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Giving Compass' Take:
• Kay Miller Temple reports on the need for genuine communication and collaboration between the government and charitable organizations to improve rural health.
• What previous partnerships have proven successful? How can organizations make the connections that need to participate in such a collaboration?
• Learn how public-private partnerships can further the SDGs.
Kim Tieman, Health and Human Services program director for the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation, recalls a key moment during a federal funding presentation at a 2012 National Rural Health Association meeting.
“When someone made a comment suggesting ‘you need to get local philanthropy at the table,’ several of us raised our hands and started asking questions,” Tieman said. “There seemed to be so many opportunities to align our interests with federal priorities, but we needed to learn about federal initiatives earlier than a 30- to 60-day window so we could communicate with our boards and educate them about possibilities.”
According to the Rural Policy Research Institute, care coordination is “a deliberate and planned approach to meeting the diverse needs of patients and families, and when done well, it is built into policies, procedures, staffing, services, and communication systems.” Using different care coordination models to bridge their regions’ health equity gaps, two grantees, one in Williamson, West Virginia, and one in eastern Washington, also focus on decreasing healthcare costs.
Tieman said she works to scale rural philanthropy out to a national rural vision, which she believes can only happen if America’s national funders and the federal government don’t forget rural communities.
Our rural communities are more agile, more willing to try something new. And they already have the necessary partners in place to take on new efforts. So bring an evidence-based idea to them, as a pilot or through a demonstration project, and you can evaluate efficacy pretty quickly."
Read the full article by Kay Miller Temple about rural health from Rural Health Information Hub.