The California HealthCare Foundation's Quality Initiative has begun distributing more than $2 million in grants to eight community-based organizations to promote their involvement in health care quality issues. The funded organizations will stimulate consumer demand for quality information, encourage development and public disclosure of quality measurement, and advocate for delivery of quality care.

"We recognize consumer involvement is critical to improving the quality of care delivered in California," noted Brenda Solórzano, program officer for consumer education and policy at the Quality Initiative. "Funding these community-based organizations will ensure that consumers can play this pivotal role."

Eight grants, ranging from $144,500 to $300,00 for a three-year period, were awarded for disbursement. The chosen grant recipients are:

• California Black Health Network, $295,000, to utilize community and church-based strategies to educate African American consumers about quality of care issues and enhance the community's effectiveness in addressing quality issues.
• Community Health Councils, Inc., $150,000, to develop a consumer guide to the Medi-Cal "report card," illustrating how it and other quality measurement tools can be used to select a health plan. A critique of quality measurement tools is to be conducted and recommended strategies for improving quality of care for Medi-Cal consumers will be disseminated to all stakeholders.
• University of California, Riverside, $300,000, to support Community Health Worker (promotoras) programs as viable community health systems for improving the quality of health for Latinos in California.
• Public Health Institute, $300,000, to train women health leaders in California to become health care quality "champions."
• Sickle Cell Disease Foundation, $144,500, to increase the ability of persons with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) to demand quality care for pain management and improve communications between SCD patients and their providers.
• University of California, San Francisco, $300,000, to establish 24 community-based Consumer Action Groups that will organize efforts to educate local communities about existing evidence-based guidelines on diabetes and how to demand high quality diabetes care.
• Western University of Health Sciences, Center for Disability Issues and the Health Professions, $287,469, to develop tools and strategies to help people with disabilities identify and obtain quality health care.
• Women's Information Network Against Breast Cancer (WIN ABC), $299,862, to empower newly diagnosed breast cancer patients, at Martin Luther King University and Harbor/UCLA Medical Centers, to demand quality breast care according to evidence based guidelines and to improve interactions with their providers.

  "We see these community-based organizations as our partners and look forward to working with them to improve the quality of care delivered to California's consumers," said Ann Monroe, director of the Quality Initiative.