Kaiser Permanente Community Fund
From our storybank...
Funding a Farmers Market in Lents
Demand for fresh, local, and affordable produce existed in Lents neighborhood of Portland, even thought there was no farmer’s market to provide it. That is, until a coalition called Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL) came together, funded by the Kaiser Permanente Community Fund, a donor-advised fund of the Northwest Health Foundation.
“Your environment is a significant factor in whether you can choose to walk instead of drive, or pick up healthy food for dinner. In Lents, we saw an opportunity to actually change that environment and help make the healthy choice the easier choice for residents,” says Noelle Dobson, director of the Healthy Eating Active Living coalition.
Throughout Oregon and southwest Washington, coalitions such as this, many funded by Northwest Health Foundation, are working to address the socio-economic conditions, policies, and physical structures — like bike paths and recreational trails — that impact the choices people make every day about eating and physical activity.
...read moreGrantees:
Innovative Housing, Inc.
Innovative Changes: Making Change Matter
2009 - To develop the capacity of a new Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) in order to provide asset-building opportunities to low-income residents in Portland.
$50,000
Community Health Partnership
Addressing the Health & Equity Impact of Portland Urban Planning
2009 - To improve opportunities for health in outer southeast Portland by conducting a Health Impact Assessment and using the results to advocate for improved development policies and infrastructure.
$138,971
Community Health Partnership
Healthy Eating at Farmer’s Markets: Exploring Barriers & Solutions
2009 - To convene farmer’s market managers and public health professionals to develop strategies to make farmer’s markets more accessible to low-income customers while enhancing their financial sustainability.
$49,926
Center for Diversity and the Environment
Environment, Health, & Equity Project: Addressing racial equity in the environmental movement to achieve health equity
2009 - To address institutional and cultural racism in Portland’s environmental movement in order to create more equitable policies and practices that affect social determinants of health.
$182,273
The Children’s Institute
Essential Investments in the First Five Years
2009 - To support research, policy, and advocacy work related to seeking first-time funding in the state budget for Early Head Start, which addresses the achievement gap for at-risk children under age four.
$200,000
Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon (APANO)
Asian Pacific Islander Policy Capacity Project
2009 - To strengthen the capacity of APANO’s members to better organize, analyze, and advocate for policies that addressing social determinants of health for the Asian and Pacific Islander community.
$50,000
Ecotrust
Healthy Foods for Healthy Kids and Communities
2009 - To implement an online service called FoodHub to increase participation in Farm to School programs.
$139,580
Native American Youth and Family Center
NAYA Family Center Early College Academy Teen Pregnancy Prevention Capacity Building Project
2009 - To create a collaborative culturally relevant and social responsive Teen Parent Prevention Program.
$50,000
Fruit Valley Neighborhood Food Access Project
Clark County Health Department
2009 - To build community capacity and leadership to advocate for improved nutritional options in this low-income neighborhood of Vancouver.
$50,000
Sisters of the Road
Systemic Change Program
2009 - To build relationships that lead to local, regional and national changes in our society and its institutions to improve the lives of people dealing with poverty and homelessness.
$250,000
Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon
Grassroots and Root Causes: Implementation of the Act to End Hunger
2009 - To build a diverse constituency to advocate for public policies that will reduce food insecurity among Oregon families.
$210,000
Oregon Tradeswomen, Inc.
Constructing Green Futures
2009 - To advocate for public policies that end occupational segregation in high-wage, blue collar building, construction, mechanical and utility trades, develop peer mentoring and prepare women to participate fully in the green economy.
$50,000
Community Cycling Center
Communities in Motion: Overcoming Barriers to Bicycling to Promote Health
2009 - To engage low-income communities of color in North and Northeast Portland to identify and overcome barriers to using bicycles as a regular means of transportation.
$49,976
Fair Share Research & Education Fund
People of Color Collaborative
2009 - To build a statewide network of organizations led by people of color, immigrants and refugees that will mobilize their communities to successfully change public policy and practices that result in increased health equity.
$300,000
Center for Intercultural Organizing
Pan-Refugee and Immigrant Social Movement-Building (PRISM) Project
2009 - To implement a comprehensive plan for engaging immigrants and refugees in civic actions that address the social determinants of health in Washington County.
$225,000
Western States Center
Organized Communities, Healthy Communities
2009 - To work with leaders and staff of organizations based in, and/or led by, people of color and low-income populations to build their organizations’ capacity to affect policy change toward the broad goal of equality and elimination of disparities.
$100,000
Upstream Public Health
Community Approaches to Reduce Soda Consumption
2009 - To build a broad-based community advocacy campaign to design and implement effective strategies to reduce consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages.
$250,628
Child Advocates, Inc
A CASA for Every Child
2009 - To enable this agency to recruit and train an additional 55 court appointed special advocates (CASAs) to serve all of the children in the Clackamas County criminal justice system who have been abused or neglected.
$82,500
Casa Latinos Unidos de Benton County
Community Health Needs and Assets Survey and Organizational Capacity Building
2009 - To conduct a community needs and assets assessment of Benton County’s Latino population, forge new relationships with mainstream health and social service agencies, and develop a strategic plan to guide this new organization’s outreach and advocacy agenda.
$50,000
Central City Concern
Advocacy Training & Expansion
2009 - To support a community outreach worker who will recruit and train 120 clean and sober individuals to serve as advocates for recovery, housing, and employment services.
$90,000
VOZ Workers’ Rights Education Project
LUCHA, Laborers United for Collective Health
2009 - To expand its leadership development and community organizing activities to improve the well being of day laborers in Portland.
$95,000
Neighborhood Partnerships
Building Pathways to Security: Implementation Phase
2009 - To support the statewide advocacy efforts of a broad-based coalition to develop and advocate for policies that address asset poverty.
$150,000
Organizing People, Activating Leaders (OPAL)
East Portland Transportation and Health Equity Project
2009 - To build capacity to address the unequal distribution of transportation burdens and benefits in East Portland neighborhoods.
$50,000
Partnership for Safety and Justice
Promoting prevention based strategies for addiction within a public safety context
2009 - To launch a campaign to expand access to drug and alcohol treatment services, as well as access to effective alternatives to incarceration for addiction-driven crime.
$225,000
Multnomah County Commission of Children, Families, and Community
Got Health?
2009 - To develop youth councils for all eight high school School-Based Health Centers in Multnomah County.
$50,000
VOZ Workers’ Rights Education Project
LUCHA, Laborers United for Collective Health Action
2008 - To develop the leadership skills of day laborers, so that they will be able to address the social, economic and legal factors that affect their health and well-being.
$50,000
Camp Fire USA - Portland Metro Council
School-based Program Sustainability Project
2008 - To drive systemic changes to remove barriers and expand access to high-quality after-school programs.
$130,599
Coalition for a Livable Future
Regional Health Equity Collaborative
2008 - To develop a coordinated approach for influencing public policy decisions in order to create systemic change related to built and social environment factors that contribute to poor health and health disparities.
$220,000
Friends of the Children
Friends of the Children Program Expansion
2008 - To expand the organization’s proven model of intensive mentoring for high-risk youth to Rigler Elementary School in the Cully neighborhood of Northeast Portland.
$165,000
Hacienda CDC
Micro Mercantes Cooperative: An Asset Building Strategy to Strengthen Families and Improve Health
2008 - To expand its micro-enterprise program for residents of Hacienda’s affordable housing developments, with the goal to transition the program toward being an independent, self-sustaining cooperative.
$150,000
Cambodian-American Community of Oregon
Shared Suffering, Shared Resilience-An Oral History Documentary: Healing and Capacity Building in the Cambodian-American Community
2008 - To build community, community capacity, and foster community trauma healing of the Cambodian American community through an oral history project.
$50,000
Community Alliance of Tenants
Regional Safe Housing Initiative
2008 - To develop the leadership and advocacy skills of low-income renters to improve substandard housing conditions that lead to poor health conditions.
$50,000
Mano A Mano Family Center
The Community Wellness Initiative
2008 - To build leadership among Latinos in the Salem-Keizer area to advocate for improved community services and self-sufficiency.
$140,000
Marion-Polk Food Share
Upstream Solutions to Hunger and Poverty
2008 - To strengthen community food security in Marion and Polk Counties by conducting a community assessment, creating a coalition to address the issue, and developing a three-year plan to reduce the root causes of hunger.
$50,000
City of Portland Bureau of Planning
Planning for Healthy Neighborhoods
2008 - To build the capacity to integrate health within planning activities.
$50,000
Children’s Relief Nursery
Creating Community Expertise in Infant Mental Health
2008 - To expand their work addressing psychological and emotional trauma experienced by young children by engaging and training new partners.
$50,000
Arc of Clark County
Community Needs Assessment and Leadership for Action
2008 - To build capacity within the developmentally disabled community to make systemic change related to barriers to health, independence, and inclusion.
$50,000
Oregon Mentors Initiative
Legislative Support for Mentoring Programs
2008 - To evaluate opportunities and create a plan to approach the 2011 legislature for assistance to bolster the ability of the strongest quality mentoring programs’ ability to serve waiting youth.
$50,000
ROSE Community Development Corp.
Leander Court Social Capital Project
2008 - To increase the social and economic assets of the residents in a 37-unit apartment complex in outer southeast Portland.
$48,400
Janus Youth Programs, Inc.
Village Gardens
2008 - To improve food security, social cohesion, economic opportunities and nutritional behaviors by establishing community gardens at three low income housing developments in North Portland.
$196,599
Mercy Enterprise Corporation dba Mercy Corps Northwest
Building Freedom Through LIFE (Lifelong Information for Entrepreneurs)
2008 - To provide social skills, business training, and access to long-term support to incarcerated women.
$244,824
Verde
Bridging the Green Divide
2008 - To develop partnerships and mechanisms to ensure that the Portland area’s growing “green” economy serves as a vehicle to lift people out of poverty.
$50,000
Highlands Neighborhood Association
Highlands Community Coach
2008 - To help a low-income community implement a variety of projects focused on neighborhood revitalization.
$221,397
Peninsula Children’s Center
North Portland Children and Families Partnership
2008 - To provide integrated, multi-disciplinary services to meet the multiple needs of low-income families.
$20,000
Metropolitan Family Services
Parent Education/SUN System Integration
2008 - To integrate a parenting program into community-based after-school programs.
$210,000
Lutheran Community Services Northwest
African Partnership for Health: Building Capacity to Improve the Health and Wellness of African Refugees and Immigrants in the Portland Metropolitan Region.
2008 - To build capacity within the African immigrant and refugee community to address barriers to health.
$50,000
Community Health Partnership
Providing Support, Promoting Health: Maximizing Food Stamp Dollars for Good Nutrition
2008 - To build the capacity of a coalition to use the Food Stamp Program to effectively promote good nutrition choices.
$49,813
Partners for a Hunger-Free Oregon
Act to End Hunger
2008 - To create the next five-year plan to end hunger in Oregon, concentrating on policy options that address the root causes of hunger, rather than the provision of emergency food aid.
$50,000
United Way of the Mid-Willamette Valley
Responding to the Call: United Way’s Volunteer & Mentor Center
2008 - To expand the capacity of the Volunteer and Mentor Center in recruiting, training, and retaining volunteers for 101 partner organizations.
$180,000
Partnership for Safety and Justice
Promoting prevention based strategies for addiction within a public safety context
2008 - To develop an advocacy plan to shift Oregon policy away from criminalizing addiction toward a more cost-effective prevention and treatment approach
$50,000
Urban League of Portland
The State of Black Oregon
2008 - To expose health disparities in Oregon through a “State of Black Oregon” report.
$35,000
Upstream Public Health
Advocacy for Chain Restaurant Menu Labeling
2008 - To support communities in passing local and statewide ordinances requiring nutritional menu labeling in fast food and other chain restaurants.
$247,525
Neighborhood Partnership Fund
Building Pathways to Security
2008 - To develop a statewide coalition to support asset building activities in both urban and rural areas to positively impact the health and well-being of low income Oregonians.
$50,000
Central City Concern
Benefits and Entitlement Specialist Team (BEST)
2007 - To increase access to housing and health care among the homeless by connecting them to benefits and entitlements. Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties;
$164,340
Portland Bureau of Housing and Community Development
HOT Money / Cool Jobs
2007 - To expand a proven model of poverty reduction and economic opportunity in north and northeast Portland. Multnomah County;
$270,000
Sisters of the Road
Systemic Change Program
2007 - To make changes in social policies and social attitudes that will support ending homelessness through awareness, engagement and education. Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties;
$225,000
Volunteers of America, Oregon
Home Free - "Housing First" Transitional Services
2007 - To help the victims of domestic violence and their dependents transition into safe, stable, permanent housing. Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties;
$184,557
Portland Impact, Inc.
Parent Child Developmental Services Head Start Readiness Enhancement
2007 - Support for a Parent Child Advocate who will help families enroll and remain in Head Start. Multnomah County;
$192,500
Volunteers of America, Oregon
Community Partners Reinvestment Project
2007 - To provide wraparound services to young adults being released from prison to ensure a smooth transition back into the community and reduce risks of recidivism. Multnomah County;
$160,000
Human Services Research Institute
Juntos Podemos Family Cooperative
2007 - To provide supports to Latino families who have children with developmental disabilities. Marion County;
$240,000
Mt. Hood Habitat for Humanity
Jubilee Commons
2007 - To provide low-income clients with opportunities for affordable home ownership, educational advancement, and community strengthening. Multnomah County;
$44,000
Ecotrust
Upstream Action in the Lunchroom
2007 - To provide two school districts with funding to improve the nutritional content of their school meals, as part of an overall policy objective of convincing the 2009 Oregon Legislature to fund a farm-to-school and school garden program. Multnomah and Marion counties;
$295,682
Community Solutions for Clackamas County
Villebois Community Integration
2007 - To support the integration of individuals with mental illness into a new planned community. Clackamas County;
$110,000
Adelante Mujeres
Adelante Chicas
2007 - To provide a support network for young Latina girls, enhance their self-esteem and promote options for a positive future. Washington County;
$150,000
Neighborhood House, Inc.
Portland CASASTART
2007 - Support for a nationally recognized, school-centered youth development program aimed at preventing substance abuse and violence among youth aged 8 to 13 and reducing drug-related crimes in their neighborhoods. Clackamas, Multnomah and Washington counties;
$405,000
Northwest Regional Education Service District
Washington County School-based Health Center Initiative
2007 - To support the development of three school-based health centers. Washington County;
$339,900
1000 Friends of Oregon
Healthy Communities Policy Project
2007 - Support for organizing and advocacy to ensure that Oregon's state and regional land use planning frameworks promote community design choices that support active lifestyles and access to healthy food.
$190,000
Asian Health and Service Center
Tea Link: A Community Engagement Program
2006 - Support for a community engagement program that provides a social network for Asians isolated by language barriers. Clackamas, Multnomah, and Washington counties;
$270,518
The Children’s Institute
Expanding High Quality Pre-Kindergarten Access for At-Risk Children
2006 - Support for an advocacy campaign to expand access to pre-kindergarten, a program that provides health and developmental screenings for at-risk children. Oregon statewide;
$250,000
American Lung Association of Oregon
Smoke-Free Multi-Unit Housing Campaign
2006 - Support for a campaign to create smoke-free environments in multi-unit rental properties in the Portland metropolitan area. Multnomah County;
$200,000
Educational Opportunities for Children and Families
Southwest Washington Coalition on Physical Activity and Nutrition Pilot Project
2006 - To identify and address the environmental factors affecting children's access to physical activity practices and nutritious foods in early childhood development and day care programs. Clark County;
$85,032
Community Action
Housing First
2006 - Support for a fund that provides housing subsidies and support services for homeless individuals and families, and for those at risk of homelessness. Washington County;
$200,000
Latino Network
Proyecto Esperanza / Project Hope
2006 - To implement strategies to reduce family violence and create economic opportunities for Latinas living in two low-income apartment buildings in the city of Gresham. Multnomah County;
$149,600
The Housing Development Corporation of Northwest Oregon
Promotores Program
2006 - To train and support seven community connectors (promotores) working within two low-income housing facilities to promote children's success in school and connect residents with health education and job training resources. Washington County;
$50,136
Friends of Zenger Farm
Lents International Farmer's Market
2006 - To develop an international farmer's market in a culturally diverse neighborhood in southeast Portland. Multnomah County;
$145,189
Metropolitan Family Services
North Clackamas Experience Corps -- Intergenerational Mentoring
2006 - Support for a mentoring program at one elementary and one middle school that matches older adults with students facing multiple barriers to wellness. Clackamas County;
$177,001
Oregon Health Action Campaig
Empowering the Consumer Voice in Health Access
2006 - To encourage health care consumers to participate in and contribute to the public dialogue about health care access and reform in Oregon.
$160,000
Morrison Child & Family Services
North Portland Children and Families Partnership
2006 - To provide integrated, multi-disciplinary services including health screenings, early childhood education, and case management for low-income families living in north Portland. Multnomah County;
$58,800
Virginia Garcia Memorial Health Center
Dental Expansion Project
2005 - To provide start-up operational costs for a permanent dental facility serving low-income individuals in Yamhill County.
$450,000
Street Yoga
Wellness Workshops for Homeless Youth
2005 - To create and deliver wellness workshops to homeless youth throughout the Portland area, and to develop a wellness and self-care handbook for these youth.
$17,750
Southwest Washington Tribal Health Alliance
North Bonneville Community Nursing Center Project
2005 - To support the start-up costs of a new Community Nursing Center serving American Indian, low-income, and/or elderly residents of Skamania County and east Clark County.
$325,000
Southwest Community Health Center
Intercultural Health Project
2005 - To hire a part-time Nurse Coordinator responsible for assuring that clients receive necessary follow-up, and to pay for laboratory tests, x-rays, medications, and translational services at a clinic which primarily serves low-income, ethnically diverse residents of southwest Portland.
$261,430
Public Health & Preventive Medicine Department, Oregon Health & Science University
NFATTC: From the Field to the Classroom - Increasing Awareness of Intercultural Health Care
2005 - To enhance the cultural competency of addictions/mental health practitioners by developing and implementing specialized learning experiences for students in Oregon.
$64,560
Oregon Law Center
Preventing Workplace Sexual Assault/Sexual Harassment of Indigenous Farmworker Women
2005 - To conduct outreach to indigenous farmworkers who are sexually assaulted at work and to develop a culturally competent intervention to reduce workplace sexual assault in northwest Oregon.
$324,639
Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization
SEARCH: Seniors Enhancing Access to Resources for Continuing Health
2005 - To recruit and train 20 community health volunteers to engage low-income immigrant and refugee seniors, and connect them to culturally appropriate services and resources in Multnomah County and the greater Portland area.
$120,000
CodeBlueNow!
Roadmap for Change - Advancing Health Equity
2005 - To support a grassroots effort to develop a plan for a health care system that will provide high-quality, affordable health care for all Oregonians.
$160,000
Clackamas County Children’s Commission/Head Start
Miles of Smiles
2005 - To provide mobile dental services and education to low-income and minority children at five Head Start sites in Clackamas County.
$211,575
HOST Development Inc.
Healthy Communities Initiative
2005 - To provide affordable home ownership opportunities to low-income individuals in north Portland through outreach, education, and closing cost assistance using a social determinants of health framework.
$10,000
General Internal Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University
Developing an Abuse-Sensitive Depression Care Model for Women of Color
2005 - To support a program to develop a primary care model for treating low-income survivors of intimate partner violence, specifically to ensure that the program will meet the needs of African-American and Latina women in the greater Portland area.
$37,040