We’re Weathering the Same Storm, We’re Not All in the Same Boat

A message from our President & CEO Jesse Beason

These are trying and uncertain times. This virus has laid bare that our health, economy and democracy are inextricably linked. And it’s made clear that whether we’re Black or white, Latino or Asian, Native or newcomer, we’re all in this together.

But COVID-19 is also highlighting what was already true—while we’re weathering the same storm, we’re not all in the same boat.

While I type this in my makeshift office, my partner is at our dining room table fighting to make sure it’s not just the squeaky wheel getting the grease. He works in public education. Every day, it’s the kids that have laptops, wi-fi and parents with time and money that are successfully navigating this new learning space. But what about the kids whose housing and a chance at three meals a day has been taken by this virus? The kids who don’t have access to a computer or reliable internet? We’re failing them. And given our country's past, it's not surprising these kids are less likely to be white.

The same goes for adults. Black, Native and other people of color—across urban and rural communities—are more likely to be laid off or confined to dangerous jobs that cannot be done from home, denied proper protective equipment, and faced with barriers to adequate treatment and care.

It doesn’t have to be this way. We can pull through by pulling together as we’ve done in the past. All of us. Together. We define what possible means.

Over the coming months, the choices we make as individuals can reflect the best of what we know this region and country can be, where we look out for one another no matter our differences. The choices our governments make at this moment can do the same, setting a better course for the future of our communities. That course can’t just be a return to business as usual. We know that business as usual left too many of our neighbors behind.

There are proven solutions to the problems we face both in this crisis and those that existed before it. Philanthropy is uniquely positioned to help our leaders and our communities seek those solutions out. I hope you’ll join us in that effort. Because the future—our future—is what we do together.

May you, your families and communities be well. And may all of us rise to meet what this moment requires of us.

Why We Endorse Measure 101

Everyone deserves the chance to lead a healthy life. That includes affordable healthcare, and that's why we’re proud to join over 60 groups in endorsing Measure 101.

We know that:

• Mothers with access to affordable healthcare have healthier babies.
• Students with health insurance miss fewer days of school.
• Employees with access to affordable healthcare for themselves and their families are more productive and happier.
• All Oregonians benefit when friends, family, coworkers and neighbors can see a doctor or nurse, and don't have to visit the ER for routine care.

Voting yes means that, for the first time, every child in Oregon will have healthcare.

350,000 Oregonians rely on the funding that Measure 101 secures in order to keep their healthcare. I hope you’ll join us in voting YES on Measure 101 for healthcare this January. If you agree that every Oregonian deserves healthcare, no matter who they are or where they work, pledge to vote YES. 

Announcing the Equity Illustrated Design Contest Winners!

First Place - Salomé Chimuku

---

 

To Salomé Chimuku, already a veteran of social justice and public policy reform at age 25, equity is a familiar concept.

Read more about Salomé Chimuku ›

Second Place - Marc Asnis and Kathryn Hartinger

---

 

Turns out a collaboration born of a deep understanding of equity, an appreciation for urban planning, and diverse skills, can be a successful one.

Read more about Marc and Kathryn ›

Third Place - Matt Kinshella

---

 

Every day since January, Matt Kinshella has created an illustration depicting something he’s grateful for, from Italian architecture to Mexican hot sauce to a baby that sleeps through the night.

Read more about Matt Kinshella ›

Youth Contest Winner - Carol Bryan

---

 

"Everyone has a voice, no matter who they are or what challenges they have," wrote Carol Bryan, 14, of Corvallis, Oregon, when she submitted her winning entry for the 2016 Equity Illustrated Youth Design Contest. 

Read more about Carol Bryan ›

Announcing Our New KPCF Funded Partners!

The Kaiser Permanente Community Fund (KPCF) at Northwest Health Foundation is pleased to award more than $1.6 million in grant funds to 12 organizations improving health in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Awarded annually since 2004, these grants address the “upstream” or underlying factors that impact community health. 

For the last four years the Fund has focused on three specific social determinants of health: early life & childhood development, educational attainment and economic opportunity. This year's organizations include:

EARLY LIFE & CHILDHOOD DEVELOPMENT 

• Centro Latino Americano
• Community Education Worker Steering Team
• Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization (IRCO)
• Native American Youth & Family Center (NAYA)
• Partnership for Safety and Justice

EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT

• Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon (APANO)
• Latino Network
• Momentum Alliance
• OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon

ECONOMIC OPPORTUNITY  

• Clackamas Workforce Partnership
• Family Forward Oregon
• Huerto de la Familia

For too many of us, conditions where we’re born, learn and live limit our choices and our opportunity to be healthy. The 12 organizations listed above are tackling these conditions in innovative ways that are driven by the very communities they seek to impact. We’re honored to support this kind of work and look forward to the effect these organizations will have on the health of our region.

If you're interested in learning more about these amazing organizations and the work they are doing, please follow us on Twitter! We'll be highlighting each of our new funded partners in the coming weeks.

Presenting our Healthy Beginnings+Healthy Communities Collaboratives

We are THRILLED to present our ten Healthy Beginnings+Healthy Communities Collaboratives. These ten Collaboratives will work with each other and Northwest Health Foundation for the next five years to advance a shared agenda for healthier childhoods:

APANO Statewide Network
Lead Organization: Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon (APANO)
Geography: Oregon

Eastern Oregon Latino Alliance for Children and Families
Lead Organization: EUVALCREE
Geography: Malheur County

Healthy Communities, Healthy Futures
Lead Organization: Healthy Living Collaborative (HLC) of Southwest Washington
Geography: Clark, Cowlitz, Wahkiakum and Skamania counties

Immigrant and Refugee Engage Project
Lead Organization: Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization (IRCO)
Geography: Portland metro region, as well as Clark, Marion, Hood River and Yamhill counties

Successful Transitions: Integrated Care for Children, Youth and their Families
Lead Organization: Jefferson Regional Health Alliance
Geography: Jackson and Josephine counties

Let's Talk Diversity Coalition
Lead Organization: Let's Talk Diversity Coalition
Geography: Jefferson County

Voz de la Comunidad
Lead Organization: Lower Columbia Hispanic Council
Geography: Clatsop County

Youth Power & Intersectional Collaboration
Lead Organization: Momentum Alliance
Geography: Clark, Multnomah, Clackamas, Washington and Marion counties

Stable Families Intergenerational Collaborative
Lead Organization: Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA)
Geography: Multnomah County

Healthy CAPACES
Lead Organization: Pineros Campesinos Unidos del Noroeste
Geography: Marion and Polk counties
 

2016 is the first year of Communities Collaborate, one part of NWHF’s Healthy Beginnings+Healthy Communities Initiative (HB+HC). The Collaboratives selected for HB+HC Communities Collaborate partnerships will work together to be a part of a local and regional transformation of institutions, programs and policies to deliver better outcomes in early life, equity and community health. In the first year of Communities Collaborate, Collaboratives will receive a total of $850,000 in support. 

How We Lost the Vote But Won the Day, The Story of the 2013 Portland Pro-Fluoride Campaign

In 2013, a coalition of funders, community-led nonprofits, advisors and other allies came together to campaign for water fluoridation in Portland, OR. Although the ballot initiative did not pass, the campaign succeeded in helping community-based organizations build capacity for civic engagement. In this article, we share our experiences from the campaign, the obstacles we encountered and our lessons learned.

Infographic: Grantmaking to Communities of Color, 2008, 2011 and 2016

Suk Rhee Joins the 100 Million Healthier Lives Initiative

An illustration of the complex factors that affect the health of one patient.

We are proud to share that NWHF’s Vice President of Strategy & Community Partnership Suk Rhee has joined the Leadership Team of 100 Million Healthier Lives.

100 Million Healthier Lives joins patients, communities, health care systems, public health and other organizations to transform the way the world thinks and acts to improve health. They are committed to 100 million people living healthier lives by 2020.

The collaborative shares many of NWHF’s values and resonates strongly with our Healthy Beginnings+Healthy Communities Initiative. 100 Million Healthier Lives and NWHF both prioritize addressing equity gaps, as well as helping all kids get a healthy start in life. We both believe that health is mental, physical, social and spiritual. And we are both committed to community-based solutions.

100 Million Healthier Lives’ first initiative is SCALE (Spreading Community Accelerators Through Learning and Evaluation), a two-year initiative supported by Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that will help communities across the U.S. develop capability to improve health and spread effective community-driven approaches to build a Culture of Health.

While Suk looks forward to being exposed to the great thinkers involved with 100 Million Healthier Lives, she is even more excited to tell the world about the amazing work Oregon and Southwest Washington communities are already doing. 

Video: NWHF Asks the Communities

Our HB+HC Organizing Grant Communities answered these questions: What does health mean to you? What does community capacity mean to you? How can we help communities improve health?

Watch the video to find out how they answered.

Dental Health Awards Announced

The Oregon Community Foundation, Northwest Health Foundation, Kaiser Permanente and other funding partners are happy to announce that we have awarded fifteen grants to improve children's dental health.

Healthy teeth is more than just preventing cavities. A child with tooth pain has difficulty paying attention in school, spends fewer hours in the classroom and ends up further behind their peers. With this funding strategy, we will improve educational outcomes by supporting the growth of comprehensive children's dental health programs in school settings. These programs will reach communities and regions in Oregon where kids are disproportionately affected by poor dental health.

The grant recipients include:

• Centro Cultural of Washington County
• Community Health Centers of Benton and Linn Counties
• Intermountain Education Service District
• Kemple Memorial Children's Dental Clinic
• La Clinica del Valle Family Health Care Center, Inc.
• Lake Health District
• Mercy Foundation
• North Clackamas School District
• One Community Health
• Providence Seaside Hospital Foundation
• Salem-Keizer School District
• South Lane Children's Dental Clinic
• Tillamook School District
• Virginia Garcia Memorial Foundation
• White Bird Clinic

This funding strategy represents one of Northwest Health Foundation's Regional Improvements, a program in our Healthy Beginnings+Healthy Communities Initiative. 

Q&A with our Equity Committee Chair, Darleen Ortega

Q. How did you get involved in Northwest Health Foundation?

A. I was recruited to the board. I am not sure how my name came up.

Q. What is your role on NWHF's board?

A. Currently I serve as chair of the Equity Committee, and also as a member of the Community Engagement Committee.

Q.  What have you learned so far from NWHF’s Learning Together & Connecting Communities project?

A.  It has been very inspiring to learn about some of the amazing work that is being done to address the needs of people with disabilities. Also, I think my thinking has deepened a lot about how important it is to treat persons with disabilities as whole persons and not just make their disability the focus. That sounds so obvious when you say it, but it is a common mistake that I have made myself.

Q.  How do you think the Learning Together & Connecting Communities project will change NWHF’s foundational practices?

A.  It is not enough to have the intention to fund more of the work of organizations who work with people with disabilities. Without relationships, we leave our own blind spots intact and cannot make decisions that are likely to have the most impact. We need to empower others who have been working for a long time on such issues to broaden their impact and find ways to collaborate. I think this project will help us be a more effective participant in work that has already been done. It will help us to ask better questions of others and ourselves. 

Q.  What has been your favorite moment at NWHF?

A.  There are so many.  I really doubted what I could contribute early on but have found work to do that is deeply meaningful to me. I still doubt how much I have contributed but am so grateful for the opportunity to work on equity issues in an organization that is really willing to ask hard questions and work on such issues. NWHF is often the only place I can ask certain questions or raise certain issues and not pay a heavy price, and have some hope of others engaging with those questions and issues.

Q.  How do you relate to NWHF’s mission and values?

A.  I have spent my career harboring deep concern for the overlooked experiences and needs of oppressed and underrepresented communities. Most of my work has been in the arena of law, but NWHF has deepened my awareness of the health impacts of the same disparities that have troubled me for my entire career.

Q.  What do you do for your day job?

A.  I am a judge on the Oregon Court of Appeals.  I preside over a panel of three judges and we review all kinds of cases that come through the state courts and administrative agencies.

Q.  How do you define “health?”

A.  My idea of health includes the whole person: their physical, mental, social and spiritual well-being.  Health also includes all that is true about a given individual: his or her cultural context, family of origin, gender and sexual identity, and physical gifts and limitations. All of us need healing from time-to-time, but we don't need fixing. We do need understanding.

Q.  If you could change one thing in your community, what would you change?

A.  I would like for all of my communities to be more genuinely embracing of difference and to be constantly interested in hearing perspectives that are currently unrepresented or have been historically underpresented.

Q.  Would you rather be a deep sea diver or an astronaut?

A. An astronaut.

Announcing our Learning Together & Connecting Communities Grant Recipients!

Northwest Health Foundation is thrilled to announce the grant recipients of our Learning Together and Connecting Communities Project.

Grants were awarded to eight organizations: Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization (IRCO), National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI), Autism Empowerment, Umpqua Valley disAbilities Network, David’s Harp, Native American Youth and Family Center (NAYA), Disability Art and Culture Project, and OPAL Environmental Justice Oregon.

The Learning Together and Connecting Communities Project aims to strengthen the capacity of communities of people with disabilities to organize, and to build relationships among communities for a broader conversation about disability and race, ethnicity and geography.

Why does Nichole support the Oregon Driver Card?

For Causa Oregon's "100 Days of Stories," NWHF President and CEO Nichole June Maher shares why she and NWHF support the passage of Measure 88 in November.

HB+HC Organizing Grant Application Period Open!

Northwest Health Foundation is thrilled to announce that our Healthy Beginnings+Healthy Communities Organizing Grant Request for Proposals has been finalized, and the application period for Organizing Grants is now open!

Full application instructions are available in the RFP:

Healthy Beginnings+Healthy Communities Initiative will help communities improve health, from birth to high school, by 2020. Organizing Grants will equip 30 communities (self-identified by geography, identity, and/or experience) to organize themselves in preparation for five-year Community-Based Partnerships by providing $20,000-$30,000 funding per community, as well as creating opportunities to build relationships and gain exposure to essential concepts about early life and health, policy, advocacy, leadership development and other objectives to be identified by participants.

After the year-long Organizing Grant period is over, the 30 self-identified communities will have the chance to apply for five-year Community-Based Partnerships, of which ten will be awarded. These ten communities will receive $50,000 to $150,000 per community each year for five years (for a total of $250,000-$750,000) to build the community alliances that will drive Healthy Beginnings+Health Communities objectives. By 2020, we will have achieved measurable results both in building community capacity for improving health and in making positive improvements to physical, mental, social, and spiritual well-being from pre-birth to ninth grade. 

Thank you to everyone who attended Outreach Sessions and gave us feedback on our draft RFP! The final RFP has been greatly improved by your input.

If you have not yet had the chance to attend an Outreach Session to learn more about Healthy Beginnings+Healthy Communities, do not fear! There are more coming up. Please check our website for dates and locations. Or, you can watch our recorded webinar here.

Closing the Gap: Northwest Health Foundation Joins Clinton & Robert Wood Johnson Foundations

The Clinton Health Matters Initiative (CHMI), in partnership with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) and Grantmakers In Health (GIH) for a day-long forum on May 8th, focused on addressing access and equity barriers to closing the gaps in childhood obesity in the United States.

NWHF President Nichole Maher joined a panel on Closing the Divide in Children's Health: A Place for Everyone at the Table. (She begins at around 21 minutes in.)

The forum will be livestreamed to help continue the conversation beyond conference walls. Be sure to join the conversation on social media with the hashtag #kidshealthmatters.

To view the entire forum and for more information, visit here.