San Diego, CA. January 31, 2020. Happy New Year! At Alliance Healthcare Foundation, we kicked off 2020 with some exciting happenings:

Impact Investment: Expanding Access to Mental Health Services

Like many foundations across the country, we are constantly evaluating how we can have the most positive impact with limited resources. Alliance aims to activate as much of its capital as possible – including our endowed corpus – in ways that advance our mission and accelerate systemic positive change. To that end, Alliance makes a variety of investments ranging from traditional grants to “impact investments” that are aligned to the mission. These investments are largely focused on helping to fuel innovative models that disrupt the status-quo.

One such recent impact investment is with Concert Health, in support of its efforts to scale behavioral health integration services through technology-enabled collaborative care. In California, fewer than 40% of individuals with mental illness are able to receive care, and this is especially challenging for low income persons, as fewer than half of psychiatrists serve MediCal patients. This disparity is even more pronounced in Imperial County where there is only 1 mental health professional per 790 residents, far below the statewide average of 1 per 310 residents, which is still deemed insufficient to meet the demand.

It has been widely demonstrated that collaborative care (a primary care team partnered with a behavioral health manager and consulting psychiatrist) improves both physical and mental health outcomes for patients with depression and anxiety. The problem is that access to collaborative care services is still very limited; tends to be deployed on-site, and only in some provider practices. If there were a way to deploy the model remotely, the ability to scale would significantly increase. That’s why Alliance Healthcare Foundation joined the California Healthcare Foundation’s Health Innovation Fund in a joint investment in start-up Concert Health.

To learn more about how Concert Health will use the investment to expand in California, click here to read CHCF’s recent blog post.

Welcome our Newest AHF Team Member

We’re happy to introduce our newest staff member, Min Kim. Min joins us as a Program Officer. She is a Baltimore native who has worked extensively against the currents of social injustice and how they affect the health and wellbeing of individuals and communities. She especially believes in dismantling power dynamics that cause inequities by building diverse, deep, meaningful relationships. Min has spent her time supporting the cause at the Baltimore City Health Department’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau, Family League of Baltimore, Maryland Department of Health’s Office of Minority Health and Health Disparities, and Thread as a Director of Opportunities and Support Systems. She holds both her B.S. and M.S. in Health Science from Towson University in Baltimore, MD, and is also a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES). Welcome to the team, Min!

 

News from Imperial Valley

The newly established Imperial Valley Wellness Foundation has hired Victor Jaime as its Interim CEO. Victor, a native of Imperial Valley and a first-generation college student who attended and graduated from Imperial Valley College (IVC). He went on to work for the Imperial Valley College and recently retired after a long-celebrated career. A leader through and through, Victor served on many state, regional and local educational committees, including State Regional Coordinator for the Extended Opportunity Programs and Services (EOPS) Program and President of SDICCCA (San Diego-Imperial Counties Community Colleges Association). Currently, Victor serves on the Dean’s Advisory Council for SDSU/Imperial Valley, and was appointed to the Imperial County Board of Education in March, 2019 for which he currently serves as the Vice-President of the Board.

Deeply involved in other areas of the community, Victor has held many leadership positions, including being a charter member and officer of the Imperial Rotary Club; Past Grand Knight for Knights of Columbus, Cristo Rey Council 16073, and he currently serves on the Board of Directors and past Board Chair for First Imperial Credit Union, as well as serving on the IVC Foundation Board.

The Imperial Valley Wellness Foundation is lucky to add his talents to their wonderful efforts!

Reminder! Funding Opportunity: Imperial Valley Mission Support

Imperial Valley Wellness Foundation has opened its Mission Support application cycle, previously administered by Alliance. The funding ranges from $5,000 to $25,000 per awardee, totaling $85,000 for 2020. Applications opened January 15 and close March 2. Nonprofits serving Imperial Valley that are advancing health and wellness for those in need may apply.

##########About Alliance Healthcare Foundation

We work to advance health and wellness for the most vulnerable in San Diego and Imperial counties through collaborative funding, convening and advocacy.

We envision a San Diego and Imperial County region where equitable health resources lead to universal health and well-being. We believe wellness is a state of complete physical, mental, spiritual, economic and social well-being, and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.

We currently operate a portfolio of five programs:

i2 Innovation Initiative — also referred to as “venture philanthropy”—based on the thesis that innovation capital (often high risk, high reward) is needed to transform the current paradigm (high cost and poor outcomes) and improve quality, increase capacity and reduce costs;

Mission Support—based on the belief that trusting those closest to our constituents and providing core operating support for great organizations will best advance our mission;

Responsive Funding—based on the belief that it is important to be responsive to time-sensitive community needs and opportunities;

InvestUp—based on the belief that it is important to actively and strategically be looking for ways to meaningfully advance our mission and it is worth spending some or all of our corpus—beyond the earnings off of our endowment—if we can substantively, sustainably and positively change the dynamics; and

Impact Investments–based on the thesis that we can activate our investment portfolio to achieve more positive impact.

Our History. In 1982, the San Diego Community Healthcare Alliance (Alliance) created the first Preferred Provider Organization/Network (PPO) in the United States. From 1989 through 1994, the Alliance funded Alliance Healthcare Foundation (AHF) through profits from its Community Care Network (CCN) operations. In 1994, Alliance sold CCN to a national healthcare company and channeled the proceeds from CCN’s sale into an endowment of $83 million for AHF. That endowment has enabled funding of approximately $64 million (USD) in direct funding and approximately $41 million (USD) from national and local funding partners in San Diego and Imperial counties. Our endowment holds approximately $80 million in assets today, with funding for programs and operations derived from endowment investment earnings.

AHF Media contact:
Karen Winston, Communications Director, Alliance Healthcare Foundation
P 858-348-6472 E karen.winston@alliancehf.org