Oral

The Convergence Partnership (CP) is a collaboration of funders including the California Endowment, Kaiser Permanente, Kresge Foundation, Nemours, Robert Wood Johnson, the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as technical partners. CP launched a new initiative called the Convergence Innovation Fund (CIF) in May 2009 focused on local and regional foundations in order to achieve numerous outcomes: a) support foundations to shift grantmaking towards policy and environmental change strategies targeting health and equity; b) add local resources for promising, innovative strategies to build healthy, equitable communities; c) promote multi-field partnerships on the ground, and; d) support partnership among foundations. The CIF provides a 50% match on dollars raised by local and regional foundations, up to $200,000 for a two-year period, to expand or initiate support for multi-field collaboratives working on land use/built environment and/or food access efforts to promote health and equity. Fifteen awards were made in October of 2009 to diverse foundations from across the nation who became partners in the CIF. CIF partners will be nearly two years in progress of their CIF initiatives or projects by the 2011 APHA annual conference with innovative approaches and lessons learned to share with other foundations and practitioners looking to work on environmental and policy change strategies to promote health and equity. On this panel three CIF partners will share what approaches they utilized to shift their grantmaking in new and innovative directions. The panel will feature the Northwest Health Foundation (NWHF), The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation and St. Christopher’s Children’s Foundation (SCCF). Each panelist will discuss how the initiative or project they launched promoted equity and community leadership, multi-field partnerships and policy and environmental strategies to improve community health. Specifically, the NWHF will discuss how they have used the IF very intentionally to bring in communities of color into their existing health and policy efforts. The Rosalinde and Arthur Gilbert Foundation will share how they used the CIF to gain more internal support and launch a larger effort around policy change strategies. St. Christopher’s Foundation for Children will provide an overview of how they used the IF to take a risk and launch an environmental approach to achieving health outcomes versus a services approach, and discuss the development of multi-field relationships which were critical to the success of this shift. The fourth panelist will be a representative of the Convergence Partnership to provide an overview of the initiative and how each project fits into the CIF.

Session Objectives: -Describe the effectiveness of new approaches to grantmaking focused on policy and environmental change strategies that promote health -Discuss new and innovative approaches to community health promotion -Identify new strategies to engage community leaders and promote equity

CE Credits: Medical (CME), Health Education (CHES), Nursing (CNE), Public Health (CPH) , Masters Certified Health Education Specialist (MCHES)