Voices for Healthy Kids – Request for Awards
The American Heart Association (AHA) together with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) are working to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic in the United States by 2015 and to decrease racial, ethnic, and income disparities in prevalence. Through our Voices for Healthy Kids’ Strategic Campaign Fund, the AHA is targeting the following six state, local and tribal advocacy priorities:
- Increase equity around joint use agreements and street-scale improvement in underserved communities
- Reduce access to unhealthy competitive foods in schools
- Reduce unhealthy beverage consumption using pricing (dis)incentives
- Increase incentives and demand for strengthening industry self-regulation and government regulation of food marketing to kids
- Increase the number of healthy food retail outlets receiving funding from food financing initiatives in underserved communities
- Improve physical activity standards in out-of-school/out-of-class time in underserved communities
THE PROGRAM
Voices for Healthy Kids’ Strategic Campaign Fund is awarding grants with a mix of lobbying and non-lobbying resources to support strategic issue advocacy campaigns focused on fighting childhood obesity through state, local, and tribal public policy campaigns aligned with the Voices for Healthy Kids policy priorities outlined above. Applications must be specific to an individual campaign for public policy change in one state, local, or tribal geographic location—we are not awarding regional grants, multi-location funding, or support for technical assistance-based support strategies. Specifically, grantee proposals must be:
- Impactful: The specific binding policy being pursued must actually deliver population impact
- Viable and Promising: The application must be engaged in a viable and promising childhood obesity public policy effort
- Supported by Match: The applicant will commit a small amount of its own funds and resources that will provide critical ownership, additional advocacy operations, and increase the potential for sustainability
- Compliant: Grantees must follow compliance requirements mandated by the AHA
Priority will be given to campaign reaching the highest need populations and/or those with the greatest potential to impact wider movement-building impact and momentum.
TOTAL AWARDS
Voices for Healthy Kids is allocating six awards up to a maximum of $90,000 per award for a period of one year with potential renewal. In addition to this base level of funding, grantees will be supported by a robust technical assistance initiative and also have priority access to supplemental additional potential resources (including Rapid Response). The awards mentioned above are for non-lobbying activities only. Additional award funds are available for lobbying activities and will be determined based on the proposal submitted by each applicant.
ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA
Applicants must be nonprofit organizations that are tax-exempt under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and are not private foundation or non-functionally integrated Type III supporting organizations (no government agencies). AHA will require IRS documentation of 501(c)(3) status through the application process.
APPLICATION PROCESS
For more information on submitting an application, visit:
Applications will be evaluated by an independent review committee and announcement of awards will be made approximately 6-8 weeks after submission.
Organizations wishing to apply should submit their completed applications to: Voicesforhealthykids@heart.org
For Questions regarding the application, please contact Debbie.Hornor@heart.org
Download the Voices for Healthy Kids Budget Template
Download the Voices for Healthy Kids Award Application