Beyond the Rankings: What Four Decades of KIDS COUNT Have Taught Me About Why Data Matter

For more than three decades, through the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s KIDS COUNT® project, decisionmakers and communities have had access to reliable national, state, and local data to improve outcomes for all children, young people, and families in this country. KIDS COUNT comprises the foundation’s national KIDS COUNT publications—the annual KIDS COUNT Data Book and periodic reports such as Race for Results; the KIDS COUNT Data Center, a resource for year-round national, state, and local data; and the KIDS COUNT Network of state-based partner organizations that help policymakers, advocates, journalists, and community leaders understand and use data to make informed decisions.

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Opioid Use Disorder in Pregnancy: Countering Bias and Promoting Care

Most pregnancy-related deaths in North Carolina are preventable. Yet mental health conditions, including overdose and suicide, remain the leading cause of pregnancy-related death. For health care leaders, that reality demands a closer look at how we identify, treat, and support pregnant and postpartum patients with opioid use disorder.

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Preventing Domestic Violence by Reaching People Who Cause Harm

The research involved a landscape scan of Cook County, Illinois’ policies, funding, and services for people who cause harm with a goal of engaging the stakeholders and providers doing this work as well as survivors and those who receive services to identify barriers, challenges, and strengths of domestic violence prevention programs. The research examined Partner Abuse Intervention Programs (PAIP) in particular, a standard intervention for people who cause harm that is overseen by the Illinois Department of Human Services.

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Post-Overdose Response Teams: A Community-Based Approach to Public Safety

Recent changes in the federal policy landscape have created new questions for communities working to address substance use disorder (SUD), mental health needs, and housing instability. In this evolving environment, philanthropy, in collaboration with community-based organizations and local governments, has an important role to play in supporting evidence-based responses to overdose and mental health emergencies that improve access to care, strengthen community wellbeing, and uplift public health while avoiding unnecessary criminal legal outcomes.

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GIH Health Policy Update Newsletter

An Exclusive Resource for Funding Partners

The Health Policy Update is a newsletter produced in collaboration with Leavitt Partners and Trust for America’s Health. Drawing on GIH’s policy priorities outlined in our policy agenda and our strategic objective of increasing our policy and advocacy presence, the Health Policy Update provides GIH Funding Partners with a range of federal health policy news.

Postpartum Care Systems: Strategically Collaborating to Advance and Align Solutions Across Sectors

As state policymakers began extending continuous eligibility for postpartum Medicaid coverage from the 60 days following birth to the 12 months following birth in 2022, a small workgroup of
funders connected to explore what philanthropy’s role could be in strengthening maternal health outcomes
and how we might support effective implementation of the extension

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Older Americans Act Renewal Approved by Senate

This an important and time-sensitive update on the Older Americans Act Reauthorization. The bill passed the Senate on Dec. 10th. It now needs to go through the House.

The National Council on Aging (NCOA) has an easy way for organizations who are legally able to lobby congress to reach out. Click here to complete a very brief form which will be automatically routed to your representatives. And please share with your networks!

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Grantmakers In Health Welcomes Three New Members to Board of Directors

Grantmakers In Health (GIH) is pleased to announce the elections of Kenneth Jones, Senior Vice President, Chief Operating Officer, and Chief Equity Officer at the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation; Susan Mims, President and CEO of the Dogwood Health Trust; and Hilda Polanco, Market Managing Principal at BDO to its Board of Directors.

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Q&A: How the Chicago South Side Birth Center is Championing a Better Approach to Maternal Health

Grantmakers In Health (GIH) recently spoke with Jeanine Valrie Logan, Founder + Lead Steward of the Chicago South Side Birth Center, and Shruti Jayaraman, Chief Investments Officer of Chicago Beyond, to learn how the Chicago South Side Birth Center and Chicago Beyond are working together to improve maternal health outcomes for mothers in one of Chicago’s most underserved communities. This interview has been edited for style and clarity.

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Medicaid Managed Care Contracts are a Powerful Tool for Change; Philanthropy has a Role to Play

As a foundation, the mission of the United Methodist Health Ministry Fund is to improve the health of all Kansans. Our success, in large measure, depends on investments we make in advancing positive policy and systems changes that affect the state and communities. So, with large numbers of the state’s most vulnerable people relying on Medicaid for health coverage and care, we focus on leveraging the opportunities this program offers to sustain improved health outcomes and make progress on health equity.

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Investing in Inclusion: How Health Philanthropy Can Prioritize the Needs and Perspectives of Individuals with Disabilities

One in five children in the United States has a special health care need requiring more than routine health services, and one in four adults report having a disability. As 70 million adults and 14.5 million children in the United States have a disability, the population impacted by issues in the aging out process and in the health care system more broadly is far from insignificant. Despite these numbers, disability-related grants represent just 2 percent of total philanthropic giving and are primarily directed towards services and supports that seek to fix or cure disabilities and perpetuate the ableist assumption that people with disabilities are unable to make decisions about their own care.

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