CVS Health and Aetna Better Health of Illinois Award $100,000 Grant to Dovetail Project

CHICAGO, Jan. 9, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Dovetail Project, a Chicago-based nonprofit leading the fight for fatherhood, is grateful to announce that it has received a $100,000 grant from CVS Health-owned company Aetna Better Health of Illinois. Dovetail will use the funds to support the infrastructure of its internal referral system that connects fathers across the city with critical resources.

The Dovetail Project's signature program is a 12-week curriculum in parenting skills, life skills, and felony street law for young fathers ages 17-24. Since 2009, over 700 young men have graduated from the program. However, fathers outside of that age range or programmatic need routinely call Dovetail's offices to seek support for a wide variety of needs connected to Social Determinants of Health: housing, physical and mental healthcare access, educational and employment resources, legal services, and more. To better meet these needs, Dovetail will allocate CVS Health's generous gift towards an internal referral system which will allow staff to connect fathers to existing resources in their communities, refer them to partner organizations for specialized services, and follow up effectively.

"The Dovetail Project is honored to receive such a significant investment from CVS Health and Aetna Better Health of Illinois," said Founder and Executive Director Sheldon Smith. "This gift will increase our capacity to connect more fathers to the specific supports they need." Smith added, "After years of leadership, people know us and trust our reputation, so we receive calls from fathers across the region every day. Every father deserves a helping hand, and we want to be able to point every caller in the right direction, not just those who enroll in our program. Calling to ask for help takes courage, and we thank CVS for empowering us to build an initiative to respond to those courageous calls successfully and sustainably."

Aetna Better Health of Illinois, owned by parent company CVS Health, made its gift to Dovetail as part of a larger $650,000 community investment across eight nonprofit organizations, including After School Matters, A Safe Haven, Chicago Botanic Garden & Windy City Harvest, EverThrive Illinois, New Moms, and Phoenix Community Development Services. Collectively, the investment is designed to create targeted impact on critical issues related to social determinants of health, such as housing instability, food insecurity, workforce development, educational opportunity, and more.

Over the past three years, Aetna has given over $1.3 million to organizations based in the state of Illinois that support improved social determinants of health (such as access to healthy food, healthcare, and employment) for Medicaid members. For more information, see www.aetnabetterhealth.com/illinois-medicaid.

As a homegrown Chicago organization and nationwide leader in the field of fatherhood, The Dovetail Project is fortunate to collaborate with partners, like CVS Health and Aetna Better Health of Illinois, who recognize the importance of healthy fathers in building a healthy society.

Media Contact:
Sheldon Smith
8182766695
[email protected]

SOURCE The Dovetail Project