By JULIE MINDA
SAN DIEGO — Catholic health care providers can make their community benefit dollars go further, with greater positive impact by being strategic about the way they spend money.
That was the crux of "The Landscape of Health System Community Investment," a session during a pre-assembly community benefit program here June 10. Robin Hacke, a community investment expert, and David Belde, a ministry mission services leader, teamed up for the presentation to an audience of ministry executives responsible for community benefit, mission, population health, finance, strategic planning and other practice areas. Hacke is executive director of the Center for Community Investment at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy. Belde is senior vice president of mission services for Bon Secours Richmond Health System in Richmond, Va.
Hacke
Hacke said as health care facilities increasingly address the nonclinical aspects of improving the health and well-being of the people they serve, it makes sense for those facilities to leverage their investments to provide the greatest long-term benefit to the target populations.
For instance, to address a food desert where fresh food is scarce, a provider could participate in a zero-interest loan fund to help finance an entrepreneur opening a grocery store.
Hacke said health care systems should not go it alone with their community benefit initiatives aimed at impacting health status through social determinants of health. There are willing partners for health care providers wanting to make strategic investments in affordable housing, improved nutrition, safe communities, small business development, infrastructure, early childhood education and the like.
Hacke said it is essential to clearly define priorities, identify the best partners and correctly assess the environment where the community investments are to be made. But most important, she said, is to "start moving. Health care providers often want to get it perfect before they start moving, but you may just need to jump in, keep your eyes open, and the strategy will evolve as you go."
The Center for Community Investment has been involved with one of its funding sponsors, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, in identifying health care systems that are putting such principles in practice. The two also have been assisting these health systems in deepening their work. Two such systems are Bon Secours Health System of Marriottsville, Md., and Dignity Health of San Francisco.
Belde
Bon Secours Richmond has an affordable homeownership program conceived to work as a wealth-building strategy for low- to moderate-income community members. The health system uses the program to promote the development of mixed-income neighborhoods. It also serves to stem the economic displacement of low-income families in areas ripe for gentrification, Belde said.
He added that it's essential to engage with residents to understand them and their needs before investing in their neighborhoods. Belde advised his audience to build strategic alliances with stakeholders who can support the work — this includes funders, businesses, anchor institutions in the community and the local housing authority. Belde said projects get the most traction when all partners can agree on the vision and purpose of the work and pursue a common approach to goals.
Belde also advised ministry members to focus on a few strategic investments that will have a broad, lasting impact on social determinants of health, rather than making a lot of small investments with limited impact.
Community health investing is social justice advocacy, he said. "We cannot be silent about really serious problems our communities are facing; we need to put forth our social vision and be in a position to follow through."