APHA Receives $5.9 Million Grant to Strengthen the Capacity of America’s State-Based Public Health Associations

Washington, D.C., July 12, 2006 – The American Public Health Association (APHA) today announced that the W.K. Kellogg Foundation has awarded the Association a $5.9 million grant to help strengthen the infrastructure of APHA’s state and regional affiliated public health associations.

The grant will be used by APHA to create an initiative that will deliver financial and technical resources to the organization’s 53 Affiliates over five years, allowing them to improve their leadership, management, programs and services. About $2 million of the initiative’s budget will be used to provide direct grants to Affiliates for capacity-building needs with additional funding to support technology and communications enhancements for Affiliates. APHA, which will serve as the national coordinating office for the initiative, is expected to begin accepting grant applications from its Affiliates in the fall.

APHA’s affiliated public health associations are located in every state and the District of Columbia. California has two associations, representing the northern and southern regions of the state, and New York City has its own association in addition to one at the state level. The nation’s nongovernmental public health associations face limitations in communication, technology and other resources, which limit their ability to engage their communities to respond to new and emerging public health threats.

“Our Affiliates support the leadership and advocacy work of APHA at the local level, bringing much-needed attention to a variety of public health issues, including health disparities, access to care, public health infrastructure and the public health work force, that affect the well-being of Americans,” said Georges C. Benjamin, MD, FACP, executive director of the American Public Health Association. “With a variety of health threats facing Americans, from obesity to influenza, our affiliated associations must be prepared to ensure the safety of their jurisdictions’ residents. We thank the W.K. Kellogg Foundation for supporting this important project.”

The new APHA initiative will help Affiliates build on their successes, including providing leadership, influencing health policy and leading community programs. The initiative will work to ensure that all Affiliates have resources for basic operations, such as non-profit incorporation and communication tools; expand Affiliates’ ability to educate policy-makers on public health issues; and enhance communications between APHA and its Affiliates. The initiative will also work to ensure that Affiliates have business plans; expand their ability to engage the public and other measures.

Founded in 1872, the APHA is the oldest, largest and most diverse organization of public health professionals in the world. The association aims to protect all Americans and their communities from preventable, serious health threats and strives to assure community-based health promotion and disease prevention activities and preventive health services are universally accessible in the United States. APHA represents a broad array of health providers, educators, environmentalists, policy-makers and health officials at all levels working both within and outside governmental organizations and educational institutions. More information is available at www.apha.org.

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation was established in 1930 “to help people help themselves through the practical application of knowledge and resources to improve their quality of life and that of future generations.” To achieve the greatest impact, the Foundation targets its grants toward specific areas. These include: health; food systems and rural development; youth and education; and philanthropy and volunteerism. Within these areas, attention is given to exploring learning opportunities in leadership; information and communication technology; capitalizing on diversity; and social and economic community development.

Grants are concentrated in the United States, Latin America and the Caribbean, and the southern African countries of Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe.