Trinity Health announces grant recipients for community health improvements

Trinity Health announced the first recipients of $80 million in grants under its Transforming Communities Initiative (TCI).

The program will result in the investment of grants, loans, community match dollars and services for six communities over the next five years. Recipients of the initial grants from Trinity Health of up to $500,000 per year are teams of collaborating partners who will use the funds and other benefits to work together to improve health and well-being in their respective communities. Specific goals include increased physical activity, breast-feeding policies and nutrition standards.

All of the programs will focus specifically on policy, systems and environmental changes that can directly impact specifically identified areas of high local need.

"The selected community partnerships have strong records transforming the health and well-being of their communities' most vulnerable populations already," said Bechara Choucair, MD, senior vice president for Safety Net and Community Health, in a release. "We chose them for this support because their impressive proposals, highlighting their strategic collaborations and shared commitment, gave us confidence in even greater future success improving people's lives. We know we are investing where change will occur."

Recipients of Trinity Health's inaugural TCI grants will receive up to $500,000 per year for the next five years as well as a number of other supportive services, including technical, planning and investment assistance. They are:

• Trenton Health Team, Trenton, N.J.: Program aims to increase access to and coordinate care for both medical and behavioral conditions, increase access to healthy foods with stores and farmers market, build new playgrounds, expand school breakfast program and create school gardens. Partners include St. Francis Medical Center, Trenton Health Team; NJ Partnership for Healthy Kids, Millhill Child & Family Development, Isles, Inc., Children's Home Society and Children's Futures.
• Live Well Springfield TCI Partnership, Springfield, Mass.: Program aims to provide services and improve policies that target low-income adults and children disproportionately impacted by health conditions related to poor diet, inactivity, tobacco use and other social determinants. Specific strategies include enhancing early education and care sites through nutrition and physical activity, School Nutrition improvements, Complete Streets infrastructure and tobacco use prevention. Partners include, but are not limited to: Mercy Medical Center and Live Well Springfield (LWS), a multi-sector community based coalition that includes over 26 organizations working in the city.
• Proviso Partners for Health, Maywood, Ill.: Programs aim to improve health by creating pathways to training and careers in the green economy, implementation of nutrition programs and lung health needs of Chicago's communities. Coalition partners include Loyola University Health System, Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine and Marcella Niehoff School of Nursing, and more than 25 committed schools and daycare centers, social service organizations, businesses and government agencies.
• Healthy Montgomery, Montgomery County, Md. Program aims to reduce chronic disease rates in communities within Montgomery County. Partners include Institute for Public Health Innovation, Holy Cross Health, Department of Health and Human Services, the Eat Well Be Active Partnership, Department of Recreation, Montgomery County Public Schools, City of Gaithersburg, City of Takoma Park, and Community Health and Empowerment through Education and Research (CHEER), among many others.
• Promise Partnership, Boise, Idaho: Program aims to address factors related to poor diet, inactivity and tobacco use within the Treasure Valley. Partners include Saint Alphonsus Regional Medical Center, United Way of Treasure Valley, Inc., Cities of Boise & Caldwell, Boise, Nampa, Caldwell School Districts, Central &, Southwest health Districts, Community Health Clinics, Treasure Valley Education Partnership, St. Luke's Health System and Boise State University.
• Syracuse Health Coalition, Syracuse, N.Y.: Program aims to fund efforts addressing local breast-feeding policies, increased access to indoor recreational space, and implementation of elements of the city's complete streets plan. Partners include St. Joseph’s Health, Onondaga County Health Department, Near Westside Initiative, Northside Urban Partnership, Lerner Center at Syracuse University, and HealtheConnections.

In a later phase of the program, low-interest investment loans supporting interventions related to social determinants of health will be made by Trinity Health to community and economic development organizations in the communities served by all Trinity Health hospitals. They will be used to address specific issues including access to food, housing circumstances and early childhood issues.

While the program is slated for five years, program leaders have planned for long-term program sustainability by including plans for optimizing partnerships and leveraging local match dollars. The TCI is one of many of Trinity Health initiatives aimed at achieving better health, better care and lower costs for high-cost, complex patients, and especially for vulnerable populations and those who are poor.