From left: Rebecca Brune, VP of Strategic Planning and Growth, Methodist Healthcare Ministries of San Antonio; Regina Bonnevie, MD, Medical Director, Peninsula Community Health Services in Port Orchard, WA; Peggy Cary, Senior VP of Finance & Internal Audit, Methodist Healthcare Ministries; and Diane Powers, Associate Director, Division of Integrated Care and Public Health, University of Washington AIMS Center, Seattle WA, talk following presentations at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, DC.Last week, the Social Innovation Fund of the Corporation for National and Community Service celebrated its 5th Birthday. There was cake.
More importantly, there was a celebration of the good that philanthropy can do to address the pressing problems facing the country. The goal of the Social Innovation Fund is to bring federal and private money together to scale up the best, evidence-based innovations to address problems of education, poverty, and health.
We at the John A. Hartford Foundation are very proud that we won an award for $3 million in 2012 in the “healthy futures” category.
In turn, we have matched the award and re-granted money to eight Federally Qualified Health Centers (FQHC) in the West/Pacific Northwest that wanted to implement collaborative care for mental health problems. Our site-level matching funders have included the Rasmuson Foundation for sites in Alaska; the Lewis County Supervisors for the Valley View Health Center in Chehalis, WA; the Kinskey Family Foundation in Wyoming;, and the Margaret A. Cargill Foundation for sites in Montana, Wyoming, and Washington.
Just yesterday we received word that the Helmsley Charitable Trust had approved grants to two of our newest participating sites in rural Montana. We are very grateful for their participation and support of the project.
Hartford Foundation Program Officer Wally Patawaran, left, shares notes with Kevin C. Moriarty, President and CEO, Methodist Healthcare Ministries of San Antonio, at the Washington, DC meeting.With the pooled funds, we are also able to support our long-time collaborators at the Advancing Integrated Mental Health Solutions Center at the University of Washington (AIMS) to provide technical support and evaluation of the impact of the effort.
In addition to skills training in grants management, communication, and sustainability planning, the event included networking with our fellow intermediaries (grantees of the SIF) and some of the end grantees from around the country. We were very proud to bring Regina Bonnevie, MD, from Port Orchard, Washington to Washington DC to describe her experience implementing the program in her FQHC, as well as Diane Powers of the AIMS center to share hers.
We were also very pleased to meet the members of the fourth and latest round of SIF grantees, which includes the AARP Foundation and Methodist Healthcare Ministries of San Antonio, which is using its award to address chronic care needs in its region, including diabetes and depression.
As a highlight, on Friday at the end of the meeting, we all trouped off to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building (next door neighbor of the West Wing) to hear a handful of intermediaries and their ultimate grantees describe their work in front of White House staff. I assure you, I entered the building legitimately through the security gate and didn’t jump any fences.
Next year, I hope we can bring a recovered patient and teach everyone about Problem Solving Treatment. Until then, you can watch this video of Elizabeth, a person helped in the original IMPACT trial.
http://youtu.be/-WoR_BD16nY
You can also read this White House blog post on the session.
And you can watch this video of Michael Smith, director of the Social Innovation Fund, discussing the project.
http://youtu.be/1P8W7IGfMGk