Healthy Living Grant Program

 
Supporting community-led efforts at addressing prevention strategies that promote health equity and healthy living is paramount to our success as a nonprofit hospital. To do this, City of Hope established the Healthy Living Grant program.    
 
The Healthy Living Grant program is giving out $5,000 grants to groups/organizations that can demonstrate not-so-ordinary, sustainable and collaborative approaches to promoting healthy living by addressing the root causes of illness and disease.  
 
Applicants must provide services, for vulnerable populations, within the Greater Los Angeles or Orange County regions. Proposals must incorporate at least one of these five topics below. (See the 2021-2023 City of Hope Implementation Strategy, page 13 for more ideas.)
  • Access to Care – Specifically related to implicit bias, structural racism, policy, systems, environment and cross-sectoral collaborations that address the social determinants of health
  • Mental Health – Upstream programming to address access, policy and quality services that serve both the adult and youth communities
  • Food and Housing Insecurity – Policy and/or programming that creates linkages to sustainable sources of food and housing
  • Healthy Living – Programming that addresses risk factors for chronic disease
  • Cancer Prevention – Prevention education and screening programs
     
    View Application
The City of Hope Healthy Living Grant (HLG) recipients use our funding to make a difference. We know this because we went out and watched them work. Many broke down barriers to healthy living and lifestyles by providing much-needed support in the languages its community members speak. Others provided knowledge and education that help change the perspectives of individuals coming to their community. We have seen gardens grow, kids walk to school safely and early morning walkers getting in exercise before most other people’s days have begun. We have heard these programs delivered in Mandarin, Spanish and English. In order to effectively share what we have learned from our grantees, we want to provide them with an opportunity to showcase their work (in our local vulnerable communities). To help them get ready, we assisted them in reporting their evaluation data and taught them how to turn those numbers into compelling 15-minute presentations. Then we provided each grantee with an opportunity share their findings at our yearly conference and awards luncheon (see the 2023 cohort presentations here).
 
Each year, the City of Hope Community Benefit Advisory Council sits downs and reviews all the HLG submissions. After hours of reviewing the submissions individually, the HLG committee meets to discuss the each one and make their final recommendation for awardees. These recommendations are presented to the entire council for a vote. This year, the grantees represent an incredible group of non-profit organizations that are working hard to create impact in the lives of the people they serve. Below are the brief details of this year's Healthy Living Grant recipients. 
 

2023 City of Hope Healthy Living Grant Recipients

Mental Health Advocacy Services

Mental Health Trainings:  Mental Health and Homelessness.   Provide trainings that support mental and behavioral health providers to understand the mental health challenges of the unhoused. 

Breast Cancer Angels

One Family At A Time.  Sustainably supporting the social health needs of breast cancer patients from Orange County to Riverside.  

Pediatric Adolescent Diabetes Research and Education Foundation (PADRE)

Accepting. Advancing. Amazing. Type 1 Diabetes Education and Support Program. Education-based program to support disadvantaged teens diagnosed with Type1 diabetes. They offer year-round support, education and treatment assistance to teens and their families.   Will work directly with teens and their families (support systems) increase competence, control and confidence in their ability to control their diabetes.   

Duarte High School Environmental Club

School Garden.  Link environmental learning and therapeutic gardening into a school-based garden.  Students will design and build the garden.   They will infuse gardening into the culture at the school.

Hollywood Food Coalition

Community Exchange. Through their innovative food rescue program they will rescue, sort and distribute 2.4 million pounds of rescued food with their network of over 140 fellow non-profits.

Growing Hope Gardens

Urban Resident Food Garden. Through their community collaboration, Growing Hope Gardens will serve residents of a permanent supportive housing community.  They will engage the residents through a series of leadership and skill building workshops that will provide access to food, enhance wholeness at the individual and community level, and the build a sustainable program through community engagement that fosters ownership. 

AV-Boots on the Ground

Fight for Veterans Health Benefits. Address the gap in veteran engagement at community events that link them to social care and health services through targeted approaches that build trust. 

City of San Gabriel—HEAR Commission

Mental Wellness. Seek to normalize discussion around mental illness and treatment.   Provide local residents with the opportunity to meet and connect with mental health services providers in their community.  

Rainbow Labs

Leveraging the Power of LGBTQ+ Volunteers as Mentors for LGBTQ+ Youth. Responding to their 2021 focus groups with LGBTQ youth, they will strengthen a mentoring infrastructure that will provide youth with the caring and consistent adults in their lives, that they indicated that they needed. 

Montclair Community Foundation

Cultivating Wellness in Montclair.  The MCF will cultivate wellness in Montclair by assisting the efforts of Healthy Montclair’s promotoras and expanding the Montclair Community Garden as a resource for increasing access to organic fruits and vegetables and improving physical activity through gardening.  

LYTE Foundation, Inc.

Living Your Truth Empowered Charter Program. Will offer free coaching and programming through community-based locally tailored Charters to breast cancer survivors immediately following treatment.

2023 Community Building Grant Recipients

Orange County Buddhist Church

Tomodachi Bento—Addressing Social Isolation Among Elderly Japanese Americans.  Just as a physician treats the mind, body and soul of a patient, Tomodachi Bento, through its Social Isolation and Engagement Plan will seek to engage senior, caregivers and the community similarly though Lunch and Learn, Dining Out and culturally sensitive programs.

Conejo Free Clinic

Breast Cancer Screening & Diagnostics for Low-Income Women. Provide breast cancer screenings and/or diagnostic tests for vulnerable refugee populations in Ventura County.  

Asian American Senior Citizen Service Center

Mental Health Café. AASCSC will host mental health café sessions within the API community utilizing an integrative approach of peer/professional co-facilitation. 

2023  Health Equity Grant Recipient

Mighty Little Giants, Inc.  

NICU Family Support. Addressing the inequities that Black and Indigenous women face when birthing, Mighty Little Giants will partner with the Antelope Valley Hospital to provide a safe space for postpartum support and healing. 

 

For more information, please contact Nancy Clifton-Hawkins at communitybenefit@coh.org.