Past initiatives

2020-2023

Health POWER (People Organizing and Working for Equitable Results) was a multi-year funding initiative designed to strengthen leadership development and invest in community-led solutions to advance health equity 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.

The Center funded 13 community-based organizations and two Tribal Nations through Health POWER. Funded organizations and Tribal Nations included:

• The Alliance
• American Lung Association in Minnesota
• Appetite For Change
• The Association for Nonsmokers-Minnesota
• Communidades Latinas Unidas en Servicio
• FamilyWise
• The Food Group
• Hmong American Farmers Association
• Leech Lake FamilySpirit EmPOWERment Program
• Lincoln Park Children and Families Collaborative
• Lower Sioux Indian Community
• NorthPoint Health and Wellness
• OurStreets Minneapolis
• Sharing Our Roots
• Trust for Public Land

2019-2020

The Catalyst Funding Initiative supported the implementation of creative solutions to health inequities and helped to jump-start community wellness initiatives. Catalyst was established in 2019 to ignite innovation and advance health equity across Minnesota. This funding supported community-driven, culturally specific efforts that lead to sustainable health changes. Funded Organizations Included:

• American Indian Family Center
• City of Bloomington
• Comunidades Latinas Unidas En Servicio
• Department of Public Transformation
• East Side Table
• Family Pathways
• Friends of the Mississippi
• Frogtown Farm
• Hispanic Advocacy and Community Empowerment through Research
• HOPE
• Metro Blooms
• Minnesota Community Health Worker Alliance
• Nokomis East Neighborhood Association
• North American Traditional Indigenous Food Systems
• OutFront
• PartnerSHIP4Health
• People Responding in Social Ministry
• Project Food Forrest
• Southern Minnesota Independent Living Enterprises & Services
• Success Academy
• Twin Cities Street Soccer
• West Side Community Organization

2013-2018

HEiP funding empowered communities facing inequities to reach their full health potential and advance health equity through policy, systems, and environmental changes.

Funded Organizations Included:

• American Indian Cancer Foundation
• Appetite for Change
• Comunidades Latinas Unidas en Servicio
• Cycles for Change
• Hennepin County
• Hope Community
• Just Us Health
• NorthPoint Health and Wellness Center
• The Open Door
• Pillsbury United Communities
• Vietnamese Social Services of Minnesota
• West Side Community Organization
• Zeitgeist Center for the Arts and Community

2015-2018

HiAP was a five-year funding initiative designed to put Minnesota communities most impacted by health inequities at the center of driving health equity in policy, systems, and environmental change. HiAP focused on addressing social determinants of health by supporting community-led decision making, systems change, and policy development across multiple sectors. Funded Organizations Included:

• Alliance for Metropolitan Stability
• Asian Economic Development Association
• Hmong American Farmers Association
• HOPE Community
• ISAIAH
• Nexus Community Partners
• Voices for Racial Justice
• Zeitgeist Center for the Arts and Community

2015-2018

The CETI initiative aimed to reduce commercial tobacco use in communities by supporting community-driven, culturally specific efforts that raise awareness, shift cultural/social norms and/or influence organizational and local public policy. Funded Organizations Included:

• American Lung Association
• Briva Health
• Comunidades Latinas Unidas En Servicio
• Lao Assistance Center of Minnesota
• Lincoln Park Children and Families Collaborative
• Lower Sioux Indian Community
• NorthPoint Health and Wellness
• WellShare International

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 worked to not only fund the Minnesota Food Charter, but also helped to lead the creation of the Charter 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.

2013-2018

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:

• District Councils Collaborative of St. Paul and Minneapolis
• Get Fit Itasca
• Health in the Park
• Minneapolis Bicycle Coalition
• North Minneapolis
• Live Healthy Red Wing
• Sawtooth Mountain Clinic, Grand Marais
• Women on Bikes
• Saint Paul Smart Trips and Kitty Andersen Youth Science Center

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 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 several diverse stakeholders, including:

• Childhood safety advocates
• Citizens and residents
• City planners and engineers
• Cycling groups
• Disability advocates
• Elected officials
• Environmental advocates
• Local transportation agencies
• Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT)
• Seniors

2010-2020

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.

2011-2019

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 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.