lworth@democracycollaborative.org

Healthcare Anchor Network member Kaiser Permanente has committed $63 million to support contact tracing in California that will involve partnering with the Public Health Institute to hire and train 500 full-time residents from the hardest hit communities to be contract tracers. In addition to a quality job, the program will be positioning these individuals for ongoing employment with training and long-term career support. The funding will also connect Californians in self-imposed isolation and quarantine with supportive services to help with essentials needs such as food, housing, and medicine.

Healthcare Anchor Network member CommonSpirit Health, along with UnitedHealthcare and Aetna, has committed $35 million in financing to launch the Home Matters Arizona Fund for affordable housing projects. The project will invest $100 million in phase one to finance community development and affordable housing projects that proactively foster connected and healthier lives. From the Home […]

Healthcare Anchor Network (HAN) member Intermountain Healthcare, along with a group of private institutions including the Clark and Christine Ivory Foundation and Zions Bank, created the Utah Housing Preservation Fund with the goal of raising $100 million to preserve subsidized and “naturally occurring” affordable housing. This year, the Preservation Fund helped secure 24 duplexes that will be rehabbed and targeted for rental to Housing Choice Voucher holders who earn less than 30 percent of Area Median Income.

HAN member Rush University Medical Center’s David Ansell, senior vice president for community health equity, spoke about the Chicago Hospital Engagement, Action and Leadership Initiative, or HEAL, that HAN members Advocate Christ Medical Center, AMITA Health’s Saints Mary and Elizabeth Medical Center, and Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago are also members of. The HEAL action plan utilizes three pillars to address violence in 18 neighborhoods in Chicago. One of the key pillars is the anchor mission strategy of increasing local training and hiring commitments to reduce economic hardship.

Across the country we have seen community members mobilize to volunteer, donate, and produce needed medical supplies and equipment for our hospitals throughout the pandemic. Healthcare Anchor Network members’ anchor mission strategies of community engagement, volunteerism, and local inclusive procurement positioned them to move swiftly. Some examples include HAN members Intermountain Healthcare and University of Utah Health, along with several faith and nonprofit groups, creating ProjectProtect which is a grassroots initiative that enlisted more than 50,000 Utahns to produce half a million medical-grade masks for frontline caregivers treating COVID-19 patients and for vulnerable community members.

Healthcare Anchor Network member Maimonides Medical Center’s anchor mission approach is spotlighted in Building a Culture of Health in Central Brooklyn: From Protest to Health Systems Transformation, published by MIT CoLab. The case study tells the story of the partnership between the Coalition to Save and Transform Interfaith, Maimonides Hospital’s Community Care of Brooklyn, and Central Brooklyn residents and community leaders, that activated major cross-sector institutional commitments and investments in health equity.

The Democracy Collaborative prepared a report, created for the Healthcare Anchor Network, that looked at how racial and ethnic disparities in the economy are showing up in the COVID-19 pandemic and in the public policy response to the pandemic. The report also covers how the economic effects of the pandemic will likely impact racial and ethnic inequality.

The COVID-19 crisis and nationwide uprisings against police violence have magnified the connection between systemic racism, social and economic inequities and poor health outcomes. How can anchor institutions meet this moment to address the physical, economic, and social impacts of the pandemic and begin to repair the harm caused by systemic racism in communities? This webinar on August 6 will share how Kaiser Permanente is leveraging its assets to rebuild local economies, address social needs, and advance racial equity.