News and press releases

PORTLAND, Ore.—A growing effort in health care, education and even juvenile justice is focused on issues that grow from childhood trauma. This fall, CareOregon is dedicating a portion of Community Benefit grant giving to programs and organizations that are addressing ACEs—Adverse Childhood Experiences.

CareOregon, which serves the largest number of Medicaid recipients in the state through its affiliation with four Coordinated Care Organizations (CCOs), this fall made $300,000 in development investment grants to six organizations that are leading projects that address ACEs. These organizations are located in Jackson and Columbia counties as well as the Portland metro area.

“Failing to address Adverse Childhood Experiences results in an increased lifetime of risk for ill health, social challenges and potentially legal problems,” said Eric C. Hunter, chief executive officer and president. “These grants continue CareOregon’s work to address the social and economic issues that have such a major impact on our community’s health and entire health care system.”

CareOregon’s biannual community-benefit giving additionally awarded $110,000 in eight smaller grants within its core focus areas. These include childhood development, member and community empowerment, social determinants of health, as well as goals determined by each CCO’s Community Health Improvement Plan. The awards are intended to improve operating capacity for services provided to low-income populations, particularly in the areas of food access, health promotion resources and improvements in health equity within communities of color and the refugee community.

The development investment grants include:

• Northwest Regional Education Service District (Columbia County)—$68,000 for the Trauma Informed Care/ACEs Learning Collaborative, phase 2 of a project to incorporate these skills and services within the five Columbia County school districts.
• KairosPDX (Multnomah)—$63,000 for creating a KairosPDX Culturally Responsive Trauma Informed Care curriculum in this non-profit charter school.
• Black Parent Initiative (Multnomah)—$59,000 to support staff and doula contractors for the 2018 Sacred Roots Doula Expansion Project. This will increase the capacity of the culturally specific doula program for low-income Black families by 50 percent.
• DePaul Treatment Centers (Multnomah)—$50,000 to add a new Youth Outreach & In-School Addictions Counselor position to serve high school students at Madison and Benson high schools.
• Trillium Family Services (Multnomah)—$40,000 for the Keep Oregon Well in Schools movement. It supports the Basic Keep Oregon Well platform, staffing, Wellness Zone creation and more.
• Southern Oregon University (Multnomah)—$20,000 to support an ACEs training program, in coordination with Rogue Community College.

The capacity investment grants are:

• Refugee Disability Benefits Oregon..................... $20,000
• Rose Haven............................................................. $20,000
• Urban Gleaners....................................................... $20,000
• Janis Youth Programs........................................... $16,000
• Kúkátónón Children’s African Dance Troupe..... $10,000
• MIKE Program......................................................... $10,000
• Wallace Medical Concern...................................... $10,000
• Working Class Acupuncture................................... $4,000

 Appendix A

CareOregon Fall 2017

Refugee Disability Benefits Oregon (Multnomah, Clackamas, Washington/Statewide)—$20,000

Project Description: Health Equity for Refugees and Immigrants. RDBO attorneys work closely with health care providers, case managers, counselors and the refugees they serve, to ensure that refugees’ cases are presented competently and compassionately. The grant will build capacity to improve health equity for our most vulnerable populations and minimize health.
http://www.rdbo.org/refugee-disability-benefits-of-oregon/

Rose Haven (Multnomah County)—$20,000

Project Description: Shower Program Expansion. Rose Haven serves women, children and gender non-conforming folks experiencing homelessness, abuse and intersecting issues such as poor physical and mental health, many of whom are CareOregon members. Grant funds will help provide staffing, facility space, utilities and supplies for the Shower Program for women and children experiencing homelessness.
http://rosehaven.org/

Urban Gleaners (Multnomah County)—$20,000

Project Description: 2018 Support for Reducing Food Insecurity. Urban Gleaners’ mission is to help alleviate hunger by collecting edible, surplus food that would otherwise be thrown away and redistributing it to agencies that feed the hungry. The funds from CareOregon will help purchase a new refrigerated van to increase our hot food recovery operations.
http://urbangleaners.org/

Janus Youth Programs – Village Market (Multnomah County)—$16,000
Project Description: Village Market – Free Fruit for Kids. The Village Market project of Village Gardens and Janus Youth Programs was designed to meet a basic need for access to fresh, healthy, culturally appropriate food at a reasonable price. CareOregon funds will support the Free Fruit for Kids program: free apples, bananas and oranges available as a healthy snack for neighborhood children throughout 2018.
http://www.villagegardens.org/village-market

Kúkátónón Children’s African Dance Troupe (Multnomah County) — $10,000
Project Description: Building Capacity, Kúkátónón is an African dance youth performance troupe committed to building and serving our community by offering culturally authentic dance instruction, youth mentoring and support to our children, their families and communities. Funds from this grant will directly support increased staff hours.
https://www.kukatonon.org/

MIKE Program (Multnomah, Washington counties)—$10,000

Project Description: Understanding our Stakeholders. CareOregon funds will help support the MIKE Program, a youth-focused health science education program for underserved youth and helps build community engagement for health promotion, expands the number of diverse and culturally-competent health professionals and prepares youth to be health advocates for themselves and future generations. 
https://mikeprogram.org/

Wallace Medical Concern (Multnomah County)—$10,000

Project Description: Connect, Enroll, Engage. Wallace Medical Concern’s mission is to help provide health services and make connections that support individuals and their families in healthy living. The CareOregon funds will allow an increase in outreach to engage more very low-income, hard-to-reach families, adults and children in primary care.
http://wallacemedical.org/

Working Class Acupuncture (Multnomah, Clackamas, Washington counties)—$4,000

Project Description: Accessible Acupuncture for Shelter Clients, Working Class Acupuncture provides low-cost acupuncture to the community through a cooperative, grassroots and financially self-sustaining model. CareOregon funds will be used to cover the cost of providing 200 vouchers for free treatments to clients of Human Solutions’ Family Shelter for use at nearby WCA Rockwood.
https://workingclassacupuncture.org/