How Blue KC Gives Back to the Kansas City Community
Community Investment
For Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Kansas City (Blue KC), giving back to the Kansas City community has been a crucial part of the company’s identity and culture for more than 85 years. As the only not-for-profit commercial health insurer in Kansas City, they focus on investing where their employees and members live, work and play. Every year, they contribute to more than 200 non-profit organizations focused on helping our community to thrive.
Blue KC employees show their support in many ways: taking advantage of paid volunteer time off, team volunteer opportunities, participating in blood drives, serving on local boards, committees and more. Throughout 2024, employees helped to pack diapers at Happy Bottoms, decorate tiny homes for Veterans Community Project and sort hygiene items for Giving the Basics.
Annually, employees participate in a variety of campaigns, raising hundreds of thousands of dollars aimed at supporting their charities of choice. In October 2024, Blue KC partnered with the United Way of Greater Kansas City for the annual Blue KC Cares Campaign. Blue KC employees raised more than $283,000 for the local organizations and initiatives that mean the most to them. Employees set a company record with over 68% participation in the campaign in support of more than 120 organizations.
Community Health
Community health and well-being is a journey comprised of listening to Blue KC members, partnering with organizations, and helping the community with access to the services and resources they need most. Blue KC uses data and research to determine where needs exist to then bring programming to those areas. Here are some examples:
- Well Stocked is a Blue KC program focused on providing access to nutritious food in our community. By partnering with local organizations, they are working to move the needle to ensure families have access to nourishing food. They do this by raising funds and awareness to help empower Kansas City residents in building healthy lives.
- A National Institutes of Health (NIH)-supported study revealed that average survival benefits for cardiac arrest, which refers to the increased chance of a person surviving after experiencing a cardiac arrest, could be three times as high for white adults compared to Black adults and twice as high for men compared to women. Blue KC partnered with the Black Health Care Coalition and the American Heart Association to host infant and adult CPR training in an underserved area of Kansas City in September 2024 to provide life-saving education to community members. More than 50 Kansas City area residents received training from the American Heart Association to help them respond in emergency situations. Participants who completed the course received a free CPR training kit with guidance to share the training knowledge with their own communities.
- Blue KC’s Health Outcomes Research grant program underscores the ongoing commitment to advancing healthy outcomesin the Kansas City community. Through this program, Blue KC and BioNexus KC have fostered community collaboration and partnerships to advance health and wellness in Kansas City. Since 2012, the program has awarded over $1 million in grants to research projects dedicated to improving the local community’s health. Blue KC funded two $50,000 awards in 2024, each targeting specific areas of health equity, aligning with their mission to address disparities and improve health outcomes for all. One of the grants will help fund a tailored vaping cessation program for young people. The other grant will go toward assessing the implementation of a 6-month FoodFARMacy intervention for food-insecure pregnant women in Kansas City. Previously in 2022, a $50,000 grant from the program funded research on how doula care impacts healthcare quality and reduces poor outcomes for Black pregnant and birthing people.
- Blue KC’s Community Support Tool is a comprehensive directory of local resources dedicated to helping and strengthening families in our service area. The tool – available to all Kansas Citians – helps people find free or reduced-cost services for accessing food, transportation, financial assistance for medication and utilities, maternal health support and more. Data from the tool allows Blue KC to examine what and where resources are needed. Blue KC also partnered with nine Value-Based Provider clinics in the Kansas City area to expand awareness of and access to this tool. In 2024, more than 4,237 searches have been completed.
Maternal Health
Understanding Black maternal health risks and complications is an important piece of healthcare. According to the CDC, Black women are three times more likely to die from a pregnancy-related cause than white women. Blue KC offers these resources:
- Blue KC is proud to sponsor and help fund the Black Health Care Coalition quarterly Community Baby Showers that celebrate and support expectant parents. Community Baby Showers include practical offerings for parents, such as information about maternal health, opportunities to make connections for needed resources and education and diapers. A true celebration, these events also include a maternity photo shoot, gifts, food, and games. The Black Health Care Coalition continues to work with these families through early childhood to ensure parent and child are receiving the medical care and resources they need. In 2024, more than 210 parents participated in these community events.
- Blue KC implemented March of Dimes’ Supportive Pregnancy Care (SPC) program at two sites in the Kansas City region: Swope Health Services and Saint Luke’s Hospital Medical Education OBGYN Clinic. SPC is a flexible health education and prenatal care program that enables maternity care providers to implement group prenatal care to help improve birth outcomes. March of Dimes provides the tools, training, and support for health care providers. By bringing SPC to key sites across the Kansas City metro, Blue KC and March of Dimes accelerated the expansion of group prenatal care, particularly in traditionally underserved communities, further improving the health of parents and babies. Group prenatal care has been shown to improve psychological outcomes like readiness for labor and delivery, promote the self-empowerment of participants, improve healthcare provider satisfaction, and reduce the risk of preterm birth for some populations. It’s this data that makes SPC so important to the Kansas City population. As of June 2024, Saint Luke’s had multiple providers utilizing SPC resources and held 29 sessions with participation from 34 patients.
Behavioral Health
Blue KC prioritizes well-being and open conversations about behavioral health. In 2024, they also launched a three-year early intervention pilot program with Children’s Mercy Kansas City and the Center School District to tackle the mental health crisis among school-aged children.
Working with other Blue Cross plans throughout the United States, Blue KC continued to invest in youth mental health through trauma-informed strategy and training with the Boys and Girls Clubs. By partnering with our local club, we were able to fund trainings and provide information on trauma informed practices to support the work of the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Kansas City and improve mental health outcomes for the children they serve.
Game-Changing Partnerships
Another way Blue KC is raising behavioral health awareness is through impactful sports partnerships. Shut Out the Stigma is a program in collaboration with the Kansas City Royals that promotes behavioral health as a part of overall health and well-being and focuses on removing the stigma around mental health. The award-winning “Not Good Enough” documentary, which is part of the Shut Out the Stigma initiative, is a 45-minute look into the perspective of youth athletes and the toll perfectionism takes on their behavioral health.
Blue KC sports partnerships honor key community contributors, fostering a culture of support and gratitude. In partnership with the ‘C’ You In The Major Leagues Foundation and the Kansas City Royals, Blue KC Coaches with Character recognizes local amateur coaches who embody leadership and community service. Through nominations submitted by fans, Blue KC honors the coaches who make a positive impact on and off the field.
Blue KC also teams up with the Royals to honor first responders. The Blue KC Answering the Call award salutes these brave individuals throughout the season.
In 2024, Blue KC was proud to form a new partnership with the Kansas City Monarchs with the Homers for History campaign. Funds support the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum.
Each season, Blue KC teams up with Sporting Kansas City to celebrate outstanding students and teachers as Blue KC Sporting Samaritans, who make Kansas City a better place to live, work, and play. Nominated by fans and recognized during home matches at Children’s Mercy Park, honorees enjoy VIP experiences, highlighting their invaluable contributions to the Kansas City community.
Blue KC has partnered with the Kansas City Current to develop the Sideline the Stigma program, which is committed to combating the stigma surrounding mental health. By hosting mental health support services in Kansas City, the company strives to promote a more compassionate and inclusive community for those facing behavioral health challenges.
Launched during the 2024 season, Blue KC and the Current have teamed up to create the Blue KC Gamechanger. A Blue KC Gamechanger inspires bold ambition in all their work, enriching the community around them, and enacting positive change through intentional action. The Blue KC Gamechanger is chosen from nominations collected by Blue KC and the Current. Honorees are honored at select Kansas City Current home matches.
To explore all the ways Blue KC serves Kansas City communities, click here.
