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Blue Cross Foundation Improves Children's Health By Creating, Sustaining Healthy Environments for Their Growth and Development

Posted on: Friday, 27 October 2006, 15:01 CDT

EAGAN, Minn., Oct. 27 /PRNewswire/ -- The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation has awarded 13 grants to nurture the healthy growth and development of young children. The grants, totaling $475,000, are the first made under the Foundation's Growing Up Healthy: Kids and Communities initiative. The initiative supports collaborative, community work that addresses the important connections between health and early childhood development, safe and affordable housing, and the physical environment so children can grow up healthy.

"Social, economic and environmental factors have profound effects on health, quality of life and life expectancy. Conditions that help children thrive and grow also make the entire community a healthier place," said Daniel Johnson, Blue Cross Foundation executive director. "To influence these factors -- and improve health -- community organizations and the health sector need to come together in innovative, coordinated ways."

This first round of Growing Up Healthy grants includes both planning and implementation grants across the state. These projects address children's health and at least two other social influences on health, including housing, early childhood education or the environment. The grants include:

Carlton County Public Health and Human Services, Cloquet ($25,000) to create a uniform system for identifying housing and environmental risks as part of the preschool screening process

Episcopal Community Services Inc., Minneapolis ($25,000) to engage White Earth and Leech Lake Native American communities and the broader Bemidji community in early childhood development and stable housing issues

Family Housing Fund, Minneapolis ($25,000) to assess health and child care for children birth to age four and the environmental quality of supportive housing developments in the seven-county Metro area

Folwell Center for Urban Initiatives, Minneapolis ($25,000) to improve school readiness for 500 young children in a targeted area of North Minneapolis through the "Five Hundred Under Five" project

Greater Minnesota Housing Fund, St. Paul ($25,000) to develop a plan for affordable, healthy housing, designed with green building techniques in Southeast Minnesota for families with young children in Head Start Programs

Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy, Minneapolis ($30,000) to integrate childhood environ-mental health information into patient care and parent education to promote healthy child development

Little Earth Residents Association, Minneapolis ($25,000) to improve access to early childhood development programs for American Indian children in the Little Earth Housing Community in South Minneapolis

Minnesota Environmental Initiative, Minneapolis ($20,000) to retrofit Head Start buses to reduce exposure to diesel emissions in Washington and Anoka counties

National Center for Healthy Housing, Columbia, MD/Worthington, MN ($150,000) to demonstrate how green building principles and tenant education will improve health for residents of a renovated apartment complex in Worthington

North American Water Office, Lake Elmo ($25,000) to document pollution threats to the health of indigenous people in Northern Minnesota who depend on fish as their primary source of food

Northfield Public Schools Community Services Division, Northfield ($25,000) to create a countywide plan for early childhood development, affordable housing and improved environments for children in low-income families

Resources for Child Caring, St. Paul ($25,000) to improve home environments for children residing or being cared for in St. Paul's Payne- Phalen neighborhood

Tree Trust, St. Paul ($25,000) to develop five safe and healthy outdoor play areas near affordable housing developments in North Minneapolis

University of Minnesota, Children, Youth and Family Consortium, Minneapolis ($25,000) to develop a collaborative plan to stabilize families in poverty and ensure sustainable improvements in their home environments and overall health

University of Minnesota, Regional Sustainable Development Partnerships, Minneapolis ($25,000) to reduce exposure to household pesticides for children and pregnant women in Minnesota's Red River Valley

For more information on Growing Up Healthy: Kids and Communities and the Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation, visit us on the Web at http://www.bluecrossmn.com/foundation or call (651) 662-3950 or toll free 1-866-812-1593.

The Blue Cross Foundation's purpose is to look beyond health care today for ideas that create healthier communities tomorrow. By addressing key social, economic and environmental factors that determine health -- beyond genes, lifestyle and access to health care -- the Foundation's work extends beyond the traditional reach of the health care system to improve community health long-term and close the health gap that affects many Minnesotans. Since it was established 20 years ago, the Foundation has become the state's largest grantmaking foundation to exclusively dedicate its assets to improving health in Minnesota, awarding $20 million since 1986.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, with headquarters in the St. Paul suburb of Eagan, was chartered in 1933 as Minnesota's first health plan and continues to carry out its charter mission today: to promote a wider, more economical and timely availability of health services for the people of Minnesota. A not-for-profit, taxable organization, Blue Cross is the largest health plan based in Minnesota, covering more than 2.7 million members in Minnesota and nationally through its health plans or plans administered by its affiliated companies. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, headquartered in Chicago. Visit Blue Cross on the Web at http://www.bluecrossmn.com/ .

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota

CONTACT: Monika Strom, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota,+1-651-662-6889

Web site: http://www.bluecrossmn.com/http://www.bluecrossmn.com/foundation

Source: PRNewswire

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