Recommitting to the Journey
A few weeks ago, I was the moderator for a conversation about “Building, Protecting, and Promoting Evidence to Achieve Health Equity,” between Rich Besser of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), and Bob Ross of The California Endowment (Endowment).
Immigration as a Social Determinant of Health
The bedrock of our immigration policy is exclusion. Anti-immigrant sentiment continues to run through our laws, from the rise of anti-immigrant policies of the 1990s to the overwhelmingly anti-immigrant rhetoric permeating our society today.
Clean and Safe Drinking Water: A Cornerstone of Healthy Lives
In California, where our foundation is based, upwards of 1 million residents lack access to clean and safe drinking water in their homes. Their drinking water is contaminated by nitrates from fertilizer, industrial solvents, naturally-occurring arsenic, and other harmful elements.
Hospital Anchor Mission and Community Health: Implications for Health Funders
A group of funders, working in partnership with Grantmakers In Health developed a health funder learning journey to understand health care evolution and examine how hospitals and health systems can more effectively advance health equity in partnership with health funders.
It Is Time to Place an Explicit Focus on Agency
There is a risk that initiatives resulting from the health sector’s growing enthusiasm for influencing social determinants will be too limited to meet the mark because they leave out the knowledge and power of those most affected by the very challenges they intend to address.
Measuring Health Outcomes: Philanthropy as Catalyst
As projects and cross-sector partnerships that integrate affordable housing, community development, and health begin to scale, documenting the associated health outcomes is essential to gain an understanding of how these efforts address the key social determinants of health and to build the body of evidence needed to tailor interventions in communities.
Grantmakers and the Health Care Workforce
Recently, I’ve written about issues that are top of mind with current and past GIH board members. My series concludes with a look at the health care workforce, a pressing and complex issue that encompasses aspects of quality, equity, and delivery system reform.
Harvey, Irma, and Maria: Reflections on Building Community Resilience
Equity is an intrinsic part of building community resilience, just as it should be part of the recovery process. Acknowledging and addressing racial, ethnic, and economic inequities that existed before the disaster is essential.