Communities Creating Healthy Environments

Communities Creating Healthy Environments is a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that aims to prevent childhood obesity by increasing access to healthy foods and safe places to play in communities of color. The program is designed to advance RWJF's efforts to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic by 2015 by supporting diverse, community-based organizations and federally chartered tribal nations in the development and implementation of effective, culturally competent policy initiatives to address childhood obesity at the local level.

Eligible applicants must have a track record of at least two years of successful community organizing and policy advocacy to address health-related problems in communities of color. Both the leadership and membership or constituencies of any applicant organization should reflect the communities they seek to serve. Youth-led organizing groups and community-based groups with youth-organizing components are strongly encouraged to apply.

Amount: $250,000

Date due: February 25, 2010

For more information, click here.

Promoting Partnerships to Strengthen Health Care Reform informational meeting

On January 21, Northwest Health Foundation will release a request for proposals (RFP) entitled Promoting Partnerships to Strengthen Health Care Reform Advocacy. We hope the projects funded through this grant cycle will increase the presence of diverse voices in health care reform policy discussions. The Foundation is particularly interested in applications that incorporate innovative partnerships between organizations.

In order to give applicants the opportunity learn more about the RFP and cultivate potential partners, we will be hosting the following informational meeting:

Wednesday, January 27 from 2:30 p.m to 5:00 p.m (reception to follow) Northwest Health Foundation

221 NW Second Ave., Suite 300, Portland

It is not a requirement to attend this meeting prior to submission of a grant proposal.

Because space is limited, only one person per organization may participate and an RSVP is required to attend. If you'd like to attend, please send your name, your organization and your organization's mission statement to Chris DeMars (cdemars@nwhf.org) no later than Wednesday, January 20.

NCAA Choices Grants to Reduce Alcohol Abuse on College Campus

The NCAA CHOICES program provides funding for NCAA member institutions and conferences to integrate athletics into campus-wide efforts to reduce alcohol abuse. NCAA CHOICES projects must partner athletics with other campus departments in the development and implementation of effective alcohol-education projects. Collaboration between the athletics department and other campus organizations involved in alcohol education is a vital element of an NCAA CHOICES project.

Amount: Grant funds to any one program will not exceed $15,000 for the first year,

$10,000 for the second year and $5,000 for the final year of the grant.

Date due: February 16, 2010

For more information, click here.

International Sports Programming Initiative

The Office of Citizen Exchanges of the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs announces an open competition for the International Sports Programming Initiative. Proposals are sought for projects designed to reach out to youth and promote mutual understanding by increasing the professional capacity of those who design and manage youth sports programs in select countries in Africa, East Asia and the Pacific, the Near East and North Africa, South and Central Asia, Europe, and the Western Hemisphere. The focus of all programs must be on reaching out to both male and female youth ages 7-17 and/or their coaches/ administrators.

Amount: $225,000

Date due: March 12, 2010

Proposal themes are (1) Training Sport Coaches; (2) Youth Sports Management; (3) Sport and Disability; and, (4) Sport and Health.

For more information, click here.

Ford Foundation Research on Sexuality and Youth

The Ford Foundation has announced a new Request for Proposals entitled "Sexuality, Health, and Rights Among Youth in the United States: Transforming Public Policy and Public Understanding Through Social Research" designed to support and prepare researchers to take on the challenges of social science sexuality research in the 21st century. The overall goal of the program is to strengthen the capacity of social science researchers to inform public policy and public understanding of sexuality-related issues from a human rights perspective.

Amount: $500,000 (across 2 - 3 years)

Date due: February 1, 2010

Through this RFP the foundation will support research projects that combine three areas of activity: social science research; training of graduate students; and strategic communications to inform public policy or public conversations. Each project must include plans for all three areas of activity. Proposals that explore the role of structural inequalities, stigma and discrimination, and mechanisms of social exclusion related to gender, sexual orientation, class, race and ethnicity, and their intersections are of particular interest, as are proposals exploring how youth and adults in local communities seek to understand and address sexuality, health, and human rights through a range of individual and collective actions. All proposals must demonstrate how they would inform public policy or public dialogue on targeted sexuality or reproductive health and rights issues.

For more information, click here.

Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA)

The purpose of the Academic Research Enhancement Award (AREA) program is to stimulate research in educational institutions that provide baccalaureate or advanced degrees for a significant number of the Nation's research scientists, but that have not been major recipients of NIH support. These AREA grants create opportunities for scientists and institutions otherwise unlikely to participate extensively in NIH programs, to contribute to the Nation's biomedical and behavioral research effort. AREA grants are intended to support small-scale health-related research projects proposed by faculty members of eligible, domestic institutions (such as WOU).

Amount: $300,000 (for up to 3 years)

Date due: February 25, 2010

For more information, click here.

Healthcare Research & Quality Grants

The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) supports Small Research Grant (R03) applications. The R03 grant mechanism supports different types of health services research projects including pilot and feasibility studies; secondary analysis of existing data; small, self-contained research projects; development of research methodology; and, development of new research technology. The mission of AHRQ is to improve the quality, safety, efficiency, and effectiveness of health care for all Americans. AHRQ strives to achieve its mission by supporting research which directly relates to accomplishing one of the following broad-based goals:

• Enhancing quality and safety by reducing the risk of harm from health care services through promoting the delivery of appropriate care that achieves the best quality outcomes
• Achieving efficiency through wider access to effective health care services and reductions in health care costs
• Assuring effectiveness through the beneficial and timely use of health care information by providers and consumers/patients, which allows them opportunities to make informed decisions and choices.
• Applicants to AHRQ must address at least one of the three broad-based goals of AHRQ in their proposed research. Further, applicants must:
• Demonstrate how expected results can be used or made available for use to enhance improvements in health care. Results should be directly relevant to customers, such as: providers and practitioners, administrators, payers, consumers, policymakers, and insurers.
• Focus on research topics which are unique to AHRQ and address one of the current priority areas of AHRQ.

Amount: $100,000 (2 years)

Date due: February 16, 2010 or June 16, 2010

Projects must be self-contained. They may be conceptually linked to future or past projects, but must contain all the elements of a stand-alone effort that can be reviewed and evaluated on its own for both scientific merit and budget.

For more information, click here.