Mission, Vision and Values

Saint Luke's Foundation Fundamentals

The Saint Luke’s Foundation's purpose begins with a commitment to health equity.

According to the Boston Public Health Commission, health equity means that "everyone has a fair opportunity to live a long, healthy life. It implies that health should not be compromised or disadvantaged because of an individual or population group's race, ethnicity, gender, income, sexual orientation, neighborhood or other social condition." The majority of factors that lead to health equity are social determinants, with race and poverty as the major barriers.

Vision

People thrive as a result of living free of racism and poverty and experiencing equitable economic opportunities and conditions that enable them to lead healthier lives.

Mission

Achieve health equity by addressing social determinants of health for people in neighborhoods surrounding Saint Luke’s and throughout Cuyahoga County.

Guiding Principles

• Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity
• Health disparities are differences in health among groups of people
• Health inequities are differences in health that are unfair, unjust and avoidable
• Overt and implicit racism must be confronted to reduce health and socio-economic disparities

Values

The Saint Luke’s Foundation has an enduring commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion.
At SLF, we…

• Demonstrate and advance fair, just and inclusive policies and practices
• Act with integrity and transparency
• Respect, have compassion for and engage our diverse constituencies
• Build trusting partnerships to leverage resources and achieve better outcomes
• Take informed risks to discover and deploy innovative, sustainable solutions
• Hold ourselves and our grantees accountable for evaluating and continuously learning from our shared efforts and results

Racial Equity Declaration

Equity is achieved when race is not a predictor of individual, organizational, or community success.

The Saint Luke’s Foundation accepts responsibility to advance true equity. We are committed to restoring and sharing power by examining and improving our internal and external processes. Through our work, we will challenge systems to unlock equitable opportunity and promote justice.