Community Health Champions

1. Increase member awareness and knowledge of Medi-Cal benefits, community resources and how to access care.
2. Increase the number of community resource access points.
3. Engage youth and adult Medi-Cal members in advocacy that positively impacts individual and community health and reduces stigma and barriers to care.

Grants support community-based projects that directly serve the Medi-Cal population and support the Community Health Champions Program funding goals.

Community Health Champion training

This funding opportunity provides grants for organizing, training and supporting youth and adults to:

1. Educate their peers and families on specific health topics and how to confidently manage their health.
2. Promote available health care services, resources and health literacy.
3. Destigmatize the use of behavioral health and substance use disorder services.
4. Engage trusted community gatekeepers and local decision-makers to remove barriers to health.
5. Advocate for their community to promote wellness and health equity.

Strengthening your application

Applicants who demonstrate one or more of the following will strengthen their grant application:

1. Opportunities to include member voice to inform community investments.
2. Commitment to strategies that promote linguistic and cultural competence and health equity.
3. A data-driven case for geographic need where the project will be implemented and/or population(s) of focus and/or topic(s) of focus.
4. Use of evidence-based practices or recognized effective practices.
5. Use of participatory evaluation methods to measure impact.
6. Leveraging other funding sources and initiatives.

Applicants must meet the minimum eligibility requirements for the Medi-Cal Capacity Grant Program (see Eligibility Guidelines) and the following criteria.

Applicant must be one of the following:

• A contracted Alliance provider or 501(c)(3) nonprofit.
• A community group with a fiscal agent that is a 501(c)(3).
• A governmental entity.

Eligible applicants must serve a significant volume of Medi-Cal members in the Alliance service area.

Additional types of partners not listed above may be involved in the project but cannot serve as the applicant (e.g., businesses, for-profit housing developments).

One organization must serve as the applicant/grantee organization.

Serving as the applicant for one project would not prohibit an entity from also serving as a partner on another Community Health Champions project.

An applicant is limited to Community Health Champions Program funding for one project at a time, which may be implemented at more than one site.

Amount

The Alliance will consider funding projects up to $100,000 per grant.

Term

Project timelines should be no more than 24 months.

Project timelines are defined as the date the project scope of work begins (after grant award date) to the date of project completion.

Funding will be considered for expansion of projects already in progress. However, completed activities or costs incurred prior to approval of the grant request by the Alliance will not be considered. A project budget may contain costs for more than one site.

Eligible expenses

Examples of eligible expenses include:

• Personnel expenses (salary and benefits) for one or more full-time equivalents (FTEs) with direct responsibilities for the project.
• Consultants and vendor costs for project start-up and/or implementation.
• One-time purchase of equipment and/or technology dedicated to project implementation.
• Programmatic costs (materials, non-cash participant incentives, mileage, etc.).
• Indirect costs up to 15% are eligible and may be included in project budget.

Visit our How to Apply page for deadlines, instructions and the online application form.

Applications require submission of financial statements, including audited financial statements for the last two fiscal years and an organizational profit and loss statement and balance sheet for the last 12 months.

If audited financial statements are not available, applicant should provide a rationale for not performing an annual audit and upload their company or organization’s most recent tax return or Form 990.