ECOLOGIA's Regional Grant-Making Program

Problem Solving for Better Health in Lithuania

Program Overview

The Baltic Programs Office (BEPO) of ECOLOGIA coordinates a direct grant-making program in Lithuania. Created and funded by the Dreyfus Health Foundation, this "Problem Solving for Better Health" program focuses on helping applicants maximize their effective use of non-financial and local financial resources. The program also plays an active role in enabling applicants to find new, effective ways to achieve their goals.

December 8 - 10, 2006: ECOLOGIA organized and directed the Eighth Annual Problem Solving for Better Health workshop in Vilnius, Lithuania. Forty participants from different regions of Lithuania attended the workshop in order to create community-based projects on health, environmental and social issues.

Actual grants are provided only when an applicant has shown that he or she has maximized the use of all other resources.

Goal

To train health professionals to create lower-cost and more realistic, results-oriented projects. To help people better help themselves with local resources, and to be self-sustaining in their solutions.

Region

To date, a total of nineteen countries have participated in Problem Solving for Better Health. The Baltic Ecological Program Office (BEPO) coordinates this program in Lithuania.

Topic

The focus of this program is on improving human health. Topics addressed in the Lithuanian program in recent years include mental health, sexually transmitted diseases, organ donation, drug use, health of the elderly, diabetes, and environmental safety. To view descriptions of all the projects approved in a given year, see the links at the end of this page.

Requirements

The Problem Solving for Better Health (PSBH) program requires potential grant applicants to participate in a three-day training workshop before submitting a proposal. Workshop participants are trained to use creative ideas and available resources to solve local health problems. Focus is also placed on creating low-cost, realistic, results-oriented projects. Applicants learn how to write strong proposals at the ECOLOGIA-organized PSBH workshop.

Participants include medical professionals, social workers and representatives of non-governmental organizations.

ECOLOGIA also connects people in Lithuania who have attended different workshops so they can share expertise and spread their projects more widely.

Proposal process

PSBH in Lithuania has a two-sided review:

Lithuanian review. Proposals that are developed during the workshop are given to a local Lithuanian Advisory Board, which is composed of four specialists from the medical field. The members of Advisory Board provide recommendations on the value and need for the proposed projects in the Lithuanian context (i.e., how important a given project could be in improving the health situation in Lithuania).
American review. ECOLOGIA translates summaries of the projects approved by the Advisory Board and sends them to the Dreyfus Health Foundation in the United States, which reviews the projects in lights of the Foundation’s mission and goals.

Projects that are approved by both groups receive funding.

Grant level

The cost range of the grants given by PSBH is $25-$1,400. The total amount of money given directly to the projects each year in Lithuania is $8,000.

Accountability

Money is given in two parts: the first part is to start the project, and the second part is given when the recipient provides an interim report. If visual results are available, the Baltic Programs Office’s PSBH Program Director visits the organization to see what has been accomplished. A final report is submitted within four weeks after the project is completed.

Up to this date, ECOLOGIA had not had any disappointments in terms of money not being used appropriately for a project. The grants are not large, so people who want to get something for themselves out of a project simply do not apply. Small grants are very good from the point of view that one should realistically plan activities and budget money carefully; small grants teach people how to behave with the money while trying to get the best results.

Funder

PSBH is a program started in 1989 by the Dreyfus Health Foundation in New York, United States.

Time frame

In the year 2000 ECOLOGIA's Baltic Programs office (BEPO) became the Lithuanian coordinator of Problem Solving for Better Health (PSBH). The program has been run each year since then, with one workshop and grant-cycle per year.

"Five Years of Problem Solving for Better Health in Lithuania: Workshops Bring Public Health Process to Life"

See the Fifth Anniversary (December 2003) progress summary and photo.

Contact information

Giedre Tang, PSBH Program Coordinator

ECOLOGIA Baltic Programs Office

E-mail: ecobalt@post.omnitel.net