News

RFP Announcement: in Partnership with The East Bay Foundation on Aging

October 1, 2008

As one of the fastest growing states in the nation, California is experiencing profound demographic shifts. Among these is a growing elderly population. In the Bay Area, people aged 60 years and older make up an increasing portion of the total population. Even today, Bay Area residents are already older on average than people in other parts of the country. This trend, combined with increases in chronic illness, the need for long-term care, and a financially constrained health care system, underscore the critical need to address the impact of these changes on Bay Area communities and on nonprofits serving senior populations.

The San Francisco Foundation’s newest supporting organization, the East Bay Foundation on Aging (EBFA), is a grantmaking partner committed to service to East Bay seniors through grants to nonprofit organizations in Alameda and Contra Costa Counties. Founded with the proceeds from the sale of the historic Matilda Brown Home for Elderly Women in Oakland, the East Bay Foundation on Aging has an annual grantmaking budget of up to $300,000 and seeks to fund organizations serving seniors in the East Bay with programs that promote aging in place, improve access to healthcare for older adults, and support caregivers, including nurses, family members and home health workers.

How to Apply: Proposals are by invitation only and will be accepted through Grantee Center until 11:59 p.m. on Friday, December 5, 2008. (Assistance will be available until 5:00 p.m.)

Approved proposals will be announced on March 6, 2009, and the grant period will begin April 1, 2009.

For more guidelines and details, please click here to download the PDF of the Request for Proposals (RFP).

Recent News

Sandra R. Hernández, M.D. Co-Chairs Universal Healthcare Council

In February 2006, San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom announced the formation of the Universal Healthcare Council. There are an estimated 120,000 uninsured San Franciscans (children and adults) who have difficulty accessing needed health services. These residents have limited access to routine preventative care, suffer from poorer health outcomes, delay seeking treatment when ill, and ultimately rely on more costly episodic or emergency care for health conditions that could be treated in primary care settings. The Council's task is to make a recommendation on the most appropriate mechanism to expand health access to San Francisco's uninsured residents. Mayor Newsom appointed Sandra R. Hernández, M.D, CEO of The San Francisco Foundation and former director of the Department of Public Health, and Lloyd Dean, Chief Executive Officer of Catholic Health Care West, as co-chairs of the Council. The Council includes a broad range of experts in the healthcare industry (i.e., administrators, practitioners, researchers, and foundations), members of community based organizations, and representatives from the labor and business communities.

The Council completed its work in June 2006. Read the Executive Summary of the Health Access Program (PDF).

Community Health Proactive Work: Nutrition and Physical Activity

The Community Health program has identified the need to be engaged in proactive philanthropic activities, in addition to the Program's responsive grantmaking, in order to promote and advance health and wellness in the five-county Bay Area. One health area in which Community Health is engaged in proactive work is nutrition and physical activity. The rising number of overweight and obese children and adults, along with the corresponding increase in costs resulting from obesity due to individual health impacts and overall healthcare costs, has highlighted the need for Community Health's involvement. Furthermore, statewide and regional activity promoting healthy nutrition and increased physical activity led the Community Health Program staff to determine that this issue was indeed a timely one to address through proactive work.

Through this work, we seek to balance modifying individual behavior with a greater focus on changing the social and physical environments that contribute to poor nutrition and sedentary behavior. The majority of the barriers to healthy nutrition and physical activity are rooted in the social and physical environments in which we live. It is Community Health's intention to mobilize resources in support of efforts that address the role that the surrounding environment plays on a community's ability to access healthy foods and engage in physical activity.

Recent federal law highlights the importance of school environments in contributing to the health and wellness of children and youth. Section 204 of Public Law 108-265 requires every school district participating in the national school lunch program to establish a local School Wellness Policy by the start of the 2006 school year. Targeted resources and support for wellness policy implementation activities will strengthen school districts' ability to successfully implement their Wellness Policy.

Wellness Policy Mini Grant Program Concludes

As part of its proactive work in the area of nutrition and physical activity, the Community Health Program of The San Francisco Foundation developed a mini-grants program, Healthy Schools, Thriving Students: Supporting Local School Wellness Policies. The purpose of this program was to provide funding to school districts to implement adopted Wellness Policies and to increase community participation in implementation and/or monitoring activities.

Under the Healthy Schools Thriving Students Mini-Grant Program, the Community Health Program awarded thirteen mini-grants of $5,000 each to twelve school districts.   The six-month mini grants began on September 1, 2006 and concluded on February 28, 2007.  Community Health staff would like to thank all of the school districts that applied for funding through this project and would like to congratulate the school districts that received funding. 

The Wellness Policy mini-grant program had three objectives:

• Objective 1:  Strengthen schools’ ability to implement the nutrition education goals contained in the Wellness Policy.
• Objective 2:  Support implementation of the physical activity goals contained in the Wellness Policy.
• Objective 3:  Support efforts to increase and strengthen the role of community members in Wellness Policy implementation and ongoing monitoring.

A range of activities were funded including nutrition education for elementary school students, comprehensive Wellness Policy orientation for staff, town hall meetings to inform and involve parents, and the creation of a Wellness Policy implementation model through the identification and training of Wellness Policy Implementers.  Please click on a list of funded projects (MS word) for a list of the school districts funded by the Healthy Schools Thriving Students program and a brief description of each project.

The Wellness Policy mini-grant program was successful in helping school districts implement their wellness policies during the first six months of the 2006 school year.  Community Health staff would like to acknowledge all district staff and community members in the Bay Area committed to Wellness Policy implementation, and wish you all ongoing success in your efforts to support thriving students through healthier school environments. 

Community Health Proactive Work: Nutrition and Physical Activity

Community Health’s proactive work in the area of nutrition and physical activity also included studying the impact of the built environment (or our surroundings that are constructed by people: buildings, roads, parks etc.) on physical activity and health.  According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) less than one-third of adults engage in the recommended amount of daily physical activity.  The CDC and the American College of Sports Medicine recommend that adults engage in at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity physical activity on most days, preferably all days, to have a beneficial effect on their health.  In addition, children have become increasingly sedentary as well—over 43% of children watch more than two hours of television each day, according to the CDC.   

The lack of physical activity among children and adults alike, and the related increase in the obesity rate, has paralleled changes in the built environment.  Community Health staff found that the majority of the barriers to physical activity, including convenient access and (perceived) lack of safety, are rooted in the physical environments in which we live.  For example, according to a 2002 study of environmental health indicators, 80% of North Americans live in towns and cities and spend 90% of their time indoors.  In communities throughout the Bay Area the built environment is increasingly recognized as a critical factor in addressing the underlying causes of obesity.   

In January 2007, Community Health staff, together with staff from The California Endowment, gave a power point presentation (MS ppt) on the connection between the built environment and health to the Bay Area Health Funders Work Group.  The goal of the presentation was to deepen the group’s understanding of the built environment and its connection to health, showcase how communities are working to improve the built environment and community health, and share challenges and opportunities for funding in this arena.  For additional background on the built environment and health please download a list of key articles (MS word).