Grants

Ballet Lubbock

Support for Ballet Lubbock's partnerships with Covenant Children’s Hospital and United Medical Center to bring ballet to patients and their families.

Marfa Live Arts (formerly Marfa Theatre)

Support for high-quality educational programs to provide vital dramatic arts, dance, and music education for students in Marfa.

Tom Lea Institute

Support for Magnificent Murals to help El Paso students explore their emotions and develop skills by creating a mural which portrays the challenges they have faced.

Rockport Center for the Arts

Support for free, year-round, high quality, hands-on art programming for Rockport area youth to ensure equal access to all area children, particularly children living in poverty.

Ecumenical Center for Religion and Health

Support for music and art therapy sessions to awaken and nurture the artist in San Antonio children who have mental health disabilities.

Amon Carter Museum

Support for innovations to the design, promotion, and delivery of the Carter's family programs in order to dismantle significant barriers to participation and include learners of all backgrounds in Fort Worth.

Somos Cultura Y Mas

Support to design and distribute Cultura Kits of Mexican art activities for San Antonio families and schools to use for the “hecho a mano” component of the Día de los Niños International Celebration.

Longview Museum of Fine Arts

Support for summer art classes for Longview area students ages 5-17 to increase knowledge, enrich the spirit, and encourage thoughtful analysis and dialogue of various art movements and techniques.

Amarillo Symphony

Support for the Amarillo Symphony Class Act program to present interactive string quartet performances in K-12 classrooms throughout the Texas Panhandle.

Art Guild of Fayetteville Texas

Support for free art programs offered to school districts, parochial schools, Boys and Girls Clubs, and home schoolers in seven communities in south central Texas.

Contemporary Art for San Antonio/Blue Star Art Space

Support for two creative youth development programs, Creative Classrooms and the MOSAIC Student Artist Program, to provide artist-led experiential activities for children in San Antonio.

Big Thought

Support for Big Thought’s Thriving Minds after-school program that is designed to address and support the individual needs of participating students in Dallas.

Children's Discovery Museum of the Golden Crescent

Support for the Children’s Discovery Museum to invite local artists to showcase and educate children about their art specialty in Victoria.

Houston Center for Photography

Support for Picture This! a program to teach Houston students to use photography as a tool for personal expression while learning camera basics.

Northwest CT Arts Council

Designated Regional Service Organization

Cultural Alliance of Western CT

Designated Regional Service Organization

Connecticut Arts Alliance

Designated Regional Service Organization

Shoreline Arts Alliance

Designated Regional Service Organization

Southeastern CT Cultural Coalition

Designated Regional Service Organization

Arts & Culture Collaborative, Waterbury Region

Designated Regional Service Organization

Treasury Department

Pursuant to the Payment Integrity Information Act of 2019 (PIIA) (31 U.S.C. 3351 et seq.), the U.S. Department of Treasury (Treasury) operates the Do Not Pay Working System--a centralized portal through which agencies can search multiple databases to verify payment or award eligibility. Treasury, under a delegation from the Director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), is authorized to designate new databases for inclusion in the Do Not Pay Working System. Treasury is issuing this Notice of Proposed Designation to provide the public an opportunity to comment on the proposed designation of the Social Security Administration's Numerical Identification System (Numident) to the Do Not Pay Working System.

NIDDK - National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases

The 2014 new US Kidney Allocation System heavily prioritized sensitized kidney transplant candidates to provide them with more access to transplantation. However, disparities persist as high-sensitized patients (measured by CPRA level), particularly those with blood type B and O, continue to be underserved. Moreover, about 25% of kidneys recovered for transplant were not utilized in 2023. We propose to evaluate the new kidney allocation policy that extends the eligible candidate pool by allowing ABO-compatible kidney transplants, expanding predominantly ABO-Identical current US kidney allocation. The ABO-compatible kidney allocation can save recovered kidneys at risk of nonuse from waste by serving them to kidney transplant candidates in the greatest need. The policymakers were reluctant to introduce ABO-Compatible, fearing that the problem of lower transplant rates for some blood types would worsen. We propose a novel ABO-adjusted CPRA metric that can prioritize the most disadvantaged candidates to offer them kidneys first. We propose these aims: (I) Estimate the impact: we will use simulated allocation models to evaluate the impact of ABO-Compatible kidney continuous allocation policy, predicting impacts on nonuse rate, and on transplant rates stratified by candidate sex, ethnicity, blood type, and CPRA after a policy change. (II) Identify beneficiaries: we will build models to identify kidneys at high risk of nonuse and candidates requiring increased access or priority that are likely to accept these kidneys. The goal is to build the models and identify the donor and candidate populations who would benefit most from ABO-compatible kidney allocation. (III) Develop optimal ABO-compatible Policy: we will use simulation optimization algorithms to inform the design of an ABO-compatible kidney continuous allocation policy that minimizes organ nonuse and maximizes access. We will estimate the tradeoffs between maximizing transplant rates stratified by sex/ethnicity /blood type/CPRA and increasing the nonuse rate to navigate future allocation policy changes. The introduction of an ABO-adjusted CPRA metric is also proposed to better identify those with the greatest need for a transplant, potentially increasing transplants for highly sensitized candidates. This project aims to directly address the White House Executive Order on Advancing American Kidney Health, by removing overly restrictive policies and providing more opportunities for transplant to highly sensitized candidates of any blood group.

NHLBI - National Heart Lung and Blood Institute

Wildfire smoke (WFS) exposure is associated with increased acute respiratory symptoms and healthcare utilization for children with asthma, and is a growing health threat due to increasing frequency and severity of wildfires over time. Despite strong evidence for the acute health risks of WFS exposure, the translation of this evidence to real-world interventions is lacking. Existing public health guidelines for protecting children from WFS are difficult for families of low socioeconomic status to implement due to communication gaps and lack of resources. To bridge these gaps, through our preliminary work we have developed a Wildfire Smoke Intervention (WFS-I), which is based on the highly successful community health worker asthma model. The WFS-I is a community educator-delivered intervention for parents of children with asthma consisting of education, in-home evaluation of sources of poor air quality, a personalized WFS action plan, and delivery of supplies including a HEPA air cleaner. This K23 proposal builds on our early WFS-I plan by taking a community-engaged approach to finalizing and piloting the intervention in an at-risk community in Central Washington. To accomplish these goals, we propose three specific aims, which will be carried out in close collaboration with our community partners. Aim 1: Identify the key drivers of WFS protective behaviors among parents of children with asthma through qualitative interviews and framework-driven analysis, and use these results to refine the draft WFS-I. Aim 2: Test the acceptability of the revised WFS-I to parents of children with asthma and community educators through focus groups, and subsequently finalize the intervention plan. Aim 3: Determine the feasibility and acceptability of the WFS-I by conducting a randomized controlled pilot trial of the intervention in 60 children with asthma and their parents. We will also pilot data collection strategies for determining changes in parents’ WFS protective behaviors, respiratory outcomes in the child with asthma, and particulate matter (PM2.5) exposure through in-home monitoring over the course of a full WFS season. The results of this research will be used to prepare for a larger randomized controlled intervention trial examining both the effectiveness of the WFS-I and optimal implementation strategies. In addition, this proposal describes a career development plan wherein Dr. Crocker, a pediatric pulmonologist with a strong foundation of research addressing environmental exposures for children with asthma, will receive excellent mentorship and training that will launch her toward an independent research career. This plan will focus on developing expertise in conduct of intervention trials to address environmental exposures, air pollution exposure assessment methods, community-engaged research, and qualitative research methods. This training will take place in the rich environments of Seattle Children's Research Institute and the University of Washington. This award will be instrumental for Dr. Crocker to reach her long-term career goal of producing near-term improvements in child respiratory health through the translation of knowledge of environmental exposures to equitable, practical, and scalable interventions.

NIMHD - National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities

PROJECT SUMMARY Food insecurity is a significant public health concern and a focus of federal policy and research due to its negative health impacts, including on the physical, behavioral, and developmental health of young children. Food insecurity remains prevalent in the US, with higher rates among Black and Hispanic households and households with children. The Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) is a federally-funded locally-administered nutrition program that serves low-income families with children up to 5 years of age. While longer duration of WIC participation is associated with a reduction in household food insecurity, participation drops precipitously after children reach 1 year of age. Clinical and administrative challenges faced by caregivers and pediatric clinicians negatively impact program retention. Health information technology (HIT) tools, when designed with methods that center end-users, have great potential to systematically improve clinical-community integration (i.e. linkages between primary care and community-based resources and programs) and decrease health disparities. Research to date has not studied the use of HIT strategies in pediatric primary care to improve WIC retention. The objective of this innovative study is to design and pilot clinic-based HIT tools to improve integration between pediatric primary care and WIC, with the goal of increasing WIC retention and decreasing disparities in food insecurity. This study aligns closely with current NIH and NIMHD priorities to develop and test strategies to address food insecurity. In this K23 proposal, I aim to: (1) use human-centered design methods to develop clinician-, system-, and family-facing HIT tools to increase WIC retention, (2) test the feasibility and acceptability of the HIT tools through a 1-year single-arm pilot study, and (3) evaluate the implementation of the HIT tools using mixed methods. Through a combination of advanced coursework, workshops, and mentored research experience, I will acquire content knowledge related to HIT, skills in human-centered design, and expertise in implementation science methods. I will conduct this research at Boston Medical Center and Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine, national leaders in health disparities research and clinical-community interventions. This proposal is supported by an accomplished mentorship team with research expertise in health disparities, HIT, human-centered design and implementation science methods, pilot studies, food insecurity, and clinical-community interventions. The combination of training activities and mentored research experiences outlined in this proposal will ensure that I will emerge from this K23 award as an independent investigator with expertise in the implementation of scalable HIT strategies to improve clinical-community integration and decrease disparities in food insecurity for children and families.