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WORKPLACE PARTNERSHIP for LIFE

As of December 1, 2002, more than 3,500 corporations, organizations, and associations have accepted Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy G. Thompson's invitation to create a "donation friendly America" by joining the HHS Workplace Partnership for Life program. Through this initiative, participants offer employees or members an opportunity to learn about,discuss, and make decisions concerning the donation of organs, tissue, marrow and blood. Many partners have created innovative donation awareness programs, and this site offers some good examples of these successful efforts. We have a wide range of partners of every size in locations all across America, and perhaps one of them has designed a promotion program that will work for you. This site is for us to learn from and share with each other. Let us know what you are doing. We look forward to hearing from you.

AETNA is providing donation information at wellness fairs and making organ/tissue/marrow donation information available at blood drives. Employees will be informed about donation via company newsletter, e-mail communications, internal web site and special mailings. Materials about donation are distributed through AETNA's Diverse Employee Networks, every AETNA Volunteer Council throughout the Nation, and six regional Emerging Markets Heads. AETNA headquarters is referring all AETNA offices to this web site for a list of organ procurement organizations available to help with local awareness programs.

AMERICAN COLLEGE of HEALTHCARE EXECUTIVES (ACHE) has a donation icon on the home page of its web site (www.ACHE.org) which leads to a message from the COO/System Executive Vice President, and links to 11 donation related sites. An organ/tissue donation slogan follows the e-mail employee signature line and is included on fax cover sheets and the "on-hold" messaging system. An article on donation is included in each new member packet and the November/December 2001 issue of Healthcare Executive contains an article on organ/tissue donation.

AMERICAN CHIROPRACTIC ASSOCIATION (ACA) included a one-page article by HHS Secretary Tommy G. Thompson in the November/December 2001 issue of the Journal of the American Chiropractic Association and featured a story of two ACA members who are organ transplant recipients. Each has agreed to be a spokesperson in the ACA/HHS effort to increase donation. ACA's membership newsletter has included an article and detailed plans on Workplace Partnership participation to encourage their members to join. ACA also included a fact sheet, "Donate the Gift of Life,"in its member newsletter (readership approximately 11,000). Included with the article were a donor card, Q&A's about donation, and the suggestion that members photocopy and place fact sheets in waiting rooms. Acting Surgeon General Kenneth P. Moritsugu, M.D., spoke about the importance of donation to ACA's National Legislative Conference in Washington in March 2001.

BLUE CROSS/BLUE SHIELD of TENNESSEE has launched an education campaign to inform employees of benefit coverage for transplants and create donation awareness with sessions that reached a total of nearly 3,000 employees at three offices in Chattanooga and one in Nashville. Session participants will receive Blue Jean Casual stickers allowing them to wear blue jeans to work on a day of their choice. The stickers incorporate the Gift of Life Donation Initiative ribbon/heart logo.

DAIMLERCHRYSLER will provide donation information to all employees through posters and its newsletter, DC TIMES.. In addition, inner company DCTV, with screens by elevators and lunch rooms, will air information on donation in all manufacturing plants.

ESSEX COUNTY, NEW JERSEY was the first local government entity to join the Workplace Partnership. The Essex County Chief Executive pledged to make employees aware of the benefits of donation at an event attended by government officials, New Jersey donation network officials, and Essex County employees who are organ or tissue donation recipients or awaiting a transplant.

GENERAL MOTORS/UAW has a model program, Life Match, a joint recruitment effort of GM/UAW, that has added 3,000 employees (25 percent of whom are from diverse backgrounds), to the National Marrow Donor Program. Other companies are now using the GM/UAW model to promote donation in their workplaces.

NATIONAL BENEVOLENT AND PROTECTIVE ORDER OF ELKS, the Nation's largest fraternal organization, joined the Workplace Partnership in August 2001. Beginning in 2003, an organ and tissue donor card will appear on the reverse side of all Elk membership cards.

NATIONAL SPEAKERS ASSOCIATION has posted on its web site a letter supporting donation from NSA's president. The letter, reached by clicking on the ribbon heart donation symbol on the home page, urges members to make a personal decision about donation and to mention donation during public presentations. NSA also placed an "NSA Gift of Life Donation Awareness Campaign" card, which includes two donor cards, in the January/February issue of "Professional Speaker."