Hospitals and health systems have been put under immense pressure, treating COVID-19 patients during the surges and throughout the year, while also facing financial challenges due to the precipitous drop in surgeries and elective medical procedures. Despite this, Healthcare Anchor Network (HAN) member systems have looked to maintain and sometimes even strengthen their anchor mission activities. Kaiser Permanente, Intermountain Health, and Cone Health have continued focusing on affordable housing, training and hiring local workers, and purchasing from local and minority owned businesses.
Continue ReadingNews and updates
Maximizing housing for health through partnerships with community development finance
Healthcare Anchor Network members Anchorum St. Vincent and RWJBarnabas Health are leveraging their funds to maximize their impact on community health and support their communities. Anchorum St. Vincent and Enterprise Bank Trust have committed $10 million to a new Community Catalyst Fund for affordable housing. Affordable housing developers such as Homewise, a Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) can draw on the fund to purchase, rehabilitate, and redevelop residential as well as commercial properties in the Santa Fe region in New Mexico.
Continue ReadingReimagining PPE production to build a resilient & sustainable supply chain & create good jobs
The Healthcare Anchor Network’s (HAN) Anchoring Resilience: Aligning Supply Chains and Impact Purchasing for Community Health summit catalyzed the conversation around how the healthcare sector could collaborate to more intentionally onshore and localize production of PPE and other important supplies with an emphasis on equity, sustainability, and supply chain resilience. The summit was supported by HAN member Kaiser […]
Continue ReadingHealth Systems Advancing Digital Equity
When coronavirus caused over 1.5 million people in Ohio to file for unemployment benefits, many did not have a computer or access to the internet in order to apply for benefits. “Several residents came to my house to have me walk them through getting unemployment because they didn’t have a computer, and they didn’t know how to use the internet,” said Jones Home Neighbor Association President Rodney Lewallen.
Continue ReadingHelping Team Members to Purchase Homes
HAN member UC San Francisco partners with Landed, which works with schools and health systems to help employees buy homes through a shared equity down payment program. From the article: “We are thrilled to begin serving UCSF employees and supporting a research university and medical center at the forefront of confronting the public health challenges we face as […]
Continue ReadingTaking a multifaceted approach to affordable housing advocacy
Healthcare Anchor Network member Saint Alphonsus Health System, a member of Trinity Health, met with Idaho and Oregon Congress members for the HAN Housing for Health Policy Day 2020 and were successful in gaining support for the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC), particularly by focusing on the program’s positive impact on overlooked rural communities. At the state level, the health system advocated successfully to use $15 million of state CARES Act funds for rental and utility assistance to prevent future homelessness in Idaho.
Continue ReadingBoston healthcare anchor-led initiative receives $5 million grant for inclusive local hiring & affordable housing
Healthcare Anchor Network members Boston Medical Center, Boston Children’s Hospital, and Brigham and Women’s Hospital were awarded $5 million over three years from JPMorgan Chase’s “AdvancingCities” Challenge for the Boston Opportunity System Collaborative. The initiative aims to advance local inclusive hiring strategies, as well as build and preserve affordable housing.
Continue ReadingAnchor institutions investing to address racial disparities
HAN member Providence St. Joseph Health announced a new commitment of $50 million over the next five years to reduce health disparities and achieve health equity, beginning with an immediate response to the impact of COVID-19, particularly for communities of color and those disproportionately affected by the pandemic. The health system published a recent study, which found that African Americans, Asians, and Latinos had a higher risk of COVID-19 infection, as well as people with housing issues living in low-income neighborhoods.
Continue ReadingImpact investing for community centers and art spaces
Healthcare Anchor Network member UMass Memorial Health Care has announced a seven-year, $500,000 impact investment to Creative Hub Worcester, a proposed arts and events community center. The 40,000-square-foot facility can hold up to 300 people and will include two dance studios and performance space, more than a dozen small studios for artists, three classrooms, a child care center, and a rooftop event space. “Through our work with them, we learned a lot about how art really does help people from a mental health perspective,” [Creative Hub Co-founder] Marotta said of UMass Memorial Health Care.
Continue ReadingSupporting minority-owned businesses in disinvested communities
In an article in Forbes, Healthcare Anchor Network member RWJBarnabas Health’s President and CEO Barry H. Ostrowsky and Michellene Davis, Executive Vice President and Chief Corporate Affairs Officer, write about four ways that large scale corporations can begin to promote an anchor institution approach. They point out that “COVID-19 has underscored the fact that band-aid solutions cannot undo systemic barriers. The economic crisis has disproportionately impacted minority-owned businesses in already disinvested communities.”
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