Foundation Awards $750,000 to Target Children Ages 6–14 at Risk of Mental Health Problems
NEW BRITAIN, CONN. – October 8, 2009 – Four organizations were awarded 18-month grants totaling $750,000 by the Connecticut Health Foundation (CT Health) Board of Directors to address the foundation’s goal of reducing the number of youth, ages 6-14, from entering the juvenile justice system and/or the most intensive levels of mental health treatment due to their mental health problems. The four are:

• Middlesex Hospital Center for Behavioral Health and Family Advocacy ($220,000)
• Lower Naugatuck Valley Parent Child Resource Center ($200,000)
• Town of Manchester Youth Service Bureau ($144,332)
• Family Services of Greater Waterbury ($185,000).
  

“Each is charged with developing and promoting a community-based system of early identification and assessment, and interventions for children at risk of mental health problems,” says Patricia Baker, President & CEO of CT Health. Each community formed a community planning group with representatives from schools, health care providers, law enforcement, families, community-based organizations and others, to respond to CT Health’s children’s mental health initiative.

Grants Awarded:

• Middlesex Hospital Center for Behavioral Health and Family Advocacy (Middletown) $220,000 to implement Identifying Children At Risk Early (iCare Initiative) to provide effective preventive interventions in school, family and community settings.  Middlesex Hospital’s children’s behavioral health programs, Families United for Children’s Mental Health and the Ministerial Alliance of 23 African-American churches will join in the initiative, to be piloted at Bielefield School.
• Lower Naugatuck Valley Parent Child Resource Center (Derby) $200,000 to implement Derby.NET, a program led by the Derby Children’s Mental Health Leadership Team to focus on creating changes within their mental health systems.  Irving Elementary School is the site for the pilot project.
• Town of Manchester, Youth Service Bureau (Manchester) $144,332 to implement Neighbors for Kids, which focuses on strengthening and uniting neighbors, families and schools to ensure all children are healthy and resilient.  Ideas from neighborhood parents, school personnel, community police officers and others familiar within the community near Nathan Hale Elementary School, the pilot site, shaped Neighbors for Kids.
• Family Services of Greater Waterbury (Waterbury) $185,000 to implement Sprague Unity Network’s (SUN) plan that will focus on establishing a cooperative and integrated service delivery model to change systems.  Sprague Elementary School and the adjacent Waterville Recreation Center, are known by network members and the community as the “neighborhood hub,” and will serve as the pilot for SUN’s mental health secondary prevention system.

Grants Awarded to Eliminate Racial & Ethnic Health Disparities

• Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) (Palo Alto, CA (Statewide) was awarded a 15-month, $200,000 grant to create and implement a social media strategy to eliminate racial and ethnic health disparities in Connecticut. The strategy will focus on inspiring participants to engage in online conversations related to health disparities elimination.
• The Conference of Churches (Hartford) received an 18-month grant of $150,000 to recruit and retain diverse leadership to create a statewide social change strategy to promote health equity for people of color.

Discretionary Grants Awarded to Improve the Health and Well-being of Connecticut Residents

• Connecticut Area Health Education Center (CT AHEC) (Hartford) received a $20,000 grant to support development of the CT AHEC Career Advising and Mentoring Project for interprofessional primary care faculty and health profession students in training.
• Connecticut Food Bank (New Haven) received a $10,000 grant to support the food bank for the state’s low-income and recently unemployed residents.
• Office of Healthcare Advocate (Statewide) received a $13,850 grant to develop a strategic plan for the State’s Commission on Health Equity, charged with eliminating disparities in health status and improving the quality of health for all residents.
  

Celebrating its 10th anniversary, the Connecticut Health Foundation is the state’s largest independent health philanthropy dedicated to improving lives by changing health systems. Since it was established in July 1999, the foundation has supported innovative grant-making, public health policy research, technical assistance and convening to achieve its mission – to improve the health of the people of Connecticut.  

Over the past 10 years, CT Health has awarded 492 grants totaling $39.1 million in 44 cities and towns throughout the state in three priority areas:

• Improving access to children’s mental health services
• Reducing racial and ethnic health disparities
• Expanding access to and use of children’s oral health services
  

For more information about the foundation, please visit www.cthealth.org or contact Communications Officer Maryland Grier at Maryland@cthealth.org or 860.224.2200, ext. 32.