The Blue & You Foundation for a Healthier Arkansas is a charitable foundation established and funded by Arkansas Blue Cross and Blue Shield to promote better health in Arkansas.
The Foundation anticipates awarding approximately $3 million in grants annually to nonprofit or governmental organizations and programs that positively affect the health of Arkansans. Particular emphasis will be given to projects affecting healthcare delivery, healthcare policy and healthcare economics.
The poor health status of Arkansans contributes to rising medical costs. By providing funding and working together with other organizations, the Foundation hopes to establish or expand a number of diverse healthcare projects that will benefit all Arkansans over the long term.
The Blue & You Foundation for a Healthier Arkansas is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association and serves the state of Arkansas. The Foundation is a 501(c)(3) organization.
Investments in Behavioral Health
As part of our mission to improve the health of Arkansans, the Blue & You Foundation for a Healthier Arkansas has committed $5.29 million to innovative programs that will improve access to and awareness of behavioral health resources throughout our state.
A series of grants will be provided to Arkansas organizations with a focus on three critical areas:
- Early intervention: addressing the unmet behavioral health needs of young people and families to build lifelong health, address the roots of behavioral conditions, and help prevent them from leading to other problems later in life.
- Workforce integration: helping train more behavioral health professionals who will learn here and serve here, working within the primary care environment, to improve on a shortage in which we currently meet only about one-third of our state’s need for mental health professionals.
- Normalizing care: improving access and reducing stigma by helping people understand behavioral health needs and removing barriers that stand between them and the care they need.
The Arkansas-based partners and programs selected for the Blue & You Foundation investment are:
- Arkansas Children’s
- HealthySteps
- University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences
- AR-Connect
- Trauma Resource Initiative for Schools
- Licensed Clinical Social Workers (LCSW) Education Endowments
- Arkansas State University
- University of Arkansas – Fayetteville
- University of Arkansas – Little Rock
- The Arkansas Chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI Arkansas)
- NAMI on Campus
- NAMI High School Clubs
- NAMI Support Groups
For more details on how these grants will be used to improve the behavioral health of Arkansans, please visit the Blueprint news hub.
Application Deadlines
Mini-Grant Applications are now open and will close at midnight on February 15, 2022.
Grant Applications will open April 15, 2022 and will close at midnight on July 15, 2022.