Building the Community Health Worker Field through Partnership and Innovation

Minnesota is home to the country’s largest Somali and
second-largest Hmong populations and has significant numbers of immigrants from Central and
South America, Asia, Africa, and Europe. It is also home to the
largest urban population of Native Americans. With many
cultures come many different beliefs on health and illness, and
treatment and prevention options.

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Better Health Through Better Philanthropy - Grantmakers in Health

Giving Voice to Oral Health in Kansas: Benefits of Long-Term Commitment

Someone recently used the term philanthropy du jour,
and it was not meant as a positive appellation. As a field,
we increasingly see longevity as virtue whether it comes
under the guise of general operating support, capacity building, or place-based or strategic grantmaking. The work of the
United Methodist Health Ministry Fund in a single field –
oral health – began in late 1998. My reflections attempt to
capture the results of this extended $11-million initiative.

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Better Health Through Better Philanthropy - Grantmakers in Health

Foundation Collaboration: Partnering to Improve Young Children’s Oral Health

Dental disease is the single most common chronic childhood disease and is so widespread and the health effects so significant that the U.S. Surgeon General has classified dental disease as a silent epidemic (HHS 2000).

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It Takes Many Villages to Create a Public Health Improvement Plan

Public health has gained attention in Colorado over the last four years as a result of a partnership that includes health foundations, the Colorado School of Public Health, the state legislature, and state and local health agencies.

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Paid Sick Days: A Health Policy for Everyone

When the H1N1 pandemic broke out, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged sick people to stay home. Unfortunately, for many Americans, staying home meant losing income, losing a good shift, or worse, losing their job.

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2010 Inaugural Class of the Terrance Keenan Institute Fellows Announced

Grantmakers In Health is pleased to announce that the following individuals have been selected to participate in the inaugural Terrance Keenan Institute for Emerging Leaders in Health Philanthropy.

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The State of State Budgets

At a recent meeting of state health policymakers, California team members were asked to compare their budget problems with the Titanic’s sinking and determine which health initiatives were essential and worthy of being loaded into a lifeboat. One member quipped, “We’re just trying to figure out whom to EAT in the lifeboat!”

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Philanthropy’s Response to Haiti

Learn what grantmakers and other organizations are doing in response to the disaster in Haiti.

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Better Health Through Better Philanthropy - Grantmakers in Health

Integrative Medicine Offers Opportunity for Shared Learning and Collaboration

There is growing interest in the field known as integrative medicine. A 2007 national survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that 38.3 percent of all adults, up from 36 percent in 2002, accessed some form of complementary and alternative medicine through visits to acupuncturists, chiropractors, massage therapists, among others.

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Health Reform: Time for a Paradigm Shift

There is no question that health reform is crucial. To attain true health reform, however, we need to focus on keeping Americans healthier in the first place and not just treating them after they become sick. If we want to improve the health of the communities we serve, of an entire state, or of the entire nation, we need to act upon the fact that our health is shaped far more by the places we live, learn, work, and play than by what happens in clinics and hospitals (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation 2008).

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