Grant History

UCare Fund Community Grants

2011

• Helping Hands Outreach - Develop, implement and review outcomes for health activities for older adults and adults with disabilities.
• Fillmore County - Public Health, Obesity Reduction and Preventive Health Care - Reduce the incidence of obesity-related diseases by targeting the associated risk factors of nutrition and physical activity; improve access to preventive health care; offer screenings; and enact policy, system, and environmental changes to improve outcomes.
• The Indian Health Board of Minneapolis, Inc., Running Wolf Fitness Center - Renovate the new location of running Wolf Fitness Center to create a state-of-the-art fitness center.
• Becker, Clay, Otter Tail, and Wilkin counties’ Partner SHIP 4 Health Project - Partner with schools to enhance and strengthen school wellness policies, and provide technical assistance to help incorporate changes that will provide healthy eating and physical activity for their students.
• Mankato Family YMCA - Implement research-based curriculum that integrates healthy snacks, active games, and creative learning opportunities for youth along with a parent component to promote healthy eating and physical activity to prevent childhood obesity. Also use this information in the Y’s After School Program, family special events, and to develop a new summer Family Challenge program.
•  YWCA of Minneapolis – Expand the Strong Fast Fit Youth program which provides 120 -170 Native American and Latino youth and their families with culturally specific fitness and health education programming about obesity and diabetes prevention strategies, lifelong health fitness and nutrition habits; and wellness practices that respect culture, language, food preferences, and healing traditions, all in the context of their home communities.
• Playworks Twin Cities - Expand Playworks from four to nine low-income elementary schools in Minneapolis; place full-time, well-trained, staff in schools to run physical activity and play programs for children during recess and throughout the school day; improve children's physical, social, and emotional health; and make the learning environment more inclusive and conducive to learning.
• Opportunity Partners - Develop a curriculum and purchase technology for Healthy Opportunities, a program designed to teach individuals with disabilities about nutrition, shopping, cooking, exercise, and making healthy choices to achieve optimum health.
• Payne-Phalen Living At Home/Block Nurse Program - Maintain the position of the program's half-time Medical Advocate, and promote elders' health, stability, and their ability to continue to live safely in their homes.
• Ramsey County Community Human Services - Target wellness interventions to improve frequency and specificity of physical health interventions with Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) teams to help clients achieve reductions in obesity as measured by Body Mass Index (BMI), and to improve monitoring of wellness activities and interventions with clients.
• Center for Policy, Planning, and Performance/African Community Health Services (ACHS) Breast Health Program - Provide breast health awareness and education to the Somali and Oromo communities in Minneapolis, Bloomington, and Eden Prairie, and offer training, outreach, case management, appointment, transportation, and follow-up services.
• Special Olympics Minnesota – Support continuation of, and increased participation in, the Healthy Athletes^® initiative, which offers a wide variety of free medical and educational health screenings throughout the state and year.
• Fairview Foundation- Create a health commons center within Riverside Plaza as a health resource for Cedar-Riverside neighborhood residents, and a learning resource for students of Transcultural Nursing at Augsburg College.
• Comunidades Latinas Unidas En Servicio - Enhance Community Health Worker Services to alter social norms of sedentary lifestyles and overindulgence in unhealthy foods, and increase knowledge of, and access to, preventive health care and health care resources.
• City of Bloomington, Division of Public Health - Expand the availability of evidence-based and research-supported interventions to address issues of obesity reduction and preventive health care; integrate evidence-based practices related to obesity reduction and preventive health care into public health nursing strategies; and increase the ability to track client outcomes and program effectiveness.
• Blue Earth County Public Health - Outreach to about 350 UCare members enrolled in community and waiver UCare’s Minnesota Senior Health Options (MSHO) and Minnesota Senior Care Plus (MSC Plus) programs in Blue Earth County and North Mankato to help enroll members in tai chi classes, yoga, water exercise, Pilates, bicycling, and health and wellness classes. Also complete pre- and post- assessments to measure health outcomes and/or improvements.
• University of Minnesota College in the Schools - Support students and teachers affiliated with the school’s human anatomy and physiology course; help teachers gain expertise in diseases of the digestive system, obesity, and diabetes through intensive professional development and provide high-quality instruction in their classrooms; and help high school students develop multi-media community outreach efforts targeting elementary students and their families to promote disease prevention and healthy lifestyle habits.
• Southern Minnesota Regional Legal Services (SMRLS) – Grant funds the Senior Law Project, which provides legal advice and representation to senior citizens seeking safe and affordable housing, consumer protection, freedom from abuse, and income maintenance; and the Community Legal Education Project, which sources volunteer attorneys to provide free, community legal education and advice to seniors by telephone and in face-to-face meetings.
• Wilderness Inquiry – Provides a variety of programs and services designed to promote involvement in outdoor pursuits for youth, families, persons with developmental disabilities and others. Programs include: Outdoor leadership training for urban youth ages 13 to 18 and Gateway to Adventure an innovative program designed to provide people with cognitive disabilities the opportunity to learn and practice the kinds of skills and behaviors typically needed to have a safe, enjoyable outdoor adventure experience.

Research grants:

• U of M Department of Family Medicine and Community Health’s East Metro American Indian Diabetes Initiative (EMAIDI): A Qualitative Analysis of Project Contributions to Improvements in Health – This partnership between the Dept. of Family Medicine and Community Health and several community agencies serving low-income, urban-dwelling American Indians will work to bridge community-based projects oriented to health through diabetes- and obesity-prevention work and disease management. Projects include Youth Education and Healthy Living Workshops for youth and teens, the Family Education Diabetes Series (FEDS) for adults and families, and Elder Education for American Indian elders.
• West Side Community Health Services, Inc., Somali, Latino, and Hmong Partnership for Health and Wellness (SoLaHmo) - Support a study targeting lifestyle behaviors, including dietary intake and physical activity of Hmong, Latino, and Somali families, with children 3-12 years old in St. Paul. This assessment will use a community-based participatory action approach and qualitative research methods to examine beliefs, behaviors, and perceived barriers to healthy eating and physical activity, as well as the communities' needs and desire to prevent obesity.
• U of M Department of Family Medicine and Community Health, and City of Burnsville Parks and Recreation project “Standing Together for Healthy Kids” - Use community-based, participatory research methods to partner with community members, community organization leaders, and academic researchers to create and test a childhood obesity intervention tailored to a specific community, which will help increase the likelihood of success.

2010

• AccessAbility, Inc. – The $20,000 grant will fund activities for Project Connect, which helps Minnesotans who face employment barriers, such as low literacy competency, chemical dependency, and health issues, find jobs that provides them with a living wage.
• YWCA of Minneapolis – The $15,000 grant will fund the Strong Fast Fit Youth program, which provides culturally specific fitness and health education programming that focuses on obesity reduction and diabetes management for 120 Native American and Latino youth and their families.
• Minnesota Academy of Family Physicians – The $5,000 grant will fund a hands-on research program that aims to advance patient care by prompting medical students and family medicine residents to explore the important role that family medicine research plays in the clinical care of patients.
• Willmar Women and Family Center – The $42,000 grant will help increase the capacity of the African Family Health Lifestyle Program to reach more Willmar-area Somali refugee and immigrant women and families with assistance in providing more culturally competent health care.
• YWCA of St. Paul – The $20,000 grant will fund the Youth in Motion program for low-income youth of color that addresses childhood obesity and promotes skills, tools, and attitudes to build and maintain healthy lifestyles.
• Parenting Resource Center, Inc. – The $45,000 grant will support the Safe Kids/Healthy Kids project directed at culturally diverse children in Austin who are disadvantaged by serious parental conflicts. Program components will promote exercise, nutritious eating, and emotional well-being.
• The City, Inc. – The $28,120 grant will fund the Health City Kids Project, which aims to promote healthy lifestyles, improve nutrition, and reduce obesity among predominantly low-income African American students ages 5-14 and their parents in the metro area.
• Otter Tail County Public Health – The $50,000 grant will fund a public awareness campaign developed by the Otter Tail Family Services Collaborative’s Chemical Health Work Group to address substance abuse by area youth.
• Native American Community Clinic – The $50,000 grant will fund the Running Wolf Fitness Center program, a free fitness center serving an underserved population in Minneapolis’ Native American community.
• North Metro Pediatrics – The $10,000 grant will fund the Healthy Beginnings Program, which provides affordable and accessible pediatric care for children in the north metro area.
• Neighborhood HealthSource (formerly Fremont Community Clinics) – The $50,000 grant will fund the Healthy Lifestyle Project, which targets low-income, metro-area racial/ethnic minorities at risk for, or who already have, chronic disease or mental health issues.
• University of Minnesota College in the Schools – The $31,500 grant will fund the Smart and Healthy Students, Smart and Healthy Families program within Twin Cities-area high schools that offer human anatomy and physiology courses through the University of Minnesota’s College in the Schools program.
• Isanti County Public Health – The $30,000 grant will support the Cambridge-based Teen-Age Parent Program at the Area Learning Center, which provides prenatal education, well-child care, nutrition services, and parenting skills education to pregnant and parenting teens.
• STIM Learning Center – The $23,140 grant will fund the Childcare for Healthcare program, which will provide childcare services for parents of young children who have trouble scheduling or maintaining clinic appointments due to lack of childcare resources. The program is a collaboration of the Broadway Family Medicine Clinic, the STIM Learning Center, and UCare.
• Resource for Child Caring – The $15,000 grant funds the Healthy Learners: Obesity Reduction and Healthy Lifestyles in Early Childhood program in Minneapolis and St. Paul.
• Minneapolis Department of Health and Family Support – The $75,000 grant will help fund operations of the Skyway Senior Center, which offers daily physical fitness sessions, health and wellness programs, lifelong learning opportunities, socialization events, volunteer opportunities, and other enrichment activities for adults age 50 and over.
• Sabathani Community Center – The $22,200 grant will support health services such as clinics and senior-oriented health/fitness education for African American elders in South Central Minneapolis.
• Minnesota Medical Foundation of the University of Minnesota – The $50,000 grant will help initiate a first-of-its-kind examination of brain function, structure, genetics, and cognitive/language status in older women.
• LifeCare Medical Center – The $9,400 grant will fund activities in the Roseau County School Nutrition program, including having a dietician consult with the local school food service staff on menu planning and food preparation to maximize healthy breakfast and lunch nutrition for students.
• Augustana Care – The $35,000 grant will fund a project to help reduce isolation and loneliness among elders living at Augustana Apartments of Minneapolis, a senior living community. The program will feature 20 graduate students from the University of Minnesota’s Gerontology program working with Augustana staff and residents.
• Reach Out and Read Minnesota – The $20,000 grant will enable this program to  provide culturally and age-appropriate children’s books to family medicine and pediatrics primary care clinics throughout the Twin Cities.
• New Americans Community Services – The $50,000 grant will help fund the Older New American Project, which educates Somali elders in the metro area about the appropriate use of services that enable seniors to remain in their homes and communities.
• Portico Healthnet – The $50,000 grant will aid efforts to help uninsured Twin Cities Latinos obtain health care coverage through culturally and linguistically appropriate outreach services.
• Volunteers of America of Minnesota – The $12,925 grant will help support the Senior Partners Care program, which connects 1,850 low-to-moderate income seniors to health care providers who accept Medicare payment as payment-in-full, waiving all Medicare co-pays and deductibles.
• Vietnamese Social Services of Minnesota – The $16,625 grant will support the Health is Gold project, which increases awareness and promotes healthy nutrition and smoking cessation in the Vietnamese and Karen communities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.
• Bloomington Public Health – The $39,126 grant will fund development of a public health culturally and linguistically appropriate services (CLAS) assessment tool. The goal of this tool’s development is to increase culturally competent care provided by public health agencies.
• Inter-County Nursing Service – The $15,000 grant will fund development and maintenance of a web-based, comprehensive community resource referral list for health care agencies in northwestern Minnesota.