The Carlisle Area Health & Wellness Foundation is currently focused on five areas:

1. Nutrition, physical activity, and tobacco cessation
2. Primary care and related services for the un/underinsured
3. Behavioral health issues targeting co-occurring disorders
4. Oral health
5. Allied healthcare education

The Carlisle Area Health & Wellness Foundation believes in investing its resources to improve individual health status and community health capacity, giving priority to grants and initiatives which:

• Have defined goals and expectations for improved health and wellness
• Focus on populations who are most in need of healthcare due to economic barriers or lack of access
• Include the spectrum of prevention as the preferred strategy for significant, long-term impact
• Support individuals in taking personal responsibility for their own health
• Include parent/guardian education and involvement if the initiative is aimed at improving children’s health.

While abiding by these priorities the Foundation reserves the option to respond to acute community needs as they arise.

The mission of Carlisle Area Health & Wellness Foundation (CAHWF) drives and strategically guides its grantmaking. Decisions made are based on both an applicant's demonstrated ability to efficiently manage the proposed program as well as the effectiveness of the proposal to improve the status of the community's health.

A philosophy of educated decisions supported by expertise is utilized. A blend of flexibility and fairness is required to encourage openness with applicants and forthright evaluation of grants. A commitment to innovation to solve problems is balanced by the sustainability needs of "best of class" programs with proven effectiveness. Sensitivity to the applicants frames all policy and decision-making.

Measures prescribed by Healthy People 2020. Our own research and our history as successor to the Carlisle Hospital are used to set focus areas as well as to evaluate process and outcomes. (Healthy People 2020 is a statement of national health objectives designed to identify the most significant preventable threats to health and to establish national goals to reduce these threats.) www.healthypeople.gov

The Foundation receives many requests for funding in a year. The programs most likely to be funded are those that best answer the following:

Does the proposal:

• Address one or more of our priority focus areas for funding or, in
the case of "Healthy People" grants, meet an urgent and critical
healthcare need in the CAHWF region?
• Serve a sufficient number of persons in our defined geographical region?
• Support its case with valid and varied data, i.e. a documented need?
• Show thoughtful planning, budgeting and ability to deliver the service?
• Have a cost/person that is reasonable given the expected outcomes?
• Have plans for financial maintenance in future years?
• Demonstrate an understanding of outcome measures and evaluation?
• Avoid duplication of services (unless justified) and include collaboration?
• Offer the capacity to measurably improve one of CAHWF’s priority areas?
• And sometimes, does it show the potential to be "even better if…"?

Further information and details on any policy are available from the grants staff. All policies are approved by the CAHWF Board of Trustees with input from the Grants Committee and staff.

The Carlisle Area Health & Wellness Foundation requires all new Level I and II grant applicants to complete a Letter of Inquiry form. Organizations that are interested in applying for a mini-grant, Healthy People grant or Renewal request for an existing Level I or II award are not required to complete a Letter of Inquiry form. Please feel free to contact our grants staff with any questions.

The purpose of the Letter of Inquiry is to determine whether a prospective proposal fits within the Foundation’s current funding priorities, before organizations spend time and resources compiling a full grant application. Letters of Inquiry should not exceed three pages.

To access our Letter of Inquiry form, click on Grants Forms. Grants staff will acknowledge receipt of your letter within seven days and will respond fully to your inquiry within five weeks. Approved applicants will then be invited to submit a complete application.

Interested applicants are encouraged to submit Letters of Inquiry electronically. Letters may be emailed to CAHWF’s Grants Assistant, April Ashway at: aashway@cahwf.org

Letters may also be mailed to:

Carlisle Area Health & Wellness Foundation
274 Wilson Street
Carlisle, PA 17013