By Fox23.com News Staff
TULSA, Okla. — The Ascension St. John Foundation awarded over $16 million in health equity grants to local nonprofits during their second annual Legacy of Love Luncheon on Friday.
“Today, we’re calling this the Legacy of Love Luncheon and we’re bringing together all the organizations in the community that we partner with and funded through the years,” said Kojo Asamoa-Caesar, the Director of Community Health at Ascension St. John. “We’ve given over $74 million to these partner organizations doing great work in the community and we’re celebrating them today.”
Asamoa-Caesar explained why Ascension St. John believes its important to support organizations helping the local community.
“We are interested in the overall health of the community and we know that a lot of what happens with community health happens in the four walls of the hospital, but a whole lot of it also happens in the community with food security, transportation, mental health, all those different things. It’s essential to us to partner with community organizations who do that work and effect the whole person.”
Asamoa-Caesar outlined some of the organizations the hospital’s foundation is supporting and why they were chosen.
“We have partners like Habitat for Humanity, who are working all over Green Country, but also especially in north Tulsa to ensure that people get to participate in the American Dream and homeownership. That’s important. If you spend more of your income on housing, then you’re not able to spend that on health care, so we affirm those kinds of organizations. Meals on Wheels, Hunger Free Oklahoma, food security is an important thing. You don’t have that right diet, that affects your health as well. Those are some of the organizations that we partner with.”
According to Asamoa-Caesar, Ascension St. John plans to continue to working on protecting community health in all the aspects that it can.
“We want to be an organization and an initiative that is responsive to the needs of the community, so we’re always assessing what the needs of the community are and finding ways to meet that need. Whether it’s helping people overcome the barriers to access or addressing chronic disease—we know cardiovascular disease is a big killer in our community—we’re going to continue to engage in those issues alongside our partners and ensure that we build a holistic healthy community.”
Friday’s Legacy of Love Luncheon also served as the kick off to the celebrations for Ascension St. John’s 100-year anniversary.
