Actors Fund of America

In a state as large as New York, a steady stream of smart, innovative work is coming from NYHealth grantees and non-grantees alike that is relevant to NYHealth’s priority areas of Building Healthy Communities and Empowering Health Care Consumers and its focus area on Veterans’ Health. These organizations should be elevating their work and informing key stakeholders at regional, statewide, and national conferences, meetings, and other convenings. Yet, because of a lack of resources, they are often unable to do so. To address this issue, NYHealth is awarding grants through its Sponsoring Conference Participation in Support of Healthy Communities, Consumer Empowerment, and Veterans’ Health Request for Proposals (RFP). Through this RFP, NYHealth sponsored low-resource organizations to attend and present at local, State, and national conferences related to these areas. In 2018, NYHealth awarded The Actors Fund of America a grant to participate in this initiative as part of its efforts to empower health care consumers.

Under this grant, The Actors Fund sent a staff member to attend the Community Catalyst’s 2018 Annual Advocate Convening. Attending the conference directly supported The Actors Fund’s counseling and enrollment services that help entertainment industry and performing arts workers obtain health insurance. The staff member who attended the conference is the liason to uninsured and underinsured patients. Many of the topics at the conference proved to be useful in The Actors Fund’s work to help clients be empowered health care consumers, including workshops on finding affordable dental care, understanding explanation of benefits, and disparities in women’s health.

View a complete list of conference participation grantees.