Mini-Grant Focus: The American Heart Association is a part of Palm Beach County’s Culture of Health Network which seeks to improve conditions impacting our ability to be well and to live our fullest health potential. With funds from HCA Foundation and Palm Health Foundation, the American Heart Association is expanding the work of the Culture of Health Network across our service area of Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie, and Okeechobee counties. The priority is to support projects that create sustainable change by improving conditions that impact community health. This could be through policy, system, or built environment change to build capacity or enhance health equity. To be eligible, application must focus on ONE of the following priority areas:
1. Blood pressure Control
- Routine community-based blood pressure screenings with connection to clinical care (as needed).
- Increasing access to validated equipment for self-measured blood pressure readings in clinical and community settings.
- Training staff and community on blood pressure basics.
- Increasing access to ongoing free & low-cost activities for blood pressure control (not for one-time events).
2. Nutrition Security
- Establish a new market or healthy food outlet to provide sustainable access to fruits and vegetables.
- Establish healthy nutrition standards at food bank/pantry with plans to prioritize sourcing of healthier items for clients served.
- Establish EBT (SNAP and WIC) payment at farmer's markets, mobile markets, or other healthy food outlets.
- Purchase additional cold storage and/or shelving to increase fruits and vegetables served at pantry.
- Establish food security screening and referral process for ALL clients.
- Establish sustainable coupon/double bucks/added benefit via Farmers Market or other outlet to increase access to fruit and vegetables.
- Training staff on how to connect clients to food assistance programs.
- Connect residents to enrollment assistance for USDA benefits assistance programs for eligible clients (WIC, SNAP, etc.)
- Offer nutrition education for residents.
- Implement comprehensive healthy food environment improvements inclusive of vending, catering, pantries, hot meal service, food service.
- Increase access to USDA child nutrition programs: CACFP in early care.
- Increase access to USDA child nutrition programs: summer feeding program.
3. Tobacco-free and Vape-free Environments
- Adoption of smoke-free policies in workplaces, universities, churches, hospitals, private apartment complexes, and other locations inclusive of posting signage and training on implementation for staff and volunteers
- Tobacco use screening for ALL clients including connection to free or low-cost cessation classes for eligible clients.
- Train staff on tobacco use and how to connect clients to cessation resource
- Host educational programming about the effects of tobacco use as a supportive strategy for policy and system change.
4. Cardiac Emergency Response
- Policy on routine training of staff about hands-only CPR.
- Ongoing routine training of community about hands-only CPR.
- Implement community-led intervention intended to eliminate disparities in calling 911, rate of response and/or bystander CPR (cardiac emergency response plan, AED placement, CPR added to staff/client training protocols, etc.).
Award Amount: Mini-grants can be up to $4,000
Eligibility Criteria & Requirements:
- Your organization must be a nonprofit 501(c)(3), government agency, or civic organization in Palm Beach, Martin, St. Lucie and Okeechobee counties.
- The proposed project must address one of the following priority areas using one or more of the evidence-based strategies listed above in a way that feels authentic to your community.
o Blood Pressure Control
o Nutrition Security
o Tobacco/Vaping-free Environments
o Cardiac Emergency Response
- Organization representative must attend live information session via Zoom on November 11th at 1 PM OR watch recording: https://heart.zoom.us/rec/share/0HbbVWpb5HIgzaiQjiqxspM3uOBOSBJgsdjeHmIPysCbY6WOpoim4JFE7GSjs2PL.BnZ48yQ0Ohz1pth-
- Passcode for Zoom recording: AHACOHY3!
- Submit application with required uploads by Saturday November 30th at 11:59 PM.
- You must agree to complete a memorandum of understanding (MOU) within two weeks of receiving your award notification.
- Applicants will be notified on or before Friday, December 20th whether they will receive funding or not. If awarded, please provide representation at the in person “Launch and Learn” on Monday, January 13th at noon. More details to come.
- You must agree to have at least one representative attend monthly virtual convenings in February - May of 2025 and final in-person convening (our “Land and Learn”) in June 2025.
- Reporting- You will work with American Heart Association representative who will support you in implementation and follow up on your progress. Once your project is completed, your representative will draft an impact story documenting your success. You must agree to contribute to and sign-off on this impact story. You will be notified of your representative at the time you are notified of funding.
- Please note, if your organization received funding through previous American Heart Association or Healthier Jupiter RFPs, that grant deliverable must be completed and sustainable change made to qualify for this funding opportunity, and new funding must be to either support a new or different sustainable project/initiative, or further bolster previously implemented change.