Giving Makes A Difference
Congrats to our newest partners receiving grants to create healthier communities in Oklahoma and Colorado
Telligen Community Initiative (TCI) recently awarded 15 grants, totaling $640,685, to nonprofit organizations in Oklahoma and Colorado ($325,000 Oklahoma and $315,685 Colorado).
"We are pleased to partner with these nonprofits and provide funding to support their work to improve the health of their communities," said Matt McGarvey, TCI’s executive director. "These grants have proven to be a wise investment in improving health outcomes and well-being for people and families in Oklahoma and Colorado."
TCI works to support projects in the areas of health equity and social determinants of health, health care workforce development and health innovation. We received 230 grant requests for the February 28th deadline for the Colorado and Oklahoma 2020 grant cycle. To streamline the application process for the nonprofit community, we continued the use of the popular Letter of Interest (LOI) phase in a two-stage funding process. Each individual funding request had a maximum grant ceiling of up to $50,000. Congrats to our newest 2020 grantees!
2020 Oklahoma grantees
Improving American Indian health care through workforce development
Preschool-based health and behavioral health services
Opportunities for healthier rural communities
Addiction recovery, in prison and after release
Mobile medical unit to provide telehealth services for opioid use disorder
Veggie Rx program
Health care interpreter training project
2020 Colorado grantees
Building a nutritious food supply for food pantries while increasing food security and health
Prenatal plus program
Military veteran family crisis assistance
Development of a regional social health information exchange
Junior Engineers, Tomorrow's Scientists
Diabetes coordinated care program
Diabetes group visits and telehealth outreach
Integrated care expansion
For a brief description of the Oklahoma and Colorado grantees and their project awards, please visit the grants page of the TCI website. Their work may inspire similar initiatives by your organization in your community!
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Share Your Voice – A Survey for Future TCI Strategy |
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TCI recognizes the pandemic is (and will continue to be) a multi-factorial and interconnected challenge for all involved.
What follows is an opportunity to engage our nonprofit stakeholders with what we envision as many of the primary ways we might approach philanthropic responses or resources to better navigate the pandemic during 2021.
Thank you for taking the time to thoughtfully complete a survey to help us gather the views of our customers. This survey offers potential themes and approaches that could encompass our approach to a longer-term pandemic response. We appreciate you offering your voice to help shape our future work and philanthropic decision making.
Click here to complete the survey and share your views with us.
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Meet AmeriCorps VISTA Member - Alex Brown |
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Alex Brown is serving as an AmeriCorps VISTA member with TCI. The AmeriCorps VISTA program stands for “Volunteers in Service to America”, and is part of a national service program to alleviate poverty. Her role will be to help refine TCI’s approach to pay-for-performance funding, as part of our grantmaking programming.
A graduate of Truman State University in May 2020, Alex has a B.S. in Health Science and a concentration in Public Health.
Throughout her undergraduate career, she was a member of the university’s Public Health Scholar Bowl team and maintained leadership roles within her university’s Public Health Association. Alex is also a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES).
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She decided to complete a year of service
through AmeriCorps to gain knowledge and experience in the foundation and public health field before pursuing a Master's in Public Health.
To learn more about Alex and her commitment to serve others, watch this video. |
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TCI Grantees in Action
Successfully adapting during difficult times
Given the challenges with the pandemic, we are all faced with having to adapt and do things differently. Here are highlights of what three of our current grantees are doing during this challenging time.
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Through their Outreach and Health Ministry Program, The Night Ministry targets chronically homeless populations in desperate need of primary care in the greater Chicagoland area. This program includes their Street Medicine Program and Health Outreach Bus. These programs work to reach underserved populations and help the most vulnerable navigate the health care system through public health outreach.
A TCI grant is working to support the Street Medicine Program, which offers medical assistance to homeless individuals through free medical and support services. Some of these services include physical health assessments, treatment for infectious and chronic diseases, prevention education, wound treatment and referrals to primary medical care and housing.
Likewise, our grant also supports the Health Outreach Bus, which provides services at night when many other resources are closed. This unique, mobile approach to health care allows The Night Ministry to focus on neighborhoods with high concentrations of poverty and homelessness. The bus features a fully equipped nursing office, a space for HIV and STI testing, nurse practitioners, outreach professionals and case managers, as well as volunteers who provide meals and hygiene items to the people served.
We congratulate The Night Ministry for successfully serving and caring for a difficult-to-reach population, despite the ongoing pandemic.
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Jewels Academy’s Young Emerging Scientists (Y.E.S.) is a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) program designed to serve girls (4th – 12th grade) in underrepresented populations in the Des Moines area. This is accomplished through participation in hands-on workshops, with the mission to cultivate an interest in science-related careers and help close the workforce gap in STEM-related fields.
Through the program, participants learn more about the world of STEM through a curriculum developed by engineers, federal bureaus, health professionals and national science initiatives. Each year, Y.E.S. directly reaches 60 to 80 registrants and more than 1,500 students in community events and workshops led by STEM professionals to help expose an underserved population to a wide variety of allied health and science-based roles.
A TCI grant is helping to ensure the pipeline of STEM-educated women continues. Jewels Academy is working to replicate their programming throughout Iowa, as well as potentially across the country. By moving to a completely virtual format due to the ongoing pandemic, the organization is now poised to reach more girls with their STEM-related education.
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Physician Wellness Program (Oklahoma) |
Being a physician is demanding even under the best of circumstances. The statistics on physician burnout and suicide are startling. Unfortunately, with the COVID-19 pandemic physicians are at even greater risk of burnout and other psychological concerns than ever before.
This expanded initiative, called the Physician Wellness Program (PWP), provides Oklahoma M.D. and D.O. physicians with up to eight, one-hour counseling sessions with a licensed psychologist who is part of the program’s network. The program is now available for all license M.D.s and D.O.s in the state of Oklahoma, regardless of their membership in the OSMA, thanks to the grant from TCI and support from the OSMA Foundation. |
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