Power to the People: Advancing Impact Through Participatory Budgeting

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Who is best positioned to determine how health funding should be allocated? At the Community Health Commission of Missouri (CHCM), we believe the answer is clear: the people most affected by health disparities.

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How Pew Is Learning to Improve Health Policy

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Antibiotics revolutionized medical treatment and are a cornerstone of modern health care. However, the global rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is making infections costlier and deadlier. After a 2008 report commissioned by The Pew Charitable Trusts highlighted these concerns, the organization invested in multiple projects to set limits on the use of antibiotics and to spur the development of new drugs.

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Health Reform: Time for a Paradigm Shift

There is no question that health reform is crucial. To attain true health reform, however, we need to focus on keeping Americans healthier in the first place and not just treating them after they become sick. If we want to improve the health of the communities we serve, of an entire state, or of the entire nation, we need to act upon the fact that our health is shaped far more by the places we live, learn, work, and play than by what happens in clinics and hospitals (Robert Wood Johnson Foundation 2008).

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HIV/AIDS and Women of Color: Changing the Conversation

For the past decade, HIV/AIDS-related conditions have been the leading cause of death for African-American women ages 25-34 in the United States (CDC 1999). Over the past two decades, our local foundation has seen this national epidemic take root in our local community in Washington, DC, where we now have 10 times the rate of HIV/AIDS per capita compared to the rest of the country.

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Better Health Through Better Philanthropy - Grantmakers in Health

Shifting Paradigms in Promoting Oral Health for Young Children

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Tooth decay remains the single most prevalent chronic disease of America’s children, affecting 44 percent by age six (Dye et al. 2007). Grantmakers, government, and the professions have long focused energy and resources on getting children into dental care to repair the ravages of this preventable disease and to eliminate associated pain and infection.

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Honoring Community Voices to Enhance Health Grantmaking

In philanthropic circles we spend a lot of time discussing the importance of how foundations can meet the needs of and strengthen communities. We expect our grants and program support will prompt change and improve lives, but how often do we end up doing things “to” a community as opposed to working “with” a community to achieve common goals?

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We Must Promote Health Equity in Spite of Current Economic Challenges

When the Whitehall Studies were first published, they identified not only a social gradient that correlated the relationship between social status and life expectancy, but new variables to consider when predicting population health outcomes. These variables included the economic, social, and physical environments in which people live.

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Doing a Lot with a Little: The Gulf Coast Fund

“Doing a Lot with a Little” is an occasional series of the GIH Bulletin showcasing small foundations that have creatively leveraged resources to achieve meaningful change.

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