Promise Fund Announces $400,000 in Grants to Aid Women in Accessing Healthcare for Breast & Cervical Cancer
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Promise Fund of Florida announces grants totaling $400,000 to six local healthcare organizations in order to provide access to healthcare for women in Palm Beach County who do not have health insurance or have limited financial resources.
The grants include funding for patient navigators who provide culturally-sensitive, life-saving services in English, Creole and Spanish. The navigators provide healthcare education and outreach and assist women in applying for health insurance and other benefits, setting appointments with screening centers and physicians for mammograms and Pap smears among other procedures, and, when needed, provide for transportation, childcare, and translation services. Navigators also attend healthcare appointments with the patients to assure they are comfortable, understand needed medical follow-up and to help bridge any cultural divides that may create obstacles to care.
The Promise Fund of Florida is broadening its patient navigation reach by adding three new grant recipients for the coming year: Caridad Center’s Breast and Cervical Cancer Program, The Community Health Center of West Palm Beach Patient Navigation Program and Palm Beach County Medical Society’s Project Access. Renewal grants are also being issued to FoundCare’s Breast and Cervical Cancer Navigation Program and MorseLife Health System Health Navigation Program. Grants to these organizations total $320,000. An additional continuing grant to Marie Louise Cancer Foundation brings the 2020-21 Promise Fund grant total to $400,000.
“We are confident that through these grants to our healthcare partners, more women’s lives will be saved,” said Promise Fund Board Chairman Todd Lazenby. “Through patient navigation, we help overcome the barriers that keep women with no insurance or limited resources from receiving screening that result in early detection. By detecting these cancers in their earliest stages and providing for a continuum of care for treatment, as needed, they have more treatment options with are often less expensive with fewer side effects and better patient outcomes. It is a wise investment of our philanthropic and healthcare dollars right here in Palm Beach County.”
Promise Fund of Florida was started in 2018 by co-founders Nancy Brinker, Julie Fisher Cummings and Laurie Silvers. Future plans include the establishment of a health center for women which will include the installation of a 3D Mammography Unit donated by Hologic, Inc.
“We are pleased with the number of women we have been able to help and the thousands more that will receive help through the expansion of our grants program and our planned one-stop shop for women’s health,” Brinker said. “While we are focusing our efforts here in Palm Beach County where there is great need, the model program and continuum of care that we are establishing through the Promise Fund will be able to be replicated in other communities.”
