Awarded Grants

2,500 booster seats will be distributed to income eligible parents for children ages 4-8. 245 are earmarked for Merrimack Valley, the remainder for statewide distribution. The program is coordinated by the Merrimack County United Way and is sponsored by Ford Motor Company as the National Boost America Program.

The grant will cover the direct costs of two mailings by New Hampshire Healthy Kids to enrollees in Merrimack County and a second to enrollees statewide--All part of the target audience for the program.

Avis Goodwin Community Health Center incurrred unexpected expenses. The Executive Director and one of the physicians left Avis Goodwin. As a result, the health center paid $13,600 in earned time and are liable for $9,707 for the physician's malpractice tail coverage. These expenses produced a hardship.

The project will increase the capacity of community hospitals in NH to effectively respond to a biological, chemical, nuclear or other incident that involves injuries and deaths. Events of September 11th and the anthrax cases that followed identified gaps in our ability to address new forms of terror and our ability to respond. Hospitals are the front-line for local public health and medical care for most NH residents in the event of biological, chemical or nuclear incident. The project will identify functions and roles in creating a statewide hospital emergency mutual aid network, create and implement a mutual aid network, identify and modify legal and regulatory barriers to preparedness and establish an on-going system to monitor and test the mutual aid network.

The grant will provide the expertise and leadership of a medical consultant to address the clinical dimensions of creating a statewide hospital emergency mutual aid network and accomplish this in a timely manner. The grant will assess current clinical elements of preparedness (e.g., triage protocols, quarantine and decontamination procedures, pharmaceutical inventories, clinical staffing capacity, etc.) and integrate these elements into a coordinated plan with 32 hospitals and the State, based on agreements defining specific roles and resources within the hospital emergency mutual aid network.

To provide transitional funding for the Norwell Home transitional housing program acquired December 1, 2001. Funding will ensure the current five residents and their children avoid homelessness, and continue to receive supportive services and therapy.

The Long Distance Medical program, a division of North Country Transportation, acts as liaison between those needing transportation for medical appointments including dialysis, cancer treatments, and other medical services performed in hospitals out of their area, and volunteer drivers. The program provides mileage reimbursement to the volunteer drivers who use their own vehicles, but would like to offer them more incentives as a means of recruiting and retaining volunteers. A wheel-chair accessible vehicle is also needed for those clients who cannot transfer from wheelchairs to regular vehicles.

To extend the Family Mediation Services to include Victim Offender Mediation.

To convene the Presidents of all post secondary institutions in NH (public, private, 2-year, 4-year) for a round table with a national expert on the use of social norming to combat the illegal use and abuse of alcohol on college campuses in NH

Study of Birth Defects Surveillance System for the State of NH: Grant will help lay the groundwork for the development of a birth defects surveillance system in New Hampshire.

Adult Day Services Program Expansion: Grant will help develop plans to double the Adult Day Services Program (ADSP) by opening a second site. This grant will also help the Agency address the limitations of current funding streams, transportation, and need for donated space.

Assessment and Dissemination of Community Benefit Information and Practices: Grant will help the Community Health Institute analyze how New Hampshire's Health Care Charitable Trust's community benefit plans compare to the community needs assessment, and then to disseminate findings to communities and charitable trusts.

To provide a Discretionary Venture Grant for a forum for NCHC members and others to acquire a better understanding of services currently being provided for medical transportation in the North Country; issues/barriers existing for patients and providers of medical transportation; how NCHC members could influence support solutions; and to develop an agenda, purpose, and outcome for a rural transportation summit in early 2002 for the purpose of identifying solutions and opportunities for sustaining medical transportation services and developing action steps to develop a collaborative solution to the North Country's transportation needs.

Chamber Health Care Coalition: This Discretionary Venture Grant will assist small and medium-size businesses through survey analysis throughout New Hampshire to better understand how to provide affordable health insurance to their employees.