Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia Foundation Awards Grant to HealthMPowers, Inc.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia (BCBSGa) Foundation has awarded a $289,755 grant to HealthMPowers, Inc., a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting healthy behaviors and environments by empowering students, school staff and families to improve health and academic achievement. The funding support enables HealthMPowers to provide training, equipment and activity trackers to students across 29 elementary schools in both the Atlanta Public Schools and Gwinnett County Public Schools systems. With these resources, students are able to track their physical activity throughout each school day.

BCBSGa President Jeff Fusile presented the check to HealthMPowers President Christi Kay at a ceremony held at the Atlanta office of BCBSGa. This year’s program, “Empowering Active, Healthy Schools” increases the amount of physical activity students receive before, during and after the school day by integrating fun movement into the school curriculum.

“Research indicates that children’s attention and learning improve as a result of consistent physical activity throughout the day,” said Christi Kay, President of HealthMPowers. “As an evidence-based public health program, our goal is to improve school physical activity practices, along with student health knowledge and behavior — without taking away valuable class time.”

BCBSGa has supported HealthMPowers since 2007, and has provided more than $1.4 million to the organization. Last year, the company’s sponsorship helped underwrite research demonstrating that an increase in physical activity throughout the school day leads to improved health behaviors and fitness levels. The evidence provided the impetus for a statewide program, “Power Up for 30,” in over 600 Georgia schools. At the check presentation ceremony, in recognition of the company’s commitment, Morgan Kendrick, past president of BCBSGa and currently president of Anthem, Inc. National accounts received the HealthMPowers Health Hero award for his commitment to improving the health of all Georgians.

According to Fusile, “This year’s program is a lively and educational way to encourage students and teachers to improve their health. The work we are doing with HealthMPowers in Georgia schools is an important step in fighting the childhood obesity epidemic statewide.”

About HealthMPowers, Inc.
HealthMPowers is a unique, coordinated initiative designed to increase health knowledge and promote health-enhancing behaviors among youth by providing state-of-the-art programming in school and child care settings. Health education lessons are presented in a memorable and interactive way helping each student build a foundation for making responsible health decisions throughout the course of his or her life. By working in collaboration with teachers and parents, HealthMPowers also helps build the supportive environment necessary for the adoption of health-enhancing behaviors. Health promotion programs and services are provided to students, teachers and families. For more information, visit www.healthmpowers.org.

About the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia Foundation
Through charitable grant making, the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia Foundation LLC, an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, promotes Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Georgia’s inherent commitment to enhance the health and well-being of individuals and families in communities that the company serves. The Foundation focuses its funding on strategic initiatives that address and provide innovative solutions to health care challenges, as well as promoting the Healthy Generations Program, a multi-generational initiative that targets specific disease states and medical conditions. These include: prenatal care in the first trimester, low birth weight babies, cardiac morbidity rates, long term activities that decrease obesity and increase physical activity, diabetes prevalence in adult populations, adult pneumococcal and influenza vaccinations and smoking cessation. The Foundation also coordinates the company’s annual associate giving campaign and its parent foundation provides a 50 percent match of associates’ campaign pledges. The Blue Cross and Blue Shield names and symbols are registered marks of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association.