Centinela Medical Care and Community Funds
The grant application period is now closed.

About the Centinela Medical Funds

After the nonprofit Centinela Hospital Medical Center was sold to a for-profit corporation in 1996, the state attorney general’s office brokered a settlement in which the remaining assets would be used to ensure that members of the community the hospital had served — residents of Inglewood, Hawthorne, Lennox, Los Angeles, El Segundo, Watts, Compton and Lawndale — would continue to have access to health care services.

In 1999, these assets of more than $50 million were used to establish two funds at the California Community Foundation, the Centinela Medical Care Fund and the Centinela Medical Community Fund. These funds make grants to nonprofit hospitals and agencies providing access to health care services to low-income residents in the Centinela Valley.

An advisory board was appointed to work with the community foundation to disburse grants. The board sets funding priorities and makes grant recommendations for the two Centinela Medical Funds.

Since inception, the funds have awarded a total of more than $17 million in grants to organizations serving the needs of residents in these communities, particularly those without adequate health insurance.

Funding Priorities

The overall goal of the Centinela Medical Care and Medical Community Funds are to ensure that children and adults living in the Centinela Valley have access to a timely and affordable source of quality primary and specialty care services.  The foundation is particularly interested in:

• Enhancing access to high quality primary, specialty and diagnostic care, including dental and mental health services for low-income adults and children.
• Addressing chronic medical conditions and diseases that disproportionately affect the area, such as obesity, diabetes, hypertension, pediatric asthma, and HIV/AIDS through prevention and education, early detection and control measures.
• Extending the availability of primary health care services to include evening and weekend hours to accommodate working adults and parents, reducing the burden on hospital emergency departments.
• Inpatient services for Centinela residents who are not currently covered by health insurance or other reimbursement mechanisms. (medical care fund only)
• Increasing access to and retention of health care coverage for low-income adults and children.
• Addressing the ongoing nursing shortage facing Los Angeles County. (medical care fund only)

At least 90 percent of those served by the proposed program or applying organization must live in these zip codes:  90001, 90002, 90003, 90008, 90011, 90016, 90018, 90037, 90043, 90044, 90045, 90047, 90059, 90061, 90062, 90220, 90245, 90249, 90250, 90260, 90301, 90302, 90303, 90304, and 90305.

For more information, call (213) 413-4130.