WOONSOCKET – The Avon Breast Health Outreach Program has awarded a $60,000 grant to YWCA Rhode Island to increase awareness of the benefits of early breast cancer detection.
The one-year award is the YWCA program’s 21st from the Avon Foundation for Women.
The breast health program ENCOREplus at YWCA Rhode Island educates Rhode Island women and refers them to low-cost or free mammograms and clinical breast exams in their own communities. The program also enables the agency to provide breast and cervical cancer community health outreach.
“We are proud that the Avon Foundation for Women shares our mission and has again chosen to support our program,” said Deborah L. Perry, president and CEO for YWCA Rhode Island. “With these funds, we will continue to provide health outreach, education and services to underserved populations in our community.”
Since 1995, the program has reached more than 20,000 women. In 2014, the program referred more than 1,200 women for mammograms and clinical breast exams. Breast cancer is the most common form of cancer in women in the United States, according to the National Cancer Institute.
