Thank you BCBSRI for a second year of BlueAngel Grant Support – Housing is Health!

The Rhode Island Center for Justice is excited to enter a second year in partnership with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island through the BlueAngel Community Health Grant. The BlueAngel Grant supports our work to help Rhode Islanders remain stably housed and keep prevent utility disruption, a leading cause of housing insecurity. We are grateful for Blue Angel’s generous support to this second year of the project, Pandemic Defense of Healthy Homes.

Through its focus on the BCBSRI Life Index, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island has demonstrated that when it comes to health outcomes, “ZIP code is more important than genetic code.” At the Center for Justice, we have long been committed to the principal that Housing IS Health and this has never been more apparent than during the coronavirus pandemic.

As the pandemic has continued into 2021, we have continued to fight to keep Rhode Islanders safely able to maintain social distance, shelter in place, and protect their families and themselves. Every day, our work is motivated by the CDC finding that those who are evicted from their homes face higher risk of sickness and death during the pandemic than those who are able to shelter in place at home.

The BlueAngel Community Health Grant Program invests in community well-being and aims to improve health and quality of life across Rhode Island. Its investments include meeting basic needs, not just medical interventions. This year’s focus on safe, stable, quality, affordable housing aligns directly with our work at the Center for Justice, and we are tremendously honored to be able to support more Rhode Islanders facing housing and utility insecurity, and potential health consequences, with the continuing support of the BlueAngel Community Health Grant.

With the support of the Blue Angel Grant, we have made direct outreach to thousands of Rhode Islanders to provide them with crucially important information about eviction and utility shutoff moratoriums and how to best protect themselves and their families.  We have provided direct assistance and representation to hundreds of Rhode Islanders who are facing eviction and need help navigating the court process.

CFJ thanks BCBSRI again for its generosity in the BlueAngel Community Health Grant Program, and for making it possible to keep more Rhode Islanders safe in their homes during this incredibly challenging second year of the pandemic and its ongoing health and economic impacts.