Kaiser Permanente Community Fund at Northwest Health Foundation awards generous grant to NWDSA

Northwest Down Syndrome Association/ABI is incredibly honored and excited to be one of the KPCF Funded Partners. Our three-year cross disability project Empowering Families and Building Equity: Improving Access and Readiness for Young Children with Disabilities was one of 19 grants awarded.

**The Kaiser Permanente Community Fund at
Northwest Health Foundation Awards more than $2.5 Million to Improve Health**

PORTLAND, Ore.— The Kaiser Permanente Community Fund (KPCF) has awarded more than $2.5 million in grant funds to 19 organizations that improve health in Oregon and southwest Washington. Awarded annually, these grants address the “upstream” or underlying factors that impact community health.

For three years, the fund has focused on three specific social determinants of health: early life & childhood development, educational attainment and economic opportunity. These focus areas were selected to build on community momentum and their potential for long-term impact.

“For too many of us, conditions where we’re born, learn and live limit our choices and our opportunity to be healthy,” said Nichole Maher, president of Northwest Health Foundation. “The Kaiser Permanente Community Fund supports organizations that are tackling these conditions in innovative ways that are driven by the very communities they seek to impact. We’re honored to support exactly this kind of work.”

“Healthy people and communities depend on more than the care they get through medical offices and hospitals—good health starts where we live, work and play,” added Andrew McCulloch, President of Kaiser Permanente Northwest. “Prevention and early intervention work. Investing in communities is essential to improving the health of our population today and making health care more affordable in the long run.”

Each project selected for a KPCF grant seeks to make measurable improvements in health for individuals and families, while also improving the long-term health of communities. Projects range from creating new ways of delivering foster care, and helping Muslim students make stronger community ties to neighborhood- based economic development in Gresham/Portland’s Rockwood neighborhood.

More information about the fund, and the projects listed below, can be found at www.northwesthealth.org/kpcf.

About KPCF
The Kaiser Permanente Community Fund at Northwest Health Foundation is a twelve-year, sunset fund with a mission to improve the health of communities throughout the Kaiser Permanente Northwest service region, with a specific focus on addressing the “upstream” factors that create or inhibit community health, also known as the social determinants of health.

KPCF was created when Kaiser Permanente Northwest established it in 2004 with $28 million. To date, it has awarded $25 million in grants to more than 189 organizations in Oregon and SW Washington.

The Kaiser Permanente Community Fund is achieving real, effective health reform right here in the Northwest by addressing the critical factors that lead to healthier people and healthier places.