Looking to explore and share best practices in public health funding? The American Public Health Association‘s (APHA) Public Health Funder Network is seeking abstracts for sessions at APHA’s 2019 annual meeting.
The call for session abstracts is open now through February 22, 2019, and you can find the full instructions here.