The North Heights Linen Service is a 25,000-square-foot facility that will serve local and regional linen needs for hospitals, and will be a worker-owned cooperative business. The project funding is spearheaded by the Amarillo Area Foundation, as well as many local banks. The business is projecting to hire 40 nearby resident employees, eventually expanding to 100 employees.
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HAN members draw attention to the need for stable, affordable housing
On March 12, 2020, the Healthcare Anchor Network convened its members in Washington, D.C. for its second Housing for Health Policy Day, an event on Capitol Hill which saw Congressional staff, national healthcare associations, and housing advocacy groups attend a federal policy briefing about the impact of structural determinants of health and the universal need for stable, affordable, and healthy housing. 19 HAN member health systems participated in the event either in-person or virtually, and 22 health systems signed onto a Principles for Healthy and Affordable Housing document that was shared with Congressional members.
Continue ReadingAnchor institutions working with diverse entrepreneurs to build wealth, improve food access, and create jobs
HAN members Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Boston Children’s Hospital, along with other Boston anchor institutions, are procuring local and unique products from diverse, locally owned food start-up businesses. CommonWealth Kitchen, a nonprofit kitchen in Dorchester, MA, is incubating more than 50 small, mostly minority-owned, and community-based food start-up businesses. It adopted a strategy to help grow the start ups by connecting them to the product needs of Boston’s 20 hospitals and 31 universities, that comprise 18% of Boston’s employees.
Continue ReadingSentara Healthcare
Based in Norfolk, Virginia, Sentara serves patients with 12 acute care hospitals with more than 300 sites of care across Virginia and North Carolina. For more than 125 years, Sentara has been committed to helping people through every stage of life.
Continue ReadingHospital investments to create affordable housing
A new collaboration was announced between Healthcare Anchor Network member RWJBarnabas Health, Pennrose, LLC, the City of Newark, and the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency (NJHMFA) under the agency’s Hospital Partnership Subsidy Program. The program views housing as key to maintaining good health and looks to the role of hospitals as anchor institutions in the community to partner with. Under the program, NJHMFA will match funding contributions from RWJBarnabas Health to develop 65-70 affordable rental apartments in Newark’s South Ward for low- and moderate-income families and for special needs residents.
Continue ReadingAnchor Mission Communications Toolkit
Hospitals and health systems and other anchor institutions from across the country are adopting an “anchor mission” to tackle the underlying economic and social determinants of community health outcomes and community well being. But how can both the what and the why of this new transformative approach be effectively communicated, inside and outside your institution?
Continue ReadingKaiser Permanente pledges $25 million to California Access to Housing and Services Fund
Kaiser Permanente, a member of the Healthcare Anchor Network, is further responding to the California affordable housing crises by committing an additional $25 million to California Governor Gavin Newsom’s Access to Housing and Services Fund. The health system has already pledged $200 million in impact investments to support community health, particularly on affordable housing.
Continue ReadingHenry Ford Health System Cardinal Health Distribution Center Case Study
Cardinal committed to moving its warehouse operations from a location outside of Detroit into the neighborhood adjacent to Henry Ford Hospital. Distribution Warehouse represents a $30 million investment. Four local entities joined to build the warehouse resulting in the fruition of this place-based anchor mission project: Henry Ford Health System, Detroit Medical Center, Cardinal Health […]
Continue ReadingAnchor Mission strategies of HAN health system leaders spotlighted in Modern Healthcare series
Modern Healthcare ran a series highlighting how Healthcare Anchor Network (HAN) members have been stepping up efforts to reduce socio-economic, racial, and ethnic disparities in their communities and to build community wealth. The HAN members covered in the series include AMITA Health, Cleveland Clinic, Kaiser Permanente, Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, Rush University Medical Center, The MetroHealth System, and University Hospitals.
Continue ReadingHealth Collaborative Invests Millions in Dire Communities
In addition to providing quality healthcare, these hospitals and health systems are investing in safe and affordable housing, equitable economic development, small and diverse business development, and other strategies for addressing the social determinants of health. They are also rethinking how to align, leverage, and deploy their human resources and power to create a local economic eco-system […]
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