Highlights Of Successful Grants
 
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Replication Strategies

“There is no need to reinvent the wheel.”

This familiar saying is the basis for replication. Utilizing ideas, strategies, and/or materials in your community that were previously generated and tested in a different community is known as replication. Many Wellmark Foundation grants have resulted in excellent materials and examples that you may find useful when exploring opportunities to improve health in your own community.

Below, you'll find information about projects funded by The Wellmark Foundation and samples of materials developed as part of those projects. If you'd like to know more about a particular project, use the e-mail link next to the grantee organization to e-mail a contact person who can answer your questions. You may also contact Foundation staff for additional information. As the Foundation’s funding priorities change over time, please note the projects highlighted may not meet current Foundation funding guidelines.

Please note that this listing is not inclusive of all projects funded by The Wellmark Foundation. For additional information on specific projects or a comprehensive review of our funding history, please refer to our annual reports.

Childhood Obesity/Nutrition

Childhood obesity prevention is a current funding priority of The Wellmark Foundation.

Grantee Organization: Sioux Falls Area Community Foundation (e-mail)
Project Title: Growing Health Initiative: Growing Healthy Babies
Project Description: The organization developed a refrigerator cling with a healthy infant feeding guide (pdf) to promote appropriate nutrition beginning in infancy to prevent future obesity and risk for type 2 diabetes. This refrigerator cling was distributed to mothers of newborns at area hospitals.

Grantee Organization: Avera Health Foundation (e-mail)
Project Title: Family, Foods and Fitness
Project Description: To encourage healthy food selection and appropriate serving sizes, these colorful placemats (pdf) were created and distributed to local school children in second through fourth grades.

Depression

Grantee Organization: South Dakota Voices for Children (e-mail)
Project Title: South Dakota Children’s Mental Health Initiative
Project Description: The organization developed several resources to improve detection and treatment of depression in children in South Dakota. A Roadmap to Care (pdf) assists families in determining when and how to refer children for mental health services. The online South Dakota Mental Health Directory helps families identify and select clinicians and agencies that offer quality mental health services in South Dakota. To empower parents of children with mental health conditions, a Parent’s Guide to Children’s Mental Health Services in South Dakota (pdf) was developed and distributed to all South Dakota schools and public libraries, and made available online.

Grantee Organization: Higher Plain, Inc. (e-mail)
Project Title: Expansion in Iowa of Beyond Depression: Tools for Collaboration
Project Description: The Beyond Depression toolkits are intended to increase best practice treatment, appropriate help seeking and self-care, and effective family and community support for people with major depression. Unique toolkits were created for three distinct groups of stakeholders:

Primary care providers may also benefit from the handy desk reference (pdf). News releases (pdf) promoted these toolkits.

Diabetes

Grantee Organization: Mercy Foundation – Des Moines (e-mail)
Project Title: Meeting the Need: Depression Management of Persons with Diabetes in Primary Care Utilizing Health Coaches
Project Description: The organization implemented a depression screening protocol for all patients with diabetes in a multi-clinic system. If a positive screening is confirmed by the physician, health coaches help optimize care. All patients with diabetes are asked to participate in the screening through this form (pdf) when checking in for their visit. Care protocols were developed for the:

Health coaches work with patients to develop a depression self-care action plan (pdf) and document their visits on this form (pdf).

Grantee Organization: Iowa Department of Public Health (e-mail)
Project Title: Iowa Diabetes Network: Strategic Planning and Membership Enhancement
Project Description: The Iowa Diabetes Network (IDN) is a collaboration of various health care professionals and other stakeholders interested in improving diabetes care in Iowa through education and information. The Wellmark Foundation provided grant funds to strategically strengthen this organization to fulfill its mission. As part of this effort, the organization created a strategic plan (pdf) and offered educational programming, including an annual meeting (pdf) of network members.

Grantee Organization: Mercy Medical Center Foundation – Sioux City (e-mail)
Project Title: Dual Challenge of Diabetes and Hypertension
Project Description: The organization utilized numerous educational materials to empower patients with co-existent diabetes and hypertension to reduce vascular complications and the risk for diabetes-related complications and death. American Diabetes Association materials utilized included:

  • "Protecting Your Heart by Losing Weight" in English (pdf) and Spanish (pdf)
  • "All About Physical Activity for People with Diabetes" in English (pdf) and Spanish (pdf)
  • "Getting Started with Physical Activity" in English (pdf) and Spanish (pdf)
  • "Learning How To Change Habits" in English (pdf) and Spanish (pdf)
  • "Treating High Blood Pressure in People with Diabetes" in English (pdf) and Spanish (pdf)
  • "Managing Your Medicines" in English (pdf) and Spanish (pdf)

Forms created by the project include information on:

Grantee Organization: South Dakota Department of Health (e-mail)
Project Title: South Dakota Diabetes Prevention and Control Program – South Dakota Diabetes Strategic Plan
Project Description: The South Dakota Diabetes Prevention and Control Program convened a group of statewide stakeholders to formulate a strategic plan (pdf) for diabetes management and prevention.

Grantee Organization: American Lung Association of South Dakota (e-mail)
Project Title: School Health Literacy Project
Project Description: The organization developed and distributed a clipboard and poster (pdf) throughout South Dakota. These pieces provide a quick reference to empower school personnel to respond effectively and appropriately to medical emergencies related to asthma, diabetes, or seizures.

Grantee Organization: Community HealthCare Association of the Dakotas (e-mail)
Project Title: South Dakota Health Disparities Collaborative State Summit
Project Description: The Community HealthCare Association of the Dakotas hosted the CHAD Summit (pdf) March 6-7, 2007. This meeting allowed all CHAD community health centers to meet face-to-face to share best practices and to discuss ways to meet their unique challenges.

Grantee Organization: St. Mary’s Foundation (e-mail)
Project Title: Regional Limb Recovery Program
Project Description: This program facilitated a model of care intended to reduce amputations in persons with diabetes, focusing on the Lower Butte, Fort Thompson, and Rosebud area. The organization produced a brochure for use in area medical facilities, which resulted in referrals to the program.

Grantee Organization: Burgess Foundation (e-mail)
Project Title: “Faces of Diabetes” Project
Project Description: This public awareness campaign features local residents with diabetes who present at local libraries along with diabetes educators to provide practical tips on management and prevention of diabetes. Promotional materials include:

End-of-Life Care

Grantee Organization: Iowa Hospice Organization (e-mail)
Project Title: Iowa End-of-Life Coalition
Project Description: To improve the provision of quality end-of-life care in Iowa, the organization created and distributed numerous educational materials, including:

Grantee Organization: Dallas County Hospital Foundation (e-mail)
Project Title: Hispanic End-of-Life Awareness Pilot
Project Description: To increase awareness of end-of-life care in the Hispanic population of Perry, Iowa, the organization presented six culturally competent and informative educational programs. Materials utilized included:

Another goal of this project was to recruit Hispanic volunteers for the hospice program. Information to recruit volunteers was provided in English (pdf) and Spanish (pdf) versions.

Grantee Organization: University of South Dakota (e-mail)
Project Title: The South Dakota End-of-Life Education Partnership
Project Description: The organization sponsored the End of Life Care & Pain Management: Assessing and Managing Pain in the Older Adult (pdf) conference on November 17, 2006. This conference complemented the intensive training provided to participating nursing facility teams.

Grantee Organization: University of South Dakota (e-mail)
Project Title: LifeCircle South Dakota
Project Description: This organization’s mission, history, and achievements are summarized on the LifeCircle poster. Conferences convened members of this statewide coalition to improve the quality of end-of-life care in South Dakota.

Grantee Organization: University of South Dakota (e-mail)
Project Title: South Dakota’s Dying to Know: A Study of South Dakotans’ Personal Experiences with End-of-Life Care
Project Description: Findings of this study of South Dakotans' knowledge, attitudes, and preferences about end-of-life care were reported through:

Health Literacy

Grantee Organization: Iowa Department of Public Health (e-mail)
Project Title: Health Literacy Capacity Building Project for Public Health
Project Description: The organization created a Web site entitled “Plain & Simple: A health literacy project for Iowa” to help public health workers and partners use plain language when writing or speaking about health. Tools, examples, resources, and other pertinent information can be accessed at this Web site.

Grantee Organization: University of Northern Iowa Foundation (e-mail)
Project Title: Iowa EXPORT Center of Excellence on Health Disparities: Prism Training Series in Culturally Competent Health Care
Project Description: The project's goal was to enhance the provision of culturally competent health care services to Iowa communities. Workshops for health providers across Iowa covered topics related to minority health and health disparities. The organization also developed and distributed a pocket guide (pdf) for health professionals on working with interpreters, as well as health fact sheets for minority populations including:

Grantee Organization: South Dakota Dental Foundation (e-mail)
Project Title: South Dakota Great Faces — Great Smiles: An Ounce of Prevention
Project Description: To increase the oral health literacy of underserved populations in South Dakota, a statewide health promotion/education program was implemented to improve oral health habits of the target population of South Dakota children. Social marketing materials include a:

Grantee Organization: Iowa Department of Public Health (e-mail)
Project Title: Iowa Covering Kids and Families: Access Through Health Literacy
Project Description: The organization developed simple references to provide Iowans with information about the Medicaid program, including a:

  • Brochure (pdf) focused on understanding how to apply for Medicaid or the hawk-i program
  • Brochure (pdf) providing basic information about the Medicaid program
  • Handout (pdf) to explain new requirements related to documenting citizenship in order to qualify for the Medicaid program

Grantee Organization: Iowa Department of Public Health (e-mail)
Project Title: Iowa Covering Kids and Families: Access Through Health Literacy
Project Description: The What the Health? program is designed to educate teenagers about health insurance options. Program materials include a:

Grantee Organization: Iowa Department of Human Services (e-mail)
Project Title: hawk-i Enrollment Process Improvement Project
Project Description: A report (pdf) entitled “Barriers to Enrollment for Children in the Iowa hawk-i and Medicaid Programs” examined why eligible children in Iowa may not be accessing these important programs. View report appendices covering the following information:

Grantee Organization: Iowa Pharmacy Foundation (e-mail)
Project Title: Multi-Disciplinary Consensus Conference on Health Literacy
Project Description: Health Literacy: Working Together to Improve Patient Outcomes (pdf) was a multi-disciplinary consensus conference on health literacy held May 17, 2006. Nearly 100 health care professionals were educated on the topic of health literacy and developed action plans for their individual practice settings.

Grantee Organization: Iowa State Registry Interpreters for the Deaf (e-mail)
Project Title: Advancing the Profession of Health Care Interpreting
Project Description: Advancing the Profession of Health Care Interpreting (pdf) was held May 30-31, 2007, to build the capacity of health care interpreters in the areas of delivery, policy making, community advocacy, civil rights enforcement, research, and leadership development. The deaf community and interpreter profession also gathered for a special evening of entertainment (pdf).

Community Assessments

Grantee Organization: Avera Rural Health Institute (e-mail)
Project Title: Community Assessments and Planning: The Avera St. Benedict Pilot Project
Project Description: The organization performed a community health needs assessment with a special emphasis on behavioral health was for Hutchinson, Charles Mix, and Douglas Counties in South Dakota in 2007.

Grantee Organization: Institute for Educational Leadership & Evaluation (e-mail)
Project Title: Black Hills Community Assessment
Project Description: The organization performed a comprehensive community needs assessment (pdf) for Pennington, Meade, Lawrence, and Butte Counties in South Dakota in 2006.

 

Additional Resources

You may find the following resources helpful in determining whether one of these projects would be a good fit for your community:

 


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