Click above to learn more about the
Saint Luke's Foundation's 2012 grantmaking.

PolicyLink Founder and CEO headlining upcoming
"Why Place Matters" City Club Forum on February 17

Angela Glover Blackwell, Founder and CEO of PolicyLink, will step to the City Club podium on February 17th to discuss how issues of “place” relate to economic opportunities, social equity and community revitalization.  This forum is the third in the "Why Place Matters" series sponsored by the Saint Luke's Foundation in partnership with the Cuyahoga County PLACE MATTERS team.

Ms. Blackwell founded PolicyLink in 1999 and continues to drive its mission of advancing economic and social equity.  Under Blackwell’s leadership, PolicyLink has become a leading voice in the movement to use public policy to improve access and opportunity for all low-income people and communities of color, particularly in the areas of health, housing, transportation, education, and infrastructure.
Prior to founding PolicyLink, Blackwell served as Senior Vice President at the Rockefeller Foundation, where she oversaw the foundation’s Domestic and Cultural divisions.

The "Why Place Matters" series is aimed at educating the public about issues of "place."  A 2010 analysis of life expectancy data by the Cuyahoga County PLACE MATTERS Team, a group of local leaders developing strategies on how where we live, work, and play impacts health, reveals a 24-year difference in life expectancy between individuals living in Lyndhurst versus individuals living in the Hough neighborhood of Cleveland.

PLACE MATTERS is a nationwide initiative of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, Health Policy Institute, to build the capacity of community leaders to address social, economic and environmental conditions in communities that shape health and health outcomes. PLACE MATTERS is designed to improve the health outcomes of participating communities – including Cuyahoga County – through shared learning experiences. The program assists participating teams in developing and implementing community-based strategies to address the social factors that determine health.

For more information or to register for The City Club program, click here.  For a printable flier, click here. (1/27/2012)

Foundation changes grantmaking processes;
boosts 2012 grant budget and realigns staff

The Saint Luke's Foundation has announced it will increase its grant allocation budget in 2012 in order to deepen the impact it makes with organizations whose work advances its mission. This increase, from an average of about $10 million in recent years to $12 million in 2012, is reflective of strategic changes approved by the board of trustees to the Foundation’s grantmaking process, as well as its organizational structure. Click here for more on the grantmaking changes.

The changes at the Foundation involve not only changes to the spending policy, but they also include the reorganization of our grantmaking around the following three outcome areas: Urban Health and Well-being, Urban Community Revitalization, and Urban Families. As an integral part of our staff realignment, LaTida Smith will be promoted to Vice President of Program, Outcomes and Learning. In that capacity, LaTida will oversee all grantmaking strategies while managing the specific Urban Families strategy.  She will also ensure coordination and collaboration between and among strategies.  Sandra Chappelle will manage the Urban Community Revitalization strategy. (1/24/2011)

Lead Safe Living debuts Medical Champions video

Lead hasn’t been an additive in paint products for decades, but its poisoning effects are far from being eradicated from properties throughout local neighborhoods. However, the risks of lead exposure and new methods for testing and containment are very top-of-mind for many throughout the community, thanks to the Healthy Homes Advisory Council of Greater Cleveland, an innovative strategic alliance between the former Greater Cleveland Lead Advisory Council (GCLAC) and Greater Cleveland Asthma Coalition (GCAC).  The two community collaborative organizations joined forces in 2011 with the adoption of the holistic healthy homes approach to effectively embark on an ambitious plan to create a lead-safe and healthy Cuyahoga County. For more on the Healthy Homes Advisory Council, check out their new website here.

In addition to a dynamic new website, the Healthy Homes Advisory Council also recently debuted the new Medical Champions Campaign, which encourages medical providers to screen children (aged 6 years old and under) for lead poisoning. In the video linked here, parents share their experience with the Lead Safe Living program and also share reasons why they think childhood lead poisoning prevention is important.  (12/12/2011)

Why Place Matters

Ron Sims, Former Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, spoke at The City Club of Cleveland on Tues., Nov. 29, 2011 on the topic of

discuss how communities can advance health equity through land use planning. This presentation was the second in the “Why Place Matters” speaker’s series the Foundation is sponsoring in conjunction with the Cuyahoga County PLACE MATTERS team. To view the presentation, click here.  And for more on this thought-provoking program, take a gander at comments linked here on the Civic Commons website. 

If you missed the first forum of the series, click here for Dr. Gail Christopher's October presentation on building stronger communities by building better health.  Dr. Christopher, a Cleveland native, is the vice president of program strategy at the W.K. Kellogg Foundation in Michigan. (12/6/2011)

Human Services Restructuring Pilot Project Materials Available Online!

The Human Services Restructuring Pilot Project was created in 2009 when 18 funders joined together to engage human services organizations in a process of exploring strategic restructuring.

The pilot project was headed by Denise San Antonio Zeman from the Saint Luke's Foundation and Deborah Vesy from the Deaconess Community Foundation, along with consultants David Kantor of Kantor Consulting Group, Jo DeBolt of La Piana Consulting and Amy Main Morgenstern of Main Stream Enterprises.

Upon completion of the project, the funder collaborative commissioned a summary report of the project. Click here to access the report.  Additionally, The Foundation Center has been selected as the home for all of the guiding documents so other funders and nonprofits can learn from them.  To access the Foundation Center's Nonprofit Collaboration Resources, click here. (8/10/2011)