Portland, Ore. — The Regence Foundation today announced eight grants totaling $350,000 to support organizations across Idaho, Oregon, Utah and Washington. All the grants are geared toward improving health care access.

“At The Regence Foundation, our mission is to support health care transform by partnering with nonprofits working to fix the root causes of our broken health care system, specifically as it relates to quality and access,” said Michael Alexander, Regence Foundation board chair. “We commend these grantees for their commitment to ensuring the community has access to quality, affordable care close to home.”

“The Regence Foundation is committed to funding organizations working to build healthy communities,” said Michael Alexander, Regence Foundation board chair. “Connecting people without a medical home or health insurance to quality, affordable care is one of the most important things we can do toward that goal.”

• Family Medicine Residency of Idaho (Boise, ID): $129,000 to expand medical staff and hours of service at the Garden City Community Clinic, a free clinic operating in Garden City, Idaho. The clinic is the only primary care provider in Garden City and is open just two evenings per week.
• Community-Minded Enterprises (Spokane, WA): $50,000 to help match uninsured individuals and families with health insurance programs to get coverage. The program is unique in that it proactively seeks to reach the uninsured before they face a health care crisis.
• King County Project Access (Seattle, WA): $35,000 to expand access to specialty care for the working poor in King County. KCPA facilitates the county’s only specialty care safety net services, such as neurology, cardiology, orthopedic surgery and ophthalmology.
• Franciscan Foundation (Tacoma, WA): $31,000 to expand the Foundation’s Breast Cancer Navigator Program to reach Latinas. The program will work to reduce the risk of breast cancer, the leading cause of cancer death for Latinas, through cultural and language appropriate outreach.
• Umpqua Community Health Center (Roseburg, OR): $30,000 to open a new medical clinic in the community of Myrtle Creek, where poverty and geographic isolation exacerbate the challenge uninsured community members face when seeking affordable health care.
• Utah Partners in Health (Magna, UT): $25,600 to provide uninsured residents access to care, funding 865 patient visits to one of Utah Partners in Health’s 11 member clinics.
• Olympic Community Action Programs (Port Angeles, WA): $25,000 to support new, permanent dental clinics in three communities currently served by mobile dental vans.
• Mercy Foundation (Roseburg, OR): $20,000 to put registered nurses in rural schools to provide basic health education and health care to students. In this county about half of children lack health insurance and live at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty line.

“At The Regence Foundation, our goal is to drive meaningful change in the health care system,” said Monique Barton, Regence Foundation executive director. “We do that by forging lasting relationships with nonprofits who share our vision of transforming health care and building healthier communities.”