Community Investments & Partnerships

Health Equity Innovation Award Recipients

Organizations were invited to apply for financial awards to help fund initiatives, programs, and research that specifically target the root causes of health inequities, with a focus on addressing structural racism. Award categories include, but were not limited to, improving the community’s physical and mental health, reducing social disparities in health care, and ensuring access to health care services. Learn more about this year's winners and learn about their innovative initiatives to address health equity issues. Congratulations to all of our 2023 Health Equity Innovation Award recipients!

Read about the 2023 Health Equity Innovation Awards Recipients

Funding Supports Mobile Mental Health Services

Health Equity Award funding supports the Oswego Health Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) Team, a mobile, multi-disciplinary, mental health team that offers various support services by providing comprehensive, person-centered treatment and rehabilitation to individuals over the age of 18 who have a severe and persistent mental illness. The ACT Team provides 24/7 help and support and comprises a Team leader, ACT Psychiatrist, ACT Nurse Practitioner, LPN, RN, Wellness specialist, Peer specialist, Family specialist, vocational specialist, program assistant, two ACT housing specialists, and social workers. As a multidisciplinary team, the ACT Team provides treatment and services needed without having to refer individuals to other programs or services.

Overdose Awareness and Prevention Funding

Excellus BCBS awarded ACR Health with a $6,499 Health & Wellness Award to support the organization’s Overdose Awareness and Prevention programming. This Health & Wellness Award funding supports ACR Health’s year-round community overdose awareness education and training. Serving Onondaga, Cayuga, Herkimer, Jefferson, Lewis, Madison, Oneida, Oswego, and St. Lawrence counties, ACR Health utilizes peer educators to perform targeted outreach and equip community members with education, training, and tools, such as sterile syringe supplies and free overdose prevention kits (Naloxone), to minimize overdose risk, address barriers to access, and reduce stigma in Central and Northern New York communities. ACR Health also performs weekly overdose prevention outreach in “hot spot” zones in both Onondaga and Oneida counties.
In addition, ACR Health’s regional Overdose Awareness Day events help to educate the general public on the impact overdoses have on our communities and ways to reduce and prevent overdoses. This includes Narcan use training, education on recognizing the signs of an overdose, and partnering with organizations to provide access to local resources and services.

Reducing At-Risk Behaviors

Since 2019, Agape Haven of Abundance has been working to meet the needs of under-resourced families in one of Rochester’s most ethnically, linguistically, and racially diverse neighborhoods. Agape empowers those living in the Edgerton community by using a holistic approach to providing resources, education, opportunities in crisis intervention, health and wellness, financial literacy, and sustainable living. Agape Haven of Abundance, one of Excellus BlueCross BlueShield’s 2022 Health Equity Award Recipients, provides support for healthy development and aims to reduce at- risk behaviors for youth. Our support helps fund a mental health specialist for their free Youth Empowerment education program which is offered after school and during school breaks. Children and youth ages 6-18 get one-on-one attention, mentorship, homework help, meals, and structured activities to build language and financial literacy, as well as mental health, hygiene, and other support services. Participants have the opportunity to learn new skills and gain experiences that contribute to more positive lifestyles and enhance their capacity to make healthier life choices.

Helping with Varied Communications Needs in the Community

The Empire Justice Center is committed to addressing barriers and improving accessibility for New Yorkers by providing legal and advocacy services and resources. Excellus BlueCross BlueShield presented the Empire Justice Center with a Health Equity Award for its Language Access Program. The program is designed to reduce communication barriers that can limit access to information for those with limited English proficiency or who are legally blind, deaf, or hard of hearing.
The award provided community agencies, healthcare facilities, legal providers, first responders, and other vital service agencies access to language expertise and advocacy tools to expand and improve communication assistance services to our community members who are not fluent in English or may need an interpreter.
Funding was used to develop tools including English and Spanish text-to-speech and American Sign Language response options for an online health survey, as well as “iSpeak/iSign” identification cards to help individuals advocate for interpreter services.
These essential tools provide our community members with varied communication needs, the opportunity for better health outcomes – and to have their voices be heard.

Focusing on Health Habits

The goal of Mindful Eating, Active Lifestyles is to introduce healthy eating and active living education to reduce the incidence of obesity in children. The MEAL program focuses particularly on high health-risk and high poverty communities battling food insecurity. The material is presented in the Birth to Five Head State classrooms at the Economic Opportunity Program in Elmira. MEAL's focus on the early childhood population will inspire early intervention for children who are at high risk of unfavorable health outcomes. This program will include a mental and behavioral health component, hands-on nutrition and healthy eating education, and engaging lessons that will encourage children to establish positive habits toward the development of an active lifestyle.
“By collaborating with community partners like Arnot, we can help promote healthy eating and obesity prevention in our community. We are proud to provide funding for the Mindful Eating, Active Lifestyles (MEAL) program that offers healthy eating and active living education to combat the prevalence and incidence of obesity in children,” states Jessica Renner, Senior Vice-President, Corporate Development Strategy and Chief Risk Officer and Regional President for Excellus BlueCross BlueShield.

Increasing Access to Speech and Language Services

In recognition of the need for Speech and Language Pathology (SLP) services in the community, we recently awarded health equity funding to the Binghamton University’s Speech Language Hearing Clinic to increase clinical access for high-need members of the community.
When Rodney Gabel, a Binghamton University Speech and Language Pathologist who specializes in stuttering arrived at Binghamton University he learned that there weren't enough speech and language pathologists to meet the needs of the Southern Tier community. To address this need, Gabel joined the Decker College of Nursing and Health Sciences and has worked to create a division of speech and language pathology (he is founding director and a professor in the division) and is developing a master's-level program in the discipline.
To help fill the gaps in care in the community, the SLP program and clinic began to provide services to the area on a contract basis. The demand for clinic services has already been high and community collaborations with student involvement allows organizations to provide services that they couldn't provide with their existing staff.

Funding Improvements in Cancer Care in the North Country

Samaritan Medical Center was the recipient of an Excellus BlueCross BlueShield Health and Wellness award for its Cancer Pathology Quality Improvement program to fund a new Compound Microscope and a C-Mount Camera Port. This equipment will directly impact the quality of care for cancer patients by improving prognosis time and alleviating the need for follow-up biopsies. With this equipment upgrade, Samaritan will be able to directly improve the quality of care for 120 cancer patients annually.
According to Dr. Shikhar Vyas, Director of Laboratory Services, Samaritan Medical Center participates in a monthly multidisciplinary cancer conference with subspecialty participants from Samaritan, Walker Center for Cancer Care, and other regional hospitals. As a team, patients with a cancer diagnosis are presented, radiologic and pathologic findings are discussed, and an optimum treatment plan of action for the best patient outcome is determined. “With this new microscope and camera equipment, pathology will be able to share vital patient information beyond reports by showing slides in real-time to all participants in these conferences for educational, diagnostic and prognostic purposes. We hope to improve the quality of care for the Walker Center for Cancer Care patients and overall outcomes,” he said.

Helping Students to Overcome Barriers

On Point for College Utica received a Community Health Award to support their Excellus Scholars Emergency Support Services. This program will provide access and success services to help students enroll in, persist in, and graduate from college. On Point helps students overcome barriers allowing them to pursue higher education and obtain careers as nurses, physicians, CNAs, therapists, medical interpreters, and other healthcare professionals.
“We help lower -income, first generation students believe that college is possible,” explains Kevin Marken, On Point for College Utica director. “This funding will allow us to provide 20 On Point students, who are currently enrolled in college and pursuing studies in a healthcare field, the services necessary to persist and graduate. These new healthcare professionals will have the potential to improve the health and wellbeing of those in our community.”