K21 Health Foundation made a recent grant to Live Well Kosciusko to help improve the coordinated effort in caring for those in our community fighting cancer.
Live Well Kosciusko is an organization with a mission of promoting the health, well-being, and engagement of the people of our local community. They have championed various initiatives including Tobacco Free Coalition programs that encourage smoking cessation, as well as working with local businesses to develop health and wellness programming that benefits employees.
Live Well’s most recent undertaking has been the creation of a Cancer Consortium in Kosciusko County. Through education, advocacy, and assessment in a variety of areas, the Consortium’s goal is to educate the community about cancer prevention, detection, and survivorship. Under the direction of Kathy Gill, a three- time cancer survivor herself, the Consortium is working to adapt goals and initiatives from the Indiana Cancer Plan to the local level. A grant of $58,916 from K21 Health Foundation will give Live Well the resources
needed to do just that.
“The statistics are staggering. Approximately 2 in 5 Kosciusko residents will be diagnosed with cancer in their lifetime,” said Live Well Kosciusko Executive Director Lisa Harman. “We recognized that there were many organizations in our community offering cancer services, but there was no one helping to coordinate any programming, nor trying to implement the goals of the Indiana Cancer Plan. We decided to take on that important role for our community.”
K21 President and CEO Rich Haddad said, “We are excited that Live Well Kosciusko has become such a valuable asset in our community. We are excited about the impact they are having, and are glad to help support the development and creation of the Cancer Consortium, which we hope will increase the community’s knowledge about preventing, detecting, and ultimately surviving cancer.”
