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.
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.
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.
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.
GIH Health Policy Update Newsletter
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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.
A New Philanthropic Approach to Supporting the Health and Capacity of Rural Communities
To understand health and wellness in rural America, it has been suggested that you need to find a trusted intermediary inside the region that is walking hand-in-hand with the community. Aspen Institute’s Community Strategies Group describes this type of intermediary as a Rural Development Hub. Rural Development Hubs focus on advancing an asset-based, wealth-building approach to rural community engagement and economic development. This inherently includes increasing the health and wellness of the community and its residents; increasing local ownership of all types of assets from cultural, social, financial to political, attracting external resources and funding; and it always includes low-income, under resourced people and places. Hubs seek to transform regions by treating root causes of multigenerational poverty and disease by shifting the balance of power and developing a stronger power base in the community and with those most impacted by the issues at hand.
Expanding Youth Mental Health in Philadelphia Schools
Youth in the United States are in crisis. Rates of depression and anxiety in children have been on the rise, the result of factors like social media, pandemic related issues like isolation, and trauma from gun violence and poverty. Between 2016 and 2020, diagnoses of depression in youth ages 3-17 increased by nearly 30 percent and were higher for children of color and LGBTQ children according to a 2022 study by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
‘Digging In’ to Create a Healthy Agriculture System
Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Funders (SAFSF), a Grantmakers In Health (GIH) Philanthropy Support Partner, recently released their first documentary film, Digging In, in partnership with Masika Henson, Nathan.works, and Vatheuer Family Foundation. The documentary aims to help funders understand how land access, consolidation, and climate change affect U.S. agriculture, which are all factors that impact health and equity. To learn more about the creation and inspiration behind the film, GIH conducted the following Q&A with SAFSF’s Executive Director Clare Fox.
How Philanthropy Can Support Los Angeles Homeless Providers Facing Challenges Accessing California Housing Services
In 2022, Cedars-Sinai, HealthNet, and the California Community Foundation launched a philanthropic partnership to support a learning collaborative for 11 providers that serve the unhoused to receive capacity building, policy guidance, and other assistance to take advantage of the new CalAIM Community Supports (CS) housing services. Nonprofit Finance Fund engaged providers and provided capacity building and support to each organization to explore CalAIM and plan for their potential engagement in the Medi-Cal service model. Corporation for Supportive Housing is working on an advocacy agenda with the provider cohort as they experienced challenges and barriers during the process. The goal was for their learnings to inform current and future policy and advocacy discussions about the opportunities, challenges, and needs related to Community Supports to promote the highest quality of care for individuals and families who are at risk of becoming unhoused or who are already unhoused.
Cross-Sector Collaboration to Expand Early Access to Whole-Person, Supportive Cancer Care
For many common cancers, the rates of incidence are on the rise. In 2024, first-time new cases of cancer in the United States are expected to reach two million, or almost 5,500 cancer diagnoses a day, with Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) communities experiencing a higher incidence. Within the health care system, there are multiple challenges to equitable care related to gaps in health insurance, access to care and culturally relevant care models, and discrimination and bias in care and treatment.
Driving Change through Public-Private Collaboration at Age + Action 2024
On May 7, 2024, Grantmakers In Health (GIH) and Grantmakers In Aging (GIA) cohosted a funders-only meeting at the National Council on Aging’s Age + Action 2024 conference. The session, “Driving Change through Public-Private Collaboration,” focused on bridging connections between the public and private sectors to improve the health and well-being of older adults in…