BY TIM BONFIELD
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Seven local health projects will share more than $870,000 in grants from the recently expanded ChoiceCare Foundation.
The projects range from expanded efforts to fight teen pregnancy, to more services for the working uninsured to more education about organ donation.
The biggest grant -- more than $544,000 over three years -- will be used to create "Career Services," a job-training program designed by Queen City - Mitchell Mental Health Services. The program, scheduled to start in July, is for people suffering from both mental illness and substance-abuse problems.
An estimated 8,700 Hamilton County residents diagnosed with significant mental illness also are addicted to alcohol or illegal drugs. These people have serious trouble getting and keeping jobs, said Mary Campbell, executive director of the Queen City - Mitchell agency.
Last year, the ChoiceCare Foundation got a $220 million boost from the sale of the ChoiceCare health plan to Humana Inc. The cash has allowed the foundation to expand its grant-giving from about $800,000 a year to about $12 million a year.
Other projects:
A three-year, $124,000 grant to the Jordan Center to provide wellness services to working, uninsured people, primarily in Madisonville and Lower Price Hill.
A two-year, $100,000 grant to Children's Hospital Medical Center to expand its Postponing Sexual Involvement program for teens. The program already is used in the Cincinnati Public Schools. $45,405 to the Three Square Music Foundation to provide positive recreational activities for inner-city youth.
$24,145 to Nurses in Advanced Practice Inc. to support a health clinic at the Cincinnati Public Schools' Project Succeed Academy. $18,500 to the Ohio Valley LifeCenter for materials encouraging more hospitals to notify the LifeCenter about potential organ donors.
$14,000 to the West End Health Center for new pharmacy management software.
