As they approach the end of their grant periods, these Local Initiative Funding Partners projects offer a verbal snapshot of their successes, challenges, lessons learned and future plans. Read their one-page reports and their dramatic stories.

All reports are in pdf format requiring Adobe Reader, a free download available here.

Aldea Children & Family Services in Napa, CA
Wolfe Center The Wolfe Center offers a "one-stop" treatment program serving abusing youth and their families from throughout Napa County. The Center provides a comprehensive, bilingual, culturally responsive, community-based, outpatient treatment program incorporating a youth development methodology. (Graduate Report)

American Red Cross, Greater Buffalo Chapter in Buffalo, NY
LIFE Project (Lifeline to Independence for the Elderly)
This project aims to reduce premature nursing home placements by providing needed in-home supportive services to frail seniors. Teenage volunteers perform household chores, yard work, snow removal, friendly visiting, and errands. Through community service, students form relationships with the elderly and help foster a healthier community.
(Graduate Report) (Graduate Story)

Boys & Girls Club of San Antonio in San Antonio, TX
The Healing Arts
This project uses the visual, performing and literary arts in conjunction with other services to promote healing and prevent subsequent unhealthy behavior among children and youth who have suffered emotional and physical trauma. Professional artists work closely with small groups engaged in drama, pottery, painting, writing or photography, helping the young people discover their creative talents as a way to express their pain and their hope. Based at a residential treatment center, the program integrates children into a social experience where art is the common denominator rather than past abuse. (Graduate Report) (Graduate Story)

Case Western Reserve University School of Dentistry in Cleveland, OH
Healthy Smiles - Bright Futures
A comprehensive, school-based oral health care program that provides prevention, treatment and education to 15,000 2nd and 6th grade students in the Cleveland Municipal School District. (Graduate Report) (Graduate Story)

Center for Advocacy for Rights & Interests of the Elderly (CARIE) in Philadelphia, PA
Comunidades Unidas Apoyando a Envejecientes (Communities United Supporting the Elderly)
The Comunidades Unidas mission is to empower Hispanic elders through relationship building, mobilization of community leaders, education and consultation, and facilitation of access to needed services. Its goal is to build a bridge linking Hispanic elders with services designed to meet their health care and other needs, helping them to overcome barriers to those services. (Graduate Report) (Graduate Story)

Charles Town Health Right, Inc. in Charles Town, WV
Eastern Panhandle Free Clinic
This free clinic provides access to quality health care for low-income people who are uninsured including access to specialty physicians, access to prescription medications for the uninsured and underinsured, and improved utilization of existing community resources. By partnering with community organizations, they promote wellness through an advocacy system that provides health care, medications, education, support, counseling and guidance in all aspects of life free of charge. (Graduate Report)

Children's Hospital Medical Center of Akron in Akron, OH
Children Who Witness Violence Program
This program will provide early intervention to children who witness repetitive violence and instability in the home. The trauma of witnessing violence places children at high risk of depression, anxiety, and anger. The proposed intervention begins with police while investigating a domestic violence incident, and call-in referral of child witnesses to a 24 hour line. A team of two home visitors will respond within 30 minutes on site to focus on resolution of the crisis. Follow-up for the family and child will be provided. Subsequent home based interventions will assess needs and transition the family/child(ren) to ongoing trauma support services. (Graduate Report) (Graduate Story)

The Partnership for the Children of San Luis Obispo County in Paso Robles, CA
La Clinica de Tolosa Dental Project
This project includes a four-chair full-service clinic offering dental care and oral health services for children and adolescents from low-income families, as well as emergency dental care for low-income adults. Follow-up contacts to each dental appointment, dental health education and a school-based dental screening program are also part of the project. (Graduate Report) (Graduate Story)

El Buen Samaritano Episcopal Mission in Austin, TX
Vida y Salud (Life & Health)
This project offers health promotion classes to low-income Hispanic women, men and children in the Austin area to address stress, family relationships, and managing chronic diseases such as diabetes and hypertension. (Graduate Report)

Health District of Northern Larimer County in Fort Collins, CO
Community Mental Health & Substance Abuse Partnership
Through a county-wide community partnership the project implements systemic changes required to achieve a well-coordinated continuum of mental health and substance abuse services, significantly improving responsiveness and effectiveness for those who need information or services. (Graduate Report) (Graduate Story)

Hope House, Inc. in Independence, MO
BRIDGE/S.P.A.N.-Safe Patient Advocacy Network
The project creates a medical safety-net in area hospitals and clinics to address domestic violence. Presented by a coalition of six domestic violence agencies working together across two states and seven counties; the network provides domestic violence education to hospital and clinic staff, introduces universal screening for all female patients over fourteen and males with indicators, and provides 24-hour on-site advocacy to patients. BRIDGE/S.P.A.N. strives to provide immediate counseling and access to safety to victims of domestic violence no matter where they access medical care in the metropolitan Kansas City community. (Graduate Report) (Graduate Story)

Houston Community Health Centers, Inc. in Houston, TX
The Denver Harbor/Port Houston Clinic
Established by a new coalition of pastors, community leaders, health care providers and government agencies, Houston Community Health Centers, Inc. Denver Harbor/Port Houston Clinic provides health care and social services for residents of an isolated, low-income, primarily Hispanic neighborhood in Houston, Texas. (Graduate Report) (Graduate Story)

Infant Welfare Society of Chicago in Chicago, IL
Healthy Steps
Healthy Steps customizes an early childhood development program to serve Spanish-speaking parents of children from 0 to 3. The core services include extended well-child visits conducted jointly by a medical provider and a Healthy Steps Specialist and a mental health therapist who works with mothers to address issues that affect entire families, such as postpartum depression. (Graduate Report) (Graduate Story)

Maine Medical Center in Portland, ME
Portland Identification and Early Referral Project
This project reduces the incidence of psychosis and prevents disability from psychotic disorders among young people in Greater Portland, Maine. A team of specialized mental health clinicians work with primary care physicians and educational counselors to refer young persons at risk and provides treatment in close partnership with the family, while the project uses intensive outreach to educate the public about early signs of severe mental illness. (Graduate Report) (Graduate Story)

Mid-Iowa Community Action, Inc. in Marshalltown, IA
Searching for Miles of Smiles
This is a comprehensive program to make oral health care accessible for people who are uninsured, underinsured, or using Medicaid as a payment source in Story County, Iowa. The project has two components: (1) A fixed three-operatory dental clinic providing preventative and restorative dental care. (2) An outreach project serves the growing elderly population residing in nursing homes who often lack regular preventative dental care. Within 45 days of entrance into a long term care facility, residents are screened by a registered dental hygienist and started on regular applications of fluoride varnish to prevent decay. (Graduate Report)

Spokane County Medical Society Foundation in Spokane, WA
SCMS Project Access
Project Access is the only philanthropy network of physicians and hospitals providing the full range of healthcare services to low-income, uninsured people in Spokane County. Project Access brings together an all-volunteer group of medical professionals and healthcare institutions, along with charitable pharmaceuticals, to provide total healthcare.

This complex treatment includes primary care physicians, specialists, hospital, lab, radiology and pharmaceuticals. By providing the full range of access and treating the whole person Project Access hopes to ensure that every family can be healthy, productive and successful. (Graduate Report)

The Regents of the University of California, Irvine in Irvine, CA
Achieving Cancer Control Together (ACCT)
Through many events and outreach activities conducted in Chinese and Korean, ACCT works to increase awareness of cancer prevention and to improve access to cancer screening and follow-up services for the Chinese and Korean communities of Orange County, California. (Graduate Report) (Graduate Story)

Transitions Family Violence Services in Hampton, VA
Protect Our Kids - Preventing Exposure to Violence
This program offers assessment, information and referral services to Hampton children who have witnessed violence. Protect Our Kids also leads a community education campaign to increase awareness of problems associated with children’s exposure to violence and to positively change the community’s attitudes to preventing children’s exposure to violence. Children’s exposure to violence at home, at school, or in the neighborhood, is the single most powerful risk factor for generating violent individuals in our culture. (Graduate Report) (Graduate Story)

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