The Icla da Silva Foundation, Inc.

To address health equity the Icla da Silva Foundation's goals are to:
1.) Double patient outreach/support in local communities, expanding partnerships with social workers and medical facilities to raise awareness of support and resources for communities of color;
2.) Expand culturally appropriate and bi-lingual (English/Spanish) support groups and ensure they are accessible (virtually and in-person);
3.) Cultivate/expand funding and inkind partnerships to provide specialized, personalized support for patients diagnosed with 70+ diseases whose only cure is a bone marrow/cord blood transplant. Examples include but are not limited to: a) Rent - avoiding eviction due to missing payments. Parents are required to be with their child patients 24/7 and must reduce or leave work. b) Caregiver expenses - patients require 24/7 caregiver immediately post transplant. c) Transportation - Gas Cards for patients not living in close proximity to a transplant center. d) Meals - Patient families are required to be away from home, increasing food related expenses;
4.) Through community-level partnerships, IDSF will continue to identify and assess specific needs of patients undergoing treatment and effect solutions to those challenges.

The Icla da Silva Foundation partners with colleges/universities, student groups, fraternities, sororities, religious and community organizations, etc. to develop bone marrow registration drives to create awareness, education and recruit bone marrow doors. At the Icla da Silva Foundation sustainability has been built into the organization's design over the last three decades.
Perceived Value: Given that 86% of Icla da Silva Foundation patients identify as African-American and/or Latinx, it is of particular importance for the Foundation to expand patient support efforts and educational content on a community level now more than ever in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic and the national reckoning and heightened awareness of racial disparity and structural racism. Since 1992, the Icla da Silva Foundation has worked on issues surrounding health equity and access to care for underrepresented groups.

Over the past 25 years, the Icla da Silva Foundation has demonstrated success in its marrow registration activities. It has reached and surpassed bone marrow recruitment goals. Through community‐level partnerships , IDSF will continue to identify and assess specific needs of patients undergoing treatment and effect solutions to those challenges.
Additionally, the Icla da Silva Foundation is ramping up volunteer recruitment efforts at local high schools and colleges, which has resulted in 13 new volunteers in recent weeks, all students preparing for careers in medicine and health sciences, and 92% from diverse ethnic backgrounds, underscoring the importance of diverse career pipelines in addressing the topic of health equity. The Icla da Silva Foundation uses data from transplant/medical centers and internal program numbers to measure the scale and impact of our work.

The Icla da Silva Foundation continues to expand its education, awareness and recruitment programs to other states in the United States.