Healthy Hometown Award

Purpose

The Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi Foundation established the Healthy Hometown Award to encourage and reward exemplary community health and wellness. The Foundation exists to improve the health of Mississippi, and this award will assist our municipal leaders in their efforts to make their communities - and ultimately our state - a healthier place to live.

Award Categories

The Foundation will award up to four grants. For an application to be considered, a municipality must have a comprehensive smoke-free ordinance in place. The Foundation recommends using the language from this sample smoke-free ordinance as a guide on completing the application.

A municipality from each of these three categories will receive a $25,000 grant from the Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi Foundation:

Large town: 15,000 or more residents
Medium town: 5,001 - 14,999 residents
Small town: Fewer than 5,000 residents

One municipality will be designated as The Healthiest Town in Mississippi and will be awarded a $50,000 grant. A town of any size may receive this designation.

Application and Selection

The 2013 Healthy Hometown Application process is now closed. Winners will be announced at the Mississippi Municipal League Conference in July 2013.

Many towns will not meet all the criteria or have all the policies in place that the application suggests. However, the winning municipalities will be those who have made the most strides in creating a healthy community and who have demonstrated the highest level of commitment to a healthy culture.

The Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi Foundation will select the winners, and the recipients will be announced at the 2013 Annual Mississippi Municipal League Conference.

Award Restrictions

The grant award may only be used to improve a municipality's health and wellness culture. The recipient municipalities and the Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi Foundation will complete a standard grant award contract.

Recognition

To recognize the winning municipalities, the Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi Foundation will provide the following:

1. Congratulatory ad in the local newspaper and statewide publications

2. Wall plaque for City Hall and/or a promotional road sign at the town's entrance

3. Promotion of the winning towns on the Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi Foundation website