January 2009

Sierra Health's Partnerships brings you bimonthly news, opportunities, tools and resources.

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Nonprofit Innovation Center brings shared-space concept to capital region

Construction is in progress for Sierra Health Foundation’s new Nonprofit Innovation Center on Garden Highway in Sacramento. The 12,500-square-foot center will be a multitenant office and conference space for nonprofit organizations working to improve health and well-being in the region. Combining high-quality facilities, a beautiful location, an affordable price and opportunity for collaboration, the center offers an innovative office space option to nonprofits in the region.

Using a shared-space concept, the Nonprofit Innovation Center was designed to promote cross-agency learning, engagement and resource sharing. The center will include 10 semi-custom suites, a state-of-the-art workroom, a staffed reception area and shared meeting rooms with multimedia capabilities. This new model of organizational behavior and shared space is quickly becoming popular around the country. Because of fiscal pressures and the high cost of office space, many nonprofits are finding this shared-space model to be a stable and affordable option.

“What the Nonprofit Innovation Center is all about is making area nonprofits more effective so they can better support efforts to improve the lives of residents in our communities,” explained Sierra Health President and CEO Chet Hewitt. “We’re extraordinarily excited about this project. While we feel honored to be partnering with a key group of forward-thinking institutions to establish a new standard for nonprofit work space, we also believe that we are establishing a new model of organizational behavior that will benefit other nonprofits in the region.”

The Nonprofit Innovation Center will occupy a building located next to Sierra Health that is owned by the foundation. Previously, offices in the building were leased to businesses. A major remodel began last year, and construction is scheduled to be complete by March. An open house is tentatively scheduled for April. To inquire about available space, e-mail Sierra Health Facilities Manager Colleen Cascio.

Sierra Health is searching for a full-time administrative assistant for the Nonprofit Innovation Center. For more information, e-mail Colleen Cascio.
 

Responsive Grants Program to support safety-net services in 2009

In response to the economic downturn and resulting demand for basic human needs, such as food and shelter, Sierra Health Foundation has committed $1 million for safety-net services through our Responsive Grants Program in 2009. The funding opportunity was announced in December, and by the application deadline on Jan. 15, we received 243 grant proposals from nonprofit organizations and public agencies. Thank you to all of the applicants and proposers’ teleconference participants for your interest in the program.

After a thorough grant review and selection process, we will announce grant awards by late February. Grants up to $25,000 each will support safety-net services in our 26-county funding region, with 30 percent of grant funds available exclusively for services in rural areas.

In the first Responsive Grants Program funding round last year, we awarded $1.2 million for 31 projects serving 23 counties, with 35 percent awarded for projects serving rural areas. To learn more about the program, visit Sierra Health’s Web site.
 

Report documents need, solutions for emergency food services

In an effort to better inform policy-makers and increase public awareness about hunger in Northern California, Sierra Health Foundation and the Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano (FBCCS) partnered to assess emergency food services in a 15-county region. FBCCS is a food bank that serves a major portion of the communities in Sierra Health’s funding region.

With funding from Sierra Health, in 2007 FBCCS and local food banks in the Sacramento Valley convened a series of listening sessions to learn about emergency food services being provided, assess the types of resources needed to support emergency food access, and identify steps that can be taken to increase the amount of fresh produce available for low-income residents. Combining results from the listening sessions with statistical information from California Food Policy Advocates and California Emergency Foodlink, FBCCS recently completed a report titled “The Heartland of Northern California Facing Hunger.”

“Facing Hunger” describes the need for food assistance in the counties of Butte, Colusa, Glenn, Lassen, Modoc, Plumas, Sacramento, Shasta, Sierra, Siskiyou, Sutter, Tehama, Trinity, Yolo and Yuba. According to the report, low-income Californians in the northern Sacramento Valley face multiple challenges as they try to provide food for themselves and their families. The same challenges that exist for low-income residents, such as transportation costs and a lack of food resources, are the same challenges that emergency food service providers face. The report also describes the numerous private and public food programs available, and provides recommendations for improving access to nutritious foods.

Download “Facing Hunger” on the Sierra Health Web site.
 

Sierra Health board of directors elects officers

The Sierra Health Foundation board of directors recently elected local attorney Nancy Lee as chairperson of the nine-member board. Lee, who is a shareholder at McDonough Holland & Allen PC in Sacramento, has served on the Sierra Health board since 2004 and most recently acted as board secretary. The board also elected physician Earl (Trey) Washburn as vice chair. Dr. Washburn, who has served on the Sierra Health board since 1988, is a founding partner and administrative physician of El Dorado Pediatric Medical Group and a staff member of Marshall Medical Center in Placerville.

"With the selection of Ms. Lee and Dr. Washburn the foundation maintains its longstanding commitment to thoughtful, informed leadership,” stated Sierra Health Foundation President and CEO Chet Hewitt. “I look forward to working with our new board leadership to ensure the financial health and programmatic effectiveness of the foundation."

An attorney with McDonough Holland & Allen PC since 1985, Lee has a transactional practice with an emphasis in business, commercial and health care law, and serves as general counsel to a number of for-profit and nonprofit organizations. Lee also serves as the vice chair of the Nonprofit Resource Center board of directors, and is a director of the First US Community Credit Union. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of California at Berkeley, a law degree from University of California Hastings College of the Law, and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of California at Los Angeles. Lee has received numerous awards and honors for her work, including a 2005 Women’s Leadership Award from the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association for leadership and vision in making significant contributions to the advancement of women in the legal profession.

Dr. Washburn has practiced pediatrics in Placerville since 1976, most recently with Marshall Pediatrics. He is on the active medical staff of Marshall Medical Center, where he served as chief of staff in 1983. He is active in the Sierra Sacramento Valley Medical Society and served as the president in 2000, and is finishing a five-year term as chair of the regional delegation to the California Medical Association’s House of Delegates. He also served as president of Family Connections El Dorado. Dr. Washburn taught medical students for 30 years.

Lee and Washburn will serve two-year terms as chair and vice chair, respectively.
 

Local leaders attend "UnNatural Causes" screening at Capitol

On Jan. 14, the California Endowment and the Government Action and Communication Institute hosted Northern California leaders at the State Capitol for a screening of the Larry Adelman documentary "UnNatural Causes: Is Inequality Making Us Sick?” This seven-part documentary series, which aired on public television in 2008, explores racial and socioeconomic inequalities in health, and how the social conditions in which Americans are born, live and work profoundly affect health and longevity.

The “UnNatural Causes” series was developed to increase public discourse about health and inequality. Objectives include increasing awareness of health inequalities and their human and financial costs; promoting understanding of the ways class, racism and disempowerment can influence health outcomes; moving health discussions to a preventive approach to change underlying conditions; and linking health discussions to social and economic policies, as well as innovative community-based initiatives.

Sierra Health Foundation joined other local organizations in co-sponsoring the Sacramento screening. Learn more about this documentary series on the “UnNatural Causes” Web site.