National Medical Association Receives Funding From Kellogg for Training Community Advocates

WASHINGTON, April 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The National Medical Association (NMA), the nation’s premier membership organization for African-American physicians, today received grant funding in the amount of $120,000 from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. This is the first installment of a three-year grant commitment, designed “to promote health care coverage and eliminate health disparities by sustaining collaboration among partner organizations.”

Partner organizations for this effort include Families USA, the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, and the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials (NALEO). Otherwise known as the National Health Policy Training Alliance for Communities of Color (‘the Alliance’), this collaboration seeks to increase the number of trained advocates within each constituency. Training will take the form of listening sessions, legislative briefings, training forums, media events, and the use of multimedia resources.

Previous funding from Kellogg has led to the equipping of hundreds of NMA state and local leaders, and constituents numbering in the thousands within the Alliance. Alliance advocates focus on influencing America’s health policy development by amplifying the voices of those in America’s most vulnerable communities.

“Kellogg has been a remarkable partner in our effort to ramp up advocacy capacity,” noted Dr. Mohammad N. Akhter, the NMA’s Executive Director. “We are very grateful for their support, especially during the current economic downturn.”

Total funding for this project will total $300,000 through 2011.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation was established in 1930. The organization supports children, families and communities as they strengthen and create conditions that propel vulnerable children to achieve success as individuals and as contributors to the larger community and society. Grants are concentrated in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the southern African countries of Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.

Founded in 1895, the National Medical Association is the nation’s oldest and largest medical association representing the interests of more than 30,000 African-American physicians and their patients. The NMA has repeatedly advocated for policies that would assure equitable and quality health care for all people.

SOURCE National Medical Association