| The Wellmark Foundation seeks
projects that are grounded in community and build on collaborations
to address underserved populations.
Descriptions of grant projects funded by the Foundation prior
to 2006 can be found in the Foundation annual
reports. You can also find more detailed project information
under grant
outcomes and highlights of successful grants under replication
strategies.
2009 Grant Award Summary
In 2009, The Wellmark Foundation made new grant commitments to Iowa and South Dakota nonprofit and governmental organizations totaling $1,697,580 through 21 new grant awards. Brief descriptions of the projects are listed below and are arranged by state and priority area of focus.
IOWA AWARDS BY
PRIORITY AREA
The Wellmark Foundation funded 15 grants in Iowa totaling $1,154,855 through its 2009 funding awards. Brief descriptions of the projects are included below and arranged by priority area of focus.
Childhood
Obesity Prevention
-
The Burgess Foundation in Onawa received a $93,558 grant to implement a childhood obesity prevention project in Monona County. The project will promote lifelong physical activity and healthy habits among children through community capacity-building, policy, youth programming, and family programming. Plans include working with the school board to approve new policies, training volunteer staff to supervise before and after school use of fitness equipment, and implementing family activities including mini-health fairs and family fun nights.
-
Buchanan County Health Trust in Independence received a one-year $23,126 grant to promote healthy lifestyles among preschool children in efforts to reduce the growing childhood obesity rate in the county. SPARK – Igniting Health in Kids will educate four-year old preschoolers and their adult role models to develop the knowledge and skills to adopt healthy habits for life. The program will include weekly classroom nutrition and physical activity sessions, as well as free events for children and families. Preschool staff, teachers and parents will be involved in the program, which will be piloted in six classrooms across the county.
-
The Cerro Gordo County Department of Public Health in Mason City received a two-year $49,688 grant to implement a national evidence-based program designed to increase physical activity and enhance gross motor skill development among preschoolers. Animal Trackers, which incorporates movement of animals into daily classroom-based activities combined with home activities, will target 120 four-year olds in three preschools. The program will strive to prevent childhood overweight and obesity by increasing structured physical activity in preschool classrooms by 10 minutes a day and increasing unstructured activity outside classrooms by 10 minutes per day.
-
Clinton Community School District was awarded a two-year $52,060 grant to support a program designed to reduce the rates of overweight and obese elementary school-aged children in the Clinton community. Step Up: Citizens for Community Health, which educates children and families about factors that contribute to childhood obesity and promotes lifestyle changes, will be implemented in partnership with Clinton Community Healthy Lifestyles Coalition. Step Up will develop before- and after-school physical fitness and nutrition education programs, family activities throughout the year, and marketing materials for use in the community.
-
The Iowa Department of Education in Des Moines will use a two-year $144,400 grant to support Iowa schools implementing nutrition standards for foods and beverages sold on school grounds, which are currently being adopted by the Iowa State Board of Education. Building on the Healthy Kids Act Opportunity will strive to foster healthier nutrition and physical activity environments for youth, and establishment of healthier habits. The project will provide resources and guidance to assist schools in advancing this policy, and will engage parents, students, school staff and the community in necessary wellness conversations and activities.
-
The Lee County Health Department in Fort Madison received a one-year $24,978 grant to expand the use of a national evidence-based child obesity prevention program in Lee County. CATCH (Coordinated Approach to Child Health), promotes physical activity and healthy food choices, and prevents tobacco use in elementary school-aged children. The Department successfully piloted CATCH in the Central Lee School District through a previous grant. This phase of the project will target an additional 850 students in kindergarten through fifth grade at four schools in the Keokuk Community School District.
-
Pathfinders Resource Conservation and Development (RC&D), Inc. in Fairfield will use a two-year $91,808 grant to establish fresh food school lunch programs in schools using locally sourced fruits, vegetables and other products. The program will target students in kindergarten through twelfth grade in six southeastern Iowa counties. Fresh Food for Healthy Habits will work to increase fresh fruits in school lunch programs, help youth develop healthy eating habits, and reverse choices away from highly processed foods that can lead to childhood obesity and other diseases. School staff, local food producers and the Hometown Harvest Leadership team will be involved in the program.
-
Iowa State University Extension – Union County in Creston was awarded a one-year $7,842 grant to support a marketing project designed to increase awareness of healthy food choices among young children and their families. The project will be implemented through the Union County Nutrition Coalition and will target families using in-home day care providers served by the Child and Adult Care Food Program. The primary strategy will be distribution of information materials, including a magnetic calendar/stickers, grocery shopping lists and rush hour meal ideas. Day care providers will be instrumental in promoting healthy nutrition and increasing the variety of fruits and vegetables served.
-
University of Northern Iowa Foundation in Cedar Falls received a two-year $95,000 grant to implement healthy school lunch programs in three northeast Iowa public school systems. Healthier School Meals Through Strong Farm-School Connections will work to develop reliable supply lines for school food service staff to easily utilize locally grown healthy foods. Additional strategies will include convening a working group of stakeholders; offering mini-grants to participating schools; marketing healthy nutrition to students, parents and staff; and integrating food awareness into curriculum through school gardens, farm visits and visiting chefs/farmers.
Community-Based
Wellness and Prevention
-
The Iowa Department of Public Health (IDPH) was awarded a 22-month $150,000 grant to create a statewide health data warehouse. The warehouse will collect, organize and disseminate important health information from multiple sources across Iowa. A 2007 capacity-building grant from the Foundation supported establishment of a user-group as part of the research phase in the warehouse development plan. The warehouse will provide local public health partners and other stakeholders with online, interactive access to health data, which they will use to conduct evidence-based needs assessments and to identify health priorities and prevention targets in their communities.
-
Black Hawk County Health Department in Waterloo, Iowa received a two-year $112,375 grant to implement a wellness program for older adults focusing on fall prevention. Fall Prevention in Older Adults will implement a coordinated program to prevent falls and related injuries, and to improve overall wellness among adults 60 years and older. The innovative approach utilizes balance assessment, fall risk stratification, consumer education and referral, and an evidence-based fall prevention model, A Matter of Balance.
The Des Moines Area Religious Council (DMARC) received a one-year $25,000 grant to create an interactive resource and mapping tool to improve the health of low-income families in the Des Moines community. Mapping an End to Hunger in Greater Des Moines (Phase I) will create an electronically-accessible food security map of the community designed to reduce hunger and improve the health of low-income families through enhanced access to nutritional and affordable food. -
The Iowa Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics will use a two-year $23,511 grant to promote childhood literacy through expanding the Reach Out and Read (ROR) Program in Iowa. Early Literacy through Reach Out and Read in Family Medicine Residency Programs, which will continue ROR work funded through a previous Wellmark Foundation mini-grant in 2008, will establish ROR programs in Iowa’s nine Family Medicine Residency Programs (FMRPs).
-
The Iowa Department on Aging was awarded a two-year $144,744 grant to expand a disease self-management program designed to improve the health of older adults in the state. Iowa Healthy Links/Wellmark Foundation Initiative will expand the successful Iowa Healthy Links’ evidence-based Chronic Disease Self-Management Program (CDSMP) primarily designed for Iowans 55 years and older into 19 mostly rural Iowa counties.
-
Van Buren County in Keosauqua, Iowa will use a two-year, $116,765 grant to implement a leadership development program designed to support and strengthen a county-wide wellness program. Creating Lasting Wellness Through Leadership will focus on development of well-trained local volunteer leaders who can help recruit, motivate and retain participants in the local Healthy Villages program and other wellness initiatives in the county.
SOUTH DAKOTA AWARDS
BY PRIORITY AREA
The Wellmark Foundation funded six (6) grants in South Dakota totaling $542,725 through its 2009 funding awards. Brief descriptions of the projects are included below and arranged by priority area of focus.
Childhood
Obesity Prevention
-
Youth & Family Services, Inc. (YFS) in Rapid City, S.D., received a $150,000 grant to implement and expand a childhood obesity prevention program targeting 2,000 children in western South Dakota. The project will utilize the evidence-based childhood obesity prevention approach, I Am Moving, I am Learning, which has been used effectively in more than 100 Head Start programs nationally since 2006.
-
The Education Resource Center of South Dakota in Sioux Falls, S.D, received a one-year $21,087 grant to implement KidZ Health Club, a multiple media project designed to teach healthy habits to children in kindergarten through third grade. Project elements will be incorporated into existing classroom curriculum areas of math, science and language, and will include lesson plans, materials, games and activities. The project, which will partner with the successful South Dakota Health EDventure Program, will reach 4,000 students in 200 classrooms throughout the state.
-
South Dakota State University in Brookings, S.D., will use a two-year $146,638 grant to implement Bountiful Backpacks, an obesity prevention project targeting elementary students living on the Rosebud Reservation in South Dakota. The project will provide food and education to elementary children in extremely low-income families. Activities will include distribution of healthy grocery items through the backpacks each Friday during the school year to address nutrition and food security issues, and interactive nutrition and cooking lessons to increase children’s awareness of healthy eating habits and food preparation skills.
Community-Based
Wellness and Prevention
-
The Community HealthCare Association of the Dakotas (CHAD) in Sioux Falls, S.D., received a $150,000 grant to implement a preventive oral health program. The program will target 600 individuals by hosting the Delta Dental’s Dakota Smiles mobile dental program at 24 clinics in three underserved Community Health Center (CHC) service areas. Services provided will include oral health education to patients, outreach activities in the communities, tobacco cessation counseling and training CHC clinical staff on basic oral health techniques.
-
Catholic Social Services in Rapid City, S.D., will use a $50,000 grant to support a wellness and prevention curriculum for elementary students living on the Pine Ridge and Rosebud Reservations in South Dakota. The culturally specific curriculum will teach 800-1000 elementary students how to live a healthy lifestyle based on their Lakota tradition. The program will also offer knowledge and resources on how to resist peer pressure, abstain from substance abuse and avoid violence. This Wellmark Foundation grant will provide matching funds to leverage a four-year, $330,284 Local Funding Partnerships grant from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and a three-year, $210,213 grant from The Bush Foundation supporting this program.
-
South Dakota State University in Brookings, S.D. was awarded a one-year, $25,000 grant to implement a community-wide health planning program. Brookings County Strides to a Healthier Community will implement a program developed in 2005 by the South Dakota Department of Health, which provides a framework for working with communities to positively impact health. The project will conduct a community-wide health assessment in Brookings County in order to increase health and wellness in the community.
|
