Community health investments

Together with Minnesota State University – Mankato we funded 24 Blue Cross Presidential Scholarships over seven years to support the next generation of Minnesota’s workforce. The funding supports students studying all majors in education; pre- law; criminal justice; political science; social work; nursing; health science; health informatics; and biochemistry. The aspiration is for these scholarships to help build more career pathways for underrepresented healthcare practitioners and support future changemakers across all our communities.

Access to safe places for physical activity is a key aspect of maintaining health and wellness. However, many communities lack access to health and wellness infrastructure, having few safe spaces, or other social or environmental supports, to promote physical activity. Blue Cross is working with the National Fitness Campaign to create 10 free outdoor Fitness Courts® for communities across Minnesota—investing in equitable access to outdoor exercise programs to positively impact health.  

Already, Willmar, Shakopee, the University of Minnesota, and Moose Lake Township have been completed and are open to the community. All courts will integrate community artwork from local artists to add vibrant and enriching visuals. The courts will also develop engagement modules, accessible through QR codes at the sites, so that participants can access workouts, specific exercises for therapy, and sequenced movements that aid wellness. 

The Hennepin Healthcare Talent Garden programs introduce youth to healthcare jobs and mentorship programs. Through on-campus events, experience-based learning like job shadowing, and healthcare mentorship opportunities, Talent Garden programs build lasting connections between underserved youth and clinicians, while building interest and providing support for pursuing healthcare careers.  

Accessing and consuming healthy foods can be a significant challenge, especially when healthy food options are scarce or prohibitively expensive. This issue particularly impacts low-income communities, where residents face numerous barriers to accessing nutritious foods, including a lack of full-service grocery stores and/or a high prevalence of convenience foods. These barriers create an environment where less healthy choices are made, which contributes to a cycle of poor health outcomes. 

One solution to increase access to healthy foods is integrating farmers’ markets into communities. Farmers markets offer budget-friendly options, with 60 percent of shoppers in low-income neighborhoods across the U.S. reporting better prices on produce at the farmers market than the grocery store. 

To address this, Blue Cross was a sponsor for the Lakeview Terrace Farmer’s Market, which held 18 markets between May and September of 2023. The location is in Robbinsdale, near the border with North Minneapolis, in a food desert. Funding also supports Behind the Menu events. The markets also included health and wellness activities such as fitness classes, live cooking demonstrations, and live music, helping to create a vibrant space for the community, while increasing access to local healthy food.

NMDP (formerly known as Be the Match®) is a community of healthcare professionals, marrow donors, volunteers, researchers, and financial contributors who save lives by connecting patients with a matching donor for a life-saving blood stem cell or marrow transplant. For thousands of patients diagnosed with a blood disease, a bone marrow or blood stem cell transplant is their best or only hope for a cure. A patient’s likelihood of finding a fully matched bone marrow donor or cord blood unit on the NMDP registry ranges from 29% to 79% depending on the patient’s background.  

Blue Cross funded a recruitment coordinator and two recruitment positions to help educate, engage, inspire, and ultimately increase the diversity of the donor list—reducing  gaps in donations. Working in multiple communities, the new roles are connecting with people to add more people to the registry, improving the odds to ensure every patient has a chance at finding their lifesaving donor and live their healthiest life.  

Blue Cross funded the Sanneh Foundation to improve access to physical activity, address food insecurity and create learning environments for students. Their work included the Conway Community Center OST program, which engages young people at Conway Community Center through high-quality and consistent youth development activities. It also included the Dreamline program, a relevant and responsive mentoring program that provides direct instruction in social emotional learning and academic interventions for under-performing students in Minnesota schools, K-12. And finally, the Sanneh Nutrition Services that packages and distributes meals containing a mixture of fresh produce, robust proteins, and community–specific items six days a week to help close the food insecurity gap for families in the Twin Cities.  

Mental health is a critical issue for everyone, regardless of where you live. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 1 in 5 adults in the U.S. experiences mental illness each year. 

However, those numbers can become far starker for people who live in rural areas. In rural Minnesota, a lack of access to providers is one of the biggest issues, with a National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) report showing that there are only 10 psychiatrists per 100,000 people. This shortage makes it difficult for people in rural areas to find a mental health provider who is accepting new patients, coupled with often being spread over a large geographic area with limited public transportation, and access is even more magnified. 

To address these challenges and close those care gaps in rural Minnesota, Blue Cross collaborated with Minnesota State University, Mankato to establish the ‘Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota Center for Rural Behavioral Health at Minnesota State University, Mankato.’ The partnership and investment will allow the Center, as one of the first rural behavioral health centers in the nation, to develop and disseminate best practices on building the behavioral health workforce, aiming to address the lack of providers and practitioners and also support the expansion of the pipeline of behavioral health professionals in Northern Minnesota and with Tribal Nations and Tribal Colleges. 

While cancer mortality rates have declined overall in the US, people in many communities continue to face a disproportionately high cancer burden, encountering significant obstacles in prevention, detection, treatment, and survival compared to people in different communities.  

Addressing health outcomes by treating complex illnesses such as cancer also necessitates solutions to alleviate the financial burden associated with the substantial costs of treatment. Especially for families in lower income brackets, the need for financial assistance as medical bills accumulate alongside monthly expenses are crucial. Blue Cross is collaborating with the Angel Foundation, which provides relief to adults with cancer and their families through financial aid, educational resources, and social and emotional support. The funding further adds to emergency financial assistance and addresses social drivers of health needs in underserved communities, while also promoting educational endeavors focused on health and wellness, cancer care, and mitigating financial toxicities. 

Children living in poverty are more likely to experience adverse childhood events that can manifest as trauma, altering brain development. With 80 percent of brain growth occurring before a child’s third birthday, there is a critical need for trauma-sensitive preschool care to buffer the harm of adverse experiences on children, so their innate resiliency can flourish. Through our support of the Greater Twin Cities United Way (GTCUW) and its ‘80×3: Resilient From the Start’ initiative, we are helping to ensure every child in our state has high-quality care in this critical stage. GTCUW has brought together an advisory group and consulting partners, and funded eight childcare centers to create a systems change approach for facilitating trauma-informed care for children ages 0-5. A big part of the funding will go toward supporting 200 hours of mental health care for childcare providers and parents in the 80×3 network. This trauma-informed care provides the best education for youngest learners, caring for their mental health and their spirit.