With a two-year grant from Bristol-Myers Squibb, the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in Hamilton, New Jersey, and its Diabetes Self-Management Education Program will utilize a diabetes-certified nurse educator to work through school nurses in Mercer County to educate children and teenagers, their parents and school personnel about diabetes and obesity. Recognizing the emerging problem of type 2 diabetes in children, the program will also screen at-risk children in the 11 school districts in the county and provide follow-up support.

Bringing Mental Health Awareness to Boys and Girls Clubs in New Jersey

The key is to reduce the stigma of mental illness by increasing the awareness of what it is, and how it can be treated and controlled. The challenge is to do all this as early as possible.

The Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation provided an initial $100,000 grant to the Boys and Girls Club of Trenton and Mercer County to help develop a curriculum and pilot a program for children ages 9-12 to do just that. An additional grant in the fall of 2007 expanded the pilot to additional Boys and Girls Club sites in Lodi, Camden, Perth Amboy and Gloucester County, New Jersey.

Says Trenton and Mercer County Club Executive Director David Anderson, “Kids of all ages deal with mental health issues -- with other children they see in school, parents or relatives. They goal is to build an awareness of what they’re seeing and feeling on a level that 9-12 year olds can understand.”

The goal, he says, is to create an understanding that mental illness is not something that is negative. “One of the things we’ve found in developing this curriculum is most of those who experience a mental health problem don’t seek treatment -- in part because of the stigma attached to the disease,” Anderson explains. “If we can let kids know that there are treatments and in most cases mental illness can be dealt with and kept under control, we can begin to break down that stigma.”

The Boys and Girls Club of Trenton and Mercer County provide enrichment activities after school. “We’re going to incorporate this module in 15-20 minute segments as part of our normal programming,” he adds. “If you’re coming in for an hour of basketball, we’ll take the first 15 minutes to do one of our mission-driven programs, which we call Triple Play.” The club focuses on three areas -- healthy mind, body and spirit; a world of difference ­ about diversity, and a smart moves program that focuses on life skills. “Today none of these programs delves deeply into mental health,” Anderson explains. “With this grant, we can create a mental health chapter that we can incorporate into each of these existing programs.”

Anderson also understands the challenge of getting kids interested in the topic. “Our plan is to use more non-traditional learning, including role-playing, and projects. We’ll focus more on doing and learning through discovery than just being lectured to,” he says. The plan is to develop 12 lessons that can be broken down into 36 different activities.

After a 12-week pilot at the end of 2007, it is expected that more clubs will be added to the pilot site to gather additional data.

“The hope is that the results will warrant expanding this program to additional Boys and Girls clubs -- not just the 26 in New Jersey, but to make an impact on some 4,000 clubs across the country,” Anderson says.

He also stresses that not only will the kids themselves be involved, but community resources will be included and each lesson will feature a take home piece. And of course, there will be pre- and post-evaluations of the materials.

The Trenton Boys and Girls Clubs work with some 800 children each day at seven sites in city schools as well as at a central clubhouse in the city. “The key is that in everything we do, it has to be fun, engaging and hands on -- in order to get all the kids involved.

Where does Anderson think the program can have a significant impact? “One area is in seeing how special needs kids are treated and accepted,” he says. “A lot of kids are being diagnosed with ADD and hopefully this awareness program may affect how those kids are perceived by their classmates and interact with them. With older youths, there are mental health issues around body perception, including anorexia and bulimia. And in their families, kids may have parents who act in a particular way, and they don’t understand why. We can help them through this program -- and by also telling them -- and their parents -- that there is help out there for them as well.”

$6 Million,Four-Year Grant to Princeton Healthcare System to Expand Outreach Efforts to Low-Income Populations in Area

Since its founding in 1919 in response to the Great Flu Epidemic, Princeton HealthCare System (PHCS) has evolved into a multi-faceted and dynamic organization with a comprehensive range of programs designed to meet the increasing health care needs of its diverse and rapidly growing community, in a central New Jersey region of nearly 700,000 residents. . The System’s primary operating unit is University Medical Center of Princeton (UMCP), formerly Princeton Hospital, a community teaching hospital with 308 licensed beds.

The Systems’s Community Education Outreach programs provide information on wellness and prevention, general health education, access to care for low-income residents within its service areas, including ethnic populations that span the socio-economic spectrum. As outreach programs build awareness of services and the uninsured and underinsured populations continue to grow, the numbers of people relying on the University Medical Center at Princeton for subsidized care have escalated substantially each year. Both the hospital outpatient clinic and emergency department are used regularly by this population as an entrée into the vast array of services offered by the Medical Center. Though 15 percent of all emergency department visitors are uninsured or under insured, the outpatient clinic is the primary source of health care for this population.

Over the last five years, total outpatients visits have increased by 45% to 17,000 annually. The largest changes are in the Pediatric clinic, where visits have increased by 53% to almost 5,000 annually. Other clinic areas where there has been significant growth in visits are surgery (90% over the past five years), obstetrics (65% over the past five years) and internal medicine (33% last five years). These figures reflect the increasing numbers of low-income families and individuals moving into the area, as well as increased awareness of clinic programs and the effectiveness of our efforts to identify and bring in those who need care.

A $6 million grant from the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation will support the relocation and expansion of what will become the Bristol-Myers Squibb Community Health Clinic, Bristol-Myers Squibb Community HealthCare Information Center, and the Bristol Myers Squibb Community Health Center Shuttle -- all aimed at this growing population of outpatients -- many from low-income and diverse backgrounds -- requiring services and support. A new clinic facility -- along with operating funds -- will not only accommodate more patients, it also will also help improve the medical outcome of the patients, meeting the escalating cost of providing care to those who cannot pay for it themselves.

ConvaTec is supporting Crawford House, a residential treatment program that provides a supportive setting for women in early recovery from alcohol and drug addiction. Crawford House is a ConvaTec neighbor in the Skillman, New Jersey, community.

With grants totaling more than $70,000 in 2005, Bristol-Myers Squibb continued its support for high school robotics teams in six central New Jersey school districts. Students on the teams will participate in the FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) robotics competition, which combines the challenges of science and technology. Company volunteers mentor students in designing and building the robots, with a special focus on problem solving and teamwork. The company is also a primary underwriter of the regional FIRST competition in Trenton, New Jersey. It has been supporting school robotics teams since 1997.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Syracuse supported Girls Inc. summer education camp through the purchase of a S.M.A.R.T. (Science, Math and Relevant Technology) Van. The van will take science education on the road to area schools, allowing Girls Inc. to pick up girls around the community participating in their after school program and summer education camps. Through this program, girls become better prepared to pursue an education and careers in math and science. Girls Inc. is a national organization seeking to empower girls to be strong, smart and bold through outstanding hands-on science education programs. The company's Syracuse operation has contributed over $78,000 to Girl's Inc. since 1994 and has had several employees serve on its board.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Syracuse supported the CommuniTrees program of the Cornell Cooperative Extension. The funding will be directed to planting trees around the company's plant in the Village of East Syracuse, New York. Employees will also be involved through participation in 10 hours of training required to become 'stewards.' They will learn about tree biology, identification, planting, care and common problem management and will then be allowed to assist in the tree planting. The training is provided free in exchange for 15 hours of community service.

A donation of $250,000 from Mead Johnson Nutritionals to the City of Evansville, Indiana, is helping the city complete the next phase of an important environment and recreational project, the Pigeon Creek Greenway Passage. Eventually, the passage will encircle the city, forming a bicycle-pedestrian path with links to neighborhoods and parks. Mead Johnson's donation has allowed the city to leverage an additional $4 million in matching funds from the state for construction of the project.

Lawrence Hopewell Trail Continues to Expand in Bristol-Myers Squibb’s Backyard

In 2001, Bristol-Myers Squibb, which has a significant presence -- both in facilities and employees -- in Lawrence and Hopewell Townships, gathered a number of other business, government and community partners in outlining a 20 mile biking and walking trail to be constructed through corporate campuses, Rosedale and Northwest Parks in Mercer County, municipal land, and private property. Their vision was to address concerns about diminishing opportunities for safe, off-road biking and walking. The long-term vision was that the trail would result in reduced reliance on automobile transportation.

Some segments of the trail were to follow existing roads; others would represent new construction. It would also link dozens of area businesses, schools, parks, recreational sites and residential areas. Thus was born the Lawrence Hopewell Trail.

As a result of this unique collaboration, 6.5 miles of trails have already been completed. Both the Educational Testing Service (ETS) and Bristol-Myers Squibb have built segments on their respective campuses and plan further construction. Mercer County has pledged more than $1 million to construct more pathways through county parks. In addition, ETS and Bristol-Myers Squibb have provided substantial grants over the years to help defray costs that so far have come to some $3 million. Today, the trail is seeking to raise another $9 million to complete its work.

Says Eleanor Horne, vice president, Social Investment at ETS, "Bristol-Myer Squibb has been a wonderful partner. Originally we thought that it would be easy to build a trail. It isn't. When we first thought of the trail, we thought of it as a 20 mile loop. Now we see it as a hub with spokes to other trails. We’ve been told by the New Jersey Department of Transportation that we are a unique organizing committee. Nowhere has there been a trail developed with corporate leadership, multiple municipalities, county and state government and non-profit organizations. We started as rank amateurs. But we’ve come a long way.

Among the learnings they gained, she admits, was that "a trail can be more than just a trail. For example, the trail has changed how Lawrence and Hopewell Townships interact with the county. They jointly approached the county to buy an old airfield and convert it to soccer fields. Neither set of township officials would have thought of doing this had they not been working jointly on the trail. This is a by product that perhaps is as significant as the trail itself." Hopewell Deputy Mayor David Sandahl agrees, “It has really encouraged us to talk to one another and develop relationships beyond the trail itself including shared service agreements so we can work better together.”

And while it hasn't been a simple project to help steward, the rewards have been substantial. "It's been a lot of work and sometimes I wonder why I took that first call from Bristol back in 2001," Horne recalls. "But then, one day I was on the trail and saw a family riding along that stretch. It was then that I realized why I was doing all this. They were safe, getting exercise, were outdoors and doing something together as a family. That feeling was incredible. Someone at Bristol-Myers Squibb once described the company's support of the trail as a gift to the community. She is right. That's one of the reasons we're proud to be associated with Bristol and the trail. And it's a gift that will survive and last longer than any one organization presently involved with it."

Adds Sandahl, “The key to any change is developing some sort of critical mass – a way to go forward. Without Bristol-Myers Squibb, that critical mass would never have come together. The company is a model corporate citizen. It understands the issues we have and is a major partner in developing a higher quality of life for our residents. It has clearly committed itself to being a good resident and good neighbor.”

Since 2004, Bristol-Myers Squibb has provided support for Plainsboro Township's America -- A New Home program. The project works within the community to improve the independence and integration of foreign-born senior citizen residents into the area. Specific activities include social events, English as a Second Language classes and presentations on relevant issues including social security, emergency preparedness, protection against identity theft and information on citizenship.

For the 15th year in a row, Bristol-Myers Squibb has provided grants to support high-quality summer and year-round enrichment programs for disadvantaged youths in New Jersey. These Community of Learners grants enable organizations to offer free tuition and transportation to students who might otherwise not be able to afford to attend.

Bristol-Myers Squibb has a long history of supporting New York City non-profit organizations primarily focused on health, human service and targeted educational programs. The company has also been a long-time supporter of organizations focused on disaster assistance. A five-year $500,000 grant to the American Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund and an annual contribution to the Salvation Army help support the company's commitment to providing much needed funding for those affected by natural disasters.

Mead Johnson Nutritionals has become a lead donor and major contributor - with a contribution of $250,000 -- to Evansville's new Koch Family Children's Museum, which opened in 2006. Located in a renovated, historic library in the heart of the city's downtown, the child-centered museum educates children and pre-teens about their community and their world -- while also inspiring them to develop lifelong habits of creative expression, critical thinking, innovative problem-solving and decision-making.