PORTLAND, Ore. — The Regence Foundation announced today that it has awarded $220,400 to five Northwest nonprofits. The grants address health care access needs in Idaho, Oregon and Washington.

"The Regence Foundation believes that access to quality, affordable care is the key to a healthy community," said Michael Alexander, Regence Foundation board chair. "As a Foundation that’s part of a health insurance company, it's our responsibility and commitment to the community to support nonprofits working to get people the care they need and bringing attention to key health issues."

• University of Washington, Harborview Medical Center  (Seattle, WA): $100,000 to address disparities in palliative care, measure outcomes and create guidelines from its new Primary Palliative Care Program. The program works to improve continuity and quality of care for terminally ill patients who lack a primary care provider.
• Familias en Accion  (Portland, OR): $77,700 to increase breast cancer screening rates among Latinas in Multnomah, Washington and Clackamas counties, and develop policy recommendations to help remove barriers to care for Latinas diagnosed with breast cancer.
• Morrow County Community Health Improvement Partnership  (Heppner, OR): $22,400 to support a new community collaborative made up of local health care providers and local government, community organizations and businesses. Its goal is to increase access to treatment locally and improve the health of residents in this rural north-central Oregon county.
• Snake River Community Clinic  (Lewiston, ID): $10,300 to help hire a continuity of care provider at the clinic and to support basic lab tests for new patients. The clinic is shifting its focus from one-time visits and urgent care to primary care for vulnerable populations.
• Children’s Cancer Association (Portland, OR): $10,000 to build three new mobile music carts for hospitalized children and teens at Doernbecher Children’s Hospital and the Children’s Hospital at Legacy Emanuel. The music cart program, called MusicRx®, provides in-room, one-on-one music experiences for hospitalized children, as well as on-call palliative music for children and their families at end-of-life.

Several of these grants were awarded through The Regence Fund at The Oregon Community Foundation.