The Blue Shield of California Foundation has announced fourth-quarter grants totaling $10.7 million to organizations working in the areas of health care and domestic violence.

The foundation awarded approximately $6.2 million to organizations working to transform the state's healthcare safety net, including more than $3.2 million to the Tides Center in support of its Center for Care Innovations, which aims to improve access to cost-effective health care for low-income Californians. The foundation also awarded grants totaling nearly $1.7 million to ten community health centers across the state in support of efforts to measure and improve their performance and develop better-integrated systems of care for newly eligible and uninsured populations. In addition, the California Pan Ethnic Health Network received $100,000 to develop a First Responder Feedback Network that will assess and report on statewide outreach and enrollment efforts targeting communities of color and limited English proficiency populations, while the Insure the Uninsured Project received $500,000 in support of its efforts to advance the state's implementation of the Affordable Care Act.

Grants totaling more than $4.1 million were awarded to address and help prevent domestic violence across the state, including $600,000 to the California Department of Public Health to advance a statewide effort to prevent dating violence among teens in four new California communities, and $172,500 to the Center for Violence-Free Relationships to create a regional data management network. In addition, the foundation, as part of its commitment to improve access to domestic violence services and integrate systems of care for survivors and their families, awarded grants in support of new collaborations and partnerships between domestic violence and healthcare safety-net providers. Grant recipients include the East Los Angeles Women's Center ($210,000) and the Jenesse Center ($210,000) in Los Angeles.

"With healthcare coverage becoming a reality for millions of uninsured Californians, now is an incredibly important time to invest in new ideas and approaches that will help prepare our safety net for changes ahead," said BSCF president and CEO Peter Long. "The grants made this quarter reflect our continued commitment to making the Affordable Care Act a success in California and to creating the type of high-performing, affordable healthcare system we know we can achieve."

For a complete list of grant recipients, see the Blue Shield of California Foundation Web site.