Helping Kids Where They Live, Learn and Earn
By design, traditional health, education, and community support systems generally default to responding to health issues instead of working upstream to address the root causes and underlying factors that lead to poor current and future health outcomes for youth and young adults. Morbidity and mortality for young people are relatively low and largely preventable, yet the negative circumstances and experiences some children and young adults encounter from Kindergarten to age 24 have a significant impact on their future health and well-being.
This is especially true for youth at risk for compounded impact due to circumstances of poverty, family dysfunction, educational challenges, mental illness, and substance use and abuse, to name those most prevalent in this region. It is therefore important to foster collaboration among the various systems that influence young people, including schools, juvenile justice, social services, and physical and mental health service systems to respond to the myriad needs of young people.
We believe that helping kids and young adults where they live, learn, and earn will significantly improve their chances for a brighter, healthier future.
Meaningful change begins with understanding, relationship building, and shared learning. As a Foundation, we want to support plan and implement projects that matter deeply to our communities.
While we cannot single-handedly address the root causes of our region’s most pressing health and well-being challenges, we can support the conditions for progress by elevating lived experience and fostering collaboration across service silos and geographic boundaries.
The connection between education and health and well-being includes key issues such as graduating from high school, enrollment in higher education, educational attainment in general, language and literacy, and early childhood education and development.
Content source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Social Determinants of Health
The connection between where a person lives (e.g., housing, neighborhood, and environment) and his or her health and well-being. Articles cover such topics as quality of housing, access to transportation, availability of healthy foods, quality of the water or air, and neighborhood crime and violence.
Content source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Social Determinants of Health
The connection between characteristics of the contexts within which people live, learn, work, and play, and their health and well-being. Articles cover such topics as cohesion within a community, civic participation, discrimination, conditions in the workplace, and incarceration.
Content source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Social Determinants of Health
The connection between people’s access to and understanding of health services and their own health. This domain includes key issues such as access to healthcare, access to primary care, health insurance coverage, and health literacy.
Content source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Social Determinants of Health
The connection between the financial resources people have (e.g., income, cost of living, and socioeconomic status) and their health. This domain includes key issues such as poverty, employment, food security, and housing stability.
Content source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Social Determinants of Health
