The Blue & You Foundation for a Healthier Arkansas is awarding 32 grants worth $3.3 million to organizations across Arkansas, including southeast Arkansas projects.

The groups — made up of schools and nonprofit, civic and municipal organizations — will work to improve the well-being of people in each county, according to a news release issued Nov. 27.

“The Blue & You Foundation is proud to support the efforts of these excellent organizations that are working in innovative ways to address behavioral health, maternal and pediatric health needs and the social determinants of health in our state,” said Rebecca Pittillo, Blue & You Foundation president.

The Blue & You charitable foundation was established and funded by Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield to promote better health. Since its creation 22 years ago, the foundation has awarded more than $62 million in grants. Nearly $6 million was announced Oct. 5 to address behavioral health in Arkansas youths and adolescents, including two programs for teen substance use disorder.

AREA RECIPIENTS

These latest grants range from $12,000 to $200,000 and were awarded to several organizations. Those impacting southeast Arkansas residents include:

Arkansas Rural Health Partnership’s Connecting Gen Z Peer to Peer Support Program: $50,000 — the program seeks to increase connection, support and access to mental and behavioral health services for 45 Gen Z youths (females age 13-19) in Jefferson County in 2024. The initiative will replicate successful elements of the evidence-based peer recovery support program in this new target population through pilot efforts. Funding is needed to support staffing, train peer support specialists in youth mental health first aid and offer meaningful connection points to participants to improve mental health outcomes through the pilot, according to the release.

Potluck Inc.’s Rapid Food Recovery Team: $90,000 — the program aims to assist people in Conway, Faulkner, Garland, Jefferson, Pulaski and Saline counties. The team will purchase the Food Rescue Hero mobile application and create the infrastructure to support the cutting-edge new program. Structured like Uber, the app will enable volunteers to accept food donation delivery opportunities with the tap of a button, preventing food waste and reducing food insecurity for 30,000 people in the first year.

New York Institute of Technology at Arkansas State University’s Maternal Child Health and Wellness Learning Communities with peer-to-peer support: $114,380 — the program focuses on people in Arkansas, Chicot, Clay, Craighead, Crittenden, Cross, Desha, Greene, Lee, Mississippi, Monroe, Phillips, Poinsett and St. Francis counties. NYITCOM will use its mobile health team and the Community Champions of Health (CCH) model to create customized workshops for new mothers and their children to improve maternal and pediatric health outcomes and curb/prevent adverse childhood experiences in underserved areas of rural Arkansas. Workshops will include educational services related to women’s preconception health/ maternal/child health and preventive health screening services; participants will be incentivized. NYITCOM will implement a peer-topeer learning model where new mothers will be supported by peers to build on learning objectives from workshops. Other direct services such as preventive screenings, health coaching and referrals will be included.

Arkansas Birthing Project: $73,800 — The Arkansas Birthing Project’s “Improving Black Women’s Birth Outcomes through Community Sister Friending” grant seeks to improve the pregnancy experiences and outcomes for Black women who live in Chicot, Desha, Ashley, Bradley, Monroe, Phillips, Pulaski, Saline, St. Francis, Crittenden and Lee counties. “We will replicate the Birthing Project Sister Friend support model in these communities with our plan to reach over 210 Black women, babies and fathers through this project. Funding is to train staff, provide car seats and other household items to mothers, and travel,” according to the release.

Arkansas Children’s Foundation’s Community Health Navigator Program: $200,000 — the program seeks to provide additional support services during a critical time of development to teen mothers and their children in Faulkner, Grant, Lonoke, Pulaski, Saline and White counties. Funding will be used to support a community health navigator, who will help identify and provide support services such as food, housing, transportation and social support.

Cooper-Anthony Mercy Child Advocacy Center’s Child Safety Matters: Preventing Child Abuse and Resulting Trauma in Central/Western Arkansas: $50,000 — The project is a school-based abuse prevention program that seeks to fund a prevention educator/child advocate to deliver age-appropriate, active-learning presentations that teach children in kindergarten through fifth grade to recognize the signs of danger and empowers them to tell trusted adults in Garland, Grant, Montgomery and Saline counties who can help.

Mainline Health Systems Inc.’s Breaking Barriers with Remote Patient Monitoring: $178,190 — for people in Ashley, Bradley, Chicot, Cleveland, Drew, Grant and Lincoln counties. The program seeks to provide remote monitoring equipment to 780 patients enrolled in MHSI Chronic Care Management throughout southeast Arkansas and to employ an additional CCM nurse to train the patients and monitor and report the data received from patients.