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Investing in Healthier Communities

We’re leveraging the knowledge, experience and talents of community organizations and partners to address social and economic factors that influence health in our communities.

With our Blue Impact℠ major grant program and other community-based efforts, we're focused social and economic drivers of health in five key areas:

• Optimal health outcomes
• Locally defined health solutions
• Economic opportunity and stability
• Nutrición
• Vecindario y entorno de construcción

As a health insurer, we recognize the importance of closing gaps in preventive health care to help people achieve their best health. 

This extends beyond our members and into our communities with programs and investments focusing on immunizations, diabetes care, cardiovascular care, early detection cancer screenings, behavioral health, and maternal and infant health.  

Through the Blue Impact major grant program, we invested in several organizations working to close these gaps. 

BCBSOK also administers the Oklahoma Caring Foundation as an in-kind donation, giving Oklahomans easy access preventive health services through the Caring Van® mobile health program.  

The Caring Van program works with public health departments, schools and others to bring no-cost immunizations and other services to communities across Oklahoma. In 2024, the program held more than 700 events, reaching more than 12,700 Oklahomans.

The Caring Foundation marked its 30th anniversary and the 25th year of the Caring Van program in 2024. 

Organizations, leaders and health care providers embedded in our communities are often best able to meet the diverse needs of the people who live there. 

For more than a dozen years, BCBSOK has held an annual Tribal Roundtable, inviting representatives of the Indian Health Service and tribal and urban clinics to discuss health care policies, legislation and coverage issues affecting Oklahoma’s Native Americans.  

Since its 2012 inception, the roundtable has grown to include more than 100 participants from 38 federally recognized tribes to try to improve poor health care outcomes disproportionately affecting their citizens.

Five of our Blue Impact grants awarded in 2024 are advancing efforts to address locally defined needs.  

The Oklahoma Dental Foundation, for example, is using its fleet of MobileSmiles clinics to reach children in communities with fewer than 6,000 residents and a lack of dental professionals. The grant is funding 20 days of oral health treatment and dental education for about a dozen patients each day.

Access to jobs. Opportunities to grow. A stable income. Meeting these essential needs provides a foundation for health and well-being.

With the Blue Impact major grant program, we’re helping community organizations provide the stability and opportunities that allow people to thrive.  

The University of Tulsa’s Students Reaching Excellence Through Collaborations and Higher Education (STRETCHED) program is exposing high school students to medical careers, offering hands-on workshops, camps and education about selecting a college that matches their interests and needs. 

With another grant, Northeast Oklahoma City Nonprofit Incubator is helping organizations serving that community become sustainable and grow. During 13-week sessions, participants get training, strategic planning assistance, mentorship and connections to philanthropic leaders.

"Nonprofits are critical, especially in underserved areas," said Gabrielle Butler, co-founder of the incubator. "They have been leaving so much potential on the table because of a lack of resources."

We’re investing in efforts to connect people to affordable healthy housing, transportation and physical activity.

We've continued our collaboration with National Fitness Campaign to help bring outdoor Fitness Courts® to rural Oklahoma communities. Two courts built in 2024 are within a 10-minute walk for more than 1,600 people.

The Blue Impact major grant program is funding other community-based efforts to strengthen neighborhood assets, including the Oklahoma Partnership for School Readiness. The organization is coordinating a statewide $2.6 million funding initiative to build 29 outdoor learning environments at childcare facilities across Oklahoma.

One such facility, Spring’s Day Care, has been teaching children up to age 12 socials skills and a daily curriculum with zero screen time since 1998, providing much-needed childcare to parents living in southeast Oklahoma’s childcare desert.   

With grants, community outreach, volunteer events and other avenues, we’re collaborating with community-based partners to reduce hunger and improve access to nutritional food. 

Four organizations receiving Blue Impact major grant funding in 2024 are expanding access to nutritious food in ways that meet the needs of their local communities.  

One grant is helping the Food Bank of Eastern Oklahoma expand an innovative frozen meal program to reach 45 schools and deliver nearly 100,000 meals over three years. Students can eat the microwaveable meals at school, and many take the food home to help feed siblings and families.

“Some of these students have huge responsibilities at home,” said Sharrice Banks, a social service specialist at Daniel Webster Middle and High School in Tulsa. “Now they don’t have to ask themselves, ‘What are we going to eat?’”