September 27, 2017
Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced the recipients of the inaugural HealtheVoices™ Impact Fund grants, supporting innovative efforts by online health advocates to serve and assist patient communities. The HealtheVoices™ Impact Fund is a new offering that stems from Janssen’s annual HealtheVoices™ Conference, a first-of-its-kind event that brings together online health advocates from a wide range of communities to learn, share and connect. The selected HealtheVoices™ Impact Fund projects align with this goal and the Janssen charitable giving mission to advance healing for patients.
“Online health advocates have a significant impact on patient communities; their voices have the ability to educate, motivate and inspire people living with chronic or life-changing diseases,” said Caroline Pavis, Communications Leader, Janssen Pharmaceuticals, Inc. “We are excited to see the innovative ideas of the four recipients of the HealtheVoices™ Impact Fund come to life in the year ahead in support of people living with chronic health conditions.”
This year’s grant recipients are Khafre Kujichagulia Abif, Mariah Leach, Kati Morton and Dakota Rosenfelt:
- FACE US: Not Our Status, But Our Story (Khafre Kujichagulia Abif, Atlanta, GA) – The FACE US: Not Our Status, But Our Story project will create a coffee table book by collecting portraits and stories of 250 people living with HIV. Stories will be collected via a call for submissions on existing social media platforms tied to conferences aimed at empowering people living with HIV, as well as new social media accounts created by the project. The intent of the project is to educate the public about HIV and reduce stigma in southern states most impacted by HIV.
- Mamas Facing Forward (Mariah Leach,Louisville, CO) – Mamas Facing Forward will be a “one-stop-shop” website dedicated to women living with chronic illnesses who are or intend to be mothers. While the private Facebook group of the same name has grown and been a valuable resource and community for these women, a website will help organize the topics that are discussed, generate new resources where gaps exist and serve as a comprehensive foundation for much-needed information.
- Mental Health Initiative for the Deaf (Kati Morton, Santa Monica, CA) – As a licensed therapist, Kati has created more than 900 free videos to share information and reduce stigma about mental illness, and advocate for mental health services. This project will utilize a closed captioning service to make approximately 300 of her most popular videos accessible to the more than 360 million people worldwide who are deaf or hearing impaired.
- HemoTool(Dakota Rosenfelt, Cleveland, MO) – HemoTool is a crowdsourced mobile application for people living with a bleeding disorder to help them independently manage their care. The project will consist of an app update to improve the user experience and add enhanced features to drive medication compliance and further empower and support people with bleeding disorders.
The recipients were selected by the Community Foundation of New Jersey (CFNJ) after receiving input from the HealtheVoices™ Impact Fund Advisory Committee of experienced online patient and caregiver advocates. Specifically, CFNJ and the Advisory Committee were looking for projects that proposed innovative ways to engage, inform and empower patients, bringing together and strengthening the online advocate community to target underserved populations or healthcare disparities and address high unmet areas of need or those with a large scope of impact.
The HealtheVoices™ Impact Fund was launched in April 2017 at Janssen’s annual HealtheVoices™ Conference where online health advocates have an opportunity to network and learn from each other and experts in social media and health advocacy. Funding recipients will be invited to share updates on their projects at the fourth annual HealtheVoices™ Conference in Chicago next year.
About the HealtheVoices™ Impact Fund Selection Process
Applicants must be based in the United States and were required to outline in their application a proposed project that supports a patient community. Grants were given to new, innovative ideas and were not given to support existing or ongoing advocate activities.
The review, evaluation and selection of the recipients, as well as funding distribution, was handled by CFNJ with input from the HealtheVoices™ Impact Fund Advisory Committee. Janssen was not involved in the application review or selection process.
About the Community Foundation of New Jersey
Since 1979, individuals and businesses have opened charitable funds at the Community Foundation of New Jersey to fulfill their charitable goals and craft their philanthropic legacies. These Legacy Funds and Donor Advised Funds have granted tens of millions of dollars each year, and enabled the Foundation to launch its own Changemaker Projects that are improving New Jersey and its dynamic communities. The Foundation’s funds currently hold over $400 million in charitable assets and made over 5,000 grants last year to charitable work in New Jersey and around the world. Visit www.cfnj.org.
About the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies
At the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, we are working to create a world without disease. Transforming lives by finding new and better ways to prevent, intercept, treat and cure disease inspires us. We bring together the best minds and pursue the most promising science. We are Janssen. We collaborate with the world for the health of everyone in it. Learn more at www.janssen.com. Follow us at @JanssenUS.