We partner with nonprofit organizations, community residents with lived experiences, and BJC HealthCare's Community Health Improvement team to convene, support, and lead efforts that address individual health needs and systemic barriers to health equity. Your gift funds community programs designed to eliminate health disparities in under-resourced communities in the City of St. Louis, North St. Louis County, and rural areas. Together, we can give all people the opportunity to live their healthiest possible lives.

School Health and Wellness

With support from our donors, BJC Community Health Improvement partners with more than 50 schools and five community organizations to advance equitable health and educational outcomes through BJC's Community Wellness Hub program. The hubs offer families, adults, and children a trusted a safe place for respite, mental wellness programming, and resource connection year-round. Your philanthropic support will empower thousands of families with coping methods to improve their mental wellness each year.

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Healthy Eating Active Living

Thousands of St. Louis neighbors face food insecurity and are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes each year. Through BJC's Healthy Eating Active Living initiative, we work to reduce the prevalence of chronic conditions by improving access to healthy food and providing health education. Philanthropic support advances critical BJC programs that provide food, nutrition education, access to safe spaces for physical activity, and social support to patients and their families to create long-term healthy habits.

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Improving Black Infant and Maternal Health Outcomes

Missouri has the seventh highest maternal mortality rate in the nation, with Black women 3.5 times as likely to die during pregnancy or from complications arising during childbirth compared to white women. With support from donors like you, BJC HealthCare is working to eliminate racial disparities by collaborating with community-based doulas and building clinical care teams that reflect the community it serves to help improve equity in maternal health outcomes.

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Equitable Vaccinations and Screenings

Vaccines and screenings play a pivotal role in saving lives, yet vaccination rates continue to fall below targets set by Healthy People 2030. Generous donors make it possible for BJC HealthCare to provide free flu vaccinations, year-round screening events, and other preventative services in under-resourced communities.

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New Responsive Initiatives 

Health equity is about everyone having an equal opportunity to be as healthy as possible. That means addressing the systems and structures that stand in the way of optimal health. Your support will enable us to address emerging community needs (e.g., housing security, gun safety and violence reduction, digital divide, etc.).

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Search the documents below to learn more about the areas that interest you. Discover how your generosity enriches lives, saves lives, and transforms health care.

Cancer Frontier Fund Supports Seven New Cancer Research Projects

Thursday, August 17, 2023

Gifts to the Cancer Frontier Fund at The Foundation for Barnes-Jewish Hospital recently funded $1.5 million to support seven of eight projects through the Siteman Investment Program (SIP), a research grant program at Siteman Cancer Center at Barnes-Jewish Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine. SIP is a highly competitive, peer-reviewed grant program designed to accelerate innovation in cancer research.

SIP provides researchers with catalyst funding to test novel ideas and launch early-stage research necessary to secure larger federal grants and act on breakthroughs. SIP recipients have leveraged an additional $12 in federal grants for every $1 awarded through SIP. Grants are awarded bi-annually from SIP.

The Cancer Frontier Fund includes gifts from the Foundation’s annual Illumination Gala, Pedal the Cause’s annual bike challenge, as well as donations throughout the year. In total, Siteman Cancer Center disbursed $2 million from a variety of sources to support eight projects, seven of which were funded by the Cancer Frontier Fund.

“These projects will change the trajectory of cancer in powerful ways,” says Susan Ell, vice president and executive director of The Foundation for Barnes-Jewish Hospital. “We could not make this transformative, life-saving investment at Siteman Cancer Center without the support of our generous donors and our ongoing partnership with Pedal the Cause.”

Projects receiving SIP awards include:

  • NeoTAILOR: A Phase II Biomarker-directed Approach to Guide Neoadjuvant Therapy for Patients with Stage II/III ER-positive, HER2-negative Breast Cancer
    Principal Investigator: Nusayba Bagegni, MD
     
  • Phase I Study with an Expansion Cohort of EZH2 Inhibitor CPI-0209 (Tulmimetostat) in Patients with Mycosis Fungoides and Sézary Syndrome
    Principal Investigator: Neha Mehta-Shah, MD, MSCI
     
  • Characterizing Rural Metastatic Breast Cancer Care: A Qualitative Analysis
    Principal Investigator: Ashley Housten, OTD, MSCI
     
  • High Spatiotemporal Resolution Radioluminescent Dosimetry of Proton FLASH Radiotherapy for Pre-Clinical Studies
    Principal Investigator: Arash Darafsheh, PhD
     
  • Clinical Molecular Imaging of the Prostate Cancer Microenvironment
    Principal Investigator: Joseph Ippolito, MD, PhD; Co-PI: Eric Kim, MD
     
  • Understanding the Role of Mammogram Images in the Risk of Triple Negative Breast Cancer
    Principal Investigator: Shu (Joy) Jiang, PhD
     
  • A Novel Feed-Forward Cycle that Drives Tumor Progression and Immune Evasion
    Principal Investigator: Jacqueline Payton, MD, PhD
     
  • Intrinsic and Extrinsic Factors Driving Clonal Evolution and Disease Progression in Myeloproliferative Neoplasms
    Principal Investigator: Stephen Oh, MD, PhD

Availability of funding often determines the ability, success, and rate at which scientific discoveries can progress from an early idea to patient care and treatment making your support critical to ensure the fund is replenished and that each generation has access to the most innovative therapies. Make a gift to the Cancer Frontier Fund today.

Learn more about these projects.

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Additional SIP Funding
In addition to gifts to the Cancer Frontier Fund at The Foundation for Barnes-Jewish Hospital, further support for SIP comes from Swim Across America – St. Louis; Alvin J. Siteman Fund; National Cancer Institute; Director’s Discovery Fund; Daniel E. Corbin, Jr. Lymphoma Research Fund; and Barnard Trust. In total, eight projects were awarded $2 million during this funding period.

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