Kaiser Permanente Awards $695,000 in Grants to Southern Alameda County Community Organizations

Image: Participants in the Food is Medicine Program developed by Hayward Wellness

Kaiser Permanente has awarded $695,000 in grants to 22 organizations serving southern Alameda County as part of its annual Community Benefit grants program. The funded programs will address pressing community health needs as well as support “safety net” health organizations that provide care to vulnerable populations and the uninsured.

"At Kaiser Permanente we are deeply committed to the overall health of our members and of the communities we serve. Through these grants, we are building healthier and safer communities throughout southern Alameda County, reaching underserved communities and those most in need," said Michelle Gaskill-Hames, Senior Vice President and Area Manager, Kaiser Permanente in southern Alameda County.

A few local organizations and programs that received grants this year include:

• Alameda Health System Foundation: This project will increase access to healthy, affordable food; physical activity; and good health. Building on Hayward Wellness' "Food Is Medicine" program, the project will support providers and patients in reducing causes of poor nutrition and inactivity--social determinants of health--including food insecurity, and lack of access to housing and employment.
• Kidpower: This project will develop safe, socially-cohesive school and community environments in the Hayward and San Lorenzo School Districts by decreasing behavioral risk factors and increasing protective factors for bullying and other overt and insidious forms of violence and abuse; unsafe or unhealthy behaviors; and negative social (inter)actions.
• American Heart Association Greater Bay Area Division: The American Heart Association's "Check. Change.Control." program will increase healthy food access to manage high blood pressure by training 20 Community Health Workers to support 100 families in Southern Alameda County Spanish-speaking communities, specifically in Fremont and Hayward.
• La Clinica de la Raza: To address behavioral health needs for at-risk youth, La Clínica will implement integrated educational, medical and behavioral health services at San Lorenzo High Health Center and Fuente Wellness Center. La Clínica will facilitate staff workshops and youth trainings; provide individual and group counseling; and enhance case-conferencing among providers.
• Bay Area Women Against Rape: This project will increase awareness and access to culturally-sensitive mental health support services for Spanish-speaking, uninsured, immigrant, Latino survivors of sexual abuse and their significant-others in Southern Alameda County.

Using data from Alameda County cities and communities, an advisory group of physicians, other health providers and medical administrators, helped establish a list of the local community’s most pressing health needs. The health priorities are: 1) access to care; 2) behavioral health; 3) community and family safety; and 4) healthy eating and active living.

Based on these priorities, the Kaiser Permanente Community Benefit Program awarded 22 grants ranging from $15,000 to $50,000.

Kaiser Permanente operates two major medical centers in southern Alameda County – in San Leandro and Fremont – as well as medical offices in Hayward and Union City. In the last six years, the Kaiser Permanente Community Benefit Program in Southern Alameda County has awarded $5,434,000 in grants and sponsorships to 219 community organizations.