December 20, 2006
Contact: Bev Pfeifer-Harms
314.345.5500 office

MFH Awards $2 Million in Grants to Central Missouri Organizations

St. Louis -Four central Missouri organizations have received a share of $2,003,159 in grants from Missouri Foundation for Health (MFH). The funding enables recipient organizations to improve services to diabetics, increase access to health care, and promote smoking cessation in the workplace. Two of the three MFH funding programs are new in 2006.

The MFH grants are:
Columbia/Boone County Health Department, Columbia, $229,142. This two-year grant funds area efforts to provide smoking cessation assistance to food service workers, WIC clients, city employees and other individuals in Boone County. This is part of MFH's Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Initiative, a nine-year, $40 million funding effort, now in its third year of grantmaking.
Curators of the University of Missouri, Columbia, $1,293,451. This three-year grant links the University's extension programs to patients, physicians and community partnership interventions in order to improve diabetes self-management in rural central Missouri. The project is anticipated to serve 10,000 individuals, and is one of eight funded under MFH's new Priority Area Grant effort - Better Self-Management of Diabetes. The funding effort opened in 2006 and encourages high-quality care for individuals with this chronic disease.
Family Health Center of Boone County, Columbia, $306,604. This three-year grant enables the health center to increase its capacity to provide primary medical care to the medically underserved in and around Chariton County. This funding is part of MFH's newly developed Primary Care Access Initiative, which focuses on strengthening the health care safety net and improving access to care for Missouri residents. This is one of eight grants made across the state under this Initiative, for a total of $5 million.
Phoenix Programs, Inc., Columbia, $173,962. Funding through this two-year grant supports implementing smoking cessation programs for employees and clients at Phoenix's facility. This grant also is made through the Tobacco Prevention and Cessation Initiative.

"We are pleased to provide grants to these organizations as they work toward helping central Missouri residents," says Dr. James R. Kimmey, MFH's president and CEO. "Our two new programs - Primary Care Access Initiative and Better Self-Management of Diabetes - also add to MFH's efforts to ensure all Missourians have adequate access to high-quality health care options, and thus live healthier lives."

Established in 2000 through the for-profit conversion of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Missouri, MFH is the largest non-governmental funder of community health activities in the state. MFH is in its fourth year of grantmaking, issuing more than $195 million in grants and awards to date. It is dedicated to serving the uninsured, underinsured and underserved in 84 Missouri counties and the City of St. Louis.

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