The SMART Fund
About - Who We Are
Promoting Healthy Communities
The Sharon Martin
Community Health Fund Fund (SMART Fund) supports 46 programs of nonprofit agencies in Vancouver and Richmond that have developed projects geared towards helping people stay healthy in their communities. Established in 1997, the fund currently provides over $2.5 million in annual funding to programs that support members of society who face multiple barriers in accessing health services.
With an aim to promoting health and wellness, and encouraging marginalized and vulnerable members of the community to play an active role in their own health, the SMART Fund has six primary goals:
- Support effective community focused health promotion models throughout the region served by VCH by providing grants to community-based not-for-profit agencies and groups
- Develop organizational capacity in communitybased organizations through supportive partnerships
- Support community-based organizations to be relevant and accountable to their communities and to work with their communities to create their own solutions
- Share promising practices with other communities and services to improve health services, enhance quality of care and motivate positive health system change
- Create a sustainable fund by identifying and working with long-term and supportive investors who recognize and value a social return on their investment through community-based health promotion initiatives
- Ensure financial accountability by demonstrating that invested dollars are supporting successful projects.
What Type Of Projects Does SMART Support?
Each agency that receives SMART Fund money is building community capacity and improving health determinants in a unique way. A variety of programs are in place to help individuals and communities to better identify and manage their own health needs. Click here for a description of our currently funded projects.
These include:
- Peer support programs like the Community and Residents Mentors Association (CARMA) which is about people with disabilities supporting one another through peer support and mentoring;
- Seniors programs like the Seniors Healthy Project through Kiwassa Neighbourhood house that engages seniors in East Vancouver to develop peer strategies for increasing their ability for independent living;
- Prevention education programs like the I Can Choose, We Can Choose program through Collingwood Neighbourhood House that recruits, trains and supports high school and older elementary school children to deliver prevention education to their peers on drugs, alcohol and sexual exploitation;
- Health care access education such as the Multicultural Family Centre (MFC), where individuals and families from diverse cultural backgrounds enhance their ability to participate in the health care systems at all levels
Helping Others Help Themselves
Health and wellness is such a vital component
of a good life, which is why the SMART Fund
is there. By supporting marginalized groups in
accessing health services and creating health
promotion strategies, the Fund enhances the
greater health of the entire community.
SMART prioritizes groups that have traditionally experienced barriers to accessing good health and health services. These include seniors, mental health consumers, children and youth, low-income families, lesbian/gay/bisexual/ transgendered people, aboriginal communities, and people with disabilities.
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