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Smith Farm Center Receives $25,000 Grant from the Quality Health Foundation to Support its Faith-Based Community Navigation Program for African-American and African Immigrant Women

Columbia, Maryland – July 2, 2008 –The Quality Health Foundation, the mission arm of Quality Health Strategies, announced today a grant in the amount of $25,000 to Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts, a Washington, DC based non-profit health, arts and education organization.  The Smith Farm Center works to improve accessibility to health services for the prevention and treatment of breast cancer among African-American and African immigrant women in underserved areas of the District of Columbia.

The grants funds from the Quality Health Foundation will support the continuation of the community navigation program into its second year, and the development of a “best practice” community navigation training manual.  Through the community navigation programs, including individual counseling and educational programs, an estimated 1,000 residents of a target area will be reached.

“Smith Farm Center is very grateful to the Quality Health Foundation for funding the first year of our navigation program,” said Shanti Norris, Executive Director, Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts.  “We believe the continuation of this program has tremendous potential to impact the health and lives of underserved women in Washington, DC.”

The Quality Health Foundation was formed in May 2003 out of funds from Quality Health Strategies, an Easton-based not-for-profit quality improvement organization with more than 30 years experience in conducting and evaluating health care quality improvement initiatives.  The mission of the Quality Health Foundation is to provide charitable organizations that wish to undertake improvement projects with funding based on the project’s potential to impact access to and quality of healthcare to individuals and communities.

“We at the Quality Health Foundation are happy to continue our partnership with the Smith Farm Center for Healing and the Arts to bring support services to women challenged by breast cancer,” said Sheldon Goldgeier, MD, Chairman of the Quality Health Foundation Board of Directors.

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About Quality Health Foundation
The Quality Health Foundation is the mission arm of the Quality Health Strategies, a national, not-for-profit organization dedicated to improving healthcare quality in 26 states.  Formed in May 2003, the mission of the Quality Health Foundation is to improve the health of individuals and communities.  To achieve this goal, we provide modest charitable grants to organizations that wish to undertake improvement projects to impact access to and quality of healthcare and human services to individuals and communities.  For more information, please visit the Quality Health Foundation on the web at www.qualityhealthfoundation.org.