Excellus BCBS accepting Community Health Award applications beginning February 17th

SYRACUSE, NY –Nonprofit organizations in upstate New York can apply for Excellus BlueCross BlueShield Community Health Awards that the company is offering to help fund health and wellness programs in the region. The application period opens on Thursday, February 17 and closes Thursday, March 17. There will be up to 50 awards available with funding up to $5,000 each.

“As a nonprofit health plan, our mission is to provide access to affordable health care and continually work to improve the health and health care of residents in the communities we serve,” said Mark Muthumbi, Excellus BCBS’s Central New York regional president. “The company’s Community Health Awards are an opportunity to help support organizations in our community that share our mission of improving access to care and advancing specific health outcomes.”

All nonprofit, 501(c)(3) organizations in Excellus BCBS’s Central New York region are invited to apply for an award. Funding is intended to support programs that improve individual and population health and reduce ethnic and racial disparities by impacting:

Economic Stability: Food availability and security and health care workforce development.

Education Access and Quality: Early childhood education and development, enrollment in higher education, high school graduation, and language and literacy.

Social and Community Support: Caregiver, youth mentorship, and reintegration.

Healthcare Access and Quality: Access to health care, access to primary care, health literacy (health education), and healthcare provider pipeline programs.

Neighborhood and Built Environment: Neighborhood crime and violence (including domestic violence and bullying), availability and quality of housing, and access to transportation.

Racial, Ethnic and Cultural Competency: Educational initiatives to address bias, and discrimination and racialized medicine.

Funding requests can also support programsthat focus on community needs and impact quality gap closures in behavioral health, women’s health, chronic condition management, preventative care, well-child visits, osteoporosis and fall prevention.

“This is just one way we are continuing to advance health equity, and foster our mission in its entirety, to help people lead healthier more secure lives by working together,” said Gina Cuyler, MD, Excellus BCBS vice president of health equity and community investments.

For additional information and the online application, go to https://news.excellusbcbs.com/news-room/community-investments-partnerships. Award winners will be announced in May.

Excellus BCBS divides its 31-county upstate New York operating area into four regions: the Central New York region, which includes Cayuga, Cortland, Onondaga, Oswego and Tompkins counties; the Utica region, comprising Clinton, Delaware, Essex, Franklin, Fulton, Hamilton, Herkimer, Jefferson, Lewis, Madison, Montgomery, Oneida, Otsego and St. Lawrence counties; the Southern Tier region, including Broome, Chemung, Chenango, Tioga, Schuyler and Steuben counties; and the Rochester region, encompassing Livingston, Monroe, Ontario, Seneca, Wayne and Yates counties.

The company’s corporate giving follows all applicable laws and regulations and does not support funding organizations that conflict with its corporate mission, goals, policies or products.