Rapides Foundation

Healthy people trf provided chronic care prescription medications for people who cannot afford them through a $1,148,300 two-year grant for the years 2023 and 2024 to its supporting organization, cenla medication access program (cmap). Cmap's patient assistance program (pap) locates cmap staff near physician offices throughout cmap's primary nine-parish service area. These pap specialists complete applications for patients who are unable to afford their medication to receive free chronic care medications through drug manufacturers' patient assistance programs. Patients also receive medications and diabetic supplies through cmap's central fill pharmacy, which as of end of 2024 had contracts to work with and provide pharmaceuticals from thirteen major companies. Additionally, rapides regional medical center (rrmc) contracts with cmap to provide outpatient pharmacy services to the patients of outpatient clinics serving the indigent. During 2024, cmap provided 13,766 free prescription medications to patients, representing a wholesale cost savings of $11.8 million. Cmap extra, a prescription-savings program designed to help lower families' medication costs, is available to everyone regardless of age or income. During 2024, 141 prescriptions were filled, for a total retail savings of $40,971. In 2024, in support of its supported organization's (the rapides foundation) healthcare access initiative, cmap's cancer screening project provided free mammograms, pap smears, pelvic exams and colorectal cancer tests to 545 uninsured and underinsured patients who couldn't afford these critical screenings. These tests are brought to rural areas through a cancer screening van. The van is a partnership between the rapides foundation, cmap, the feist-weiller cancer center at lsu health sciences center -- shreveport and the lsu family medicine residency in alexandria. Through the mobile unit patients received 50 cervical screenings, 421mammograms. Also, approximately 74 women and men received take-home colorectal cancer screening tests. Cmap also administers the community health advisor (cha) project, a community-based program designed to train community volunteers to help educate their peers about the importance of cancer screenings. Once trained by the cancer screening project community health advisor, these volunteers will provide education, outreach and information to men and women throughout central louisiana. The goal is to encourage residents to practice early detection of colon, breast and cervical cancer while it is in the most treatable stages. Trf also continued to address the shortage of healthcare professionals in rural communities. The foundation provides funds to northwestern state university, louisiana state university of alexandria and the central louisiana technical and community college nursing programs to support nursing instruction. Trf provided funding in the form of a $1,105,253 two-year grant for the years 2023 and 2024 to cmap's healthy lifestyle program, which provides demonstration and education on proper nutrition and physical activity for good health and is designed to fight obesity in central louisiana. The goal of this program, through physician referral, community tools, and workplace education, is to provide central louisiana residents with resources to lead healthy lifestyles. This program is coordinated by a registered and licensed dietitian and employs an exercise specialist. Clients receive one-on-one consultation with the dietitian and exercise specialist for personalized meal planning and exercise. The program is designed to work with clients for at least 3 to 6 months, tracking their progress with eating habits, behavior changes, weight and inches lost, and educating clients on proper nutrition and physical activity. In 2024, 359 patients participated in the cmap healthy lifestyle program. Trf partnered with 106 central louisiana k-12 schools in eight parishes through $419,550 in healthy behaviors grants. In the 2023-2024 school year, 46,527 students participated in projects and activities that positively impact students and school personnel in the areas of tobacco prevention and control, substance and alcohol abuse prevention, physical activity, and nutrition. While the projects varied, schools used the funds for physical education equipment, supplies and curricula; for training and support for take down tobacco activities, national drug and alcohol facts week and living healthy clubs; and for professional development and certification for nutrition staff. The goal is to provide students, staff and teachers with the knowledge and skills necessary to make better and more informed behavior decisions leading to healthier lives. In october 2024, approximately 424 students and teachers from seven central louisiana school districts participated in the youth summit on healthy behaviors. The annual event provides students with an opportunity to learn how to become advocates for healthy choices and policy change in their schools and communities. In addition to school district grants, trf awarded $542,593 to support two three-year strengthening families program grants. The grants funded organizations to implement the evidence-based family skills training program designed to support prevention of substance and alcohol misuse. The rapides foundation's goals for healthy people are:access:outcome #1 - increased medication compliance. Reduced adults reporting cost as barrier for prescriptions. Outcome #2 - increased early detection of cancer. Increased screening rates for: mammography to 80%, cervical to 82%, and colon cancer to 69%.outcome #3 - increased quality of primary care. Reduce adults reporting barriers to finding a dr to 12%. Stabilize prevalence of chronic disease: heart disease, cancer, and diabetes.outcome #4 - reduced shortages in medical staff. Increase % share of healthcare employment.healthy behaviors:outcome #1 - increased consumption of healthy foods and increased active living increase meeting physical activity recommendations: for adults to 20% and for youth to 42%. Increase adults consuming 5+ servings of fruits and vegetables daily to 30%. Increase youth consuming 5+ fruits/vegetables servings daily to 17%. Outcome #2 - reduced initiation and increased cessation for smoking, alcohol, and substances decrease initiation before age 13 to 6% for smoking, 22% for alcohol, 5% for marijuana. Decrease lifetime use in youth to 22% for smoking, 53% for alcohol, and 41% for substances. Increase smoking quit attempts in adults and in youth to 58%.

Education -- during 2024, the rapides foundation provided $1.5 million in grants to the nine public school districts in trf's service area. The grants were used for targeted professional development, coaching and mentoring of teachers; leadership development for administrators; and funding to allow the districts to participate in institutes provided by the orchard foundation. The orchard foundation's work in college and career readiness encompasses three areas the cenla work ready network, college and career coaching for high school students, and jump start programs to expose cenla educators and students to career opportunities in the central louisiana region. The cenla work ready network is a system designed to link education with workforce development efforts and align them with regional economic needs. During 2024, all public high schools in the foundation's service area, central louisiana technical community college campuses, and regional business and career solutions centers accessed act's workkeys curriculum, a career training course that prepares students for certification with workkeys assessments. Workkeys is a job skills assessment system measuring real world skills that employers believe are critical to job success. Workkeys assesses three core areas: applied mathematics; workplace documents; and graphic literacy; which determines a student's national career readiness certificate (ncrc) level, an objective documentation of an employee's skills that can be accepted nationwide. During the 2023-2024 school year, 4,146 students participated in act's workkeys curriculum training, and 5,040 national career readiness certificates were earned by cenla residents. In 2024, the orchard foundation continued its partnership with the louisiana central, central louisiana's regional economic development organization, to assist employers in utilizing workkeys and the ncrc in their hiring processes. All nine parishes in the orchard foundation service area are act certified work ready communities: allen, avoyelles, catahoula, grant, lasalle, natchitoches, rapides, vernon, and winn. During the 2023-2024 school year, the orchard foundation partnered with career compass of la to work with area school districts to provide college and career coaching services in all high schools and middle schools in the service region. A total of 4,870 students were seen in grades 8 through 12 by college and career coaches. Career seminars were attended by another 21,463 students in grades 6 through 12. 95.38% of the seniors counseled applied to a postsecondary program. The workplace experience exchange (wee) camps give teachers the opportunity to engage in business and industry activities to learn how classroom content and learning strategies are applied in the workplace. Three separate wee camps were held in summer 2024: wee camp i, wee camp ii, and wee camp elementary. A total of 57 teachers participated in the camps and completed a small group activity on the final day that included a presentation of a career lesson plan. Orchard held its annual students exploring career opportunities expo (seco) in late fall 2024. Seco is a two-day event that introduces 10th graders to career possibilities. A total of 2,306 students participated. 66 volunteers assisted and 70 exhibits were available for students to engage with industry partners. In the 2023-2024 academic year, the orchard foundation continued to administer school readiness institutes for central louisiana pre-k, head start and childcare providers that participate in the state of louisiana's early childhood community networks. The networks seek to expand access to high quality, publicly funded early childhood education programs. In the school year 2023-2024, orchard administered 11 trainings reaching 134 educators and providers. To expand coaching capacity in the region, orchard provides opportunities for individuals to become certified as making the most of classroom interactions (mmci) / class group coaching (cgc) instructors through teachstone. Tof's current mmci instructors have continued to provide mmci workshops throughout the region. Orchard has trained a total of 20 pre-k instructors for the region, and 7 in infant/toddler. The orchard foundation created and led two family early literacy programs, read to soar and math to build on. In 2024, orchard led 15 read to soar workshops, reaching 187 children from 143 families. 4,200 books were distributed to participants. Orchard also led 12 math to build on workshops in 2024, reaching 137 children from 102 families. 2,935 books were distributed to participants. The orchard foundation created and delivered two enhanced coaching programs for early learning center directors: enhanced instructional leadership institute for early learning leaders (e-ili) and enhanced business leadership institute for early learning leaders (e-bli). Both institutes are designed for early learning center leaders in any setting. Family childcare, type i, ii, and iii centers, and head start and early head start directors who have completed our coaching programs, business leadership institute and instructional leadership institute, are eligible to participate. Each institute runs for 10 months, with sessions beginning in august and ending in may. Each module begins with a read and reflect assignment, followed by a whole-group content session. These sessions are followed by one-on-one coaching on the content and assignments. The maximum capacity for the e-ili and e-bli cohorts is 15. In the 2023-2024 academic year, 8 early learning center directors completed e-ili, and 7 early learning center directors completed e-bli. The orchard foundation hosted a cohort of 29 childcare directors in 2023-2024 to participate in a science of reading training, growing reading brains. The program ran from august to may and provided educators and leaders with nearly 40 hours of practical professional development, which was immediately applicable to the early childhood classroom. During 2023-2024, the orchard foundation coordinated kagan instructional institutes for 43 area educators. The institutes featured hands-on curriculum and materials that are engaging, rigorous and motivating for students and that can immediately be brought back into the classroom and implemented in a cooperative learning model. Orchard also held trainings for new and aspiring leaders in area schools. The program is designed for teachers who are dedicated to improving the best practices in instruction and leadership. 77 participants were trained in the 5 dimensions of teaching and learning framework by the university of washington center for educational leadership. Throughout the year they had the opportunity to collaborate and observe others to develop the expertise needed to recognize high quality instruction. The leading for better instruction program allows assistant principals and principals to develop their leadership skills in guiding and supporting teachers' professional learning. 55 assistant principals and principals were also trained in the 5 dimensions of teaching and learning and 4 dimensions of instructional leadership. A district leaders/superintendents network was established to provide sessions for superintendents and key central office leaders, focused on the role of central office leadership in developing and supporting principal instructional leadership. 62 leaders participated.the rapides foundation's goals for its education work are: outcome #1 increased academic performance in prek-12 increase 3rd & 8th grade student achievement at basic for core subjects to 75%. Increase 3rd & 8th grade student achievement at mastery for core subjects to 27.5%. Increase average act score for high school students to 19.2. Increase high school students achieving ap scores >3 to 43%. Outcome #2 - improved school readiness for youth ages 0-6 years old. Increase kindergarten readiness to 13%.outcome #3 - enhanced career and postsecondary readiness for high school students. Increase freshmen enrollment in 2- & 4-year institutions to 55%. Increase career certifications to 4,500. Increase gold ncrcs to 900 & platinum ncrcs to 600.

Healthy communities -- healthy communities focuses on improving economic opportunity and family income; and enhancing civic and community opportunities for more effective leaders and organizations. It consist of the economic environment initiative and the social environment initiative. The rapides foundation's economic environment initiative makes the link between healthy economies and healthy people. Healthy economies with low unemployment rates and higher wage jobs provide people with the means to purchase medical insurance, make better healthcare choices and live healthier lifestyles. The work that takes place under the economic environment initiative is designed to help raise the standard of living in central louisiana by improving the region's capacity to produce higher wage jobs for all income levels and generate more wealth in its communities. Trf continued to monitor the work of louisiana central's 2022 infrastructure grant and the business acceleration system (bas) grant. The infrastructure grant supports louisiana central, as the vehicle to build cooperation, coordination, teamwork, and social cohesiveness for regional economic development objectives. These efforts are key to business expansion, retention and recruitment in central louisiana. The bas provides technical assistance, coaching and mentoring services for entrepreneurs and small business owners who want to start or grow their businesses. Central louisiana maintained its status as a fully act work ready certified region. This certification demonstrates the high level of skills in our workforce. Maintaining this status relies heavily on building a growing base of employees and potential employees who have earned act's national career readiness certificate. These important, nationally portable credential shows employers the caliber of skills demonstrated by potential employees. All of this enhances central louisiana's ability to recruit, retain and expand businesses within the region. Trf's social environment initiative addresses social capital by supporting leadership and nonprofit development and increased community and civic engagement through foundation funding provided to its community development works program. Community development works provides an integrated approach to enhance civic and community opportunities for more effective nonprofit leaders and organizations. Its strategies seek to foster increased community and civic engagement, develop enhanced leadership skills and improve the effectiveness of nonprofit organizations. In 2017, cdw extended its reach to the youth of central louisiana with the launch of my civic life, a civic engagement and service leadership program for high school students modeled on an evidence-based program. The my civic life program provides high school students with leadership and volunteer service opportunities through their participation in school-based community service clubs called youth volunteer corps (yvc) clubs. The yvc clubs perform service projects throughout the school year following the nationally recognized youth volunteer corps model. In the 2023-2024 academic year, the foundation funded yvc clubs in 18 schools, with 386 students participating in over 78 community service projects. Cdw also continued to offer its free, skill-building trainings on a wide variety of topics for people interested in improving their communities. Cdw workshops are targeted for nonprofit staff and volunteers, for people in the community who are looking to create nonprofits, or individuals who are trying to create a community project that addresses a need in their community. In 2024, cdw offered free trainings both online and on-site to 147 individuals. In-house workshops and webinars are held in the spring and fall, so that participants can expand their knowledge in areas such as fund development, evaluation and grant proposal writing. Cdw's learning lab is open to the public and provides a valuable resource for nonprofits and individuals seeking information about grants, board governance and other resources needed to support their citizen-led community development efforts. Ten community leaders participated in the popular cenla boardbuilders program in 2024. Cenla boardbuilders is a leadership development program for emerging leaders to become active in their communities as members of local nonprofit boards. Participants are trained through a series of sessions on the roles and responsibilities of an effective board member. Employer partners participate by allowing their employee time off during work hours to attend training sessions and board meetings. Nonprofit partners connect with cenla boardbuilders graduates to offer board service opportunities. The 2024 graduates are now serving on boards throughout central louisiana, and they join a group of 264 cenla boardbuilders alumni.