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The David and Lura Lovell Foundation and the Community Foundation for Southern ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ plan to award grants for projects addressing issues related to the awareness, understanding and availability of end-of-life care and planning, particularly for underserved and vulnerable communities in Pima County, officials announced.

Organizations must participate in the ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ End of Life Care Partnership to apply for a grant. Applicants must submit a letter of interest by March 25, and a final application is due April 24. Instructions and guidelines are available on the Lovell Foundation website:

The funding allocation is for three years, said John Amoroso, executive director of the Lovell Foundation, a philanthropic family foundation that supports integrative health and wellness.

“Our collective goal is to fundamentally change the narrative on how we plan for, care for, and experience death and dying in Southern ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ and beyond,â€� said Amoroso.

“Ultimately we all — individuals, families, caregivers, health systems and communities — bear the responsibility for changing the status quo by helping each other to engage in compassionate, honest conversations about our mortality, the type of health care we wish to receive, and how it is given across the spectrum of life choices,� Amoroso said.

Tamara McKinney, a spokeswoman for the Community Foundation for Southern ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥, said philanthropist Shaaron Kent, who died in 2001, established an endowment fund with the organization for her work in addressing hospice care issues and the universal experiences of death, dying and grieving. In this three-year grant cycle, the foundation will award $225,000.

In 2017, these two foundations awarded more than $3 million to 10 projects to support end-of-life care programs in ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥. Nine of the projects were in Pima County. The Lovell Foundation awarded $3.4 million for projects, and the Community Foundation for Southern ÃÛèÖÖ±²¥ awarded $472,550.

The projects included working with families, couples and individuals to engage in end-of-life conversations through workshops, and to better train physicians, health-care teams and medical students about how to have the discussions with patients.

Amoroso said the projects expanded to be more diverse and inclusive and added partners in the LGBTQ+ community, and also are working with the Coalition for African-American Health and Wellness. Conversations are also taking place in the Islamic, immigrant and Hispanic communities.

“We are proud in that the first round of funding helped Pima County to become the largest community-based end-of-life care partnership in the country,� said Amoroso. “We are hoping that the next round helps us to become the most effective in the country.�