Community-Campus Partnerships for Health

[from Philanthropy News Digest] Community-Campus Partnerships for Health is a nonprofit organization that promotes health, broadly defined, through partnerships between communities and institutions of higher education.
The CCPH Award is designed to recognize exemplary partnerships between communities and institutions that build on each other's strengths to improve higher education, civic engagement, and the overall health of communities.
The intent of the award is to highlight the power and potential of community-campus partnerships in the social justice field. The award recognizes partnerships that are striving to achieve the systems and policy changes needed to overcome the root causes of health, social, and economic inequalities. The award seeks nominations of partnerships that pursue multiple community-campus partnership strategies, involve a full range of partners, and achieve significant outcomes that go beyond a process or a single event.

 The call for nominations for the 2012 award will be available at the CCPH Web site. Partnerships may nominate themselves and need not be members of CCPH. Nominations in English are welcome from anywhere in the world.

Link to Complete RFP

Evaluating Innovations in Nursing Education grants

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Evaluating Innovations in Nursing Education program is inviting applications for research projects that study nursing faculty issues which are critical to achieving the recommendations outlined in the 2010 Institute of Medicine report The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health.

Consistent with EIN's mission, projects typically will address teaching productivity and faculty preparation in nursing education for meeting the demands of a reformed healthcare and public health system. Findings should inform strategies for addressing the nurse faculty shortage while expanding the nurse workforce and maintaining or improving student outcomes.

Eligible applicant organizations include academic institutions, healthcare organizations, and research firms. Preference will be given to applicants that are either public entities or nonprofit 501(c)(3) organizations. Researchers working on the proposed project must be citizens or permanent residents of the U.S. or its territories.The program welcomes applications that draw on the expertise of researchers from nursing and other health sciences, the social sciences, and other relevant disciplines.

A total of up to $1.8 million in grants will be awarded in this round of funding. Grants of up to $100,000 might support case studies, scans of existing programs, or determinants of best practices. Grants of up to $300,000 might support survey research or controlled evaluations. All grants will be twenty-four months in duration or shorter.
The program will hold an optional applicant webinar on October 6, 2011. Registration is required.
The complete Call for Proposals, application materials, and applicant Webinar details are available at the RWJF Web site.

Federal Health IT Strategic Plan

[from Be Spacific] Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC), Federal Health Information Technology Strategic Plan, 2011 – 2015. In developing and executing the federal health IT strategy, the government strives to

• "Put individuals and their interests first. In order to enhance the health and well-being of all Americans, the government must meet the needs and protect the rights of each individual. 
• Be a worthy steward of the country’s money and trust. The government seeks to use its resources judiciously. This means relying to the extent possible on private markets to accomplish important societal objectives, and acting to correct market failures when necessary. It also means developing governmental policies through open and transparent processes.
• Support health IT benefits for all. All Americans should have equal access to quality health care. This includes the benefits conferred by health IT. The government will endeavor to assure that underserved and at-risk individuals enjoy these benefits to the same extent as all other citizens. 
• Focus on outcomes. Federal health IT policy will constantly focus on improving the outcomes of care, so as to advance the health of Americans and the performance of their health care system. 
• Build boldly on what works. The government will set ambitious goals and then work methodically to achieve them, monitoring health IT successes, and looking for ways to expand upon programs that work. It will seek to be nimble and action-oriented: evaluating existing government activities, learning from experience, and changing course if necessary. 
• Encourage innovation. The government is working to create an environment of testing, learning, and improving, thereby fostering breakthroughs that quickly and radically transform health care. The government will support innovation in health IT."

Nurses can apply for research grants

[from Philanthropy News Digest] As part of its mission to honor the work of nurses on behalf of patients and their families, the DAISY (Diseases Attacking the Immune System) Foundation is accepting grant applications from nurses researching ways to improve the treatment of patients with autoimmune diseases and cancer.
The foundation's J. Patrick Barnes Grants for Nursing Research and Evidence-Based Practice Projects program offers two types of research grants.

Evidence-based practice grants of up to $2,000 will be awarded to stimulate the use of patient-focused data and/or previously generated research findings to develop, implement, and evaluate changes in nursing practice in treatment of patients with cancer and autoimmune diseases.

Research grants of up to $5,000 are available to qualified nurses carrying out clinical research studies that directly benefit patients and/or families involving treatment of cancer and autoimmune diseases.
Grant recipients in both program areas also will have the opportunity to apply for subsequent funding of $2,000 to share their findings at professional conferences through the DAISY Foundation's Lynne Doll Grants for Dissemination of Findings program.

Visit the DAISY Foundation Web site for complete program guidelines and application procedures. To be eligible, an applicant must be a registered nurse with a current license. Research must impact patients or family members of patients with an autoimmune disease or cancer. Studies that will benefit patients both within and outside a nurse's institution will receive priority. Award checks will be made to an investigator's institution or a specified fund at the institution, not the individual investigator.

Contact:
Link to Complete RFP

Affordable Care Act Capital Development - Building Capacity Grant Program

Description

This program will award approximately $600 million, through competitive one-time grants to existing health centers receiving grants under the Health Center Program (section 330 of the Public Health Service Act, 42 USC 254b, as amended). This announcement details the competitive Affordable Care Act funding opportunity available for existing Health Center Program grantees to improve their capacity to provide primary and preventative health services to medically underserved populations. Grants awarded through this opportunity can include alteration/renovation, expansion, or the construction of a facility. 

Link to Full Announcement

https://grants.hrsa.gov/webExternal/SFO.asp?ID=10B8A7A8-245B-4957-920D-AFCC890ECB49

$100M Capital Impact Fund

[from Philanthropy News Digest] The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has announced the launch of a three-year, $100 million Impact Capital Fund designed to help its grantees leverage funding from multiple sources and spread solutions that improve health and health care for all Americans.

As part of the launch, the foundation has partnered with NCB Capital Impact to create a ten-year, $10 million low-interest credit facility that will support the development of Green House nursing homes. Since 2002, the foundation has awarded $12 million, most of it to NCB Capital Impact, to develop, test, and evaluate the Green House model, in which residents receive nursing support and clinical care without it becoming the focus of their daily lives. The new investment will build on previous efforts while seeking to lower the cost of financing for Green House projects as a way to serve low-income individuals and low-income areas. NCB Capital Impact will serve as administrator of the credit facility and will seek investors to leverage foundation funding for any project one a four-to-one basis.
While there has been interest among donors in using program-related investments to address areas such as economic development, education, housing, and the environment, there has been little activity in the areas of health and health care. To that end, the Impact Capital Fund seeks to focus on investing in health programs. Additional investments will be announced over the next three years.

"Our goal with this initiative is to go beyond traditional grantmaking, to drive social change, achieve measurable impact, and collaborate with partners who can help us achieve our mission," said RWJF president and CEO Risa Lavizzo-Mourey. "This commitment allows us to better leverage our funding and spread innovative models, like the Green House Project."

“Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, NCB Capital Impact Announce $10 Million Loan-Fund to Expand Innovative Skilled-Nursing Care to Low-Income Seniors.” Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Press Release 9/08/11.

Free Health Assessment Webinar

 Driving Community Health Assessment:

  Collecting the Right Data and Turning It Into Useful Information for Decision Making
  

Presented by Debra A. Thompson, President of Strategy Solutions, Inc.

      Wednesday, September 14th from 2-4 PM EST

Worried about what the new IRS requirements for community health assessments may be and what that really means for your hospital?  Attend this session and put your fears to rest!  We will cover: 

• Setting the Context For Your Community Health Improvement Efforts - Why Are We Here?
• Integrating Hospital Planning with Public Health/Community Planning: Ideal Model
• Options for Consideration/Our Recommendations
• Criteria for Selecting the Best Vendor

Click here to register for this FREE webinar today!

Partners Investing in Nursing's Future Awards

The Robert Wood Johnson and Northwest Health foundations have announced eleven new grants through the Partners Investing in Nursing's Future (PIN) initiative to address the needs of an older, more diverse population.

Now in its sixth year, PIN helps support the capacity, involvement, and leadership of local foundations as they work to advance the nursing profession in their communities. With the latest grants, a total of sixty-one PIN projects have been created in more than three dozen states. The projects include efforts to transform nursing education, encourage racial, ethnic and gender diversity in the nursing workforce, and develop nurses as leaders in health reform.

Recipients in this funding round include the Arkansas Community Foundation, which will use its grant to improve the educational preparation of registered nurses working in geriatrics, and the Milwaukee-based Faye McBeath Foundation, which is working to create a replicable model of workforce data collection and analysis so as to better project the skills needed for future nurses, especially those working in the mental health field.

"All health care is local, and nurses are the cornerstone of our healthcare system. We need community solutions that address the challenges facing a changing healthcare system and that utilize local and regional experience," said Judith Woodruff, director of workforce development at the Northwest Health Foundation and program director for Partners Investing in Nursing's Future. "Through PIN, local philanthropic foundations act as catalysts to develop and execute strategies needed to build a highly skilled nursing workforce — enabling us to test innovative ideas locally and share them nationally."

For a complete list of this year's grantees, visit the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Web site.

“Partners Investing in Nursing's Future (PIN) Makes 11 New Investments.” Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Press Release 8/30/11.