Cigna Foundation announces World of Difference grants

The Cigna Foundation announced last week that it plans to make Community Health Navigation a priority moving forward with its World of Difference grants in the United States.

The Community Health Navigation initiative will stress the importance community health workers play in helping to address the needs of people who are underserved.

The Cigna Foundation has always prioritized health equity and sees Community Health Navigation as an extension of that priority. It will allow Cigna to further develop nonprofit organizations that help people with subpar health care based on gender, race, where they live, age or economic standing.

Cigna's first step in the program was to award a World of Difference grant to Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health in the amount of $115,468. The school’s program focuses on the improvement of Mexican-American and Latino health in the region around Atlanta, Georgia. Funding from the Cigna Foundation will go toward the progression of outreach workers in Atlanta area communities.

Emory University has announced that it will use the grant to launch the Mexican-American Participatory Assessment (MAPA) Project, which will promote and seek to improve the health of Mexican-Americans and Latinos and their families.