The Highmark Foundation has released its 2016 annual giving report: Getting Health Right: Now and for the Future. The report details the impact of the nearly $3 million in funding in 2016 to support initiatives that educate and improve the overall well-being of the communities served by Highmark Inc. and its subsidiaries and affiliates in Pennsylvania and West Virginia.
“In 2016, we strengthened our mission by funding strategic and evidence-based initiatives that focused on some of the most critical public health concerns facing our communities,” said Highmark Foundation President Yvonne Cook. “By awarding high-impact grants to charitable organizations, hospitals and schools that advance community health, our grantmaking supported organizations that serve those most in need.”
Highlights from the report:
- To help build capacity and infrastructure, improve cultural competency and advance quality improvement, the Highmark Foundation awarded $412,450 in grants to health departments in Allegheny, Erie, Lehigh, Luzerne, Northampton and York Counties.
- Recognizing community organizations’ roles in meeting the population’s health needs, three community development corporations (CDCs) in Western Pennsylvania each received $25,000 planning grants from the Highmark Foundation to improve the overall health in their respective communities.
- Through its partnership with axial Healthcare, the Highmark Foundation hosted a forum that convened key community stakeholders to discuss potential solutions and best practices to address the opioid epidemic in West Virginia.
- Mission of Mercy received a $30,000 grant from the Highmark Foundation to strengthen its efforts to reach uninsured and underinsured urban and rural residents in Gettysburg and Harrisburg, Pa. through its mobile health care program.
- The Highmark Foundation awarded more than $450,000 in grants to improve health outcomes for children in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, including access to the HPV vaccine, healthy school environment grants, school-based preventive health screenings, grants to school nurses and supportive grants to underserved schools to meet students’ health needs.
The full report is available online at: www.highmarkfoundation.org/pdf/publications/2016annualgivingeport.pdf.
