PRESS RELEASE

Independence Blue Cross Foundation awards $425,000 to help build a healthier community

Recent funding includes services for seniors and veterans, as well as breast cancer awareness education

Philadelphia, PA — November 6, 2014 — The Independence Blue Cross Foundation (Foundation) announced its contributions to help build a healthier community through a series of grants totaling $425,000. The 28 grants, which fall under the Foundation’s Building Healthier Communities program area, target a wide variety of community groups, including first-time grants to the following organizations:

• Boy Scouts of America: Developmental program for young men emphasizing health, nutrition and fitness;
• Legal Clinic for the Disabled: Medical Legal Partnership program that integrates medicine, social work, behavioral health, public health and the law to address social determinants that threaten family, home and income.
• Northern Children’s Services: Creation of the Community Wellness Coalition that focuses on violence, trauma, bullying, truancy, child abuse and neglect, substance use, and teen pregnancy.
• Center in the Park, Inc.: Wellness model providing low income older adults with resources to maintain independence and manage chronic conditions; 
• La Salle University Neighborhood Nursing Center: Mature Health Connections program for older adults in Germantown/Olney;  
• Living Beyond Breast Cancer: Workshops about genetic factors related to  breast and ovarian cancer;  
• Pathways to Housing PA: Integrated health care for chronically homeless, mentally ill people;  
• Pennsylvania Horticultural Society: Transition school garden for People for People School
• Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation: Start-up of Chinatown Health Info Center for uninsured;  
• Ralston Center: My Way program serving low income seniors to promote independent living;  
• Supportive Older Women’s Network: Obesity prevention program in grandparent-headed families;  
• The Enterprise Center Community Development: Food assistance and nutrition education for low  income families  
• The Schuylkill Center for Environmental Education: Helping Philadelphia children be more active in nature;
• Shriners Hospitals for Children: Cooking lessons for children with disabilities; and
• Travis Manion Foundation: Mentorship, advocacy and internship program for veterans

“We are pleased to support this wide group of organizations that are improving the lives of people in our community through their robust programs, activities, and outreach efforts,” said Lorina Marshall-Blake, president of the Independence Blue Cross Foundation. “Through these grants we can quickly direct support for the needs of diverse populations in very specific ways, from educating women about the hereditary factors associated with breast or ovarian cancer to supporting healthy eating among grandparents who are raising their grandchildren.”

With this latest funding, to date in 2014, the Foundation has invested more than $5.4 million in the community through grants directed at improving access to health care in medically underserved areas, bolstering the health care workforce, and improving childhood wellness. Read more about these programs.

About the Independence Blue Cross Foundation
The Independence Blue Cross Foundation is a charitable, private foundation, whose mission is leading solutions for a healthier community. The IBC Foundation targets the following areas of impact:

• Securing the Blue Safety Net: Supporting private, nonprofit community health center clinics that provide access to quality, affordable healthcare in medically underserved areas.
• Bolstering the Health Care Workforce: Strengthening the nursing, primary care, and allied health workforce through education, career development, and research.
• Addressing Health Priorities: Collaborating with wellness partners to tackle the region’s most pressing health challenges; currently combating the childhood obesity epidemic through the IBC Foundation Healthy Futures Initiative.
• Building Healthy Communities: Partnering with community leaders and programs to address community health and wellness needs.

Learn more by visiting our website: www.ibxfoundation.org. Connect with the Independence Blue Cross Foundation on Twitter at @ibxfdn.

Media contact
Ruth Stoolman
Independence Blue Cross
215-241-4807 (office)
215-280-3335 (cell)
ruth.stoolman@ibx.com