BHHS Legacy Foundation Donates $70,000 to Strengthen Healthy Congregations and Communities
Duet: Partners In Health & Aging recently received a grant from BHHS Legacy Foundation of $70,000 to support its congregational health program. The donation will go toward the nonprofit’s training of faith community nurses and providing support to congregational health programs that serve a variety of communities across the Valley.
Duet is a leading resource for faith communities and nurses who want to create health programs. The nonprofit trains nurses to become equipped to practice their skills in a faith community through its twice a year Foundations of Faith Community Nursing course. Duet also helps faith communities launch health programs that benefit their congregations and the communities they serve.
The grant from BHHS Legacy Foundation makes it possible for Duet to provide tuition reimbursement for faith community nurses who start congregational health programs within six months of completing the Foundations course; it provides a stipend to active faith community nurses to purchase supplies for their programs; and it helps Duet to pay for support staff for the congregational health program.
“We are so grateful for this grant from BHHS Legacy Foundation,” said April Polley, Director of Congregational Health at Duet. “With this financial support, Duet will help faith community nurses make a positive impact in their own congregations and the community at large.”
A faith community nurse is a registered nurse who serves their faith community as a health educator, personal health counselor and advocate, a facilitator of health support programs, and an interpreter of the relationship between health and faith. Faith community nursing is a specialized practice of professional nursing that focuses on the promotion of whole-person health as part of the process of promoting health and preventing or minimizing illness.
Twice a year, Duet trains faith community nurses through its Foundations of Faith Community Nursing course. The nonprofit is the only organization in Arizona to provide this course. The spring 2019 Foundations course takes place Friday and Saturday, April 5 to 6 and Friday and Saturday, May 3 to 4.
