August 27, 1998 | Read Time: 1 minute
The W. K. Kellogg Foundation has pledged $55-million over the next five years to improve the quality and availability of health care in low-income neighborhoods.
The program, called “Community Voices: Healthcare for the Underserved,” is the largest commitment ever by the Battle Creek, Mich., foundation, the country’s fourth-largest grant maker. Kellogg expects to at least double that amount by persuading government agencies and other private donors to join the effort.
The Kellogg money will go to 13 coalitions that serve people who otherwise cannot afford health care, such as residents of poor urban neighborhoods, American Indians, and immigrants. Each project will not only provide services but will also get involved in lobbying efforts to improve the availability of health care.
Kellogg hopes that the neighborhoods will become laboratories for creating innovative programs that can then be transferred to other parts of the country.
In New York, for example, Alianza Dominicana, Columbia University, and Harlem Hospital Center are working with 12 other local organizations to provide better medical care for the neighborhoods of Washington Heights and central Harlem. Local officials estimate that about half of the 300,000 residents in those neighborhoods do not receive adequate health care.
One part of the project will be a public-education effort in which local groups will canvass the neighborhoods door-to-door in an attempt to make sure that everyone who is eligible for government-sponsored health insurance is signed up. The project will also lobby for state and city funds to set up an affordable health-insurance plan for low-income people.
For more information, contact Henrie Treadwell, Program Director, Community Voices: Healthcare for the Underserved, W. K. Kellogg Foundation, One Michigan Avenue East, Battle Creek, Mich. 49017-4058; (616) 969-2025; World-Wide Web http://www.wkkf.org.
