DeWITT — The Upstate Foundation Inc, Cayuga Counseling Services, and Le Moyne College are among seven Central New York organizations awarded funding in Excellus BlueCross BlueShield’s Health Equity Innovation Awards. 

Excellus, Central New York’s largest health insurer, awarded the CNY organizations $162,500, which is part of a total of more than $520,000 in financial support for community programs that address racial and ethnic health disparities across the health plan’s upstate New York service area. 

Excellus grants will support 20 nonprofits across the Central New York, Rochester, Utica/North Country, and Southern Tier regions. 

With more than 180 applicants, the review process included input from individuals with “diverse backgrounds and experiences to assess each proposal.” Funding recipients were selected based on “clear, defined goals and measurable results for reducing health disparities and improving health equity,” the health system said.

“At Excellus BlueCross BlueShield, our mission is to help people lead heathier more secure lives through access to high-quality, affordable health care,” Simone Edwards, VP of health equity and community investments at Excellus, said in a news release. “We’re committed to community partnerships and using our resources to support initiatives that directly target health disparities, promote access to care, and address the underlying social determinants of health, to help ensure everyone can reach their full potential.” 

Central New York funding recipients

Below is a description of the the funding recipients and the programs they are implementing, as described in the Excellus release.

• Le Moyne College — Dolphins Spreading Healthy Optimistic Positive Experience (HOPE). The program will utilize a peer-based, health-promotion approach to reach high-school students who are at risk for mental-health issues and suicide.

• Cayuga Counseling Services, Inc. — Its program will expand the community’s comprehensive collaborative efforts and create an online database that includes the Child Advocacy Center, the Rape-Crisis Center, the Sexual and Physical Abuse MDT, the Child Fatality Review Team and Runaway/Homeless Youth Taskforce, and the Cayuga County Dually Diagnosed Taskforce.

• Suicide Prevention & Crisis Service (SPCS) of Tompkins County — LGBTQIA+ Crisis Line. The program will support increasing outreach to those in the LGBTQIA+ community and will formalize training for crisis counselors, ensuring they are best equipped to support those in need.

• The Upstate Foundation, Inc. — Native American Preterm program. It will support the implementation of a culturally competent approach to decrease the high preterm-birth rate in Native American women in Central New York by increasing access to early and sustained prenatal care, with an emphasis on cultural awareness and sensitivity.

• On Point for College — Creating Safe Spaces. The program will support On Point’s Creating Safe Spaces project that will facilitate a culture/environment of openness, inclusion, and affirmation, regardless of a student’s race, gender, sexual orientation, or mental-health status.

• Joseph’s House for Women, Inc. — A Home for a Healthier Future. The initiative will support Joseph House enhanced programming in case management, a life-skills program, counseling, childcare, and 24-hour staffing.

• Seven Valleys Health Coalition —Postpartum doula support in rural communities. The program will support postpartum doula program research and development, the training of local postpartum doulas, and doula reimbursement for community members. Postpartum doulas will provide support and knowledge, not only to those recently pregnant, but also their families — helping to work through the new season of life that comes with the birth of a child.