American Heart Association
Voices for Healthy Kids
Call for Letter of Intent for Safety Net Policy Areas
The Voices for Healthy Kids’ mission is to support, drive and inform local and state policy change efforts that will dramatically improve the health of children who are Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, American Indian, and Alaskan Native or from families who have low income through campaigns, partnerships/networks, research and communications.
Over the past few generations, our communities have changed dramatically. We’ve engineered physical activity out of our daily lives and, to a large extent, removed it from our schools. Unhealthy food is cheap, while it remains difficult for many families to afford the healthy food they need. Communities already burdened by years of disinvestment and bad policy are experiencing widening gaps in health equity. Public policy has led to current conditions and impactful policy change must be part of the solution. Together, we can make a positive impact.
We’re calling for change. Is your organization working on or ready to lead policy change efforts? Please consider applying for a grant from Voices for Healthy Kids.
The Policy Campaign Grant is designed to support strategic issue advocacy campaigns supporting Voices for Healthy Kids policy priorities with a focus on health equity. Applications must be specific to an individual campaign for public policy change in one state, city, town or county, or tribal nation. Applications should focus on public policy changes to reduce health disparities for children in urban, suburban or rural settings who are Black/African American, Hispanic/Latino, American Indian, and Alaskan Native or from families who have low income.
Due to the COVID-19 Pandemic, we have narrowed the list of current policy levers for this call for letters of intent to prioritize those most closely aligned with immediate safety net needs. We will accept letters of intent on the following policy levers:
- SNAP Incentives
- Healthy School Foods
- Early Care and Education
- Head Start and Early Head Start
- Preemption
To learn more about these policy areas – please review our the descriptions in the policy lever agenda for the narrowed list of policy levers being prioritized this funding round.
We do not award regional grants, multi-location funding, multi-issue area or support for technical assistance-based strategies. Grants will not be awarded for curricula development or implementation, equipment, operations of physical activity, nutrition or similar participant-based programs, capital expenditures, academic research or other non-advocacy purposes.
Voices for Healthy Kids believes campaigns are most successful through collaboration between community organizations, advocacy groups, coalitions and others. Therefore, the Policy Campaign Grant is a collaborative grant. All applications are expected to be submitted as a joint proposal of two or more organizations, either as lead and subgrantee collaboration or as co-leads. Voices for Healthy Kids values authentic community engagement and equity-building strategies in all aspects of supported campaigns and therefore requires at least one of the organizations in the joint proposal to be representative of or serve the interests of the listed priority populations.
Applications can be submitted for up to $200,000 for a duration of up to 18 months and can support non-lobbying and lobbying activities.
Voices for Healthy Kids has a two-step application process in the online grant management system. First, all interested, eligible applicants must submit a letter of intent. Then, selected applicants will be invited to submit a full application for consideration in a competitive review process.
All application instructions and the application form are located in the online grant management system.