Highmark BluePrints for the Community announces $1.1M in grants

Wilmington, Del. (September 17, 2020) — Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield Delaware is pleased to announce the most recent recipients of its BluePrints for the Community grant funding. Nine Delaware nonprofits will receive a total of more than $1.1 million.

Established as a donor-advised fund at the Delaware Community Foundation, BluePrints for the Community has contributed more than $16 million to the community since its inception in 2007. The fund supports projects that focus on social determinants of health, increasing access to health care, decreasing health disparities, early childhood health, and health care workforce development.

Highmark Delaware is looking forward to partnering with the newest grantees on their respective programs and projects to improve health outcomes:

• Bayhealth Foundation: Bayhealth Family Medicine Residency program
• Delaware Coalition Against Domestic Violence: Domestic Violence Community Health Worker Collaborative program
• Delaware Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Enforcement: Impaired Driving Simulator program
• Family Counseling Center of St. Paul's: Expansion of Continuum of Care program
• Mental Health Association in Delaware: Community Education and Training program
• Pressley Ridge Delaware: Expansion of Care for Foster Youth Returning Home program
• St. Francis Foundation: Enhanced Ambulance Services project
• University of Delaware: Veterans & College Athletes Together (VCAT) program
• YMCA: LIVESTRONG cancer support program

Earlier this year, BluePrints for the Community awarded $1.3 million to ten organizations in March. It also contributed $100,000 each to the Delaware Does More COVID-19 Rapid Response Fund and the Delaware COVID-19 Strategic Response Fund, to join efforts in alleviating community challenges brought on by the pandemic. Additionally, more than $196,000 has been disbursed to 13 organizations in the form of BluePrints small grants, for a total of more than $2.5 million committed to the community in 2020 alone.

“Community is key,” said Nick Moriello, President of Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield Delaware. “Highmark has always believed that, and it rings true especially now. Our grant fund BluePrints for the Community has been supporting health-related projects in Delaware for more than a decade, and we plan to continue doing so as long as our community needs us.”

BluePrints for the Community is governed by an external Advisory Council, which recently named Rita Landgraf as its chair, former Secretary of the Delaware Department of Health and Social Services, and current Director of University of Delaware’s Partnership for Healthy Communities and Professor of Practice and Distinguished Health & Social Services Administrator in Residence.

“I am extremely honored to follow the leadership of Frances West as the newly appointed chair,” said Rita Landgraf. “The BluePrints Council is important to me as a grant program focused on enhancing the overall health and wellbeing of those who experience inequities and disparities. As a former Secretary of Health and Social Services, I am keenly aware of the challenges so many in our state confront on a daily basis. I am grateful for the opportunity to be of service, in partnership with my distinguished fellow council members.”

The Council is pleased to have the following members providing their expertise and insight: Theodore “Ted” Becker; Vicky Cooke; Zaida Guajardo; Richard Heffron; Janice Tildon-Burton M.D.; Fred A. Townsend, III, Esq.; Terry Wiley; Gregory Williams, Esq.; and Bill Willis, Jr.

Recognition is given to retiring Council chair, Frances West, who has formerly served as treasurer of the National Consumers League, Delaware's first woman director of Consumer Affairs, president of Delaware's Better Business Bureau and Delaware’s Highway Commissioner; and retiring member David Roselle, former president of the University of Delaware and director of the Winterthur Museum.

March 2020 awardees include American Cancer Society — Delaware, Autism Delaware, CHEER, Inc., Dover Interfaith Mission for Housing, Easterseals of DE & MD's Eastern Shore, Lt. Governor’s First Book Initiative, Food Bank of Delaware, La Red Health Center, Ronald McDonald House of Delaware, and St. Patrick's Center, Inc.

Small grants, which fund projects requesting $20,000 or less, have been made to Delaware Children's Museum, Keystone Human Services, Odyssey Charter School, ContactLifeline, Red Clay Consolidated School District, Del-Mar-Va Council Boy Scouts, Friends of Wilmington Parks, Alliance for Eating Disorders, Rodney Street Tennis, Choir School of Delaware, Serviam Girls Academy, KIDS COUNT in Delaware, March of Dimes, and Cancer Support Community Delaware.

Organizations interested in applying for a BluePrints grant should visit Highmark Delaware BluePrints for the Community.