Grants to provide Mammograms and Clinical Breast Exams to Underserved Women

New York, NY – CAI, in partnership with the Avon Breast Cancer Crusade, has awarded grants totaling more than $2.7 million to 60 nonprofit agencies in 32 states and the District of Columbia. These grants will provide breast health screening to medically underserved women. The grants are part of the Avon Breast Health Outreach Program (Avon BHOP) administered by CAI, with a mission to link medically underserved women to breast health education and screening services, particularly low-income, under-insured, and other marginalized populations who often need targeted, customized approaches to help them obtain regular mammograms and clinical breast exams.

"This program saves women's lives by providing critically needed mammography screening and breast health education to women," said CAI's President and Founder, Barbara Cicatelli. "Since 2000, through CAI, Avon BHOP has awarded almost $80 million through 1,800 competitive grants to community-based agencies throughout the U.S."

CAI administers a rigorous application and independent review process to select grant recipients, who in turn have made a major impact on the lives of underserved women who are in need of breast cancer screening services. Breast screening rates are significantly lower among women with lower incomes, less education and those with no health insurance.1

Through 2016, Avon BHOP grantees facilitated more than 2.5 million mammograms and breast examinations and educated more than 25 million people on breast cancer awareness.

Among the recipients for 2017 are eleven new grantees including:

• YWCA of Anchorage, Anchorage, AK
• Tuba City Regional Health Corporation, Tuba City, AZ
• St. Edwards/Mercy Health, Fort Smith, AR
• La Maestra Family Clinic, San Diego, CA
• Codman Square Heealth Center, Dorcester, MA
• Healthy Community Coalition, Farmington, ME
• Life Care Alliance, Columbus, OH
• Central Oklahoma American Indian Health Coalition, Oklahoma City, OK 
• The National Black Leadership Initiative on Cancer, Philadelphia, PA
• CHI Memorial  Foudation, Chattanooga, TN

Avon BHOP is funded by the Avon Breast Cancer Crusade. To learn more about CAI's Avon BHOP project, visit here.

About CAI: CAI is a global nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the health and well-being of underserved populations worldwide. For 36 years CAI has provided customized capacity building services to health and human service organizations in more than 27 countries and in all 50 states. Offering more than 1,500 training programs annually, CAI’s passionate staff works to fulfill its mission: to use the transformative power of education and research to foster a more aware, healthy, compassionate and equitable world. For more information, visit our website: www.caiglobal.org.

About Avon Breast Cancer Crusade: The Avon Breast Cancer Crusade, the world’s largest corporate-affiliated philanthropy focused on issues that matter most to women, was founded in 1955 to improve the lives of women. Through 2016 Avon global philanthropy has donated nearly $1 billion in more than 50 countries for causes most important to women. Today, Avon philanthropy focuses its funding on breast cancer research and access to care through the Avon Breast Cancer Crusade, and efforts to reduce domestic and gender violence through its Speak Out Against Domestic Violence program. 

¹ American Cancer Society Cancer Prevention & Early Detection Facts & Figures, 2015-2016, http://www.cancer.org/acs/groups/content/@research/documents/webcontent/acspc-045101.pdf