Grants will focus on Food Security, Mental Health, and Advancing Social Justice and Health Equity
(CENTENNIAL, COLO.) Centura Health, the region’s health care leader, announced today that its Equity and Advancement Fund will distribute $5 million in grants for 2023 for the second consecutive year. These grants focus on community-based organizations committed to advancing social justice and health equity across Colorado, western Kansas and, for the first time, north-central Utah.
The Health Equity & Advancement Fund launched in 2021 and funded 19 organizations. In 2022, the number of organizations supported through the grants expanded to 61. As neighbors serving neighbors deeply aligned to its Mission and Vision, Centura will again invest $5 million for this grant cycle, including Utah where the system recently began operating five additional hospitals, more than 35 medical group clinics, and a clinically integrated network of care providers in the Salt Lake City region.
Grants will begin at $50,000 and are awarded to support work that serves underserved communities, focuses on community capacity building and leverage collaboration to increase social impact. The $5 million will be distributed as follows:
- $3 million: Advancing Social Justice and Health Equity
- $1 million: Food security
- $1 million: Mental health
“Caring for patients extends beyond addressing emergent health care needs into working to address the root-cause of health inequities,” said Dr. Oswaldo Grenardo, MD, SVP and Chief Clinical Officer and Interim Chief Diversity & Inclusion Officer at Centura Health. “We are proud to offer this grant opportunity to organizations engrained in social justice change with the ultimate goal to create healthier, whole communities.”
Grant applications should address health equity issues with initiatives that focus on the following:
- Serving a specific diverse underrepresented or underserved community,
- Addressing specific Social Determinants of Health (SDOH),
- Integrating members of communities being served, and
- Building community capacity.
The grant application process will open on May 15, 2023, and the deadline to submit is June 11, 2023. Applicants will be notified on funding selection between July 1 and July 15, 2023. Details on the application can be found on Centura’s website.
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