Our commitment to advancing community health goes back to 1994, when Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota, along with the state of Minnesota, filed a historic and precedent-setting lawsuit against the tobacco industry. In 2006, Blue Cross received settlement funds and committed to reinvest $241 million into Minnesota communities most impacted by poor health outcomes. While our strategic goals have evolved over time, our work to create a healthier Minnesota has endured.
Health POWER was a multi-year funding initiative designed to strengthen leadership development and invest in community-led solutions to advance positive health outcomes in commercial tobacco control, healthy eating, and physical activity. Health POWER funded organizations focused on using policy, systems, and environmental changes to create sustainable conditions that allow people to make healthier choices.
Thirteen community-based organizations and two Tribal Nations were funded through Health POWER. Funded organizations and Tribal Nations included:
The Catalyst Funding Initiative supported the implementation of creative solutions to help jump-start community wellness initiatives. Catalyst was established in 2019 to ignite innovation and improve health outcomes across Minnesota. This funding supported community-driven, community specific efforts that lead to sustainable health changes. Funded Organizations Included:
HEiP funding empowered communities facing barriers to reach their full health potential and positively advance health outcomes through policy, systems, and environmental changes.
Funded organizations included:
HiAP was a five-year funding initiative designed to put Minnesota communities most impacted by negative health outcomes at the center of driving community health in policy, systems, and environmental change. HiAP focused on addressing social drivers of health by supporting community-led decision making, systems change, and policy development across multiple sectors. Funded organizations included:
The CETI initiative aimed to reduce commercial tobacco use in communities by supporting community-driven, community specific efforts that raise awareness, shift cultural/social norms and/or influence organizational and local public policy. Funded organizations included:
The Minnesota Food Charter is a roadmap designed to guide policymakers and community leaders in providing Minnesotans with equal access to affordable, safe, and healthy food regardless of where they live. This access improves the health and wellbeing of residents and has the potential to significantly improve the state’s economy.
Thousands of Minnesotans – including leaders in health, agriculture, economic development, local and state government, philanthropy and research – helped craft the Minnesota Food Charter. Blue Cross funded the Minnesota Food Charter and helped develop it, along with the Minnesota Department of Health. From farm to fork, the charter proposes concrete ways policymakers and community leaders can ensure all Minnesotans have equal access to affordable, safe and healthy food — wherever they live.
The charter is organized around five main ideas: food skills, food affordability, food availability, food accessibility and food infrastructure. For more information, see the Minnesota Food Charter website.
ALFA funding was designed to help community organizations in Minnesota create dynamic, safe spaces for physical activity. ALFA supported communities as they engaged residents and worked to improve active-living options for everyone. Funded initiatives focused on enhancing access to and the connectivity of parks, walking trails, and bike paths, and other goals that bolster Minnesotans’ opportunities to stay active. Funded organizations and initiatives included:
Complete Streets is a term for transportation policies that provide safe access for all road users — pedestrians, cyclists, public transit users and motorists — of all ages and abilities. The policies require that transportation agencies routinely design streets with safe accessibility and engage the public to identify the most desired active transportation solutions. Elements can include wide sidewalks, well-marked or raised crosswalks, protected bike lanes and pedestrian safety islands.
In 2010, the governor signed the Minnesota Complete Streets law with strong bipartisan support. Blue Cross played a key role in the passage of the state Complete Streets law. Along with Bicycle Alliance of Minnesota, Fresh Energy and Transit for Livable Communities, we co-founded the Minnesota Complete Streets Coalition (MCSC). MCSC was strategic in working with multiple stakeholders, including:
Nice Ride was the first bicycle sharing program in Minnesota. As a seasonally operated bike sharing system in the Twin Cities, Nice Ride made biking more accessible and convenient. In 2009, Blue Cross become the title sponsor of Nice Ride, as part of our vision to change the way Minnesotans perceive transportation and increase access to physical activity for all.
Open Streets organizes free, family-friendly events for which major thoroughfares are temporarily closed to car traffic, opening them to people walking, biking, and connecting with neighbors. The events help people experience streets as public spaces, leading to transformative changes in our thinking and urban planning.
Blue Cross supported Open Streets by funding specific events, hosting trainings and providing technical assistance. In August 2013, in collaboration with the Open Streets Project, we hosted the first National Open Streets Summit, where national organizers came together in Minneapolis to exchange ideas.
Blue Cross played an instrumental role in passing the Freedom to Breathe amendment to the Minnesota Clean Air Act, which protects employees and the public from the health hazards of secondhand smoke. Commercial tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of disease, disability and death in the United States.
Health organizations, including Blue Cross, formed a coalition through which they could collaboratively advocate for a statewide smoke-free workplaces law. Efforts included:
Lobbying: Approximately 20 lobbyists from coalition member organizations made an expanded smoke-free policy one of their top priorities of the legislative session.
Communications and public relations: Communications professionals from member organizations helped to craft proactive messages, create reactive plans and identify media opportunities.
Grassroots mobilization: Advocates around the state were well organized, amplified the message and reinforced public support.
The campaign was successful, and the Freedom to Breathe amendment to the Minnesota Clean Air Act passed and was implemented on October 1, 2007.