A National Foundation Undertakes a Regional Strategy in the South

The Health Reform Program of the Public Welfare Foundation supports advocacy so that the voices of the people served by the health care system can be informed and effective. Poverty, health disparities, and underfunded advocacy capacity describe the South. Community Catalyst’s 2006 Consumer Health Advocacy: A View from 16 States profiled, among others, states that have a challenging environment where advocates have to focus on defending public programs. All the states in the South fit that description. In 2007, two other national foundations began supporting statebased advocacy organizations, including two in the southern states. Meanwhile, the Health Reform Program focused much of its support on developing consumer advocacy in 11 southern states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia. The foundation made $5.3 million in two-year grants to 28 advocacy organizations and $2.2 million to seven national organizations assisting them. The following reflections are based on the work performed in the first year of the two-year grants made in February 2008.