Capital Access and Grant Funding
Committed to supporting communities, small businesses, social entrepreneurs, and innovators to reduce health disparities and create social change.
EmPOWERED to Serve Investments
The need to come together to find solutions for longer, healthier lives is more critical than ever.
Investing for Community Impact
The American Heart Association is committed to supporting communities, small businesses, social entrepreneurs and innovators who are working to reduce health disparities and create groundbreaking social change.
Grants are a crucial part of this support as organizers of community health efforts struggle with fewer resources to address an increased demand for services. We provide communities with a bank of resources that help them quickly address barriers to health equity. We also award grants supporting health equity initiatives, measure the results and share the outcomes with the world.
Funding is critical in efforts to build economic stability in diverse and historically excluded communities, many of which haven’t had access to capital or have experienced disinvestment.
EmPOWERED Scholars
Creating stronger communities by improving health equity and social justice.
Congratulations to the American Heart Association’s 2021 EmPOWERED Scholars! Six undergraduate college students each received $5,000 scholarships to be change agents to improve health equity in their communities.
Through EmPOWERED to Serve, the AHA works to improve health outcomes and reduce the gap in health disparities among historically excluded and under-resourced communities.
EmPOWERED to Serve Business Accelerator™
The EmPOWERED to Serve Business Accelerator™ is a free service that supports community entrepreneurs and organizations that are breaking down the social and economic barriers to health equity.
Learn more about the Business AcceleratorCongratulations to our 2021 national Business Accelerator grant recipients:
- First-place grant recipient: Healthcare Originals, Sharon Samjitsingh
- Second-place grant recipient: EMTomorrow, Cornelia Williams
- Fan Favorite: Get Up and Get Moving, Kimberly Brown
Our EmPOWERED to Serve Business Accelerator is making a health impact through grant funding and training of diverse social entrepreneurs who address food insecurity, transportation, health care access, science-technology-engineering-mathematics training , youth education and more.
Business Accelerator Alumni
Community Innovation Exchange
The EmPOWERED Community Innovation Exchange is a searchable, interactive digital hub that accelerates exploring and adopting new grassroots business models, municipal strategies, and community-led models for improving social determinants of health.
About Us
EmPOWERED to Serve accelerates innovative solutions to eliminate disparities in under-resourced communities caused by social determinants of health, also called structural determinants.
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EmPOWERED to Serve seeks to improve health outcomes and reduce the gap in health disparities among minorities in multicultural communities.
If you are interested in learning more about our work in community activism, community health education, and social justice for historically under-resourced communities, we invite you to sign up for the EmPOWERED to Serve e-newsletter.