Medtronic Foundation and The Community Foundation for Ireland today announced that four national charities have been selected to deploy health programmes in Year 2 of The Medtronic Healthy Communities Fund. A total of €170,000 in grants will fund programmes that promote healthy lifestyles, expand access to healthcare for the underserved and tackle health inequalities to improve the lives of up to 12,000 people in Ireland.
The four organisations receiving grants today are the Marie Keating Foundation, Siel Bleu, the Irish Heart Foundation and the Irish Cancer Society. The grantees were chosen from Year 1 participants of The Medtronic Healthy Communities Fund because of the potential their projects demonstrated to make a nationwide impact through local partnerships with community actors. The network of partners includes 22 crèches, three universities, 11 community groups, and four local development organisations.
A networking event was held today to bring together the grantees, as well as other stakeholders with an interest in building healthy communities. Congratulating the groups, Minister for Health, Simon Harris TD, told the networking event that the programme exemplified how Healthy Ireland could be taken to every town, village and parish. “Following a successful first year, the continued initiative by Medtronic Foundation to provide funding to support health promotion, access and health equality is welcome and I’m looking forward to seeing the impact of the Fund over the coming months. The approach Medtronic Foundation is taking with this Fund is a good example of what can be achieved by bringing people and empowering them to build strong communities for health and wellbeing.”
Speaking at the awards, Alma Curran, Corporate Affairs Manager and Philanthropy Lead at Medtronic said: “The Medtronic Healthy Communities Fund was created last year to support innovative ideas to improve health in Irish communities and address inequities in health outcomes. In our first year, we partnered with six organisations and we have been inspired by the dedication of the organisations and their focus in realising the goals of both the Healthy Ireland Framework and the Sustainable Development Goals.
“The four organisations – the Marie Keating Foundation, Siel Bleu, the Irish Heart Foundation and the Irish Cancer Society – have ambitious programmes planned and will work with all ages from pre-school; secondary school, unemployed communities to older persons groups. We look forward to working closely with the sector to advance these initiatives and to empower Irish communities with the best practices and ideas to build strategic programmes in partnerships that suit the needs of their own localities.”
The Medtronic Healthy Communities Fund was established in 2015 to encourage and support innovative ideas and projects to improve health at the community level, especially for people traditionally at risk for chronic diseases such as heart disease or diabetes, or challenged in accessing existing healthcare services. Grants from the fund are given to organisations improving pathways to healthcare services, promoting healthcare and wellbeing, and tackling healthcare inequality, in line with the Government’s ‘Healthy Ireland’ framework.
The Medtronic Healthy Communities Fund is managed and distributed by The Community Foundation for Ireland and The Ireland Funds. Community based organisations can register interest via www.foundation.ie.