Peace Garden News

Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Dakota (BCBSND) Caring Foundation has announced the recipients of its 2025 fall Health Innovation Grants. These one-year grants are awarded to nonprofits, municipalities, and school districts in North Dakota that are developing or expanding programs aimed at supporting community well-being.

The grants focus on encouraging collaboration, increasing engagement, and creating sustainable change within communities. Funding was awarded to several organizations across the state for a range of projects:

- The Fargo-Moorhead Coalition to End Homelessness will use the grant to develop a Housing Access and Diversion Call Center in Cass County. This center aims to streamline access to shelter and crisis support by serving as a single contact point for individuals facing housing instability. The project includes program design, partner engagement, and system planning.

- Junior AchievementNorth will deploy its Finance Park Mobile Unit to provide middle and high school students—especially those in rural and underserved areas—with financial literacy education through immersive simulations.

- The NDSU American Indian Public Health Resource Center will create "Navigating Healthcare with Culture and Confidence: A Community Toolkit" for Indigenous residents in Fargo. This toolkit is intended to help community members navigate healthcare systems while respecting cultural identity.

- Sacred Pipe will use its grant for the Health Translators Project in Burleigh County. The initiative aims to strengthen communication between urban tribal populations and their healthcare providers through peer-supported advocacy.

- Hazelton Development Corporation is establishing the South Central Rural Grocers Cooperative. This cooperative will expand food redistribution partnerships among rural grocery stores, aiming to prevent food deserts and maintain access to healthy food for rural residents.

According to BCBSND Caring Foundation, these initiatives are shaped by insights from its Social Drivers of Health report, which examines how daily environments affect health outcomes. The foundation states that by investing in local partnerships it hopes “to enhance healthy lifestyles, address service gaps and promote access to health care across the state.”

Since 2021, more than $1 million has been distributed through the Health Innovation Grant program to over 40 organizations working on innovative solutions upstream from traditional health care interventions.

The BCBSND Caring Foundation encourages interested organizations to apply for future rounds of funding.