Funding Opportunity: Grant Announcement

The CIGNA Foundation provides grants to projects that focus their efforts on five priority areas including: 1) the health of women, children and families, 2) obesity awareness and prevention, 3) patient/doctor communications and health literacy, 4) elimination of gender and ethnic disparities with health care, and 5) maintenance of healthy minds and bodies.

The foundation will pay particular attention to projects demonstrating creativity, responsiveness, and that are beneficial and achievable.

Application deadline: Rolling

Click here for more information and to apply

Senate Subcommittee Zeroes Out SDFSC Program

Yesterday the Senate Labor, HHS and Education Subcommittee on Appropriations voted to eliminate the State Grants portion of the Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities (SDFSC) program. The Full Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled vote on the bill tomorrow.

Please call your Senators TODAY.You can reach them by calling the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and asking for your member’s office. (If you don’t know who your Senators are, you can find out by going to http://capwiz.com/cadca/home/ and entering your zip code.)

When connected, please deliver the following message:

- I understand that the Senate Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Subcommittee on Appropriations voted to eliminate the State Grants portion of the Safe and Drug Free Schools program

- This is a huge problem and a gigantic mistake because is will decimate the substance abuse and violence prevention infrastructure that is currently in place in our state

- This is a major problem, especially since data from the most recent Monitoring the Future survey is already showing that attitudes are softening, and that more 10th graders are smoking marijuana than cigarettes

- If the State Grants portion of the Safe and Drug Free Schools program is eliminated students in grades K-12 will not receive the messages and effective programming to counter emerging and embedded drug trends as well as bullying and violence prevention issues

The True Cost of Substance Abuse

A  new report by National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University shows that over 15% of all state government’s budgets go to substance abuse and addiction and its consequences. If this were its own state budget category, it would rank second behind spending on elementary and secondary education.

Worse, 94% of this spending goes to pay for the enormous hidden burden of alcohol, tobacco, and other drug problems on a wide range of state services like health care and criminal justice — while less than 3% goes toward prevention programs that would help.

Now is your chance to make a difference! Ask your local government to act on this report, and find out how much money your state is spending to “shovel up” the consequences of substance abuse and addiction. Review this sample letter, fill in your information at the right, and click “send this message.”

Funding Opportunity: Grant Announcement

The Wachovia Foundation provides Community Needs Grants to support organizations working to improve communities with low- to moderate-income. In particular, the Foundation strives to improve education, community development, and environmental health, ensure access to health and human services, and to bolster civic engagement.

Award amounts may vary. Eligible applicants include tax-exempt organizations under Section 501(c)(3), have broad community support, and can demonstrate fiscal and administrative stability.

Click here for more information and to apply.

Funding Opportunity: Grant Announcement

The Wal-Mart Foundation supports programs and initiatives addressing education, workforce development, economic sustainability, and health and wellness. For health and wellness in particular, the Foundation looks to improve access to healthcare, promote healthy lifestyles and behaviors, and reduce disparities.

Grant awards range from $1,000 to $5,000. Eligible applicants include organizations with tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(3), recognized government entities, volunteer Fire Departments, K-12 Public Schools/Districts, Charter Schools, Colleges, Universities, Private Schools with tax-exempt status, and faith-based organizations.

Click here for more information and to apply

Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities: YOUR HELP IS NEEDED!

On Friday, July 17^th, the Full House Appropriations Committee voted to eliminate the State Grants portion of the Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities (SDFSC) program. The Senate Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Subcommittee on Appropriations is tentatively scheduled to mark up its version of the bill that contains funding for this program on July 28^th. We can still try to get the funds restored but WE NEED YOUR HELP AGAIN!

Please take five minutes out of your day TODAY to contact the members of your congressional delegation (both senators and your representative). You can reach them by calling the Capitol Switchboard at 202-224-3121 and asking for your member’s office. (If you don’t know who the members of your congressional delegation are, you can find out by going to http://capwiz.com/cadca/home/ and entering your zip code.)

When connected, please deliver the following message:

 -       I understand that the Full House Appropriations Committee voted to eliminate the State Grants portion of the Safe and Drug Free Schools program

-       The House Report says it would rather concentrate funding on targeted interventions, funded through the national programs portion of the Safe and Drug Free Schools program

-       This is a huge problem and a gigantic mistake because the national programs gives very large grants to a very limited number of local educational agencies who will not be able to sustain these grants when the grant period is over

-       In addition, over 90% of school districts, including mine, DON’T receive money from the national programs and probably never will

 -       Therefore, if the State Grants portion of the Safe and Drug Free Schools program is eliminated and there will be no prevention infrastructure in place in the vast majority of schools in the country, including ours, to provide K-12 students with messages and effective programming to counter emerging and embedded drug trends as well as bullying and violence prevention issues

-       Please tell your boss that it is critical that the funding for the Safe and Drug Free Schools program be maintained and we need their support

Funding Opportunity:Grant Announcement

The Charles Lafitte Foundation is seeking applicants for their Healthy Living Grants.

The Charles Lafitte Foundation supports innovative and effective ways for people to help themselves and others around them lead healthy and satisying lives.

The Foundation’s areas of interests are education, youth advocacy, and medical research.

Eligible applicants are nonprofit organizations with 501(c)(3) status.

Deadline: Rolling (Letter of Inquiry)

Click here for more information and to apply.

Funding Opportunity: Grant Announcement

The Jostens Foundation is accepting applications for their Community Involvement Grants.

Jostens supports strong communities and healthy children and families. the foundation’s main focus is to fund programs that help youth become healthy and productive adults.

Award amounts ranges from $500 -$10,000. Eligible applicants include tax-exempt organizations under Section 501(c)(3) or agencies that are members of the Federal or any State, County or local Municipal government.

Click here for more information and to apply.

Deadline is August 25, 2009

Evidence-Based Prevention is Focus of Military Study

The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has announced that a  team of four research institutions, with $50 million in funding from the U.S. Army, will carry out the largest study of suicide and mental health among military personnel ever.

Study investigators hope to quickly identify risk and protective factors for suicide among soldiers and provide a science base for effective and practical interventions to reduce suicide rates and address associated mental health problems.

The study will use several strategies to generate information on risk and protective factors:

• The Army already has a rich archive of data on its personnel. Study investigators will work to consolidate information from different databases and use this resource to identify possible suicide risk and protective factors.
• Investigators will undertake a retrospective case-control study in which individual soldiers who have attempted suicide with or without fatal outcomes (cases) will be matched with individuals with similar demographic characteristics (controls). Comparison of information gathered on cases and controls should provide clues to risk and protective factors.
• A survey for which 90,000 active Army personnel representative of the entire Army will be contacted will provide information on the prevalence of suicide-related behavior and risk and protective factors. When possible, saliva and blood samples will be collected for genetic and neurobiologic studies.
• All 80,000 to 120,000 recruits who enter the Army in each of the first three years of the study will be asked to participate in a survey similar to the all-Army survey above.

Click here for more information

State Grants Portion of SDFSC Program Eliminated by House Labor, HHS and Education Subcommittee

The House Labor, Health and Human Services and Education Subcommittee has voted to eliminate the State Grants portion of the Safe and Drug Free Schools and Communities program.

The bill calling for the elimination of this program still has to be approved by the Full House Appropriations Committee and on the House floor. In addition, the Senate has not yet considered the bill, so there is still time to restore much needed funds.

By using  the Community Anti-Drug Coalitions of America (CADCA) CapWiz system, you can fax the members of your congressional delegation immediatly.  If you are unaware of the name of your member of Congress, their system can find it.

To send faxes to your legislators, go to http://capwiz.com/cadca/home/.

If you would like to personalize your letter with examples from your community, email dkurosky@cadca.org for a MS Word version of the sample letter.