AstraZeneca Foundation gives $1.1 million to six nonprofits in four states to widen access to health care
Five clinics and care programs in California, Maryland and Massachusetts join the foundation's CHANGE program with grants of about $220,000 each. A returning grantee in Pennsylvania receives $50,000 to mentor them.
Wilmington. The AstraZeneca Foundation has awarded $1,144,170 to six nonprofits in California, Maryland, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania through its Creating Health Access for Next Generation Equity program, known as CHANGE, which pays for local efforts to connect people with health care, particularly in communities with health disparities. The foundation announced the grants on Nov. 2.
Five of the organizations are new to the program and receive between $216,070 and $220,000 each. The sixth, a returning grantee, receives $50,000 and will act as a peer mentor to the five as they start their work, a role the foundation added this year.
Who received the grants
In California, Operation Access of San Francisco, whose legal name is Ambulatory Surgery Access Coalition, receives $220,000 to connect uninsured, low-income people in Northern and Central California with free surgical and specialty care from local providers. Conejo Free Clinic in Thousand Oaks receives $218,100 for breast and cervical cancer screening, navigation and follow-up care for underserved women in Ventura County, including Hispanic and Indigenous communities. Dorothy's Place in Salinas, run by Franciscan Workers of Junipero Serra, receives $216,070 to pair intensive health care navigation with supportive housing for people living unsheltered.
Boston Community Pediatrics receives $220,000 for children's care that combines medical care, mental health care and help with needs such as housing and food, for families regardless of their ability to pay. Mobile Medical Care, Inc., of Rockville, Md., receives $220,000 to widen primary and preventive care for low-income, uninsured and underinsured residents of Montgomery County; it also announces the grant on its own home page.
The returning grantee and mentor is AIDS Resource Alliance, Inc., of Williamsport, Pa., for AR Health, its primary care service for people living with HIV and members of the LGBTQ+ community in rural northcentral Pennsylvania.
How the program works
CHANGE began in 2023. The grants it makes run from screening and early diagnosis through treatment and continuing care, with an emphasis on cardiovascular, renal, respiratory and immunologic diseases and cancers. Grantees join a Community of Practice with the foundation and its evaluation partner, NORC at the University of Chicago, which gives them guidance on measuring results, technical assistance and a chance to learn from one another.
With this year's awards, the program has made more than $6.2 million in grants to 17 nonprofits since 2023, and the organizations it funds have reached more than 80,000 people through direct services, the foundation said.
The foundation, established in 1993, is a separate legal entity from AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals.
“Expanding CHANGE into new communities gives us an opportunity to learn from and invest in organizations that understand firsthand what it takes to improve access to care at the grassroots level.”
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