Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield, Alaska’s only individual health care company, announced will donate a grant of $220,000 to Alaska Children’s Trust, a state nonprofit program working to prevent issues related to child abuse in Alaska.
The grant was part of eight donations Premera gave to eight total organizations across Alaska and Washington, finishing its first year of donations directed toward organizations that support behavioral health solutions, particularly in underserved communities, said Paul Hollie, head of Premera’s Social Impact Program.
“These grants will have ripple effects for nonprofit groups who are seeking to better address an important need in our communities,” Hollie said. “We’ve seen the effects of these issues show up in families in many ways — often times initiated by early childhood trauma. It’s our goal to help experts better connect and serve those impacted, particularly those in the many underserved communities.”
Alaska Children’s Trust was founded in 1988 with the goal of preventing child abuse and neglect across the state.
Trevor Storrs, executive director of Alaska Children’s Trust, said Premera approached the group about the grant.
“Premera sought us out,” Storrs said. “They came to Alaska and met with a number of organizations to get to know them better. They were interested to find ways to give back to the community that they serve. So we built a relationship and helped them understand the work we do with adverse childhood experiences and how we help that.”
Hollie said Premera was looking for organizations that fit with its new donation program.
“We did research to find groups that came closest to fitting our focus area which is behavioral health,” Hollie said. “So over the months, we’ve been talking to them and getting to know them and getting to know their need across Alaska.”
Storrs said the funding will assist the organization’s Alaska Resilience Initiative.
“This is a collective impact effort that serves as an umbrella role for an Alaska specific training curriculum that focuses on ACEs, trauma and resilience,” Storrs said. “Currently no program exists that understands the historical trauma and cultural sensitivity that directly connects to Alaska and helps further people’s awareness and knowledge on the issue of trauma.”
Date: Dec 21, 2017