Dear AITF Members:
It has become increasingly clear that the COVID-19 pandemic will be with us for some time. Its devastating effects are intensifying. The long-term economic impact of the events of this extraordinary year is becoming more apparent as millions have fallen into poverty. The experiences of those grappling with unemployment and health challenges is felt in the neighborhoods, cities, towns, and regions in which anchor institutions are situated.
As our continued research to identify and highlight how anchors are responding in their communities illustrates, numerous anchor institutions have been engaged in collaborative efforts to solve local problems throughout the context of our times. Some of the anchor institutions that are most rooted in their local communities have been confronted with significant financial and other forms of adversity themselves. However, they are still expected to be crucial assets in their communities. The pandemic and the racial justice movement have challenged anchors to extend well beyond their existing community partnerships. This is important and necessary work. But it is not adequately supported, especially for anchors without substantial budgets and revenue streams.
AITF’s evolving policy strategy will launch with a policy brief advocating for greater support for anchor institutions to pursue the substantial work required to strengthen communities in the years to come. The deep racial and other inequities exacerbated by recent events will require another level of work from anchors in their localities. Policy that embraces this work, and recognizes its value in rebuilding and reimagining communities would play a catalytic role in expanding the impact of anchor institution-community partnerships.
We have developed a new online exchange via Microsoft Teams for ongoing communication among AITF members. The latest iteration of our policy brief has been posted on this exchange for feedback from members. If you wish to be added to this online platform, please let me know, and we will send you an invitation to join.
While AITF is not holding our usual annual conference this year, crucial discussions are taking place in smaller groups, such as our subgroups, our Advisory Council, and the new online exchange. On November 5, all four of our subgroups will meet virtually, these subgroups – Higher Education Presidents, Health Professionals, Economic Development Professionals, and Education. Across their various discussions, these subgroups will address issues such as the future of social mobility given the dramatic disruptions to educational and professional progress for underserved populations, approaches to the social determinants of health given the unique impact of COVID-19 on healthcare provision, hiring and procurement with a racial equity lens, and other concerns.
Overall, we have been focusing our efforts on content that can help anchors and communities navigate these turbulent times and effectively position themselves for the complexities of the future. We are emphasizing how to influence policy to expand support for the unique contributions that anchor institutions can bring to the uncertain road ahead, how to continue to provide a forum for mutual support and learning among anchor institution leaders, and how to showcase the range of ways in which anchors are engaging in and strengthening their communities in the midst of a sweeping crisis.
Note that our December 3 webinar (1:00 to 2:30pm EST) will feature a variety of anchor institution leaders sharing their experiences in their communities in recent months. We have now opened registration for this event, which will include a welcome from AITF Founding Chair, Ira Harkavy, an update from me, and remarks from Nancy Cantor, Chancellor, Rutgers University-Newark, and AITF Advisory Council Co-Chair; David Perlstein, President/CEO, SBH Health System, and AITF Advisory Council Co-Chair; Brenda Battle, Vice President for Care Delivery Innovation and Chief Diversity and Inclusion Officer, University of Chicago Medicine, and AITF Advisory Council Member; Sheryl Davis, Executive Director, San Francisco Human Rights Commission, and AITF Advisory Council Member; and Tony Mestres, President and CEO, the Seattle Foundation. I hope you will be able to join this important event. You can register here: https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/3372828194466860048
Finally, thanks so much to those who have financial supported AITF this year: The Ford Foundation, The Netter Center for Community Partnerships, the Prudential Foundation, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Teagle Foundation. These are all loyal supporters, who would have ordinarily supported the conference or other efforts. We very much appreciate your willingness to support us as we have adapted to unusual circumstances.
Best Regards,
David
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Here are some relevant articles and updates from the field.
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Every single patient that heads to a RWJBarnabas Health facility will be soon be screened for social determinants of health and, if needed, referred to services for ongoing support, officials announced Tuesday. SDOHs are social or environmental factors in a patient's life—such as their access to healthy food, safe housing or transportation—that can ultimately impact their health.
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The Healthcare Anchor Network, a national collaboration of leading health care systems, has published the “Racism is a Public Health Crisis” statement signed by 39 health systems. It is stated that “The health systems we represent are deeply woven into the fabric of the communities we serve, live, and work in, and we stand united as frontline organizations against racism, injustice, and inaction.”
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After the owner of Mercy Philadelphia Hospital announced in February that it would end inpatient care at the West Philadelphia safety-net facility, Penn Medicine, Public Health Management Corporation, Trinity Health Mid-Atlantic and Independence Blue Cross have formed a coalition to transform Mercy Catholic Medical Center campus in an innovative partnership to care for the West Philadelphia community.
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The Victoria Public Library, VA, has partnered with Meals on Wheels Victoria, a meal delivery service for senior citizens, to deliver materials to clients who are unable to safely visit the library during the COVID-19 pandemic. The library provides Meals on Wheels clients with request forms that allow them to indicate what type of materials they want and to request specific authors, genres or topics. Every two weeks, Meals on Wheels delivery drivers deliver new items and pick up used materials to be returned.
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The American Library Association (ALA) has announced plans to award nearly $2 million to small and rural libraries in 2020 and 2021 to help them address issues of concern in their communities. Through Libraries Transforming Communities: Focus on Small and Rural Libraries, up to 650 U.S. libraries in small and rural communities will receive $3,000 to tackle issues ranging from media literacy to COVID-19 safety to unemployment. The initiative is part of ALA’s longtime commitment to preparing library workers for the expanding role of libraries.
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The Talloires Network marked its 15th anniversary with the launch of a new name and logo and the awarding of five university-community partnerships responding to COVID-19 this week. From now on it will be known as the ‘Talloires Network of Engaged Universities’ to better reflect its new initiatives and the commitment of its 406 member institutions to build and support the university-community engagement movement.
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A new book on Academic Freedom, Institutional Autonomy, and the Future of Democracy (authors: Sjur Bergan, Tony Gallagher and Ira Harkavy eds.) has just been published and is now available through the Council of Europe bookstore. Building on the Global Forum held in Strasbourg in June 2019, authors from Europe, North America, Asia, Australia and the Mediterranean region explore the importance of academic freedom and institutional autonomy to democracy.
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Watershed Partnerships, a podcast to highlight anchor institutions work through the lens of breakthrough collaborations, has been released to bring useful stories of breakthrough collaborations to build great communities. It will explore successful collaborations in water resources management, workforce development, equity and racial justice, and place-making infrastructure, and always offer three take-aways to consider.
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Christine Goggins has chosen to be a violence recovery specialist with UChicago Medicine because of her personal history with grief that her friend Blair was shot and killed thirteen years ago. The Violence Recovery Program opened in 2018 to serve adult and pediatric trauma patients and their families at the University of Chicago Medicine. The recovery program is part of an emerging field of hospital-based violence intervention programs that emphasize the urgent need to treat not only physical wounds of violence but also the emotional and mental trauma and social upheaval, such as loss of a job, that victims suffer.
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Community colleges tend to serve the most vulnerable student populations, such as low-income or first-generation students. They also serve more students of color, particularly Latinx students. About 65 percent of the students served by Cerritos College are Latinx. The college has been gathering information through surveys and aid applications to determine what students need most during this pandemic time. The college has given away 300 laptops and just placed an order for 200 more and the campus gym is now a study hall for the fall, where students can sign up for two-hour increments of study time at tables placed 10 feet apart. Reynolds Community College in Virginia is open four days per week to provide critical support services, like advising, financial aid and disability services.
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In this Times Op-Ed, Klinenberg builds on that idea with a suggestion for the 2020 election: Public libraries, which have long served as polling places, should play an even larger role than they had in past elections. In the midst of a pandemic, they should provide secure ballot boxes where voters can drop off early and absentee ballots, reducing the burden on the Postal Service while allowing people to vote safely.
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In response to the crisis, in late March, the University of Chicago announced a program to provide emergency support and address some of the immediate needs of local residents, businesses, and community-based nonprofits on the South Side as they navigate the COVID-19 pandemic. The University has implemented a suite of what might be labeled “anchor institution policies,” which are featured on its UChicago Local website.
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UPenn’s 2020-21 academic theme year would be the Year of Civic Engagement—a shift from the previously announced Year of Jazz. Piloting this theme year are faculty members from three centers actively involved with civic engagement: the Netter Center for Community Partnerships, Civic House, and the SNF Paideia Program at Penn. “I think what’s empowering about the theme this year is that it’s for everybody,” says Ira Harkavy, founding director of the Netter Center. The Netter Center, Civic House, and Paideia, for example, put together a curated list of civic engagement opportunities to serve as an entry point to learn more about how to get involved with the Philadelphia community through existing programming and partnerships. All of the activities have been adapted for virtual engagement.
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The American Association of Academic Medical Colleges has awarded Rush Medical College the 2020 Spencer Foreman Award for Outstanding Community Engagement, citing the college’s work to protect Chicago’s homeless population from COVID-19 in choosing it as the recipient of the award, which recognizes a medical school or teaching hospital that “goes well beyond the traditional role of academic medicine and reaches communities whose needs are not being met through the traditional health delivery system.”
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Communities that rely on student spending and higher education jobs are struggling with fiscal woes and Covid-19 fears as the school year begins. The loss of international students — a major source of revenue for many U.S. colleges and universities — represents a particularly brutal loss for schools and the towns they support.
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Lead poisoning robs children of opportunity, and the impact is felt greatest in underserved communities. Faculty and students at Penn are bringing scientific and policy attention to the problem, while empowering young people to minimize their risk and be leaders for change.
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To get a sense of how young people are responding to the Covid-19 Pandemic, Nonprofit Quarterly (NPQ) partnered with the Netter Center for Community Partnerships at the University of Pennsylvania to interview students involved with Netter Center’s university-assisted community school programs. It is found that despite the challenges of remote learning, students were generally resilient. A community school teacher argued that shutdown’s “disruption” could improve public school pedagogy despite its costs and the community school model of wrap-around supports received widely positive feedback from community school students.
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Academic Journal Articles: |
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Abstract: The purpose of this qualitative study is to examine college and university faculty members’ perspectives on if and in what ways does community engaged teaching influence their students’ learning. We ground our study in the tradition of interpretative study, as well as the conceptualization of learning put forth by Neumann (2005). Based on interviews with 14 faculty members (across a range of institutional type, rank, discipline, geographic location, and demographics) who have conducted community engaged teaching currently or within the past five years, participants’ narratives highlighted a meta-theme of their students learning to grapple with complexity. Grappling with complexity is comprised of three sub-themes of learning, including: recognizing the intricacies of applying theory to real-world problems, shifting from deficit to asset thinking, and confronting power structures in society. Implications for theory and practice are included.
The Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement (JHEOE) has announced the publication of its latest issue, 24(2) September 2020. This issue of JHEOE presents a series of research articles, projects with promise, reflective essays, and book reviews that are available for download at this link.
Reference: Heasley, C., & Terosky, A. L. (2020). Grappling with Complexity. Journal of Higher Education Outreach and Engagement, 24(2), 19-36.
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Hospitals serve as anchor institutions in many U.S. communities and make contributions to bolster population health and reduce preventable death. Most studies to date have focused on nonprofit hospitals, but there may be a significant opportunity for for-profits to fill this role in both urban and rural communities. For-profit hospitals are more likely to be located in counties with higher uninsurance rates and lower self-rated health. After controlling for hospital and county characteristics, we found a significant and positive relationship between for-profit hospital presence and higher county unemployment, higher uninsured rates, and the number of residents reporting poor/fair health. For-profit hospitals were also less likely to be located in states that had expanded Medicaid or which had certificate-of-need laws. Policymakers and researchers should evaluate the current state of these contributions and develop incentives to encourage more anchor activities to benet economically vulnerable communities in the U.S.
Reference: Cronin, C. E., Franz, B., Choyke, K., Rodriguez, V., & Gran, B. K. (2020). For-Profit Hospitals Have a Unique Opportunity to Serve as Anchor Institutions in the US.
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This article provides the assessment results from a community-engaged field education unit for social work students situated within a neighborhood setting in the South-Central region of the United States. A community-university partnership between several community institutions and a school of social work created the Southside Initiative (SSI) as a means to build capacity within the Oaks neighborhood. This neighborhood lacked professional social workers but was rich in other types of assets. The lessons learned from this initiative provide preliminary understanding about the benefits, complexity, and challenges of building and sustaining community-rooted practicum placements in neighborhood settings.
Reference: Brady, S. R., Pharris, A. B., & Dunnells, Z. D. (2020). Building community-engaged practicum units through anchor institutions: the case of Southside Initiative. Journal of Community Practice, 1-11.
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Abstract: This research explored and documented the main strategies that anchor institutions in North America and Australia are using to create place-based change. Five clear strategies emerged which capture how anchor institutions are intentionally directing their economic power towards better social, economic and environmental outcomes in the communities they are based in. These five strategies are:
- Spending: considering how every dollar which is spent by the organization could be used to create opportunities in the local economy.
- Employment: considering how all aspects of HR, from recruitment and retention to internal progression pathways and external partnerships, could be used to benefit the local community, particularly those groups that are most disadvantaged or furthest away from the labor market.
- Investment: aligning financial investments, including things such as banking, endowments, pensions and other investments with social, economic and environmental objectives for the place that the anchor is based in.
- Place-making: using infrastructure investment for new developments and existing physical assets to benefit the local community.
- Community Partnerships: using the assets of the anchor organization to benefit the local community, by working in partnership, developing capacity and supporting civic action.
Reference: Slay, J. (2020) The quiet revolution: how anchor organizations in North America and Australia are using their economic power to build wealth and tackle disadvantage in local communities.
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