For Immediate Release
July 20, 2005

BCBSNC Contact:
Gayle Tuttle, (919) 765-3747
Mark Stinneford, (919) 765-3745

Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Foundation Awards Grants

Alamance Regional Medical Center's Healthy Alamance program receives grant for faith-based diabetes prevention program

Chapel Hill, NC – The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC) Foundation has awarded nine grants totaling more than $128,000 to nonprofit organizations that improve the health and well being of North Carolinians in communities across the state, including Healthy Alamance, a program of Alamance Regional Medical Center.

Grants were awarded to programs focusing on community needs consistent with the BCBSNC Foundation's mission. The mission includes increasing access to health care for the uninsured and underinsured, eliminating racial and ethnic health disparities, encouraging physical activity, and promoting health screenings and education.

Alamance Regional Medical Center was awarded $16,140 for the Healthy Alamance "Being Healthy Counts to H.I.M. (Health Improvement Ministry)," a faith-based diabetes prevention program targeting minorities and high-risk groups in three churches in Alamance County.

The program will focus particularly on the community's black population. Just 18.8 percent of the population in Alamance County is black, yet the mortality rate for blacks with diabetes is 64 percent higher than for non-Hispanic white residents. Healthy Alamance Health Improvement Ministry will provide three local, traditionally black churches with the tools to prevent diabetes within their congregations and among other interested individuals. The programs will emphasize prevention through education, nutritional counseling and physical activity.

"Healthy Alamance is very excited about receiving this grant," said Cindy Brady, coordinator of the organization. "It will greatly help us fulfill our mission by enabling each church to sustain their own diabetes prevention programs."

Additional grant recipients are:

• Crossworks Inc.—awarded $10,000 to establish a heart disease screening and education project aimed at African-American populations in the rural, economically distressed counties of Edgecombe, Nash and Halifax.
• Healthy Children of Rowan County—awarded $15,000 to establish a Type II diabetes screening and education program targeting children in Rowan County.
• KOALA Inc.—awarded $5,000 to provide adult day health care services to the elderly in Transylvania County.
• New Bern-Craven County YMCA Inc.—awarded $7,019 to measure outcomes of the Kids in Motion program, a healthy lifestyles and weight management collaborative in Craven County
• North Carolina Healthy Start Foundation—awarded $25,000 to provide a parent/caregiver education project in 63 counties to reduce the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
• WakeMed—awarded $25,000 to provide physical activity as part of the hospital's pediatric diabetes assessment and management program serving many low-income and minority children.
• YMCA of Catawba County—awarded $10,000 to establish a physical activity and nutritional education program for overweight children in five western counties.
• YWCA of Asheville—awarded $15,000 to continue its diabetes services and educational outreach to underserved populations in Buncombe County.

"These organizations are doing important work and it is essential that they be given the support they need to help promote and facilitate healthy living among North Carolinians," said Kathy Higgins, vice president of the BCBSNC Foundation. "We hope others are able to learn and grow from the example set by these great organizations."