SITKA — The SouthEast Alaska Regional Health Consortium (SEARHC) Community Transformation Grant program is offering sub-award grants to community groups in Southeast Alaska interested in improving the health of their communities.

Healthy lifestyles can increase an individual’s lifespan and quality of life. We can achieve healthier communities when community organizations take the lead in promoting healthy habits that can reduce risks for chronic diseases, like high cholesterol, diabetes, and high blood pressure.

This funding supports organizational initiatives that improve healthy lifestyles by changing the norms we follow every day. These norms impact how much time each day is spent being physically active and what percent of the daily food intake is highly nutritious. Some examples:

• Minutes of physical activity in a person’s day
• Access to clean, cold drinking water every day vs. sweetened soda or sports drinks
• Availability of healthy, nutritious foods at reasonable prices, every day
• Ability to take breaks in a work day to be active or breastfeed a baby

According to the funding objectives, projects should be population based and have a well-planned strategy to address active living and healthy eating. Sub-award grants ranging from $5,000 to $24,750 are available with a total of ~$95,000 to be awarded for the period October 1, 2013 to September 30, 2014.

Application due date is Friday, September 6, 2013 5pm.

For more information or for an application, visit www.searhc.org or contact Martha Pearson at 966-8783 or martha.pearson@searhc.org.