• Access to Care
  • Rural Health

Social Impact Program

The North Carolina Healthcare Foundation (NCHF) is facilitating partnerships to improve health outcomes through community-led, systems-level solutions and sustainable collaborative investments.

NCHF recognizes that a foundational requirement of informing best practices for improving care delivery is supporting community-based innovation, developing leading-edge programming, and bringing together diverse voices and perspectives to drive lasting change. Within the Rural Health Innovation sector, NCHF has as an organizational priority to create stable rural health services that meet the changing needs of North Carolina’s rural communities while demonstrating value to the overall system of care. Through the work of our Social Impact Program, NCHF aims to be a convener in advocating for future sustainable investments in community-led, systems-level solutions to disparate health outcomes by: 

  1. Building a framework for facilitating hospital-community partnerships aimed to inform new  models for collaborative investments to promote health. 
  2. Empowering NC health systems to embrace upstream, groundwater approaches to leading systems-level change with their communities. 
  3. Utilizing a human-centered approach to center the voice of the community in determining needs and aligning resources for value-based approaches to community investment.
  4. Understanding and transforming social systems that drive health outcomes.

Through funding from Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust, NCHF is building a framework for facilitating community partnerships aimed to inform new models for collaborative investments that improve health outcomes and drive value-based care.  

NCHF has elected Robeson County to begin this innovation project focusing on developing systems-level, groundwater approaches to addressing transportation–one of many social drivers of health. The community engagement methodology and framework developed through this effort will serve as a template for systemically designing sustainable models of care centered around the lived experiences of end-users of the healthcare system.  

While serving as a partner to Robeson County’s residents and local anchor intuitions, NCHF aims to advocate for future sustainable investments in community-led, systems-level solutions to disparate health outcomes through the following objectives: 

  1.  Offering proof of concept for community-system partnerships that can be replicated across other NC communities, shifting public and institutional perspective in the value of human-centered, collaborative approaches to healthcare.   
  2. Provisioning mini-grants to pilot innovative interventions that address root causes of challenges around social determinants of health (i.e. transportation) and demonstrate approaches that are effective at improving outcomes.   
  3. Utilizing insights, case studies, processes, and performance metrics for the social impact framework to develop a Social Impact Playbook that will be made available to other North Carolina health systems and communities pursuing a similar effort to address other social drivers impacting the health of communities.   

Robeson County Social Impact Mini Grants

The North Carolina Healthcare Foundation (NCHF) is seeking proposals for a funding opportunity co-designed alongside community members of Robeson County to support the advancement of health equity and social impact. Funds will be used to encourage systems-and community-level change that provides upstream solutions for addressing transportation as a social driver of health. The project period will begin in July 2024. Applications will close on May 29. 

Want to learn more? Register here to join the Q&A session on May 6.

Overview

Through funding from Kate B. Reynolds Charitable Trust, NCHF is building a framework for facilitating anchor-institution-community partnerships aimed to inform new models for collaborative investments to improve health outcomes. NCHF has elected Robeson County to begin this project focusing on addressing root causes of challenges related to transportation, one of many social drivers of health. NCHF recognizes that healthcare and community leaders hold influence and capacity to support creative infrastructures to advance practice and policy change. Also, community members and those most impacted need to be involved in decision-making to effect lasting change. One goal of our Social Impact project is to develop a framework that can be replicated across other NC communities, shifting public and institutional perspective in the value of human-centered, collaborative approaches to healthcare.   

NCHF will support this shift in thinking and fundamental change through the provision of mini-grants to pilot innovative interventions that explore upstream approaches to transportation as a social driver, with an end goal of improving community health outcomes. Leveraging insights, case studies, processes, and performance metrics from awarded projects to inform a social impact framework, NCHF aims to utilize findings to advocate for future sustainable investments in community-led, systems-level solutions to disparate health outcomes.  

Purpose

NCHF understands and aims to confront the extensive linkage between transportation and health outcomes driven by accessibility of healthcare, childcare, employment, healthy food, safety, social services, and resources that promote improved wellbeing.  Successful applicants will propose activities in one or both of the following areas: 

  • Addressing transportation as a social driver of health: Projects and initiatives that leverage existing resources for cross-sector collaboration including, but not limited to transportation to deploy multi-layered, systems-level approaches to improving health outcomes.
  • Building community trust and collaboration around transportation models: Projects and initiatives aimed at building collaboration across organizations or otherwise fostering trust within the community at organizational or individual levels, which will result, in part, in decreasing the impact of transportation as a barrier to health. 
Award Details
Eligible Lead Applicants* 
  • 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations  
  • Groups fiscally sponsored by a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization  
  • Public sector agencies serving Robeson County, North Carolina  
  • Religious organizations with or without a non-profit designation  
Expected # of awards  5-10 
Award Amount  Up to $50,000 
Grant Term** 12 months 
Application Deadline  May 29, 2024 
Expected Award Announcement Date  End of June 2024 

 

*Collaborative applications strongly encouraged

**Awards will be paid out in a lump sum at the start of the project period and may be renewed at end of project period contingent upon outcomes.

Proposal Instructions
  1. Submit the grant application via the Application Portal  
  2. Complete and upload a detailed Project Narrative and budget using the provided templates in the application portal.  
  3. Submission Deadline: May 29, 2024 (Incomplete proposals and proposals submitted after the deadline will not be considered). 

For questions related to this grant opportunity, contact Shakeerah McCoy at smccoy@ncha.org or 919-677-4242 or Marissa Franks at mfranks@ncha.org or 919-677-4243.

NCHA Staff Bio