Consumer Health Foundation

Welcome to the first issue of our now electronic newsletter. While it is bittersweet to leave our beloved printed newsletter behind, we believe that to advance our work and engage the community more fully in it, we need to take better advantage of technology. With this newsletter also comes the launch of our revamped Website. When fully realized, the CHF Website will provide new ways for us to share information and engage in online conversations with our community.

We are excited that this first electronic edition highlights some of our new and emerging work in the area of health equity, which will also be the focus of our next annual report. Last year, our Board updated our strategic plan. This work included the adoption of the belief that community health requires a dual focus: 1) assuring that all residents in our region have equal access to quality health care, and 2) addressing the social and economic conditions that shape the health of our communities. Deeply embedded in our work is an understanding that structural racism and inequities in employment, housing, education, and health care contribute to poorer health outcomes among all people of color, and particularly among those with low and moderate incomes. We have heard this over and over again from our community, and it is a reality that continues to be affirmed through a growing body of public health research.

In addition to refining our strategic plan, last year the Foundation also looked very hard at the external forces affecting our work and the work of our nonprofit partners.  In countless conversations we heard about the devastating effects funding cuts were having on nonprofits’ abilities to do the work needed by the community.  Many nonprofit leaders have indicated that 2011 may even be harder financially, particularly given current indications around government funding. In many shapes and forms, the current financial pressure experienced by our grantees has given our staff a tremendous sense of urgency to help meet the needs of our community.  This includes the deployment of our own resources as well as actively helping our grantee partners secure additional funding from other sources. For example, CHF’s Board decided not to cut our grantmaking budget, thus increasing the percentage of our funds dedicated to grants and program spending in 2010. In addition, we are thrilled by our new programmatic partnership with the Meyer Foundation that involves managing the application and grant review process for Meyer's health and mental health grants.

These efforts, combined with our new mission and its social justice lens, reflect our belief that these are not only times of great need, but also times of great opportunity. A recent Chronicle of Philanthropy article, titled Philanthropy Grant Makers Should Take Risks to Build a Better Society, asserts: “We are in the midst of historic opportunities to transform our society to be more equitable, just, and sustainable by enacting new policies on health care, education, green energy, labor standards, immigration, scientific research, criminal justice, and a range of other issues that directly benefit the communities that philanthropy supports.”

Philanthropy is in a position to take risks, to respond quickly to shifting external forces, and to boldly take advantage of the opportunities created by the current environment to shape a better future. For example, many opportunities—and challenges—will be generated by national health reform and its implementation at the local level. This is new terrain. As it is traversed, we are committed to assist in whatever way it can to facilitate our region’s understanding and response to these reforms.

Once again, welcome to the inaugural edition of our electronic newsletter, Connections. We welcome your thoughts or comments.

This past year, CHF underwent a “mini” strategic planning process in which we revised our mission and vision statements, our core values, logic model, and  theory of change to reflect our more explicit focus on addressing racial health inequities. This update was driven by the recommendations from our 2006 Speakout Report, mounting research and evidence from the public health field, and the findings from our racial justice grantmaking assessment (see Catalytic Change report below).

In June 2009, CHF contracted with CommonHealth Action to support 11 youth health advocate leaders as they participated in the Ruttenberg Youth Health Justice Retreat. The teens—who ranged in age from 16 to 19—represented three organizations in Washington, D.C.’s Wards 7 and 8: LifeStarts Youth & Family Services, Sasha Bruce Youthwork, and the Planned Parenthood of Metropolitan Washington. The teens participated in workshops and activities designed to provide them with a practical understanding of the Social Determinants of Health Equity framework, with the purpose of helping them incorporate these concepts into their current health advocacy projects. The retreat was held at Pearlstone Retreat and Conference Center in Reisterstown, MD. It was made possible through memorial gifts in honor of Gertrude B. Ruttenberg, an advocate for health justice at Group Health Association.

CHF was one of two foundations across the country to participate in a racial justice grantmaking assessment developed by the Applied Research Center (ARC) and the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity (PRE). ARC & PRE analyzed CHF’s grantmaking, capacity building, communications, and internal operations to determine the degree to which our work was advancing racial justice. The results of the assessment are detailed in the report, Catalytic Change:  Lessons Learned from the Racial Justice Grantmaking Assessment, which was released in May 2009.

For the past decade, HIV/AIDS-related conditions have been the leading cause of death for African-American women ages 25-34 years in the United States. In Washington, D.C., black women make up 90 percent of women living with HIV/AIDS. These rates continue to rise despite prevention programs specifically targeted toward African-American women. Unfortunately, many such programs do not take into account the impact of structural racism on the lives of women of color, particularly the historic and contemporary socioeconomic conditions that continue to adversely affect black women’s life options and choices and, most importantly, the public policies and structures that shape them. To discuss this issue, CHF and Grantmakers In Health (GIH) convened, in October 2009, a special meeting, Changing the Conversation: Taking a Social Determinants of Health Approach to Addressing HIV/AIDS among Women of Color. Read the background paper, Changing the Conversation, and the GIH article: Views from the Field: HIV/AIDS and Women of Color:   Changing the Conversation for meeting highlights.

A coalition of District organizations and residents recently launched a campaign to address growing income inequality in our nation's capitol. Visit the campaign website to learn more: www.defeatpovertydc.org.

Join us on Thursday, May 20th, 2pm – 5pm for our 2010 Annual Meeting, Health Equity: From Awareness to Action. The meeting will feature keynote speaker Dr. Tony Iton, senior vice president for the Center for Healthy Communities, a new 10-year initiative of the California Endowment that seeks to build leadership and capacity within the nonprofit health sector to mobilize communities for social change. Previously, Dr. Iton headed the Alameda County Public Health Department in Oakland, where, under his Social & Health Equity Initiative, he focused on the effects of social determinants and systemic injustices on the health of undeserved communities, and promoted community empowerment strategies to eliminate health inequities. The meeting will be held at George Washington University’s Marvin Center.  More details and registration information will be posted on our website later this Spring.