2010 GIH Annual Meeting on Health Philanthropy: Breakout Session Descriptions

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WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10
5:00-6:30 P.M.  

Achieving Policy and Practice Change through the Lens of School-Based Health Centers
Session Designer: W.K. Kellogg Foundation 
For many children and families, school-based health centers have become important sources of health care. Using these centers as a backdrop, this session will explore how current health care reform efforts can provide an opportunity and framework for increased work in this area. Session presenters will underscore the pay-off of policy and advocacy work and the benefits of documenting outcomes as early as possible. 

 
Communicating the Complexities of Social Determinants with Common Language
Session Designer: Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Decades of research and practical experience in the United States and other countries tell us that economic and social factors – education, income, occupation, wealth, housing, neighborhood environment, race and ethnicity – have a powerful influence on health. It is often difficult, however, for health funders to communicate the link between social position and health status to the public, policymakers, and the media using simple, persuasive language. In this session, participants will explore the results of communications research and message testing funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, emerging with a set of messages and frames to test in their own foundation communications.  


The Convergence Partnership’s Innovation Fund: Taking Risks Together
Session Designer: Nemours Health and Prevention Services
The Healthy Eating Active Living Convergence Partnership's Innovation Fund supports local or regional foundation funding for multisectoral collaboratives working on land use/built environment and food access efforts. The fund lets foundations leverage outside resources in order to take risks in their grantmaking, supplement limited funds, and steer in new program directions. This session will highlight three of the most diverse and creative fund recipients and examine the opportunities and challenges that arose from this program.  


Getting the Biggest Bang for Your Buck: Applying Implementation Science to Evidence-Based Programs
Session Designer: Children's Fund of Connecticut
Grantmakers are increasingly investing in the development and implementation of evidence-based practices, but how to successfully implement such programs and practices is still not well understood. Too often the approach is to “help it happen” rather than to “make it happen.” Funders can become more proactive through the use of implementation teams, an approach that can result in greater public benefit. Within the session, two mental health-based examples will be examined.  


Healthy Policies, Healthy People: A Hands-On Health Impact Assessment Workshop
Session Designer: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation, The California Endowment, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and The Pew Charitable Trusts
Health impact assessment (HIA) is a tool for juding the impact of a policy, program, or project on the health of a population. This interactive workshop will introduce participants to the concept, methodology, and application of health impact assessments and will help them identify how HIAs can advance the priorities of their own organization. The session will feature two case studies, as well as small group discussions, to explore the potential for HIAs to inform policy decisionmaking on specific issues.   


Improving Access to Primary Care in a Reforming Environment
Session Designer: Quantum Foundation
How can a foundation develop an expanded, sustainable system of primary care with limited financial resources at a time of immense need, while meeting safety net provider resistance to change? This session is designed to answer those questions. Participants will be invited to actively engage in this session, weighing in on topics such as engaging local providers in delivery system reorganization, expanding primary care access, and determining the long-term role of foundations in implementing reform.  


Web 2.0: New Tools for Engagement
Session Designer: Maine Health Access Foundation
Social media tools are changing the way we interact, communicate, and accomplish work. These tools allow foundations to invite community voices inside their organizations and, when used well, enable multichannel communications that can inform and sharpen the work of foundations and their grantees. During this session, participants will examine a variety of Web 2.0 tools, learn why they are relevant to foundation work, and explore how to get started using social media tools.    

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THURSDAY MORNING, MARCH 11
10:15-11:45 A.M.  

Advocating to Improve Care for the Elderly with Chronic Conditions
Session Designer: Grantmakers In Aging
Health reform is about more than reducing costs and expanding coverage. It is also about improving how care is delivered. This session will explore a national, consumer-based campaign to engage older adults and their family caregivers in advocating for health policy change and quality of care improvements. Participants will learn about key elements of this multiyear campaign, including mobilizing consumers, using evidence-based care models to affect policy, developing effective messages, and designing advocacy tactics to engage diverse stakeholders.  


Call to Duty: Reintegration Needs of Returning Veterans and Their Families
Session Designer: New York State Health Foundation
Many returning veterans face barriers to accessing behavioral health services, including bureaucratic systems of care, real or perceived stigma against mental health issues, and a shortage of behavioral health workers. Family members of veterans often have unique mental health and social service needs, yet are largely ineligible for services from the Veterans Administration. This session will examine the reintegration needs of returning Iraq and Afghanistan veterans and their families by addressing the high, yet often undocumented, demand for services, the urgency of the issue, and the socioeconomic challenges faced upon military discharge.  


The New Journalism: Transforming the Way Media Cover Health
Session Designer: California HealthCare Foundation, The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, and GIH
In a time of economic and technologic turbulence in the media, some foundations have taken steps to maintain vibrant health reporting, from supporting programs for health journalists to more risky efforts to build new media—in effect becoming publishers. This session brings together funders of journalism programs and new media organizations to discuss tested and emerging models and opportunities for different types of foundations to work in this critical area.   


Reforming Health at the Provider Level: Building Capacity and Sharing Resources to Improve Quality of Care
Session Designer: The Commonwealth Fund
Health care providers in small, independent practices often struggle to provide efficient, high-quality care. Sharing resources in areas, such as health education coordination and quality improvement, can help smaller practices improve the quality of care they deliver to communities. This session will introduce the concept of shared resources and provide concrete examples of how states and local communities are using this strategy to build integrated care systems that improve access and quality and reduce health care costs. Funders will leave the session equipped with the knowledge of how to use this strategy to advance their foundation’s work to improve the quality of health care communities receive.  


Swimming in the Health Reform Risk Pool: Lessons from Connecticut
Session Designer: Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut, Inc.
In 2004 the Universal Health Care Foundation of Connecticut committed to a goal of passing a law for universal heath care in the state. Five years later, the Connecticut legislature voted to adopt a health reform bill. This session will use the Connecticut experience to launch a discussion about how bold foundations can be in their support for health reform efforts. Participants will wrestle with topics such as multiplying the impact of limited funds; learning from failures and making midcourse corrections; assessing and managing risk in grantmaking; engaging government at all levels; exploring new options for health system redesign; building alliances with nonhealth funders and grantees; and experimenting with Web 2.0 technologies to communicate with new audiences in new ways.  


Using Evaluation to Support Public Policy Grantmaking
Session Designer: The California Endowment
This session will bring together grantmakers, advocates, and evaluators who have been directly involved in evaluating advocacy and public policy grantmaking. The session will feature a brief introductory panel followed by a World Café-style, small group discussion focused on real life experiences and what has been learned from taking risks with both public policy efforts and evaluation. Participants will examine tools, methods, and resources in this field and will explore a range of questions pertinent to grantmakers involved in (or interested in pursuing) public policy grantmaking and evaluation.    


THURSDAY AFTERNOON, MARCH 11
1:45-3:15 P.M.  

Advocacy Capacity Building: A Benefit to Grantees, Policymakers, and Funders
Session Designer: Missouri Foundation for Health
By helping grantees build relationships with policymakers and engage more effectively in advocacy, foundations maximize the impact of their funding dollars and support steps toward meaningful and systemic change. This session will include a mini-workshop to demonstrate available grantee training curricula and allow participants to explore federal outreach strategies and tools, examples of state-level techniques, and information about foundations’ lobbying restrictions. Representatives from foundations and nonprofits will then describe their approach to advocacy capacity development and will discuss the benefits, challenges, and future of this work.  


Core Support: Risky Business or Strategic Grantmaking?
Session Designer: The California Wellness Foundation and GIH
Tough economic times magnify the importance of using scarce dollars thoughtfully.  Grantmakers face the reality that their assets are dropping just at a time when philanthropic action is most needed. They must choose strategies that have short-term impact while being consistent with long-term goals. Providing core operating support is a way for them to both meet short-term needs and invest for the long term in community organizations. Many funders shy away from core support, seeing it as risky and producing results that are difficult to measure. Yet, there is strategic value in maintaining grantees’ operating capacity during economic downturns, and building their capacity to help achieve foundations’ goals when the economy recovers. Join this moderated, open discussion about the risks, challenges, and benefits of providing core operating support in lean and good times.


Engaging Communities in Planning for Their Future
Session Designer: Community Health Foundation of Central and Western New York
Foundations can play a vital role in helping a community consider what the future holds based on decisions made today. In 2008 the Community Health Foundation of Western and Central New York collaborated with several local partners to hold a series of community conversations that asked: What do we want the future of health care in Western New York to look like? The feedback is now driving the development of health care performance indicators that will be monitored and reported to the community. In this session, attendees will discuss how to use scenarios and community conversations to engage their own communities, participate in an actual community conversation, and take away the tools they need to replicate this approach.  


Health Reform: How Did We Get Here?
Session Designer: GIH
The ups and downs of the battle for health care reform are the focus of this session. In the aftermath of reform efforts, the need for creative, sustained action to ensure effective implementation and to work for further enhancements will be vitally important. Health foundations are key players.  


Journalism at Risk: Boot Camp for Health Reporters
Session Designer: Kansas Health Foundation, REACH Healthcare Foundation, Sunflower Foundation: Health Care for Kansans, and United Methodist Health Ministry Fund
This session is not about how to get better media coverage. It is about how reporters learn and how foundations can encourage good health journalism. Using the Midwest Health Journalism Fellows program as a case study, this session will demystify the health reporting process and describe ways that foundations and journalists can collaborate to increase the public’s awareness of critical health issues.       


Telenovelas: Using Tried and True Media Outlets to Provide Health Information to Specific Populations
Session Designer: The Colorado Health Foundation
Spanish language soap operas—telenovelas—are extremely popular among Hispanic/Latino populations and are increasingly a vehicle for disseminating relevant health information to bring about behavioral changes. This session will explore how foundations can take risks in supporting novel media strategies aimed at improving health knowledge and influence behaviors among target populations.

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FRIDAY, MARCH 12 
BREAKFAST ROUNDTABLES  

What’s Keeping You Up at Night? CEOs
This popular, unstructured session will give foundation CEOs an opportunity to talk candidly with their peers about the concerns and challenges facing their work. Foundation leaders will start things off with a few key questions, and the conversation will flow from there.  

What’s Keeping You Up at Night? Trustees
This popular, unstructured session will give foundation trustees an opportunity to talk candidly with their peers about the concerns and challenges facing their work. A few trustees will start things off with a few key questions, and the conversation will flow from there.    


FRIDAY, MARCH 12
11:15 A.M.-12:45 P.M.  

Building Capacity and Enhancing Sustainability of Safety Net Dental Clinics
Session Designer: Sisters of Charity Foundation of Canton, The HealthPlan Foundation of Ohio, California HealthCare Foundation, and the Osteopathic Heritage Foundations
Throughout the country, an increasing number of health foundations are beginning to focus on oral health and access to dental care. Many of these funders are being asked to provide ongoing support to community-based safety net dental clinics (SNDCs), raising questions about clinic sustainability. This session will address strategies for strengthening SNDC sustainability, examine the challenges of implementing performance improvement strategies, and identify opportunities for related policy action.  


Environmental Justice at a Crossroads: From Protest to Sustainability
Session Designer: Health and Environmental Funders Network and The Barbara Smith Fund
People of color and low-income populations are disproportionately exposed to unhealthy conditions where they live, work, and play. As the ranks of health funders addressing environmental health and justice issues grow, so do the lessons learned and challenges of making effective investments in this complex terrain that is often beyond the purview of most health grantmakers. Using a case study format, this session will provide funders with a greater understanding of environmental justice models and resources; successful strategies for improving health outcomes for disadvantaged populations; and opportunities to foster relationships with colleagues interested in racial, social and/or environmental justice for underserved populations.  


How to Create Community Change: Planning Place-Based Initiatives
Session Designer: The California Endowment, The Annie E. Casey Foundation, and GIH
One approach to address the economic and social determinants of health is the use of place-based strategies that attempt to improve the lives and prospects of residents in distressed rural and urban areas. Join this session to talk with your grantmaking colleagues about achieving comprehensive and meaningful resident and youth engagement; catalyzing medical facilities, universities, businesses, and other entities with deep community ties to invest in community change; working with government agencies to realize specific policy objectives; developing decisionmaking and conflict resolution systems; using Web 2.0 technologies to support the collaborative process and promote collective learning and sharing of best practices; and balancing foundation goals with innovative community work and ideas.  


Reuniting Mind and Body: Integrating Behavioral Health and Primary Care
Session Designer: Maine Health Access Foundation and National Council for Community Behavioral Healthcare
Mental illness substantially affects physical health, and vice versa. As health funders throughout the United States increasingly recognize the issues related to mental health and its overall impact on other health conditions, many are supporting the implementation of integrated care as an evidence-based intervention to improve health outcomes. This session will explore the current state of initiatives across the nation that focus on the integration of primary and behavioral health care, outline the role that foundations play in advancing this work and the health policy reforms necessary to sustain integration, and share practical strategies for implementing an integrated care initiative that improves patient health outcomes.    


Strategies for Sustaining Great Organizations
Session Designer: The California Wellness Foundation
When confronted with economic pressures, it is easy for organizations to overlook opportunities to sustain, support, and strengthen leadership. Yet succession planning is an essential part of organizational health. Similarly, creative use of sabbaticals can build leadership and strengthen internal management.  This session looks at the impact of executive directors’ decisions about staying at the helm or going, and presents proven practices in succession planning and sabbaticals.   


Using HIT to Develop Personal Health Records for Vulnerable Populations
Session Designer: Sierra Health Foundation
A number of health foundations are making strategic investments in health information technology (HIT). One promising use of HIT is the development of personal health records to collect, store, recall, and analyze the medical histories of medically underserved, vulnerable populations who fall through traditional health and social services safety nets. This highly interactive session will begin with a case study of the creation and implementation of a HIPAA compliant, Web-based personal health information system designed by and for marginalized youth who are homeless or aging out of foster care. Evaluation results will be shared and participants will engage in discussions about sustainability, technology challenges, and policy implications.  

Related Information

2010 Annual Meeting Breakout Session Descriptions (12.16.09) (162K) [download]