Kaiser Permanente’s medical centers at San Jose and Santa Clara have provided community health grants totaling $1.3 million to 39 non-profits in the Silicon Valley, organizations dedicated to providing access to care, healthy living, community safety and mental health.
The grants, which range from $10,000 to $50,000, support organizations doing a wide range of community good, such as raising domestic violence awareness, providing free food to homeless college students, providing dental and providing mental health care for the homeless.
“These yearly grants continue our mission of improving the health of the neighborhoods we serve,” said Irene Chavez, Senior Vice President and Area Manager of Kaiser Permanente San Jose Medical Center. “I’m particularly pleased that 12 of the KP Community Health grants support nutrition programs, since healthy eating is a major determinant of healthy living.”
One grant was awarded to Valley Verde, a program that teaches residents how to grow their own organic vegetables in their backyards. The organization supplies vegetable seedlings so that residents can grow healthy food familiar to their cultures.
“We work in food insecure communities, providing year-long support and teaching programs to help people become self-sufficient at growing healthy, organic heritage vegetables using square-foot gardening,” said Raul Lozano, Director of Valley Verde. “The Kaiser Permanente grant will help us buy lumber and soil for the raised beds, support staff salaries, and inevitably help our organic-gardeners-to-be live healthier lives.”
Thirteen of the Kaiser Permanente South Bay grants support community mental health programs. A second-year grant to the Community Health Partnership of Santa Clara County will continue a program started last year to help patients face the stigmas and effects of opioid use disorders.
“We’re really mainstreaming the care of opioid addiction, treating it as a chronic disease like diabetes. We use state of the art treatment with medication assisted therapy, which helps them to avoid opioid overdose/death and reclaim their lives,” said Dr. Kent Imai, Medical Director of Community Health Partnership. “We couldn’t do it without the grant from Kaiser Permanente.”
“We’re proud to support our community health programs,” said Chris Boyd, Senior Vice President and Area Manager of the Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Medical Center. “They ensure that our neighbors have a safety net at all times.”
The Kaiser Permanente grants in the Silicon Valley, and the rest of Northern California, came after managers assessed community needs and sought applications from nonprofits asking for grants. Nationally the Kaiser Permanente Community health grants total more than $2 billion.
Below is a list of the 39 Silicon Valley grantees:
- African American Community Service Agency
- Alum Rock Counseling Center
- Alzheimer’s Association
- Asian Americans for Community Involvement
- Bill Wilson Center
- Boys and Girls Clubs of the Silicon Valley
- Caminar
- Cancer CAREpoint
- City of San Jose (aging program)
- Acknowledge Alliance
- Coastal Kids Home Care
- Community Health Partnership
- Community Matters
- Cristo Rey San Jose High School
- Discovery Counseling Center
- Girl Scouts of Northern California
- Healthier Kids Foundation
- Hope’s Corner, Inc.
- LifeMoves
- Lighthouse of Hope Counseling Center
- Next Door Solutions to Domestic Violence
- Rebekah Children’s Services (Odd Fellow)
- On-Site Dental Care Foundation
- POSSO, Portuguese Org. for Social Svs. And Opportunities
- Positive Alternative Recreation Teambuilding Impact
- Project Access, Inc.
- Rebuilding Together, Silicon Valley
- Recovery Café, San Jose
- SPUR: food bucks
- Children’s Discovery Museum
- Evergreen Community College
- School Health Clinics of Santa Clara County
- Sunnyvale Community Services
- Supporting Mamas
- Celia’s Closet
- The Health Trust
- Think Together
- Valley Verde
- Project Cornerstone (YMCA)
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The Kaiser Permanente grants in the Silicon Valley, and the rest of Northern California, came after managers assessed community needs and sought applications from nonprofits asking for grants. Nationally the Kaiser Permanente Community health grants total more than $2 billion.