Trust announces more than $450,000 to help Spanish-speaking and rural residents find health insurance

WINSTON-SALEM, NC—The Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust announced grants of more than $450,000 to support the expansion of North Carolina’s health insurance options and to continue helping financially disadvantaged residents identify and secure health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. By investing nearly $1.5 million over the past year to help residents understand their new health insurance choices, the Trust has been a leader on the issue and supported statewide efforts to enroll more than 400,000 North Carolinians in health insurance plans in recent months. Read more about the Trust’s investments in the impact of the Affordable Care Act here.

Specifically, Trust funding announced this month includes $25,000 to help low-income Latino residents of Chatham and surrounding counties with health insurance enrollment; $82,500 to Enroll America to continue outreach efforts in Spanish-speaking communities around the state; and $346,500 to the North Carolina Justice Center to continue education efforts in rural communities about the need for Medicaid expansion.

“The Affordable Care Act means health insurance is now available to millions of people who had few options in the past. We want to ensure North Carolina’s financially disadvantaged residents understand their choices and can access these new insurance plans,” said Karen McNeil-Miller, president of the Trust. “Mrs. Reynolds advocated for quality health care for all when she was alive, and we continue to honor her vision by supporting quality health insurance for all of our state’s residents today.”

Overall, the Trust’s Health Care Division made 24 grants totaling more than $4.9 million this cycle to improve the health of low-income individuals across the state.

In addition to investing in health insurance access, the Trust also gave more than $1.2 million to Halifax Regional Medical Center and the Halifax County Public Health System to combat childhood obesity as part of its Healthy Places NC work, a long-term Trust initiative announced last year to invest $100 million in 10 to 15 rural, low-income North Carolina counties.  The Trust has invited four counties—Halifax, Beaufort, McDowell and Rockingham—to participate to date. In each county, Healthy Places work and projects are driven by the community’s concerns, as well as by where the Trust thinks there’s an opportunity for sustainable, long-term change.

The $664,509 grant to the Halifax County Public Health System, in partnership with the County’s three school districts, will support the implementation of the Coordinated Approach to Child Health (CATCH) program in 15 elementary schools serving low-income children. CATCH is a national, evidence-based program that targets children’s behaviors and the school environment through classroom curriculum, family engagement, and food service and physical education modifications. Similarly, the Trust gave $622,250 to Halifax Regional Medical Center, on behalf of the Roanoke Valley Community Health Initiative, to implement the “Get Fit, Stay Fit Roanoke Valley” campaign to encourage healthy eating and physical activity among Halifax and Northampton county children and their families.  The campaign is a comprehensive, five-year effort including education, new programming at local parks, improved access to healthy foods and workplace wellness projects.

“Healthy Places NC means working with the local communities in these rural areas to find ways to improve people’s health long-term,” said Allen Smart, vice president of programs at the Trust. “The Halifax County community has rallied around childhood obesity, built partnerships across sectors and shown they’re ready to take the next step. This investment helps us show the community ‘We heard you, and we’re supporting your vision’.”

For a complete list of recent grants approved by the Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust’s Health Care Division, see the attached list.