Susan King joins Sierra Health Foundation

We’re pleased to welcome a new staff member to Sierra Health Foundation, as we build our internal capacity to implement several new initiatives and continue our existing grant programs.

Susan King joined the foundation in June as the public affairs and communications director. In this role, she oversees the development and management of the foundation’s public affairs and communications strategy. One of Susan’s key roles is to provide communications direction for programs and public policy initiatives. She also provides technical assistance to grantees for communications and media relations.

Susan joined Sierra Health Foundation after a 16-year career with Hewlett-Packard, most recently as regional communications manager for the Americas Corporate Administration organization. In that capacity, she managed the development and implementation of regional and global communication strategies for security, environmental health, and real estate and workplace services. While at HP, she also managed internal communications, crisis communications and public affairs for the Sacramento Region.

In 2009, Susan co-founded Pathway to Prevention, a nonprofit dedicated to preventing teen substance abuse through education and awareness. In order to reach teens and parents nationwide, she oversaw from conception to completion the development of Collision Course – Teen Addiction Epidemic, a 27-minute documentary designed for viewing on TV, in schools or in other public settings. Collision Course won an Emmy award in the category of Special Community Affairs Program and will air on PBS nationwide starting in August. Susan is also the co-founder of ParentPathway.com, an online resource that provides free support, tools and resources to parents whose children of any age have become chemically dependent.

Susan has published articles in national newspapers and magazines, and she is a member of the California Writers Club. She earned her B.A. in English and Psychology from Stanford University and has a M.Ed. in Counseling Psychology from Teachers College at Columbia University.

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Responsive Grants Program applications due July 23

Applications for this year’s second round of Responsive Grants Program funding are due by July 23 at noon. Application materials are posted on the Responsive Grants Program web page.

Grants up to $25,000 are available to nonprofits and public agencies to support projects that improve health and quality of life for people living in our 26-county funding region.

We held a proposers’ conference webinar on June 28, and have posted the presentation slides and audio recording on the Responsive Grants Program web page. Participation in a webinar is not required to apply for funding.

In May, we announced grant awards for this year’s first funding round, with 26 nonprofit organizations and public agencies in 18 counties receiving a total of $526,032. See the list of grant awards.

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Sierra Health Foundation joins partners to address education needs

Through our Youth Pathways to Health grantmaking, we lead or support efforts to ensure those young people at greatest risk of poor outcomes have opportunities to find on-ramps to a healthy developmental path. This year we’ve joined partners who are addressing reading proficiency, chronic absenteeism and summer learning loss – all known risk factors that contribute to the region’s dropout rate and achievement gap.

Sacramento is one of 124 cities, counties and towns to become a charter member of the Campaign for Grade-Level Reading Communities Network. We've partnered with Sacramento READS! to support the local literacy campaign to improve reading proficiency for students by strengthening literacy programming in at least three elementary schools. Learn more on the Sacramento READS! web site.

To address chronic absenteeism, the Sacramento City Unified School District is collaborating with Community Link and the UC Davis Center for Regional Change to analyze student attendance data to determine current levels of absenteeism by variables such as school, grade, gender, ethnicity, special education, English language learners and socioeconomic status. This analysis will assess which schools, populations and places are in need of additional support. We joined The California Endowment to support this important work. Learn more on the UC Davis Center for Regional Change web site.

The UC Davis School of Education’s Summer Matters program promotes a regional professional learning community to support high-quality summer programs that address summer learning loss, improved learning and enrichment, and student health. We’ve joined partners Sacramento County Office of Education, Sacramento City Unified School District, the National Summer Learning Association, The David & Lucile Packard Foundation and Walmart in supporting this program. Learn more on the UC Davis School of Education's Summer Matters web page.

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Next Healthy Sacramento Coalition meeting set for Aug. 22

The Healthy Sacramento Coalition currently is formalizing membership and workgroup participants to build coalition capacity as we prepare to implement evidence-based, community-focused preventative health strategies in Sacramento County.

The next Healthy Sacramento Coalition meeting will be held at Sierra Health Foundation on Aug. 22. Pre-registration is required. Visit the Healthy Sacramento Coalition web page to learn about the coalition, register to attend the Aug. 22 meeting and sign up for the mailing list.

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Sierra Health Foundation makes statement on Supreme Court Affordable Care Act ruling

After the Supreme Court issued its ruling on June 28 to uphold the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, we released a statement to local media organizations and partners throughout our region, as well as to philanthropy organizations and foundations nationwide. Following is an excerpt of the statement.

Today’s momentous decision by the Supreme Court to uphold the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act affirms the fundamental shift created by the law in the way we protect and advance the health and well-being of our citizens. The Affordable Care Act, at its core, moves us from a system focused too often on treating illness to one centered on prevention, equity and access to quality, affordable care.

The Supreme Court’s verdict today fortifies Sierra Health Foundation’s commitment to improving access, coordination and quality of the region’s primary health care safety net. We are actively involved in advancing improvements in health through partnerships with public, private and community partners who share our goal of good health and well-being for all. Improving the health in our region goes beyond the clinic setting, spanning our entire community.

See the full news release online.

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Positive Youth Justice Initiative article published in national newsletter

Grantmakers for Children, Youth, and Families published an article about our Positive Youth Justice Initiative in this month’s issue of its Healthy Men, Healthy Communities Newsletter. Written by Sierra Health Foundation Program Officer Matt Cervantes, the article discusses the vulnerability of youth with a history in the child welfare system who currently are engaged in the juvenile justice system, and how the innovative programmatic and operational components of the initiative can improve their health, academic and social outcomes. Read the online article.

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