A Juneau nonprofit is among the first announced to be awarded grant funding through the Rural Health Transformation Program. Alaska health officials approved spending $4.5 million worth of a $272 million federal allocation toward more than a dozen Alaska health care projects last week.
Cancer Connection was selected for a $110,000 grant. For the past 30 years, Cancer Connection has provided support services for people in Southeast Alaska living with cancer, as well as for their families and caregivers.
The rural health grant funding will help establish a network to connect nonprofits in rural Southeast communities. Christy Ciambor, Cancer Connection’s executive director, said the network aims to improve patient care and access to cancer services, prevention and treatment in the region.
“We all know and acknowledge that there are kind of these gaps in the system, and we want to find a way to kind of bridge those gaps because if we’re able to do that, it means better outcomes for patients overall,” she said.
Ciambor said Cancer Connection plans to partner with several organizations throughout the region, including the Sitka Cancer Survivor’s Society, Petersburg’s Beat the Odds Cancer Committee and the statewide Aurora Integrated Oncology Foundation. Cancer Connection hopes to convene in person in Juneau with several organizations this fall.
“We want to try to make it so that there’s a seamless process for patients once they’re diagnosed and once they understand the scope of what’s to come and where they’re going to do their treatment,” she said. “We want to be a part of those conversations.”
Despite the state’s allocation of $4.5 million last week, there’s still much left of the $272 million federal allocation that has yet to be dispersed. And the clock is ticking before the federal government’s October deadline to allocate the funds. The delay leaves hundreds of applicants in limbo as they wait to see whether their organizations will be accepted.
According to the Alaska Department of Health, additional funding awards will be announced each Friday as they are finalized, but did not provide a clear end date.
