Photo courtesy of the Korean Health Education Information and Research Center.

EDUCATION & OUTREACH

Community Grants

Organizations across the country are doing extraordinary work to get medically under-resourced communities the education, screenings and vaccinations they need to prevent cancer or detect it early.

The 2024-2026 Community Grant application has now closed.

Applicants will be notified of decisions in November.

Funding priority: Patient navigation for cancer prevention and early detection

Grant: $100,000 over two years

The Prevent Cancer Foundation is investing in patient navigation efforts for cancer prevention and early detection for the 2024-2026 Community Grant cycle. Community-based organizations can apply for a $100,000 grant over two-year ($50,000 per year) to bolster their patient navigation efforts. Applicants that utilize best practices, have established community partnerships and are addressing health disparities in their community or practice will be prioritized.

Since 2007, the Prevent Cancer Foundation has awarded over 100 grants to outstanding projects in 37 states and American Samoa and to the Washoe Tribe.

A young woman is receiving a a shot in an examination room. She is seated and facing away from the camera. A female nurse is administering the shot and facing the patient. — Kokua Kalihi Valley Comprehensive Family Services, Honolulu, Hawaii (2019)

An informational table is set up under a tent and has a rainbow banner above it. There are two adults behind the table in shirts with rainbow lettering on their chests. They appear to be speaking to a guest who is facing the table. — Norton Healthcare, Louisville, Kentucky (2022)

A female technician is assisting a woman in her 40s at a mammogram machine. The women are facing one another and the technician has a comforting hand on the other woman's back. They are facing each other their backs are to the camera. — Eastern Maine Medical Center, Bangor, Maine (2021)

2023 Grantees

To advance the bold goal to reduce cancer deaths by 40% by 2035, the Foundation is proud to support 12 community grant projects dedicated to increasing cancer prevention and early detection in rural and urban communities across the U.S., from Eugene, Oregon to Roanoke, Virginia to New York City. Each project was selected through a competitive grant process and awarded $25,000 each. Learn more about these diverse projects below.

Equal Hope Metropolitan Chicago Breast Cancer Task Force

Location: Chicago, Ill.

Equal Hope will address breast and cervical cancer disparities by facilitating access to timely, high-quality screenings, diagnostics and treatment to improve racial inequities in metro Chicago’s health system. Program initiatives include community outreach, education and client navigation aimed at addressing barriers to cancer screening for people living in areas with high death rates from breast and cervical cancers.

HIV Alliance

Location: Eugene, Ore.

HIV Alliance’s case management program will support people in Lane County, Oregon, who are impacted by hepatitis C and are at high risk for liver cancer by reducing barriers to hepatitis C treatment. (Hepatitis C is a leading cause of liver cancer. By treating hepatitis C, you may be able to stop liver cancer before it starts.) The program aims to connect underserved individuals with medical care to clear the virus and improve their health and quality of life.

Milwaukee Consortium for Hmong Health, Inc.

Location: Milwaukee, Wis.

This project will provide culturally appropriate educational workshops in the Southeast Asian community it serves about how diet and physical activity impact cancer risks. They will conduct educational workshops in the languages spoken by each group for Hmong, Burmese, Karen, Karenni and Laotian community members and will encourage participants to schedule appropriate cancer screenings.

Comadre a Comadre Program, The Regents of the University of New Mexico, Albuquerque

Location: Albuquerque, N.M.

This project will provide education, information and navigation to 300 Hispanic/Latinx people from counties surrounding Albuquerque, New Mexico through the Comadre a Comadre program. This culturally and linguistically designed project, the Platicas will train trusted, community peer breast and cervical cancer survivors to conduct classes and establish an advisory council, address barriers to screening and navigate patients to screening appointments. They also aim to reach over 850 individuals through health fairs and one-on-one classes.

VAX 2 STOP CANCER

Location: Birmingham, Ala.

This project will focus on an HPV vaccine provider education program, offsetting program costs and increasing HPV vaccination rates by 10% among participating practices. The project team will train pediatric and family practice health care providers in private practice, health departments, Federally Qualified Health Centers and rural health centers throughout Alabama to give an effective vaccine recommendation, counsel hesitant parents and decrease missed opportunities to give the vaccine. (HPV can cause at least six types of cancer; by preventing HPV, you can ultimately prevent cancer.)

The Research Foundation for The SUNY of Univ. at Buffalo

Location: Buffalo, N.Y.

The Patient Voices Breast Cancer Program will increase breast cancer screening rates by linking patients to mobile mammography and primary care through Patient Ambassadors and education to engage community members not actively involved in the health care system. This program will also mobilize Patient Ambassadors from the Patient Voices Network for outreach to community residents identified as high risk for breast cancer.

Two women sit at a table at the Research Foundation for The SUNY of Univ. at Buffalo. Plastic bags and forms are on the table, while vending machines are behind them.

West Virginia University

Morgantown, W.Va.

The West Virginia University Cancer Institute’s Mobile Lung Cancer Screening Unit will partner with two existing clinic systems to identify those at high risk for lung cancer and use an evidence-based messaging campaign to increase lung cancer screening in rural West Virginia. To achieve this, the project will use patient navigation, patient reminders, and provider recall, and will work to reduce financial barriers and improve access to screening in the most rural parts of southern and northern West Virginia.

Hitting Cancer Below the Belt

Location: Midlothian, Va.

This project will eliminate major barriers to colorectal cancer screening by providing stool-based fecal immunochemical test (FIT) screening kits and educational resources to low-income, uninsured individuals across Virginia. The project team will help to reduce or eliminate follow-up colonoscopy costs and provide training and technical assistance to clinic staff to reduce the number of late-stage cancer diagnoses.

Korean Community Services of Metropolitan New York, Inc.

Location: Bayside, N.Y.

The Asian American Healthy Liver Initiative will address hepatitis B and work to prevent liver cancer deaths within Asian communities in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut. This project aims to conduct 27 free screening events to identify new patients with chronic hepatitis B, expand culturally competent patient navigation services and utilize various communication channels to raise awareness about hepatitis B and liver cancer across the tristate area. (Hepatitis B is a leading cause of liver cancer. It’s best to prevent hepatitis B with vaccination, but if someone does contract hepatitis B, it can be treated. Treating hepatitis B may stop liver cancer before it starts.)

Project Renewal, Inc.

Location: New York, N.Y.

Project Renewal’s ScanVan is a mobile mammography van and program addressing the need for accessible and affordable breast health care in the New York Metropolitan Area. During this project, the ScanVan will provide free mammograms, clinical breast exams and patient navigation to 800 women in low-income neighborhoods. Additionally, ScanVan’s patient navigators will facilitate prompt and compassionate follow-up care for any patients with an abnormal result and will aim to ensure that 100% of patients diagnosed with breast cancer are connected to appropriate treatment.

Funding for this project is provided by the Stohlman Family Grant in memory of Richard Stohlman and Margaret Weigand.

University of Arizona Foundation

Location: Tucson, Ariz.

The project aims to recruit and train at least 15 volunteers (interested community members and schoolteachers) to reach at least 3,000 youth as part of their sun safety and skin cancer awareness efforts. Community volunteers will deliver skin cancer prevention lessons in classrooms and clubs in Southern Arizona. The Outreach Team of the Skin Cancer Institute at the University of Arizona will be responsible for developing the sun safety curriculum and implementing the program.

Virginia Harm Reduction Coalition

Location: Roanoke, Va.

This program will consist of activities aimed at preventing, detecting and treating cancer-causing viruses that are common among people who use drugs. The Coalition will provide rapid hepatitis C testing, connect patients to hepatitis B and hepatitis C laboratory testing and treatment, and provide hepatitis B and HPV immunization, testing, education and care to an underserved, marginalized population in Appalachian Southwest Virginia.