Kaiser Permanente Awards Grants to Support Healthy Lifestyles on Oahu and Maui

 Kaiser Permanente has awarded $82,700 in community benefit grants to Age-Friendly Cities (via fiscal agent Adult Friends for Youth) and YMCA Maui for their programs promoting healthy lifestyles and community engagement.

Age-Friendly Cities received $57,700 for its Kind2Kupuna program, an initiative to develop age-friendly businesses that provide tools and resources to support the needs of “kupuna,” or elders, in the community. The program will work with 10 pilot businesses in a variety of sectors to adopt age-friendly initiatives that support the physical and cognitive changes associated with aging. The grant will also fund a public awareness campaign to increase engagement between businesses and kupuna.

YMCA Maui received $25,000 to implement the YMCA Diabetes Prevention Program, an evidence-based health intervention program approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to prevent the onset of type 2 diabetes. The program encourages behavioral and lifestyle changes to help patients maintain healthy, active lifestyles. The year-long program will be completed by three cohorts of at least 15 participants on Maui with the goal of reducing individual body weight by 5.5 percent.

“We’re proud to support healthy and active lifestyles for people of all ages,” said Dave Underriner, president, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals, Hawaii Region “We believe that when organizations work together to provide access to important health resources, the entire community benefits.”

About Kaiser Permanente
Kaiser Permanente is committed to helping shape the future of health care. We are recognized as one of America’s leading health care providers and not-for-profit health plans. Founded in 1945, Kaiser Permanente has a mission to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve. We currently serve more than 12.2 million members in eight states and the District of Columbia. Care for members and patients is focused on their total health and guided by their personal Permanente Medical Group physicians, specialists and team of caregivers. Our expert and caring medical teams are empowered and supported by industry-leading technology advances and tools for health promotion, disease prevention, state-of-the-art care delivery and world-class chronic disease management. Kaiser Permanente is dedicated to care innovations, clinical research, health education and the support of community health. For more information, go to: kp.org/share.