| Going beyond their own commitment to anchor strategies, Healthcare Anchor Network (HAN) members Advocate Aurora Health, Baystate Health, Intermountain Healthcare, Maimonides Medical Center, and Rush University System for Health are helping incubate, fund, and lead local anchor collaboratives to scale and deepen the impact of these strategies in their communities. Advocate Aurora Health provided $675,000 in grants to develop a diverse health care workforce, including $200,000 to Milwaukee Jobs Work – Pathways to Healthcare Careers Program, a local anchor collaborative table. The program will expand job skills development and tutoring programs for central Milwaukee city residents with limited work histories and significant barriers to long-term, successful employment. Baystate Health partnered with the Economic Development Council of Western Mass (EDC), and launched the Anchor Institution Collaborative (AIC) to ensure that the economy of Springfield, MA creates fair opportunity for low-income communities. Intermountain Healthcare contributed $900,000 to the Ogden Civic Action Network (OgdenCAN) to revitalize Ogden’s East-Central neighborhood. OgdenCAN is an alliance of several anchor institutions committed to aligning resources for improving health, housing and education in Ogden’s east-central neighborhood. Maimonides Medical Center funds andsupports the Brooklyn Communities Collaborative (BCC) that focuses on strengthening health, wealth, and leadership in Brooklyn communities by leveraging the power of anchor institutions and the knowledge of community members. Rush University System for Health helped create and fund West Side United (WSU) in Chicago. WSU is a coalition of health care anchors, residents, educators, non-profits, businesses, government agencies and faith-based institutions that work, live and congregate on Chicago’s West Side to make their neighborhoods stronger, healthier and more vibrant places to live. |
| See also: Biz Times | BusinessWest.com |
| See also: The HAN case study details Rush University Medical Center’s anchor mission journey, including the launching of West Side United in order to further deepen the connection to local communities. Engaging community members as equal stakeholders and decision makers was a foundational WSU principle. WSU is focusing on four impact areas–Economic Vitality, Education, Health & Healthcare and Neighborhood & Physical Environment–as the keys to reduce the life expectancy gap. |