The Wellmark Foundation Provides Funding to Continue Outreach Program for Medically Underserved Community in Sioux Falls

October 8, 2007

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Contact:
Angela Feig
515.245.4551
feigab@wellmark.com

(Des Moines, Iowa) – The Wellmark Foundation awarded $54,162 in grant funds to the Sanford Health Foundation to continue an outreach program to the medically underserved community in Sioux Falls, S.D. The project was originally launched in 2005 through support of a Wellmark Foundation grant.

Stepping Into Good Health (SIGH) Too , the second phase of the project, will focus on enhancing underserved individuals’ access to diabetes prevention and management services, says Rebecca Blue, R.N., M.S., clinical nurse specialist at the Sanford Medical Center’s Parish Nurse Institute. “The goal of the program is to link people with diabetes to medical, health education and social services,” says Blue. “SIGH Too will also focus on improving health literacy by developing and implementing improved methods of communicating with underserved individuals.”

According to Blue, the program will include a diabetes and cardiovascular screening component and will utilize nurse case managers, as well as parish nurses and volunteers from local churches. Collaborating partners include the Good Shepherd Center, Falls Community Health Center, Our Savior’s Lutheran Church and fourteen additional local churches. For more information on SIGH Too, contact Rebecca Blue at (605) 359-6677 or beckyblue@mac.com .

The Wellmark Foundation has provided more than $12.77 million to fund 374 health-related grants in Iowa and South Dakota since 1997, including a total of $1,854,175 to date in 2007. “The Wellmark Foundation works to improve the health of Iowans and South Dakotans,” says Matthew McGarvey, director of The Wellmark Foundation. “ Stepping Into Good Health has reached hundreds of underserved individuals in the Sioux Falls community. We are pleased to continue to support the next phase of this program, in which clients and nurses will continue to work together for positive health outcomes.”

The Wellmark Foundation is a private, non-profit foundation created by Wellmark, Inc., doing business as Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Iowa. Visit The Wellmark Foundation's Web site at www.wellmark.com/foundation for a list of grant recipients and grant application instructions. Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield and The Wellmark Foundation are independent licensees of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.