Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island Awards 2015 Community Health Grant

PROVIDENCE, RI  – Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island (BCBSRI) is awarding one of six 2015 BlueAngel Community Health Grants (BACHG) to bring an evidence-based obesity prevention program to the children and parents served by Clínica Esperanza/Hope Clinic (CEHC) in Providence. The Healthy Active Children program (Niño’s Activos y Sanos) will focus on improving nutrition, physical activity and parenting practices to help low-income families lead healthy lives. The program will enroll 50 to 60 participants each year.

Healthy Active Children is CEHC’s second lifestyle intervention program, but it is the first one to focus on families. Working with both parents and children, the program aims to improve families’ dietary intake, physical activity and screen time habits. The program will be run by peer-educators (known as navegantes), who, working together, will lead eight-week sessions
based on CEHC’s pilot-tested Healthy Children Healthy Families nutrition curriculum.

The costs of childhood obesity are real: if the average body mass index in Rhode Island was reduced by five percent it could lead to health care savings of more than $850 million in 10 years and $2 billion in 20 years. Healthcare stakeholders and nonprofits are working together to create healthier environments for Rhode Island’s children in an effort to reduce
the impact of the obesity epidemic. For the second year in a row, the BlueAngel Community Health Grant program will focus on this critical issue. This year, six new grants and three transitional grants totaling $319,000 will be awarded to 2014 BACHG recipients.

“We continue to be very proud of the impact community organizations are able to make through the support of BlueAngel grants,” said Michele Lederberg, chief administrative officer and general counsel for BCBSRI. “The Healthy Active Children program provides the kind of full family engagement needed to fight childhood obesity. We are proud to help the development of this program, and to further strengthen our partnership with CEHC.”

CEHC provides free, high quality medical care to uninsured adults living in Rhode Island. The CEHC clinic in Providence offers culturally sensitive, personalized care—all provided by volunteers. CEHC provides continuous primary care to almost 1,500 enrolled patients and serves thousands more through its walk in clinic, health screens and health education programs.

The BACHG program awards local organizations that teach and support healthy habits, from better nutrition to increased physical activity. BCBSRI accepts and reviews proposals for the BACHG program once a year. Each letter of intent received is reviewed to determine compliance with eligibility and funding priorities. Grant award winners were notified in December 2014 with funding to begin in January 2015.

About the BACHG Program
The BACHG program was launched in 2002 and has touched the lives of more than 240,000 people in the state. The program is a key component in BCBSRI’s vision of enhancing the quality of life for Rhode Islanders by increasing the quality of and access to healthcare services. The BACHGs are made possible by the BCBSRI Community Health Fund, a corporate donor-advised fund of The Rhode Island Foundation.

About BCBSRI
Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island is the state’s leading health insurer and covers more than 550,000 members. The company is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association. For more information, visit www.bcbsri.com, follow us on Twitter @BCBSRI, and like us on Facebook at fb.com/bcbsrhodeisland.

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