The Duke Endowment is a private foundation in Charlotte that strengthens communities by nurturing children, promoting health, educating minds and enriching spirits. The Duke Endowment funds projects throughout North and South Carolina in four program areas- Child Care, Health Care, Higher Education and Rural Church. Meka Sales joined the Endowment in 2007 after working as a program officer at the North Carolina Health and Wellness Trust Fund in Raleigh. Her areas of focus at the Endowment include prevention and community health improvement.  
 
Ms. Sales, the program officer for the PASOs projects funded by The Duke Endowment, believes that one particular aspect of PASOs’ work that interested The Duke Endowment was that PASOs presented a culturally competent way to support and promote health among the growing Latino population in South Carolina. Healthy outcomes for the Latino population contribute to the overall health and wellbeing of the state, which results in improved health for everyone.
 
In addition, The Duke Endowment supports the way that the PASOs works through Promotores (Community Health Workers), who fill a gap for people who may not otherwise be served. Sales believe that PASOs is a leader in community health work, and is showing how people really want to receive health care.
 
Sales is excited that PASOs is constantly working to integrate and strengthen relationships with broader health systems, and is able to achieve partnerships due to their focus on both communities and organizational capacity building. 
“I trust in the work of community health promotion, and when we see hospitals like Greenville Health System incorporating PASOs into their model of care, The Duke Endowment views that as success. The support given by PASOs is pretty unique. When I think of organizations that provide help to the Latino community using best practices, PASOs always comes to mind. ”

                                            
                                                           Meka Sales