CLEVELAND, Oct. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Young adults from the Cleveland area will gain knowledge in health and wellness because of two grants recently awarded by the Medical Mutual Charitable Foundation, a supporting organization of The Cleveland Foundation.
A total of $70,000 will be shared by The MetroHealth Foundation, on behalf of The MetroHealth System, and Slavic Village Development. Since 1997, the Medical Mutual of Ohio Charitable Foundation has provided healthcare-related services to disadvantaged children in northern Ohio.
“One of Medical Mutual’s goals is to improve the health of those in the communities we serve,” said Sue Tyler, Medical Mutual executive vice president and chief financial officer. “These grants will help young people realize that they have to play an active role in their own health.” Tyler serves as chairperson and president of the Foundation as well as one of five trustees who oversee its grant making.
The grant to the MetroHealth Foundation will benefit the Cleveland Hispanic Adolescent Health Initiative. Formed in October 2003, the mission of the Health Initiative is to create a community-based health effort focusing on Hispanic youth and their parents to address medical, psycho-social, and socio- economic needs through education, prevention, and intervention.
The health education curriculum will be delivered to Hispanic adolescent females, and their parents with a physical assessment in which baseline health information will be obtained (e.g. lipid profiles, blood glucose levels, and measurement of upper and lower body strength, etc.). The teen and parent groups will then receive separate health education curriculums with topics such as nutrition, growth development, physical activity, and understanding adolescent behavior, along with healthy food and exercise choices for the parents. After completion of the first year of this effort with girls, MetroHealth plans to begin work with adolescent males and their parents.
As part of a national program, Active Living by Design, Slavic Village’s youth initiative, engages youth in a program of physical activity throughout the community. Foundation grant monies will go toward alternative routes-to- school program, a youth mapping-project, and a bicycle cooperative to serve the youth of Slavic Village. Slavic Village youth programming and activities will be developed based on information received from surveys and focus groups conducted with community adolescents.
Slavic Village Development (SVD) is a community development corporation located in Broadway-Slavic Village, a low-income and working class neighborhood on Cleveland’s southeast side comprised of predominantly of Czech and Polish descendants with about a third of the population being African- American or Hispanic.
The Cleveland Foundation is a public charity dedicated to enhancing the quality of life in Greater Cleveland. It is the oldest and second-largest community foundation in the nation. Its establishment in 1914 is cited as one of 10 events that most heavily influenced the development of the nonprofit sector in the 20th Century and it continues to be a leader in its field. The Foundation has assets of approximately $1.5 billion and in 2003 awarded more than $82 million in grants and low-cost loans to Cleveland area nonprofit organizations. Since its inception, it has provided more than $900 million to nonprofit organizations and causes.
The Cleveland Foundation is made up of more than 800 funds created by individuals, families, organizations and corporations. It offers donors of all means the opportunity to have a lasting impact on their community while maximizing income, gift and estate tax benefits.
For more information about the organization, visit http://www.clevelandfoundation.org/ .
Founded in 1934, Medical Mutual is the oldest and largest health insurance company based in Ohio. The company serves its customers through high-quality, affordable group and personal health insurance plans, and third-party administrative services to self-insured group customers. Medical Mutual’s annual premium and service-generated revenue in 2003 was $1.9 billion. Based in Cleveland, Medical Mutual also has offices in Columbus, Cincinnati, Toledo, Akron, Dayton and Youngstown. For more information, visit the company’s award-winning Web site at http://www.medmutual.com/ .
Medical Mutual
CONTACT: Ed Byers, Senior Media Relations Specialist of Medical Mutual,+1-216-687-2685, or ed.byers@mmoh.com