W.K. Kellogg Foundation Grants The Rogosin Institute $300K for Programs to Improve Health Outcomes in Mississippi Delta

NEW YORK, July 30, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Rogosin Institute (Rogosin) announced receiving a $300,000 grant from The W. K. Kellogg Foundation for programs in the Delta region of Mississippi. The grant focuses on creating an educational and professional development pathway for emerging healthcare professionals while engaging local communities to take more responsibility for their own health to improve the overall health, access to care, and quality of life of the vulnerable children and families within them.

Building on years of community partnerships, the "New Pathways: Education and Workforce Development for Children's Health in the Mississippi Delta" program is a collaborative effort between Rogosin and its Dreyfus Health Foundation (DHF) division, the Mississippi Office of Nursing Workforce, Tri-County Workforce Alliance, and the Institute for Community-Based Research, together with several other key local partners. The initiative aims to address health disparities in the Delta region through community education, mobilization, and problem solving, while attracting youths into healthcare education and allied professions. DHF's Problem Solving for Better Health^® (PSBH^®), will be used to engage the community to become part of the solution to achieve better health for vulnerable children and families in the Delta region.  PSBH has already been utilized successfully by the School-Based Asthma Management (SAM) program at Delta State University to enhance efforts to improve health and reduce school absences, and this bodes well for the usefulness in the new broad-based program supported by this grant. The Institute for Community-Based Research, at the University of Mississippi, will assist with program implementation, research and evaluation.

Barry Smith, President and CEO of Rogosin, said "Health is, in a very real sense, a product of our communities and society. This Kellogg Foundation grant recognizes this and provides support for what we believe to be an innovative and effective approach to enabling the most vulnerable individuals, families and communities to take a more active role in improving their health and quality of life, while, at the same time, creating educational and job opportunities, further strengthening their ability to transform themselves into all they can be. 

The Rogosin Institute is an independent not-for-profit treatment and research center that focuses on treating kidney disease, including prevention, dialysis and transplantation, and disorders caused by cholesterol (www.rogosin.org).  The Dreyfus Health Foundation (a division of The Rogosin Institute) and its flagship program "Problem Solving for Better Health^®" facilitates the development of practical interventions through community and institutional initiatives to increase the effectiveness of health systems and improve the health of individuals and communities in more than 30 countries worldwide. www.dhfglobal.org

The W.K. Kellogg Foundation (WKKF), founded in 1930 as an independent, private foundation by breakfast cereal pioneer Will Keith Kellogg, is among the largest philanthropic foundations in the United States.  Guided by the belief that children should have an equal opportunity to thrive, WKKF works with communities to create conditions for vulnerable children so they can realize their full potential. 

The Kellogg Foundation is based in Battle Creek, Mich., and works throughout the United States and internationally, as well as with sovereign tribes.  Special emphasis is paid to priority places where there are high concentrations of poverty and where children face significant barriers to success. WKKF priority places in the U.S. are in Michigan, Mississippi, New Mexico and New Orleans; and internationally are in Mexico and Haiti.  For more information, visit www.wkkf.org

KEY PROJECT PARTNERS

Josephine P. Rhymes, Executive Director
Tri-County Workforce Alliance
P: 662-627-3011
E-Mail: [email protected]

John J. Green, Ph.D.
Director, Center for Population Studies
Phone: 662-915-7295
E-mail: [email protected]

Wanda M. Jones, PhD(c), RN
Executive Director, Mississippi Office of Nursing Workforce
Phone: 601-368-3321
E-mail: [email protected]

For media inquiries please contact:
Susan Spiegel: 212-746-1552

SOURCE Rogosin Institute