Monroe County organizations receive grants

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. (Inside INdiana Business) — Monroe County organizations have received funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The $600,000 grant comes through the Community Voices for Health initiative to support the Community Voices For Health in Monroe County with the help of the Bloomington Health Foundation and the Community Justice and Mediation Center. The initiative works to serve marginalized and underserved communities in healthcare policymaking. 

“We are all witness to the unprecedented challenges COVID-19 presents. The current crisis affects each of us differently and for many in our community only exacerbates existing health challenges. The need to inform healthcare policy by building more inclusive and impactful community health assessment tools is more important now than ever,” said BHF president and CEO Jonathan Barada. “As one of only six projects nationally, and the only one in Indiana, we are grateful to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation for their support and vision.”

BHF will serve as fiscal sponsor for the initiative with CJAM and Gnarly Tree Sustainability Institute, IU O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs faculty and others. The first phase focuses on community-engaged research and will use local health assessments to help underrepresented community members. The second phase includes legal research and sharing models from the first phase with partners in workshops, along with engagement toolkits. 

The Monroe County funding was included in nearly $4 million from The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, with each project being awarded over $600,000. Organizations in Colorado, Georgia, Nevada, New Mexico and Pennsylvania also received grants.