NCACH awards $99,900 to projects to improve health in North Central Washington through community investment process

Tuesday, November 5, 2019 -- Wenatchee

The North Central Accountable Community of Health (NCACH) Governing Board passed a motion to allocate $99,900.00 in award funding to five finalist applicants to support health and wellness initiatives across North Central Washington at their monthly board meeting held on Monday, November 4. This funding, called Coalitions for Health Improvement Community Initiatives Funding, is made possible by NCACH under a statewide Medicaid Transformation Project.

In December 2018, NCACH allocated $450,000 to be invested into local and regional health initiatives across Chelan, Douglas, Grant, and Okanogan counties with the goal of advancing Whole Person Health. NCACH tasked the Coalitions for Health Improvement (CHI) to develop a community investment process to fund innovative and collaborative efforts to improve health and wellness for underserved communities across North Central Washington. The community investment process opened for proposals in July 2019.

A group of nearly 30 CHI members participated in the process to review applications and make recommendations on finalist proposals, including recommendations on award allocations for successful applicants from the $450,000 total fund.

The five funded projects include:

• $22,500.00 to North Central Washington Economic Development District to support a business innovation competition, targeting small-business economic growth and employment in Chelan, Douglas, and Okanogan Counties.
• $9,900.00 to North Central Regional Library to support story time programming and travelling kits for children on the autism spectrum across the North Central Region.
• $22,500.00 to Okanogan County Community Coalition to enhance ongoing resiliency initiatives and programming in Okanogan County.
• $22,500.00 to Oxford House Resident Transit Solution Committee to fund a pilot project that supports transportation services for members of the Oxford House community in Chelan County.
• $22,500.00 to Communities in Schools of North Central Washington to support a full-time coordinator position in the Orondo and Waterville School Districts.

The five funded projects were a part of the first of two submission and review cycles for 2019 CHI Community Initiatives Funding. The currently funded projects, considered “Small,” all have a budget of $25,000 or less. A second cycle of application submission and review is currently underway for projects with budgets greater than $25,000. Award allocations for those projects will be announced in February 2020.

As recipients of this community investment fund, all awardees will be required to submit regular progress reports to the Coalitions for Health Improvement and NCACH stakeholders as a part of their reporting milestones.

Any inquiries should be directed to NCACH’s CHI Community Initiatives lead support staff, Sahara Suval, sahara.suval@cdhd.wa.gov.