National funding provides $600,000 for Payette community health care 2023
According to a press release from the Western Idaho Community Action Partnership, a coalition of healthcare groups will use federal funding to better serve residents of the rural Payette region.
According to the press release, WICAP has been awarded a national grant of more than $600,000 to help eliminate health inequalities in Payette. Payette is one of 13 American cities to receive a $3 million BUILD Health Challenge award over the course of three years.
WICAP stated in a press release that Payette would “serve as a model for addressing key health concerns around housing, behavioral health, and access to health care for other communities in Idaho and across the nation” due to the fact that it is the smallest and most rural community to ever receive such prestigious funding and support.
Over the next three years, WICAP will put the funding toward assisting the Western Idaho Community Health Collaborative, Blue Cross of Idaho Foundation for Health, Southwest District Health, Saint Alphonsus, and St. Luke’s health systems.
Intermountain Health, LEAP Housing Solutions, Payette City Council, and others will contribute.
The funding will be used to expand access to and utilization of mental health and chronic disease-specific health care services and resources in order to reduce health inequalities. Housing affordability and racial inclusion are two further areas of concentration for the project.
According to Saint Alphonsus Health System Director of Community Health & Well-Being Rebecca Lemmons, the award will bring “national resources and opportunities” to Payette, which will “lift the voices of the residents in co-designing the housing and services that they want and need most.”
Southwest District Health Community Resiliency Program Manager Emily Straubhar was quoted as saying, “BUILD Payette will amplify the existing resources in the community and draw upon the expertise of residents to identify pressing health needs with innovative solutions to address them.” Together, we can make Southwest Idaho a better place to live thanks to BUILD Payette.
Trinity Health, the parent company of Saint Alphonsus Health System, is one of several national and regional corporations that contribute to the national grant program.