Grantmaking is a primary means by which the Sisters Health Foundation advances its mission by partnering with agencies and organizations to address significant health issues. As of fall 2021, the Foundation Board has approved 1,666 grant requests representing more than $21.7 million in funding.
Through our grantmaking, we seek to support projects and strategies that will advance Healthy Eating, Active Living; Thriving Neighborhoods; or Mental Health and Addiction in the Mid-Ohio Valley.
Healthy Eating, Active Living
We support projects and strategies that prevent or manage chronic health conditions by promoting healthy eating and active living through one or more of the following:
- Education about the health benefits of a healthy weight, good nutrition, and physical activity
- Efforts that encourage and support behavior change
- Environmental changes that make healthy choices the easy choices
- Increased access and distribution of healthy foods
- Promotion and provision of opportunities for increased physical activity
- Coalition and cross-sector collaboration that promotes healthy eating and active living through policy or programmatic change
Thriving Neighborhoods
We support projects and strategies that address improving neighborhood conditions where people live, learn, work, and play so that everyone has the ability to achieve their full health potential by:
- Improving the accessibility, affordability, and quality of health and health care
- Improving access to reliable transportation options so people can reach needed health and social services
- Improving access to stable and safe housing to foster a healthy living environment
- Supporting efforts to increase connections to community resources and to one another to foster an environment of social connectedness and belonging
- Improving access to high-quality early childhood programs including in-home programs designed to improve maternal and child health, parenting skills, and child development as well as programs supporting the health and well-being of the preK-12 student population
- Supporting coalition and cross-sector collaboration that improves neighborhood conditions and advances policy or programmatic change
Mental Health and Addiction
We support projects and strategies that address mental health and/or addiction. Related to mental health, we are interested in the area of health promotion and prevention. Related to addiction, we are interested in the areas of prevention, early intervention, and recovery support. We are especially interested in evidence-based programs focused on:
- Prevention activities such as education and stigma reduction of mental health and substance use disorders; trauma-informed care practices and supportive environments in schools, churches, workplaces, and other community settings; and provision of mental health services in schools and school-based health clinics
- Early intervention activities such as identifying and reducing individual risk factors for substance use, improving connections to needed services across various systems, and harm reduction efforts to reduce the number of deaths and the spread of disease
- Building the behavioral health workforce, including peer support specialists/peer recovery supporters, supporting high school and college pipeline programming, and encouraging careers in behavioral health
- Supporting people in recovery with positive supports such as housing, connections to employment, and transportation
- Coalition and cross-sector collaboration that advances policy or programmatic change
