2013 Community Grant Recipients

Grants (see below)         $81,280

Research                             $34,782

Small Grants                      $13,500

Women 4 Wellness

 Mending in the Mountains

Choteau County Celebrating Life

Riverstone Health Pink Bingo Education Night

Casting for Recovery

Education Programs            $12,000

 Taking Care of Your Girls

 Breast Cancer Survivors Conference

 Capturing the Vision Wellness Conference

Komen Montana Grants 

St. Vincent Healthcare Foundation --25,000.00
The purpose of the St. Vincent Healthcare's Mobile Digital Mammography program is to increase the number of patients who receive digital mammograms and breast health education in central and eastern Montana. In addition, this program focuses on ensuring appropriate follow-up services are available. Components of this program include providing culturally appropriate outreach and education to our target populations; bringing digital mammography to our populations using the mobile unit; and navigating patients to ensure they have access to appropriate follow-up services. 

Northwest Healthcare Foundation -- $12,500
The collaborative goal is to serve the women of the Flathead Valley by providing state of the art breast care that encompasses all of the patient's breast needs and extending that care to reach as many communities as possible. Healthy living education is needed throughout the underserved communities and reservations that deal with diabetes and childhood obesity. Studies have shown a correlation between obesity and breast cancer. We would use a portion of the grant to help get these much needed materials and information distributed. The other missing piece of our service is to provide travel from these outlying communities in order to receive more extensive breast care when they need it. Many patients are unable to afford the biopsy, which is not paid by either Montana breast and cervical or SaveASister. The grant monies would enable some patients who meet financial needs to receive the care that they need.

Billings Clinic Foundation –$24,787
Billings Clinic will lead a regional collaborative to provide screening mammograms to underserved women who lack health insurance or who are underinsured, with priority given to American Indian and rural women. We will provide routine mammograms including technical interpretation to 268 women through monthly appointments and Saturday events throughout the region. The program will continue to follow women through resolution of their case in instances where abnormalities are found in the mammogram screening to help us assess where there are gaps between program design and delivery so that more continuity may be provided in the future. The Partners for Women's Health collaborative is specifically focused on rural and American Indian women.

Big Horn County Hospital Association -- $9,045
It is Caring Hands mission to promote health awareness and education on breast health and be a trusted provider that not only helps bring awareness, but also guides the individual through any necessary post screening steps. The Caring Hands program will conduct screening events --free mammograms.  Caring Hands hopes to help make a difference, especially with the Native American patients by joining forces with others to be a part of the program in getting patients screened. Native American women are dying from breast cancer more often than other American women. Education, finding cancer early, and prompt treatment are what are needed to lower this rate.  

Barrett Hospital & Healthcare -- $9,948
The mission of the SW MT Mammography Program is to give every women age 50 or younger, who is uninsured or underinsured, the opportunity to utilize breast-health services. Screenings, such as digital mammograms may be cost-prohibitive for those who do not have health insurance or who have sub-par health insurance. We hope every woman who should have a mammogram or other breast-health test is able to have one. Our program is fortunate to have many community partners. The local Safeway store rallies and has a Breast Cancer Awareness Month fundraiser in October every year. The University of Montana-Western pulls together for Pink Zone, raising funds through t-shirt sales, silent auctions, wine tasting, and Bras for the Cause.  It is likely that as our community awareness events grow and our advertising and educational information is more widely distributed, that women will become more aware of the importance of being screened for breast cancer without having to consider so much the expense involved with these services.