Kansas Health Foundation Grant Information

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Past Initiatives - 2006-2007 | 2008 | 2009

Initiatives - 2008

Reach Out and Read Program
Amount: $5,339,400      Term: 5 years
Reach Out and Read (ROR) is a national program that promotes early literacy by making books a routine part of pediatric care. The program trains pediatricians, family physicians and other primary care practitioners to advise caregivers about the importance of reading aloud to children. Additionally, practitioners give new books to children at each pediatric check-up from six months to five years of age. By combining the advice of the physician with the gift of a book, the program provides the tools to help promote children’s development skills, a key factor in later school success.

Since 2003, the Foundation has worked with the Kansas Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (KAAP) and its charitable arm, the Kansas Pediatric Foundation (KPF) to develop and implement a program in Kansas using the ROR model. The purpose of this grant is to expand the number of ROR sites across Kansas by initially targeting primary care safety net clinics and clinics in the 25 counties with the highest number of children receiving free and reduced lunches. By targeting providers of low-income families and counties with high poverty rates, the Foundation hopes ROR will be a contributing factor to an increase in the number of at-risk children that enter school with the required reading skills.

Kansas Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) Expansion
Amount: $2,625,000      Term: 9 years
The Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) is a phone survey used by most states to identify leading adult health risk behaviors. This survey identifies items such as how many people use tobacco on a regular basis, eat a high-fat diet or live sedentary lifestyles. Data gathered using this system are then used by public health leaders to develop programs that will respond to the identified health needs.

Some level of funding to administer the BRFSS in all 50 states is provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), with Kansas currently having sufficient funding from CDC to collect data on a statewide basis and specific data from the state’s two most populous counties. While this information is important, it does not address the need for more localized data. Community efforts to improve health behaviors and evaluate health outcomes are largely dependent on the availability of accurate and adequate data at the local level.

Funds from this grant will be used by the Kansas Department of Health and Environment to double the number of respondents for the survey. This will allow for the collection of data on a more localized level, with county-specific data available for the 60 most highly-populated counties in the state. Data would also be available by region for rural areas. The expansion of BRFSS will better equip local communities throughout the state to address, develop, track and evaluate health interventions targeting health risk behaviors.

One Health Kansas
Amount: $2,519,708      Term: 4 years
The concept of One Health revolves around the importance of the complex inter-relationships—and their impact on public health—that exist among humans, companion animals, food animals, wildlife and the environment. Funding from this grant would be used to create One Health Kansas, a new focus for the Masters of Public Health Program (MPH) at Kansas State University. Through the addition of One Health Kansas, KSU’s MPH program will have two major goals: build a pipeline of public health professionals through school outreach programs, and provide a broader, more in-depth education for current and future health professionals. Both of these goals would be geared toward allowing the KSU program to develop a public health workforce capable of addressing emerging and re-emerging zoonotic (transmitted from animals to humans) diseases.

The development of the One Health Kansas program at KSU carries the possibility of a number of substantial, long-term and sustainable benefits for both the university and the state of Kansas. These could include addressing the state’s future shortage of trained public health professionals and strengthening the MPH program at KSU to better position the university for new facilities, programs and funding. The new program will also increase the opportunities for collaboration with other Regents institutions, most notably the MPH program at the University of Kansas.

University of Kansas Masters of Public Health Degree Expansion
Amount: $2,037,709      Term: 4 years
The Masters of Public Health (MPH) program at the University of Kansas was started in 1994 with Foundation funding, and today is a graduate level degree program offered through the Departments of Preventative Medicine and Public Health at the KU Medical Center in Kansas City and the School of Medicine in Wichita. In continued support of the MPH program, this most recent funding will allow the program to develop and implement a minimum of three areas of concentration. Developing these concentrations will provide additional education experiences to public health graduates and also allow the KU MPH program to remain one of the nation’s best.

The first concentration area developed will be epidemiology, due in large part to its standing as an essential component to basic public health practice, planning and regulation of health threats. Additional concentration areas to be developed could include specialized expertise in social and behavioral sciences, policy and administration, biostatistics and environmental health.

Kansas Action for Children (KAC) Support
Amount: $1,525,000      Term: 3 ½ years
This grant will provide continued support for Kansas Action for Children (KAC), a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization dedicated to shaping health, education and economic policy that improves the lives of Kansas children and their families. For nearly three decades KAC has acted as a change agent of policies and systems to ensure that the needs and rights of children in Kansas are met.

With its longtime focus on children’s health, the Foundation has consistently served as a funding source for KAC. Over the past ten years, the Foundation has provided funding for the purpose of helping KAC plan and implement strategic communication tools designed to increase awareness among policymakers and community leaders about the importance of public investment in children. Funds from this grant will continue that support, as well as help KAC diversify its funding sources through the establishment of a development office.

Tobacco Free Kansas Coalition (TFKC) Capacity Building
Amount: $1,200,000      Term: 4 years
This grant will provide funds to the Tobacco Free Kansas Coalition (TFKC) to expand its capacity and better allow the organization to work effectively with communities across the state on tobacco prevention efforts. The organization’s mission involves reducing the prevalence of tobacco use and addiction and decreasing the negative health and economic impact of the use of these products. Research has shown that tobacco is the number one preventable cause of death, both nationally and in Kansas. Funds from this grant will allow TFKC to increase its level of technical assistance to communities as well as increase the number of youth tobacco prevention organizations in Kansas.

The Foundation has a long history of working with TFKC on tobacco prevention efforts, including partnering with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to co-fund its initial development as the Kansas Smokeless Kids Initiative. Through continued support from the Foundation and other sources, TFKC has grown to be a strong organization in Kansas, actively working with communities through technical assistance, training, leadership opportunities and youth empowerment strategies.

Faith and Leadership Initiative
Amount: $1,100,000      Term: 3 years
This faith-based initiative would consist of two separate and unique programs, each designed to provide different leadership opportunities for members and leaders within the Kansas Area United Methodist Church. These programs aim to move the church toward its long-term goals of revitalizing the United Methodist Church in Kansas and enhancing its commitment to social justice and its focus on public health. The initiative was designed through a joint effort by the United Methodist Church, the Kansas Leadership Center and the Foundation.

The Foundation’s partnership with the church dates back to the sale of Wesley Medical Center, which, through the proceeds, led to the creation of the Foundation. This grant gives the Foundation an opportunity to return to its roots with the church, as well as offer a service to address a key goal/need of the church’s future in Kansas. These training opportunities will seek to revitalize, strengthen and grow the church in Kansas for generations to come. It is also the intention to create a spark for the faith community to become a leader in mobilizing and transforming people and organizations around key heath issues and concerns.

Dental Hubs and Spokes: Expanding Access to Oral Health Care in Kansas
Amount: $1,000,000      Term: 3 years
According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, more than 30 percent of the counties in Kansas are designated as “Dental Health Professional Shortage Areas,” with less than one dentist for every 5,000 people. An additional 54 counties lack dental health professionals who provide care to low-income populations. Poor oral health has been linked to a number of medical conditions, including heart disease, diabetes and strokes. These serious health implications, combined with the shortage of services in many parts of the state, make access to oral health care a major concern for Kansans.

The dental hubs and spokes model is an effort by the Kansas Association for the Medically Underserved (KAMU) to increase geographic expansion of access to oral health care throughout Kansas, particularly for low-income families. This concept is to create dental hubs within existing primary care safety net clinics to provide dental care services in a central, underserved location. Satellite locations, or “spokes,” will then be located at schools, nursing homes and other community centers to extend services throughout a region.

Funds from this grant will be used to assist in the start-up of at least two additional dental health hubs, thus bringing KAMU closer to its long-term goal of 15 hubs. The overall project is a partnership with Kansas Department of Health and Environment and five other private foundations.

Kansas Health Ethics
Amount: $400,000      Term: 3 years
Kansas Health Ethics (KHE) is an organization dedicated to providing education about the essential role of health ethics in quality of life decision-making and providing information about the difficult planning and decision-making related to end-of-life issues. The organization provides a number of services to patients and families, health care professionals, health care institutions and ethics committees in hospitals and long-term care facilities.

This grant is to provide funding to KHE to ensure the sustainability of its programs as well as an expansion of its operation and services. Advances in medicine and technology have created new and challenging ethics issues in the practice of medicine and health care, making the services of KHE all the more needed. The funding will be in the form of a challenge grant, as the Foundation will provide funds once KHE has raised $600,000 toward its endowment fund. The grant is also an opportunity to partner with the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund, which will provide operational funding for KHE.

Kansas Health Care Collaborative
Amount: $290,000      Term: 3 years
Through this funding, the Kansas Health Care Collaborative (KHCC) will be a joint venture of the Kansas Medical Society (KMS) and the Kansas Hospital Association (KHA) designed to promote quality health care through improvements in clinical practices, population health and patient safety. Among the top goals for KHCC are developing tools and resources to improve health delivery, reducing preventable hospitalizations, reducing costs and improving Kansas’ rankings on state health scorecards and overall health.

Additionally, this grant will assist with KHCC’s hopes to identify areas, including those relating to communication between patients and providers, in which the health care community might not have executed as well as they might like or as well as the patient needs. This could include seeking ways to ensure the patient has a complete understanding of their overall care and treatment, as well as what to expect during the recovery process, what to do once the patient is home and who to call about questions or complications. This grant also gives the Foundation the opportunity to partner with the Topeka-based Sunflower Foundation on a project meant to address a key health issue.

Governor’s Health and Human Service Fellows
Amount: $100,000      Term: 1 year
This grant provides support for an additional year of the Governor’s Fellows program, which identifies, recruits and trains students with significant leadership potential for future roles in Kansas state government. Its goal is exposing the best and brightest Kansas students to the possibility of government service within Kansas, as well as providing them with hands-on experience and training in the workings of government. Two to three students are generally selected for the program each year and are placed with multiple state agencies in order to provide the students with a more complete picture of how government entities work together for the benefit of Kansas. These students come from a variety of backgrounds, including those who have majored in public administration, public health, health administration, business administration or law.

The Foundation has supported the Governor’s Fellows program since 2004.

Kansas Health Institute Underinsurance Study
Amount: $78,000      Term: 2 years
This grant would fund a comprehensive analysis of the underinsured in Kansas. While much of the data available focus on the uninsured individuals and families in America and Kansas, the issue of underinsurance draws far less attention. Some studies have found that the underinsured have great difficulty accessing affordable care, thus finding themselves in a similar situation as the uninsured. This analysis, to be conducted by the Kansas Health Institute, would qualitatively and quantitatively outline the effect underinsurance can have on a family’s economic or social situation, as well as defining the scope of the problem in Kansas.

By providing funds for this study—in partnership with the Health Care Foundation of Greater Kansas City, the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund, the REACH Healthcare Foundation and the Sunflower Foundation—the Foundation continues its efforts to play an educational role on key policy issues in Kansas. This study, and its accompanying results, will begin to focus more attention on the issue of underinsurance in Kansas. Findings from the study will be used to inform policymakers of the causes, scope and effects of underinsurance in the state.

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