Moving Communities to a Better State of Health Bob Atkins, PhD, RN, FAAN

Overview Background on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and New Jersey Health Initiatives Building a Culture of Health NJHI Grantmaking to build healthier communities What are we learning? Partnering with school nurses/youth to build healthier communities

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is the largest foundation devoted to health and health care in the nation and the Foundation has been a leader in improving health for all Americans. For example, the Foundation led some of the earliest efforts around tobacco control. The development of EMS/911 system

Despite the Foundation’s national impact, the initial philanthropic focus of its founder, Robert Wood Johnson, was to benefit organizations, communities, and individuals in New Jersey.

New Jersey Health Initiatives, a statewide grant making program of the Foundation, was established in 1986. A reflection of Foundation’s commitment to NJ For almost three decades NJHI has advanced the Foundation’s goals by supporting innovations and driving conversations to build healthier NJ communities in Garden State.

Building a Culture of Health in NJ The Foundation’s ambitious goal of Building a Culture of Health.

NJHI: Communities Moving to Action As you can see, NJHI is driving conversations across the state, through our CMA funding initiative. By working in cross-sector coalitions, resources can be applied more efficiently, to a more sustainable result. Meadowlink /EZ Ride is leading the Alliance for a Healthier Asbury Park coalition, one of our 2016 grantees. This coalition’s successes include getting two policies to promote safe walking & biking passed, as well as motivating schools to buy & install bike racks. This coalition has great potential to improve health equity for residents of Bergen, Hudson, Passaic, Essex, Union and Monmouth counties. We already know that physical environment factors such as driving alone to work and length of commute can affect health outcomes.

What are we learning? What are we trying to learn?

As we go “upstream,” the conversation should become more “bottom up.” Bottom-up grantmaking We (philanthropy) want our grantees to partner but…philanthropy can be disruptive. How do we build capacity so our grantees inform our grantmaking? Doing with our communities not for our communities.

Diverse conversations require more resources but they are a good investment.

Trust is a social lubricant and a social glue. Jersey City and Atlantic City used financial capital to build social capital-–mini-grants All communities have unleveraged resources Bar graph shows the two most-used hashtags among the social media activity of the Communities Moving to Action 2015 cohort

We have to share what we are learning. Building a Culture of Health—we have to share what we are learning about the opportunities and challenges. “We” means both grantees & grantmakers. Convenings, white papers, social media, LinkedIn pieces, videos,

To make change sustainable, the conversation has to begin with community assets. Every community, even the most vulnerable, has assets Human capital—leaders Human capital-youth Environmental assets—location, access to water Camden example: network of non-profits, small size “everyone knows everyone”, access to water, proximity to Philadelphia, Rutgers University, youth

How are we working with school nurses to build healthier communities? For example…

Camden, NJ One of the poorest cities in New Jersey. Right across from the city of Philadelphia. High rates of poverty, unemployment, crime, high school dropout, etc.

The schools mirror challenges of city

In Camden schools, Mondays are the busiest day of the week Underground healthcare system—share with audience some of what you deal with as a school nurse—emotional trauma, physical injury, hunger, neglect. In addition to having to provide first aid, screenings, staff needs, etc.

School nurses in the 21st century: Working upstream to address downstream challenges My choices: 1) stick with traditional 20th century approach to school nursing—stay focused on what was happening in my school or 2) take population health approach and work in the community to change systems, policies environments

Addressing asthma upstream Provide brief discussion of what you did with asthma. What were the problems with asthma in school (e.g., attendance, etc.)? What did you do? Who did you work with?

Thoughts, comments, questions.

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