A National Foundation Undertakes a Regional Strategy in the South

The Health Reform Program of the Public Welfare Foundation supports advocacy so that the voices of the people served by the health care system can be informed and effective. Poverty, health disparities, and underfunded advocacy capacity describe the South.

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Collaborating Where Health Happens

At the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF), our mission is to improve health and health care for all Americans. But improving health for the most vulnerable requires acknowledging that factors such as poverty, violence, inadequate housing, and education contribute to poor health.

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The Value of Interdisciplinary Research Networks

In this time of economic hardship, foundations – like us all – are searching for the most creative and productive strategies for getting the most out of constrained budgets. Many foundations that support research, as well as health care delivery, have become aware that in attempting to understand complex issues related to human health, behavior, and well-being, it is often most useful, even necessary, to employ an interdisciplinary approach.

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Ensuring the Health of America’s Children: Progress and Opportunities

Behind the headlines of a weakened U.S. economy and rising unemployment are two related developments: the transformation of health care coverage into an issue of real salience to working families and the middle class, and the ways in which states have crafted, and will continue to craft, an effective response.

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Community Advisory Committees: Collaboration and Shared Learning

As a result of turmoil in world financial markets and a faltering economy in the United States, economic pressures on communities have intensified the risk of many people being overlooked or ignored; many are not receiving the health care they and their families need.

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Cultivating Health Literacy at the State and National Levels

In 2004 the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released a landmark report on the state of health literacy in the United States. That report, Health Literacy: A Prescription to End Confusion, pulled together a growing body of information indicating that health literacy deficits are both common – present in nearly half of the U.S. population – and damaging to individual health and well-being.

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Improving the Health of Vulnerable Children with Medical-Legal Partnerships

ubstandard housing, polluted neighborhoods, and inadequate nutrition are just a few of the “nonmedical” problems that can compromise children’s health status and developmental trajectory. The most visible result of these threats can be a frustrating, expensive, and heartbreakingly preventable trip to the doctor’s office or local emergency room.

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Evaluating Programs: Can We Measure the Value of Health Grantmaking?

Partnering with policymakers and members of the business community is an effective way to increase the impact of health grantmaking by working cross-sectorally, and evaluating the effectiveness of these partnerships will help sustain interest in such collaborations.

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Transforming Health Care: Services for Older Adults Can Drive High Quality Chronic Care for All

The health of older adults in this country is an increasingly critical concern, with ramifications for every sector of society and philanthropy. It is time to plan seriously for the demographic change now happening.

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Faith in Action: Taking Caregiving to Scale

Over the course of the past fifteen years, the Faith in Action program has provided roughly 1,700 seed grants of up to $35,000 to help start local, interfaith volunteer caregiving programs. These programs are designed to provide free volunteer services to the large and growing number of elderly and disabled individuals who need help with simple, everyday tasks in order to be able to stay in their homes.

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