History Fast Facts Staff Grants / Awards
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Grants / Awards
April, 2009: The May and Stanley Smith Trust donates a grant of $7,500 for Going Home End-of-Life Services. This grant will go towards funding core services for those who are homeless and terminally ill on the streets of San Diego.
September, 2006: The Alliance Healthcare Foundation matches the $75,000 grant from Johnson and Johnson, allowing TACO to make the previously half-time social worker and project coordinator positions full-time. To learn more, click here.
May, 2006: Wheat Ridge Ministries provides a grant that will allow Nance Lovell and TACO to start a "Going Home" program for terminally ill people in San Diego. To learn more, click here.
April, 2006: Pacific College of Oriental Medicine receives Health Award from the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) for its Senior Health Project. To learn more, click here.
February, 2006: TACO receives $150,000 grant from Johnson and Johnson. The money will fund two half-time positions, a project coordinator, and a social worker as well as help build a permanent client resources fund. To learn more, click here.
2004: UCSD's Medical Clinic is awarded a Healthy Vision grant from the National Eye Institute, a division of the National Institutes of Health. The grant is to be used to increase awareness about the importance of early detection and treatment of diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma. To learn more, click here.
October, 2003: Capital Compassion Grant of $25,940 from U.S. Health and Human Services. The funds provide materials and accessories to establish a waiting-room/training area in the fellowship hall. To learn more, click here.
The Pacific College Of Oriental Medicine receives a $40,000 grant for the Senior Health Project. The funds support workshops to teach seniors to access online health libraries. To learn more, click here.
Alliance Healthcare Foundation matches Johnson and Johnson Grant
The Alliance Healthcare matched the $150,000 grant TACO recieved from Johnson and Johnson in February of 2006 (more info on that grant can be found here). The Johnson and Johnson grant funded the creation of two half-time positions, one for a social worker and one for a program director. The alliance grant allows TACO to convert those two positions to full-time.
For more information on Alliance Healthcare Foundation, visit their website at
http://alliancehealthcarefoundation.org/.
TACO starts "Going Home" program
Nance Lovell writes: No one desires to die alone, yet every year approximately 100 people will die alone on the streets of San Diego County. To add to this tragedy, these persons were homeless, many died of an untreated terminal illness, with no family to claim their bodies, to bury them, or to remember them. TACO sees some of these faces and stories through the clinics and meal program, and participates in the annual vigil to remember those who died on San Diego streets. Yet this was not enough . . .
Going Home is a new branch of the TACO collaboration. Going Home is an end- of-life support program for homeless persons who are terminally ill. Two years of research, consultations, program design, hands-on experience, grant writing, and networking preceded Going Home's innovation. Pastor Bill Radatz, Pastor Wilk Miller, and Pastor Noel Estergren, along with Community Professionals: Dave Clark - Hospice Chaplain, Kathleen Sorahan - MFT/RN, and Ana de Vedia - one of the Principles of the Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, served as wisdom and grace to these efforts.
Going Home is designed to meet the individual needs and wishes for homeless persons who are terminally ill. The part-time staff will form a team with the patient and seek to relieve their needs regarding housing, insurance, medical care, spiritual care, companionship, family contact and reunification, end-of-life care, memorial service and burial needs. A small group of volunteers will be trained, mentored, and supervised to provide one-on-one patient care and companionship. The volunteer component is named Simon's Walk. The name comes from Simon of Cyrene who, in all four gospel stories, walks with Jesus in the final hours of his life, helping to carry the burden of his cross. As much as finding a model of service in Simon, this story also inspires us to see Jesus in the face of the homeless persons we intend to serve. This ministry of presence element will compliment medical, social service, and advocacy elements being provided by other partners in Going Home and TACO. The Simon's Walk project is made possible, in part, through a grant from Wheat Ridge Ministries (www.wheatridge.org). Wheat Ridge is Lutherans seeding new ministries of health and hope in the name of the healing Christ.
Grants awarded to TACO from Johnson & Johnson (providing a portion of the part time Director and Social Worker positions) and Wheat Ridge Ministries (providing a portion of the part time Care Coordinator/Volunteer Supervisor position and volunteer training) will allow Going Home to launch as a 2 year pilot project. Jim Lovell, TACO's Program Coordinator, will also direct Going Home Services. Nance Lovell will fill the Care Coordinator/Simon's Walk Supervisor.
TACO Affiliate Wins Award
The Pacific College of Oriental Medicine (PCOM), which runs TACO's acupuncture clinic, has received a Health Award from the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS).
PCOM received the award for its Health Information Literacy program, which includes hands-on computer classes that teach seniors how to access health information about such topics as prescription drugs, nutrition and diet, Medicare, health organizations, diseases, and medical conditions. The information can be accessed through PCOM's health database at
http://www.pacificcollege.edu/current/library/e-resources/databases.
The Health Information Literacy class meets on Mondays and Wednesdays from 10 to 12 am upstairs at First Lutheran Church. Jim Lovell, TACO Executive Director, invites everyone "to come and find out what the excitement is all about."
Over 3300 people have attended the classes, which are also held four other locations in the San Diego area.
TACO Receives Grant From Johnson and Johnson
On February 14, just two weeks before funding for Jim Lovell's position was to run out, TACO received word that Johnson & Johnson had awarded it a two-year grant in the amount of $150,000, part of which will fund Jim's position.
Jim comments: "This grant allows us to continue moving forward providing the types of services which began three years ago with our initial grant. This is also such a blessing to Nance and me as we continue to be able to serve in a way that astounds me on a daily basis."
TACO receives Healthy Vision Award
In collaboration with the UCSD Student-Run Free Clinic Project, TACO has been chosen to receive a "Healthy Vision" Grant from the National Eye Institute, which is part of the National Institutes of Health. The organization has been collaborating with the University of California, San Diego, Student-Run Free Clinic for the past eight years to reach underserved people. The project aims to increase awareness about the importance of early detection and treatment of diabetic retinopathy and glaucoma.
The Healthy Vision Community Awards Program provides funding for implementation of education activities that support the Healthy People 2010 vision objectives and the Healthy People 2010 goal to reduce health disparities. The 2004 awards provide nearly $450,000 in funding for 43 programs targeting diabetes and glaucoma patients, people with low vision, older adults, and multicultural populations. Panels of eye health professionals and health education specialists evaluated more than 150 applications according to these criteria: project approach and activities, project effectiveness, project director, organizational capabilities, collaborations, and budget.
TACO Receives Capital Compassion Grant
On October 8, 2003, TACO was awarded a Capital Compassion Grant (U.S. Health and Human Services, part of the Bush Faith Initiative) in the amount of $25,940.00. The purpose of the grant monies is to provide materials and accessories to establish a waiting-room/training area at FLC in the Fellowship Hall so that patients can participate in training and at the same time experience greater privacy and comfort before they are seen by a provider at the clinic.
It is envisioned that the money will be used to purchase new chairs as well as computers (and stands so that the machines can be moved about the building as needed) for maintaining health records and also healthcare training. Likewise these items may be used by the food program and by FLC.
TACO representatives who attended the award ceremony at the Father Joe Toussaint Teen Center were: Pastors Noel Estergren, Ted Johns and Marjorie Olson; Jim Lovell; Paul Moorman; Greg Rayo; Lisa Seiler; Marion Hughes Matthew Uretsky; and Chris Blankenship. Father Joe personally made the presentation.
TACO was one of three grant recipients from 40 applications, and TACO was the only grant to be funded at the requested level. The other granted organizations were from the Los Angeles area. Introductory remarks indicated that TACO's request was the favorite of the judging panel.
Pacific College Receives $40,000 For Senior Health Project
Pacific College of Oriental Medicine has been awarded $40,000 from the National Library of Medicine for a senior health project that would provide access to electronic health information to two San Diego senior communities. Dean of libraries, Naomi Broering, who initially wrote and presented the grant, will direct the project.
In partnership with the First Lutheran Church's Third Avenue Charitable Organization, and the Florence Riford Senior Center in La Jolla, this project will provide computer training workshops, instruction in using databases, and enable seniors to order articles online and receive specific health articles sent straight to their email address. PCOM students will also be able to work closely with seniors to guide them through this program.
"The Library is excited to further enhance the college's fine educational programs," said Broering. "Through this additional library service, our students on rotations at the senior clinic will be able to provide patients with free, authoritative information about their health conditions. This project strengthens the library's role in supporting quality health care."
The PCOM San Diego Library is one of 40 health institutions in the nation and one of only two in California to receive the $40,000 award from NLM. With this award, PCOM is helping to empower the senior community in health related learning by providing them with current information and technology.
According to Jack Miller, licensed acupuncturist and President of Pacific College of Oriental Medicine, "I am grateful that we have such a highly qualified librarian at PCOM. It is particularly rewarding to undertake a project that will provide more Oriental medical health care information to a senior population. They can greatly benefit from this medical system, which emphasizes longevity and good health as we age."
For more information on Pacific College's senior health project please call (619) 574-6909.