South Florida Affiliate Of Susan G. Komen For The Cure® Awards $1.4 Million In Grants

July 6, 2011 - PRLog -- WEST PALM BEACH, FL –  Imagine having to decide between paying your rent or your next mammogram.

Thanks to a record year of fundraising, the South Florida Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure^® is helping ensure no one in Palm Beach, Martin, or St. Lucie County has to make that agonizing, but all-too-common decision.

This year the South Florida Affiliate awarded $1,453,954 in grants to local organizations that provide breast health services, and it placed special emphasis on supporting programs that help minority women. Over the past ten years, the Affiliate has awarded grants totaling more than $13 million for breast cancer screening, biopsies, treatment, and community education, as well as cutting-edge research.

“Breast cancer doesn’t discriminate. Breast cancer affects men and women across the globe, and we are doing our part to protect those in our communities,” said Tina Jacobs, Director of Mission Initiatives at the Affiliate.

Recognizing that South Florida is one of the country’s most diverse areas with widening health disparities, the Affiliate has refocused its efforts to ensure better access to breast health services for Hispanic and African American populations in the area. Breast cancer education and screening saves lives, yet minority women often have poor access to the care they need. This year’s grant awards aim to increase outreach to these underserved women.

The South Florida Affiliate is one of 123 Komen Affiliates worldwide that works to relieve suffering from breast cancer and end the disease forever. Through local events and activities, they mobilize and educate thousands of community members while raising funds to support community-based breast cancer programs.

In order to address the specific breast cancer needs of the Palm Beach, Martin, and St. Lucie counties, the Komen South Florida Affiliate works with local health care professionals and community leaders to conduct a comprehensive community needs assessment. This community profile, a standard practice of all Komen Affiliates, is then used to establish a local grant application and review process consistent with the organization’s standards and mission.

Last year, Susan G. Komen for the Cure Affiliates – working in concert with local organizations – awarded more than $93 million in needs-based community grants.


About Susan G. Komen for the Cure^® and the Komen South Florida Affiliate
Nancy G. Brinker promised her dying sister, Susan G. Komen, she would do everything in her power to end breast cancer forever. In 1982, that promise became Susan G. Komen for the Cure and launched the global breast cancer movement. The South Florida Affiliate of Komen for the Cure is working to better the lives of those facing breast cancer in the local community. They join more than a million breast cancer survivors and activists around the globe as part of the world’s largest and most progressive grassroots network fighting breast cancer. Through events like the Komen South Florida Race for the Cure®, the South Florida Affiliate has invested $13 million in community breast health programs in Palm Beach, Martin, and St. Lucie counties. Up to 75 percent of net proceeds generated by the Affiliate stays in the South Florida area. The remaining income goes to the national Susan G. Komen for the Cure Grants Program to fund research. For more information, call 561-514-3020 or visit http://www.komensouthflorida.org.