The Health Foundation for Western and Central New York (formerly the Community Health Foundation of Western and Central New York) has awarded new grants totaling more than $740,000 in the first half of 2012, Foundation President Ann F. Monroe announced Thursday, July 26, 2012.

The Foundation’s grant making activities reflect its commitment to three focus areas: improving the quality of care for frail elders and deferring the triggers of decline; improving health care for young children living in poverty and growing community health capacity.

Frail Elders: Creating Options for Dignified Aging

• Kaleida Health Foundation, Buffalo, NY - $21,970 for the Kaleida Health Foundation, Erie County Department of Senior Services and the State University of New York at Buffalo to expand the availability of Powerful Tools for Caregivers in Erie County.

• Research Foundation for SUNY, Albany, NY, State University of New York Institute of Technology at Utica/Rome, Utica, NY - $46,000 for SUNY IT to pilot a trans-generational mentoring intervention designed to promote resiliency among traumatized and at-risk families with the Neighborhood Center of Utica.

Young Children Living in Poverty: Building Blocks for Healthier Kids

• Bassett Medical Center, Cooperstown, NY - $15,000 to expand midwifery services at its clinic in Herkimer County.

• Harder + Company, San Francisco, CA - $68,500 to evaluate the Positive Emotional Development And Learning Skills (PEDALS) initiative, a partnership between the Health Foundation for Western and Central New York and the Peter and Elizabeth C. Tower Foundation.

• Linda Lovig, CNM, PLLC, Syracuse, NY - $15,000 to expand Lovig’s private midwifery practice to serve more Medicaid patients.

• P² Collaborative of Western New York, Williamsville, NY - $3,500 to create a report identifying the risk and need surrounding maternal and child health in western New York.

• Oswego County OB-GYN, P.C., Oswego, NY - $15,000 to add an additional midwife and the Centering Pregnancy model to its existing practice.

• Upstate University Hospital at Community General, Syracuse, NY - $15,000 to assist in planning a new midwifery practice.

Growing Community Health Capacity

• American Red Cross, Serving Buffalo and Niagara Counties, Buffalo, NY - $255,000 to continue to develop and maintain the Fellows Action Network.

• Community Health Worker Network of Buffalo, Buffalo, NY - $124,850 to continue the process of establishing the Community Health Worker Network of Buffalo, creating a training center and embedding community health workers into the workforce.  

• HEALTHeLINK, Buffalo, NY - $40,000 to assist the Medicaid Health Homes in western New York identify and select a common technology solution that they can all use in moving forward in the Health Home process.

• Institute for Human Services, Inc., Bath, NY - $20,500 to hold a two-day Fundamentals of Quality Improvement workshop for organizations in Chemung, Schuyler and Steuben counties as part of the Foundation’s Southern Finger Lakes Fund.

• New York Association of Counties, Albany, NY - $12,500 for a feasibility assessment for the “No Wrong Door” pilot project in Chautauqua County.

• United Way of the Southern Tier, Corning, NY - $63,250 to support the United Way’s Early Childhood Services Team’s Comprehensive Interdisciplinary Developmental Services Screening project in Chemung County and the Healthy Families child abuse prevention home visiting program in Steuben County as part of the Foundation’s Southern Finger Lakes Fund.

These new grants are in addition to ongoing support the Foundation provides for initiatives such as Improving Care Transitions, Sharing Your Wishes™, Step up to Stop Falls™ and CHOMPERS!

To learn more about the Foundation, the programs and projects it is currently funding and the many other ways it is involved in the communities it serves, visit www.hfwcny.org.