EAGAN, Minn., Oct. 23 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation will honor Minnesota Green Communities with its 4th Annual Upstream Health Leadership Award for their work around creating affordable, healthier and more energy efficient housing throughout Minnesota.
Minnesota Green Communities will receive the award on Friday, October 30, 2009 at Minnesota Public Radio's UBS Forum in St. Paul, Minn., along with a $15,000 grant to support and advance its "upstream" work.
"Where we live significantly influences our health and quality of life," said Pat Geraghty, Foundation board chair, and president and CEO of Blue Cross. "For example, we know that living in healthy homes means better controlled asthma for children and adults, which leads to fewer missed days of school and work. And living in a safe neighborhood means neighbors are better able to connect with each other, and families are more likely to get out and be physically active."
Minnesota Green Communities is a statewide collaboration of Minnesota-based Greater Minnesota Housing Fund and Family Housing Fund and nationally based Enterprise. "We are thrilled to receive this award from the Blue Cross Foundation -- a partner who understands the strong connections between housing and health," said Tom Fulton, president, Family Housing Fund. The initiative, launched in 2005, supports the production of affordable housing with markedly reduced energy costs, use of materials beneficial to the environment, conservation-minded land use planning and attention to the creation of healthy environments and lifestyles for individuals, children, families and communities.
"Thanks to strong partners like the Blue Cross Foundation, we are well on our way to reaching our goal of having all new affordable housing be green by 2010 with nearly 1,000 affordable homes completed, another 1,000 under construction, and hundreds more under development," said Warren Hanson, president and CEO of the Greater Minnesota Housing Fund.
The foundation will also give special recognition to David Jacobs, PhD, CIH, Director of Research, National Center for Healthy Housing, for his national leadership around housing and health including his role with the Viking Terrace Project in Worthington, Minnesota. Funded by the Blue Cross Foundation, Jacobs led a first-of-its-kind study on the Viking Terrace Project, an affordable housing preservation project, to evaluate the health impacts of green housing.
"Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Foundation is among the first to recognize the importance of showing that improved housing means improved health," said Jacobs. "I am honored to have had the opportunity to lead the nation's first study showing that rehabilitation of low-income housing using green healthy systems produces important health gains in children and adults, as well as improved energy conservation and long-term sustainability."
Jacobs and the National Center for Healthy Housing in Columbia, Maryland work to control childhood exposure to lead, mold-induced illnesses, carbon monoxide poisoning and other influences on health while preserving affordable housing.
Past Foundation awardees include Winona LaDuke, White Earth Land Recovery Project (2006), Atum Azzahir, Cultural Wellness Center (2007) and David Wallinga, MD, MPA, Institute for Agriculture and Trade Policy (2008). The award is intended to honor exemplary leadership for tackling health inequities and provide inspiration for cross-sector partnerships that take action on social, economic and environmental determinants of health.
For more information, visit www.bcbsmnfoundation.org.
About the Foundation
The Blue Cross Foundation is the state's largest grantmaking foundation to exclusively dedicate its assets to improving health in Minnesota, awarding more than $25 million since it was established in 1986. The Foundation's purpose is to look beyond health care today for ideas that create healthier communities tomorrow, through a focus on key social, economic and environmental factors that determine health, to improve community health long-term and close the health gap that affects many Minnesotans.
About Blue Cross
Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, with headquarters in the St. Paul suburb of Eagan, was chartered in 1933 as Minnesota's first health plan and continues to carry out its charter mission today: to promote a wider, more economical and timely availability of health services for the people of Minnesota. A nonprofit, taxable organization, Blue Cross is the largest health plan based in Minnesota, covering 2.8 million members in Minnesota and nationally through its health plans or plans administered by its affiliated companies. Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, headquartered in Chicago. Go to bluecrossmn.com to learn more about Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota.
About Minnesota Green Communities
Minnesota Green Communities is a collaboration of the Greater Minnesota Housing Fund, the Family Housing Fund, and Enterprise designed to foster the creation of affordable, healthier, and more energy efficient housing throughout Minnesota. The initiative supports the production of affordable housing with markedly reduced energy costs, use of materials beneficial to the environment, conservation-minded land use planning, and attention to the creation of healthy environments and lifestyles for individuals, children, families, and communities.
About National Center for Healthy Housing
The National Center for Healthy Housing (NCHH) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation based in Columbia, Maryland, dedicated to creating healthy and safe homes for children through practical and proven steps. NCHH was founded in 1992 to provide the scientific underpinnings for the childhood lead poisoning prevention movement. Since that time, the number of homes with lead-based paint has declined from 64 million to 38 million, and the number of children with lead poisoning has dropped from 890,000 to 240,000. Using a holistic and interdisciplinary approach, NCHH serves as a convener of the public health, housing, environmental, and regulatory communities. It also carries out applied research, program evaluation, training, technical assistance, innovative demonstration projects, outreach, and public policy advocacy to advance the healthy homes movement."
Source: Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota
CONTACT: Julie Lee of Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota,
+1-651-662-6574
Web Site: http://www.bcbsmnfoundation.
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