Humana Foundation Advances Equity Through Community-Engaged Research Practices

Grantmakers In Health’s Maya Schane spoke with Heather Hyden and Soojin Conover of the Humana Foundation about the Foundation’s recently published report, Strengthening Science and Community Impact Through Equitable Research Practices. The report examines innovative research methods adopted by the Foundation’s partners to promote health equity in public health research through community-engaged research practices.

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Collaborating for Impact: Providing Trust-Based Grantmaking and Technical Assistance to Support Local Resilience to Extreme Weather Events

In the last few years, there has been an increased number of extreme weather events, including wildfires, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods and heatwaves in the United States. In 2023, the United States experienced 28 disasters that cost at least $1 billion, the largest number of billion-dollar disasters in a single year on record (Smith 2024). While some areas of the country are more susceptible to these threats, there are no regions immune to disasters. According to a recent Gallup poll, 37 percent of adults in the United States report they have been personally impacted by at least one extreme weather event in the last two years, which is higher than the 2022/2023 survey result at 33 percent.

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Working Through Challenges to Sharing Power With Community: Highlights from a session at Grantmakers in Health’s Annual Conference

The people closest to the issue best know the solutions. For health funders, sharing power with community could mean giving residents a voice in shaping your grantmaking priorities or where grant dollars are spent. Many funders understand that solutions are more likely to be successful when the people who are most affected have a voice in shaping them. But when it comes to including that voice, the work often stalls before it starts.

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Changing Expectations for Care at the End of Life

The culture and system of care at the end of life present unnecessary emotional, physical, and financial burdens for patients and their loved ones. Although this is what we have come to expect, other realities are possible.

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Disparities in Food Access and in Opportunities for Physical Activity

This article discusses the causes for the rising tide of preventable chronic disease, not only in Massachusetts but across the country. It also highlights some of the key factors that have produced this change and the parts of the population that are often more affected.

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Race to the Top: Is Children’s Health in the Running?

The Race to the Top-Early Learning Challenge (RTTELC), jointly administered by the U.S. Departments of Education, and Health and Human Services, is the latest federal opportunity for states to receive grants to transform education systems and improve achievement outcomes for children.

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An Unprecedented Health Challenge Working with Border Communities

The Paso del Norte region is experiencing an unprecedented public health challenge – over the past three years, more than 8,000 individuals were murdered in Ciudad Juárez.

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Effective Behavioral Health Funding in an Era of Health Care Reform

Health funders today operate in an environment of change and uncertainty as policy changes driven by federal health care reform affect health care at state and local levels – often in ways that are hard to predict. Meanwhile, health funders increasingly recognize that addressing behavioral health challenges is central to promoting healthy individuals, families, and communities.

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Health Care Reform: Promises and Pitfalls for Maternal and Child Health

In 2009 health care spending in the United States reached an all-time high of nearly $2.5 trillion, representing an almost two-fold increase in spending on a per capita basis since 1997 (NIHCM Foundation 2011).

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