Our foundation strives to encourage and sustain our vision of “healthy people in healthy communities” by supporting organizations which promote oral health, healthy lifestyles and health equity to communities in the Mid-Ohio Valley. We asked Senior Program Officer Sr. Molly Bauer to reflect on how organizations can respond to our vision with this question:
“What would you like people to know about the SHF?”
As we look forward to receiving letters of inquiry for our spring 2018 grant cycle, I would like applicants to be aware that we value original, creative, out of the box ideas on ways to promote oral health, healthy lifestyle and/or health equity. We are open to exploring and piloting innovative projects that have the potential to address or prevent chronic disease.
Likewise, we look for proposals and strategies that are evidence-based and are recognized as solutions that make it easier for people to be healthy in their neighborhoods, schools and workplaces. We are more than willing to pilot a project in one county that has been successful in other areas of the nation so additional data can be gathered to bring a successful intervention to scale, especially in our rural counties. As we endeavor to help create a culture of health in the Mid-Ohio Valley we realize that resized urban strategies do not always translate to rural WV. We also know that many rural areas in the U.S. are implementing successful strategies that are advancing community health. A wonderful resource is “What Works? Strategies to Improve Rural Health”. Talk with us if you are aware of a successful rural health strategy that you believe would work in your local area.
To contact Sr. Molly Bauer for any questions or information, email her at mbauer@sistershealthfdn.org or call the office at (304)-424-6080. Reminder: Spring cycle Letters of Inquiry and Basic/Needs Direct Service applications are due January 24, 2018.