Current grants fall into two main categories.
Targeted on a specific geographic area: $83,000 to four projects in Eastern Birmingham (East Lake and Roebuck) as a way to improve results in this geographic area and provide a model for use in other communities across Jefferson County. This area was chosen, in part, to highlight JCDH Eastern Health Center as a community resource.  Grantees will work together to improve community health with the following projects:

• Promoting Empowerment and Enrichment Resources, Inc. (P.E.E.R., Inc.), based out of East Lake Methodist Church and operating the East Lake Farmers Market, $20,000, to expand health services offered at the Farmers Market, partner with churches to create community gardens and provide baskets of fresh foods to area daycares and senior centers.
• Ruffner Mountain Nature Center, $17,530, to provide free field trips to elementary and middle school students, teachers and chaperones of seven local schools, to enhance active living and promote Ruffner Mountain as a community resource.
• Northeast YMCA, $21,070, to start a neighborhood walking program, providing  opportunities for active living and empowering community residents as walk leaders, and to provide a nationally-recognized support model for African-American diabetics in the community.
• Main Street Birmingham, $25,000, to conduct a feasibility study to develop a locally-integrated food economy and a public market to spur economic development, building on the East Lake Farmers Market and other community efforts.

General projects throughout Jefferson County: $50,000 to six projects supporting the goals of the Health Action Partnership throughout Jefferson County:

• Jefferson County Land Development, a department of Jefferson County government responsible for policies and regulations enforcing land use and development, $2,000, to provide supplies for the Clean Sweep Program, in which probationers are assigned sections of roadsides to pick up litter.
• Jones Valley Urban Farm, in collaboration with the Jefferson County Childhood Obesity Task Force, $14,000, to develop social marketing strategies to promote healthy eating and active lifestyles among children at risk of childhood obesity.
• Lakeshore Foundation, $2,000 to support an inaugural Health and Wellness Expo providing area residents with free access to a range of community fitness and health resources.
• Main Street Birmingham, $10,000 as matching funds to convert a vacant North Birmingham lot into an EcoScape, a gateway to the commercial revitalization district, a therapeutic green space for senior citizens and an outdoor classroom.
• Media for Health, $7,000 to pilot a Spanish language health promotion radio drama in Jefferson County.
• UAB School of Public Health, $15,000 to build the infrastructure of the Birmingham Atlas of Health Outcomes as a resource for understanding and having an impact on community health and the social behaviors that affect health.

To find out more about Health Action Partnership or these grants, contact Webb Lyons by e-mail or at 327-3817.