Challenge for a Healthier Louisiana
Obesity is fast becoming the most important public health problem of the 21st century. It’s most pronounced in the Southern region. Among the 50 states, Louisiana currently ranks sixth for adult obesity, and fourth for childhood obesity.
Our environment shapes the way that we make decisions to be physically active or to eat healthy. Communities, neighborhoods, schools, home and workplace environments can all influence people’s decisions with respect to lifestyle choices.
The Goal
The goal of the Blue Cross’ Challenge for a Healthier Louisiana program is to support communities in the implementation of healthy eating and active living programs
along with environmental change initiatives that support healthier communities for children and families across Louisiana.
Read More about the Purpose and Approach of this program.
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The Award
Each Challenge Grant will award between $250,000 to $1,000,000 for a one- to three-year funding period. Challenge Grant awards must be matched dollar-for-dollar by resources, either cash or in-kind, identified by the applicant. At least one-half of the matching support must be a cash match. Applications that do not include assurance of adequate matching funds will not be accepted.
How to Apply
Challenge Grant Updates
- Grantee Webinar information now posted.
Visit the Grantees page now: Go
Explore the Challenge
Funding Ideas
See examples of the types of ideas that could receive funding, and learn of the restrictions
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Contact Information
Need Help? Need more information on the program? Contact us!
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Project Summaries
The BCBSLA Foundation received 49 applications on April 30, 2012 totaling just over $110 million in possible healthy living initiatives across Louisiana. The following list includes a description of the proposed projects. The projects will be reviewed by a panel of leading healthcare experts from across the country and recipients will be announced later this summer.
| Organization – Project Title | Amount Requested | Total Project Cost | Summary | Geographic Area |
| Evergreen Presbyterian Ministries, Inc. ———–Access for All Fitness Program |
$231,605.00 | $465,272.00 | The Access for All Fitness program targets individuals with intellectual disabilities and their caregivers. The program will include a fitness center arranged so that those with disabilities are able to participate, the Art of Nutrition community nutrition program and specialized activities, including Adaptive Yoga. | Baton Rouge |
| Special Olympics Louisiana, Inc. ———– At the Training Table |
$1,000,000.00 | $2,593,995.00 | At the Training Table (ATTT) will promote a healthy lifestyle to persons with intellectual and developmental disabilities and their families; affecting policy change; launching a 12 week campaign of healthy nutrition and exercise daily; and creating venues which will allow for accessible daily exercise and healthy food choices. | New Orleans |
| Bayou District Foundation ———– Bayou District Town Green |
$277,000.00 | $554,000.00 | BDF’s mission is to implement a holistic community re-development model that enables families to escape the cycle of poverty and live healthy lives. The proposed project is our newly installed “Town Green”, which includes a Community Garden and Playfield, on which a youth sports program will be implemented. | New Orleans |
| BREC Foundation ———– Capital Area Pathways Project and Mobile Playground |
$1,000,000.00 | $2,200,000.00 | Our goal is to provide healthy recreational options by constructing the Wards Creek Trail portion of the Capital Area Pathways Project and obtaining a mobile recreation unit to be used to at the trail and in underserved “play deserts” of East Baton Rouge Parish where active play opportunities are needed. | Baton Rouge |
| Central Louisiana Economic Development Alliance ———– Central Louisiana Local Foods Initiative |
$500,000.00 | $1,000,000.00 | We plan to reduce obesity by increasing consumption of locally-grown fruits and vegetables. Our proposal encourages demand for, increases access to and expands the supply of locally-grown produce. We aim to seed the growth of a food economy where local produce is preferred by citizens and available in public venues. | Lake Charles/ Monroe/ Shreveport |
| Young Men’s Christian Association (YMCA) of Baton Rouge ———– Changing Lives |
$716,772.00 | $1,434,759.00 | Changing Lives fully integrates two evidence-based obesity prevention programs for elementary and middle school students and their families. Implemented within 9 school communities and five church communities, the innovative project addresses behaviors that perpetuate the lifestyles creating the growing rate of obesity among families in the Baton Rouge area. | Baton Rouge |
| CMAP Express ———– CMAP Express Healthy Lifestyle Program |
$784,773.00 | $1,597,798.00 | The Healthy Lifestyle Program aims to fight obesity by assisting residents in Central Louisiana to develop healthy behaviors. Specially trained staff will provide education on proper nutrition and physical activity. Key components: one-on-one (physician referral); workplace setting (policy and education); educational outreach throughout the region; and ongoing community support groups. | Central Louisiana |
| Tulane University ———– Connecting the Dots: Shaping a Healthier Generation |
$673,536.00 | $1,494,966.00 | Connecting the Dots aims to engage underserved New Orleans youth in healthy living through direct service programming and education for families, schools, and communities. The project will increase the impact of programs focused on nutrition and/or physical activity. City Park serves as the central point of contact with the community. | New Orleans |
| United Way of Northwest Louisiana ———– Creating a Healthy Change in Our Community |
$359,594.00 | $861,502.00 | The Creating a Healthy Change in our Community (CHCC) project will bring together private and public organizations to build upon current infrastructure to empower MLK community members with new knowledge through congruent community health education and new skill sets that will bring about a healthier, more physically fit community. | Shreveport |
| The Multipractice Clinic, Inc. ———– Crossing Boundaries |
$971,894.00 | $1,948,788.00 | The Multipractice Clinic, a Federally Qualified Health Center, and community partner’s, “Crossing Boundaries” project, aims at individuals, organizations, and governmental representatives within an impoverished, high need area of Louisiana. Bringing partners and resources together for a high-risk population; shifting community norms therein improving health, from birth throughout the lifespan. | New Orleans |
| Southwest Louisiana Area Health Education Center ———– Dare to be Healthy |
$732,966.00 | $2,002,587.00 | Dare to Be Healthy plan is a multi-pronged approach that includes a variety of interventions and activities directed to persons living in lower socioeconomic levels. The goals are to educate on the benefits of living healthier, and to concurrently address barriers to the community that impede people from doing so. | Lake Charles |
| Southeastern Louisiana Area Health Education Center Foundation ———– Expansion of NAP SACC in Louisiana |
$466,202.75 | $932,810.59 | This initiative will focus on obesity prevention policies in child care centers at both the center and the state level. At the center level the intervention will follow the NAP SACC Program. At the state level work will surround inclusion of obesity prevention policies into licensure regulations and quality indicators. | Statewide |
| Louisiana Public Health Institute ———– Fit NOLA Project |
$999,991.00 | $2,226,452.00 | Supporting nutritional and physical activity behavior change to improve long-term health outcomes for low-income families, community centered health homes in three high-crime neighborhoods will issue Fruit & Veggie Prescriptions redeemable at neighborhood farmers markets and “Exercise Prescriptions” redeemable at area parks with enhanced security, improved infrastructure, healthy concessions and family-oriented recreation. | New Orleans |
| Volunteers of America Greater New Orleans, Inc. ———– Fresh & Healthy Food Production Facility |
$250,000.00 | $20,464,305.00 | VOAGNO is establishing a Fresh and Healthy Facility providing healthy meals for at-risk low income students in high-need schools. Partner Sterling Wellness Solutions will measure student health and monitor progress toward reducing childhood obesity. The program includes student and parent seminars, nutrition/exercise education with Dietitians, Trainers, Health and Wellness Educators | New Orleans |
| Mayor’s Healthy City Initiative ———– Fresh Beginnings |
$1,000,000.00 | $2,266,994.40 | Fresh Beginnings will directly impact obesity issues in ‘high-need’ zip codes through an evidence based, multilevel collaborative: I) incorporating sustainable healthy lifestyle curriculum and practices into elementary schools II) providing neighborhoods immediate access to fresh/healthy foods, III) increasing community education/advocacy by implementing sustainable comprehensive policies to address food desert neighborhoods. | Baton Rouge |
| Friends of the Atchafalaya ———– Friends Helping Friends for a Healthier Louisiana |
$303,231.00 | $607,551.00 | Project targets obesity by creating a program and infrastructure that inspires, informs, educates, and advocates healthy lifestyles regarding nutrition and activity. It simultaneously increases physical activity in youth and adults in the target population. Additional physical activity infrastructure includes indoor “outdoor” classrooms, garden plots for classes, and daily activity programs. | Lafayette/ New Orleans |
| Louisiana Food Bank Association ———– Fruits and Vegetables for Kids |
$274,253.00 | $550,253.00 | This project will increase the consumption of fruits and vegetables in a food insecure youth population using four interventions: Providing fruits and vegetables to take home on weekends, Nutrition education for healthy eating and shopping, A healthy cooking class, and Assessment of the nutritional value of the back pack program. | Statewide |
| A’s & Aces ———– G.A.T.E. to a Healthy Future |
$600,000.00 | $1,292,400.00 | G.A.T.E. addresses the obesity crisis in New Orleans by implementing highly-engaging, evidence-based programming designed to influence life-long exercise levels and eating choices of low-socioeconomic, minority children and families through physical activity (tennis/cross-training) and interrelated healthy lifestyles curricula (gardening/nutrition education) at schools and parks, and through advocacy to bring systemic change. | New Orleans |
| Greater New Orleans Foundation ———– Generation K |
$925,276.00 | $2,351,306.00 | Generation K is a new coordinated services network that infuses physical activity and healthy nutrition throughout the daily lives of New Orleans’ youth. Led by a proven multi-sector collaborative of 40 non-profit organizations, Generation K will launch, refine and prepare to expand its evidence-based program model citywide by August 2015. | New Orleans |
| New Orleans Food and Farm Network Inc./Recirculating Farms Coalition Inc. ———– Growing LA |
$440,000.00 | $1,860,000.00 | “Growing Louisiana” will build an innovative urban farming and health supportive center in downtown New Orleans to provide farmer trainings, cooking and exercise classes, and other educational programs and materials for greater New Orleans communities and beyond to develop new sources of local, fresh food and healthy lifestyle behaviors. | New Orleans |
| Central Louisiana Area Health Education Center (CLAHEC) ———– HARMONY Health Kinection |
$240,000.00 | $600,000.00 | The “Community Kinection” network of 17 HARMONY sites will facilitate policy change for obesity prevention guided by Louisiana Center for After-School Learning. Seasonal “Camp Kinection,” “Club Kinection” and “Xerlympics” sessions will combine Xbox Kinect physical movement with LA Dietetic Association’s healthy food activities. CLAHEC and Rapides Foundation pledge cash match. | Lake Charles/ Monroe/ Baton Rouge |
| Foundation for the Mid South ———– Health Campus |
$573,352.00 | $841,852.00 | The Campus provides opportunities for partnerships, civic engagement, and education. Implementation of a Campus results in improvements that lead to increased physical activity, access to fresh healthy foods, and provide health education to the community. This concept will be achieved with two strategies, Project 5210, and a Community Health Square. | Lake Charles/ Shreveport |
| Sci-Port Discovery Center ———– Health Quest |
$272,747.39 | $632,865.23 | Health Quest, a multi-level health outreach program composed of a traveling exhibit and health programming is targeted to children in grades 4th-8th in Shreveport/Bossier and throughout Louisiana. It provides personal health information, nutritional advice, exercise opportunities and obesity related information to everyone who participates in the program. | Shreveport |
| Young Aspirations Young Artists, Inc. ———– Healthy Community – Safe Community |
$280,115.00 | $560,230.00 | Healthy Community-Safe Community’s goal is to draw direct connections between physically healthy and safe lifestyles for children and families throughout New Orleans. The project design responds to the crisis of violence in New Orleans by nurturing healthy and positive alternatives, emphasizing the importance of nutrition, exercise, and creative outlets. | New Orleans |
| Social Entrepreneurs of New Orleans ———– Healthy Food Access Solutions Incubator |
$338,355.00 | $676,710.00 | Social Entrepreneurs of New Orleans’ project is the Healthy Food Access Solutions Incubator in order to scale and launch social ventures—nonprofit and for-profit–that are solving systemic challenges in healthy food access through innovations in public school meals, healthy food availability in food deserts, farm-to-school, and urban agriculture. | New Orleans |
| The Community Foundation of North Louisiana ———– Healthy Green and Into the Outdoors Obesity Prevention Project |
$588,485.00 | $1,437,556.00 | HGIO will simultaneously implement four evidence based strategies: (1) Multi-Disciplined Prevention Coalition (20 health, science, and community organizations), (2) Multi-media Campaign (reaching a metropolitan population of 350,000), (3) HGIO Youth Corps and Garden Learning Communities (promoting active living and healthy nutrition), and (4) Empowering Advocacy for Policy Change (training community leaders) | Shreveport |
| Children’s Health Fund ———– Healthy Lifestyles Clinical Intervention Program |
$436,054.00 | $872,108.00 | Targeting pre-K through 5 graders in Baton Rouge, BRCHP and community partners will transform home and school environments, making it easier for children to engage in healthy behaviors and prevent obesity. We will conduct school-wide education, offer clinical care, improve school policy and infrastructure, and engage parents/community in health promotion. | Baton Rouge |
| The Kiwanis Club of Lafayette Foundation ———– Healthy Living Club |
$1,000,000.00 | $2,512,655.00 | The Healthy Living Club provides a holistic approach to creating a healthier community. The project (involving approximately 24 partners) will improve parks, bike trails and sidewalks for fitness, has a se ed to table approach for healthier eating, and a curriculum for educational materials to be used by all educational partners. | Lafayette |
| Big Buddy Program ———– Healthy-4-All |
$999,875.96 | $2,114,401.96 | Healthy-4-All will work with more than 1200 members of the Baton Rouge Community through in-school, after-school and community-based programming that will target high-need families with activities that will (1) get them moving! (2) provide the education they need to live a healthy lifestyle and (3) increase access to healthy foods. | Baton Rouge |
| Second Harvest Food Bank of Greater New Orleans and Acadiana ———– Improving Access to Nutritous Food and Promoting Healthy Eating in Underserved Communities |
$1,000,000.00 | $2,165,021.00 | We will promote healthy eating through a three-pronged approach: Access, Educate, Change. We will improve access to nutritious food, including fresh fruits and vegetables; provide nutrition education to our target population and the community, as well as affect statewide impact on food policy and access to healthy food. | Lafayette/New Orleans |
| Louisiana Association of United Ways Inc. ———– LA Act 256 Expansion Program |
$331,724.00 | $663,449.00 | The proposal funds partnerships with school districts to increase current state-wide health and physical assessment efforts (LA ACT 256) and the creation of School Health Advisory Councils (which is promoted by the Centers for Disease Control to help school districts meet the 2004 Child Nutrition and WIC Reauthorization Act requirements | Statewide |
| Vietnamese Initiative in Economic Training ———– Let’s Move Again |
$470,033.00 | $950,843.80 | The Let’s Move Again Initiative is a project which will entail nutritional education, neighborhood health rallies, and organized sports leagues for youth and adults in the New Orleans East neighborhoods. | New Orleans |
| Berean Wellness and Community Support Center ———– Lifestyle Improvements for Eternity |
$250,000.00 | $550,000.00 | To prevent and reverse lifestyle diseases in our community through health and nutrition education, and fitness and exercise classes administered through our 45-day lifestyle education and fitness program; to develop community gardens and lobby local and state officials to create policies that promote a healthy lifestyle. | Baton Rouge |
| Centennial Cultural Center, Inc. ———– Live Lively LaSalle! |
$1,000,000.00 | $2,000,000.00 | Live Lively LaSalle!, a coalition of 10 partners created a multi-level project for LaSalle Parish that implements 12 recommended strategies. The benefit of access to changes in the physical and social environment, coupled with education, outreach and wellness scholarship opportunities, can make a difference in the obesity epidemic! | Monroe |
| Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge ———– Mid City and OSBR Dance, Exercise, and Health Programming |
$500,000.00 | $1,261,000.00 | The Arts Council seeks funding to support exercise and healthy living initiatives for the at-risk populations of Mid City Gardens low-income housing development and the Old South Baton Rouge neighborhood. Programs include dance/movement classes, nutrition classes, playgrounds, health screenings, garden, exercise equipment, and transportation to the Farmer’s Market. | Baton Rouge |
| Knock Knock Children’s Museum ———– Moving On & Up! |
$1,000,000.00 | $2,000,000.00 | Located at Knock Knock Children’s Museum, Moving On & Up! will provide physical activity and nutrition lessons through interactive learning experiences to children birth through age 8 and their families living in the Capital Region. Through sponsored admissions and school field trips, the project will reach the underserved community. | Baton Rouge |
| Northshore Community Foundation ———– Northshore Partnership for Healthy Living |
$1,000,000.00 | $2,300,000.00 | The Northshore Partnership for Healthy Living will create a wellness/recreation initiative, anchored by a facility and programming adjacent to the Tammany Trace (31 mile path). The initiative will provide both educational and fitness programming, focused on healthy living and obesity prevention for Northshore residents, particularly children, families and seniors. | New Orleans |
| Mixon-Clayton Bridgebuilders Memorial Foundation ———– On the Move for a Healthier Tangipahoa |
$200,349.00 | $400,767.00 | Our program is designed to combat obesity and obesity tendencies for people ages 10 to 79 through the use of exercise and nutrition. We will use traditional (treadmill, recumbent cycles and step-climbers) and nontraditional (xBox Kinect and Wii’s) exercise equipment, growing food for our farmer’s market, and nutrition classes. | New Orleans |
| YMCA of Northeast Louisiana ———– Ouachita Well |
$1,000,000.00 | $2,416,506.00 | Ouachita Well is a comprehensive three-year project that will coordinate efforts within our community to improve the health of our most vulnerable populations. Ouachita Well includes work to change public policy and community norms while offering direct services to obese people, especially children and low-income families. | Monroe |
| Broad Community Connections, Inc. ———– ReFresh Project |
$895,696.00 | $14,133,896.00 | The ReFresh Project is an innovative project that will create a ‘fresh food hub’ that will increase healthy and affordable food access to underserved New Orleans communities throughout the city and anchor economic development along Broad Street. | New Orleans |
| Shreveport Regional Arts Council (SRAC) ———– SHREVEPORT COMMON: Shreveport’s Nexus for Healthy Living |
$1,135,490.00 | $7,014,650.00 | SRAC seeks to launch a program of UNCOMMONLY GOOD SATURDAYS predicated upon the conviction that the Arts build body, mind, and soul. We will achieve the goal to reduce and prevent obesity through a festival style environment with the expected outcome to motivate the infrastructure required to create SHREVEPORT COMMON. | Shreveport |
| Louisiana Perinatal-MCH Foundation ———– Starting Obesity Prevention in Infancy by Improving Hospital and Community Support for Breastfeeding |
$810,545.23 | $1,638,113.09 | This project will focus on obesity prevention by fostering breastfeeding-friendly environments and increasing breastfeeding rates by expanding a statewide hospital breastfeeding initiative, participating in a national learning collaborative, providing training to health care providers, and piloting a project to strengthen breastfeeding education and support in Greater New Orleans. | New Orleans |
| Faubourg St. Roach Improvement Association ———– The Health of Faubourg St. Roch |
$1,000,000.00 | $1,750,000.00 | This proposal is designed to convey the link between FSR and the greater community and how the success of this community will lend to the quality of life of its neighbors. The target is the playground in which the City will invest $1.6M; we trust BCBS will invest $1M. | New Orleans |
| Central Louisiana Community Foundation ———– The Leonardo Project: A Renaissance in Healthy Living |
$251,122.00 | $530,344.00 | The Leonardo Project engages new forces to combat obesity, complementing the existing strengths of Central Louisiana and recognizing success will not be achieved through knowledge alone, but only with the added power of individual will; that we cannot dictate, not simply educate, but that we must also inspire. | Lake Charles/ Monroe/ Shreveport |
| Educational Broadcasting Foundation, Inc. ———– THINK FIT: Fighting Childhood Obesity |
$729,564.00 | $1,469,047.00 | THINK FIT is a statewide multi-media awareness campaign featuring a documentary and town-hall discussion, healthy lifestyle television vignettes and idea-sharing promos, community workshops, a school challenge fitness contest, fitness run and website hosted by a trusted Louisiana athlete who is a proven fitness and lifestyle role model. | Statewide |
| Deployable Orthopedic and Rehabilitation Services (DORS) ———– Wellness Mobile Application |
$250,000.00 | $500,000.00 | Project utilizes a pervasive mobile technology/communication platform and cloud-based web service to reduce obesity. It changes behavior at the point-of-decision utilizing persuasion and social interactions with a geo-location linked software application tailored to client profiles. Based on user location, time, health-needs, etc. we send multi-media messages to impact behavior choices. | Baton Rouge/ New Orleans |
| Hopkins Street Revitalization Association, Inc. ———– West End Health and Wellness Project |
$1,000,000.00 | $4,762,616.00 | This project directly addresses the problem of obesity in the West End of New Iberia, La. in collaboration with the Delcambre, La. Seafood Direct open air fresh seafood and framers market — through nutrition education, physical activity, fresh food availability and individual self efficacy. | Lafayette |
| St. Francisville Area Foundation ———– West Feliciana Parish Healthy Lifestyles and Obesity Prevention Project |
$1,000,000.00 | $2,152,418.00 | The Project will develop walking/biking trails to connect infrastructures in the community, a Community Fitness Center, two playgrounds, Childhood Obesity Program and walking/biking clubs. We will develop a website and media campaign for healthy eating/physical activity education, and to inform community of walking/biking trails, fitness center, playground, program and clubs. | Baton Rouge |
| Edible Schoolyard New Orleans ———– Whole Child, Whole School, Whole Community |
$999,983.00 | $2,729,892.00 | Edible Schoolyard NOLA proposes to help five FirstLine Schools close the achievement gap by addressing the “wellness” gap, by implementing a replicable comprehensive health and wellness initiative at the school district level that includes garden- and kitchen-based health education and physical fitness activities for students, faculty, parents and neighbors. | New Orleans |