Advancing Health Equity

At the direction of its members, HLC developed and began implementation of a work plan focused on health equity, with special focus on six areas: addressing social determinants of health, eliminating variations in care delivery, addressing diversity challenges in the workforce and clinical trials, improving behavioral health, enhancing interoperability standards, and expanding broadband access.

Recognizing that communities across the United States are addressing many of these topics, HLC is creating a Compendium of Best Practices with links to programs that can serve as examples for others looking to address health equity. Especially worthy community programs receive HLC’s Redefining American Healthcare Award to draw attention to existing initiatives that effectively address and improve health inequities. These innovative approaches provide an avenue to scale and replicate in other communities, improving upon best practices nationwide.

Resources:

Compendium of Best Practices

  • Reset

119 Programs Found
  • 211

    211 is the most comprehensive source of information about local resources and services in the country. It’s powered by people: thousands of caring, local experts are available to help, 24/7. Calls to 211 are confidential and can be anonymous. The 211 network in the United States responds to more than 20 million requests for help help meeting basic needs like housing, food, transportation, healthcare, vaccination and health epidemic information.


    Area of Focus: Vaccine Acceptance

  • AccessHealth Spartanburg
    Redefining American Healthcare Award Winner

    AccessHealth Spartanburg helps improve health care access for the uninsured of Spartanburg, Cherokee, and Union counties through sustainable health system change that will result in better health outcomes and 100% access to effective, efficient, safe, timely, patient-centered, and equitable healthcare.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Active Minds

    Active Minds is the nation’s premier nonprofit organization supporting mental health awareness and education for young adults. We are dedicated to saving lives and to building stronger families and communities. Through education, research, advocacy, and a focus on young adults ages 14–25, Active Minds is opening up the conversation about mental health and creating lasting change in the way mental health is talked about, cared for, and valued in the United States.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Behavioral Health

  • Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium

    The Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium is a non-profit Tribal health organization designed to meet the unique health needs of Alaska Native and American Indian people living in Alaska. ANTHC provides world-class health services, which include comprehensive medical services at the Alaska Native Medical Center, wellness programs, disease research and prevention, rural provider training and rural water and sanitation systems construction.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Behavioral Health

  • AME Zion Church

    AME Zion churches in North Carolina serves as partners, co-learners, and advisors to DukeHealth’s research programs to ensure that clinical trials participation accurately reflects the communities of North Carolina. Through combined resources and expertise, the program aims to foster trust, transparency, and relationships among researchers, community, and clergy, with the ultimate goal of reaching underserved and underrepresented populations.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Increasing Clinical Trial Diversity

  • Angel Flight West

    Angel Flight West delivers health and hope using donated flights to serve those with healthcare or other compelling human needs. In the air, Angel Flight West links volunteer pilots and commercial airlines with people whose non-emergency health needs require air transportation to access care. 

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Appetite for Change

    We believe food is the key ingredient to nourishing wellbeing. Systemic barriers make accessing fresh food in North Minneapolis a challenge for many. Through youth and workforce development programs, social enterprises, and policy initiatives, we build community capacity to engage with the food system in a fresh and sustainable way.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Arizona Complete Health

    Arizona Complete Health builds upon a tradition of excellence started by Health Net of Arizona and Cenpatico Integrated Care. Health Net of Arizona was founded in Tucson in 1981 as Intergroup of Arizona, and has a proud history of serving Arizonans statewide through Medicare Advantage, employer-based coverage, Marketplace and AHCCCS. Cenpatico Integrated Care began serving Arizonans in 2005, with a special focus on improving access to community-based behavioral health services and emphasizing person-centered, whole health care for individuals.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Behavioral Health

  • Arizona Partnership for Healthy Communities (APHC)

    APHC is a statewide collaboration of more than 30 nonprofits, foundations, businesses, and government agencies. APHC creates multi-sector collaborations by bringing together the public health, housing, transportation, community development, and economic development fields.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Arizona Telecommunications and Information Council (ATIC)
    Redefining American Healthcare Award Winner

    A non-profit organization that provides expertise to effectively guide telecommunications and digital technology policy development and deployment.


    Area of Focus: Broadband Access

  • Benefits Data Trust

    Benefits Data Trust helps people live healthier, more independent lives by creating smarter ways to access essential benefits and services. We envision a world where eligible people receive dignified and efficient assistance to pay for food, healthcare, and other critical needs. We envision lower healthcare costs, more efficient government, and people who are healthy, economically mobile, and thriving.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • BeneLynk

    BeneLynk is a national provider of innovative outreach and advocacy services to government-sponsored health plans. Their mission is to help these organizations understand and positively impact the Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) in the lives of their members. BeneLynk’s member engagement services identify, document, and overcome SDoH challenges while prioritizing programs that increase risk adjusted revenue and quality performance.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Black Emotional and Mental Health Collective (BEAM)

    BEAM's mission is to remove the barriers that Black people experience getting access to or staying connected with emotional health care and healing through education, training, advocacy, and the creative arts.


    Area of Focus: Behavioral Health

  • Black Men In White Coats

    Black Men In White Coats seeks to to increase the number of black men In The Field of Medicine by exposure, inspiration, and mentoring.  To accomplish this, we are partnering with various medical schools across the country to produce outstanding short documentary videos which bring awareness to this issue that not only affects the black male population, but also the nation as a whole.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Increasing Workforce Diversity

  • Black Women’s Blueprint, Inc.

    We're creating space to seed health and turn the tide on the social determinants of health.  From farming and growing holistic herbs, to offering capacity building and workshops for doulas and midwives, from designing for equity in health care systems to increasing food accessibility on our farm or our mobile van in the cities and towns, we're empowering new paradigms for decolonizing health.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Blue Ridge Area Food Bank

    At the Blue Ridge Area Food Bank we are driven by our core beliefs that hunger is unacceptable; that everyone deserves access to enough food; that food sustains life and nourishes health; and that we are called to serve without judgment.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Bring Change to Mind

    Bring Change to Mind creates multimedia campaigns, curate storytelling movements, and develop youth programs to encourage a diverse cultural conversation around mental health.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Behavioral Health

  • Broward Regional Health Planning Council

    The Broward Regional Health Planning Council's Nurse Family Partnership is an evidence-based, community health program with over 40 years of evidence showing significant improvements in the health and lives of first-time moms and their children living in poverty.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Variations in Care Delivery

  • Build Healthy Places Network

    Build Healthy Places Network's mission is to transform the way organizations work together across the health, community development, and finance sectors to more effectively reduce poverty, advance racial equity, and improve health in neighborhoods across the United States.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • California Primary Care Association

    California Primary Care Association promotes, advocates and facilitates equal access to quality health care for individuals and families in local and surrounding California communities through organized primary care clinics and clinics networks which strive to empower individuals and families served; seek to maintain cost effective, affordable services; recognize cultural diversity and, where appropriate, implement services to meet the linguistic and cultural needs of the population; and organize collectively to strengthen alliances, articulate and address community needs, and maximize networking opportunities. 

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Capital Area Food Bank

    The Capital Area Food Bank provides equitable access to food and opportunity to people struggling with hunger and food insecurity.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Care Ring
    Redefining American Healthcare Award Winner

    Care Ring is a nonprofit organization dedicated to providing health services for the uninsured, underinsured or those lacking access to affordable, high-quality preventive health care.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • CareSource

    CareSource has launched a multifaceted approach to decrease opioids and increase access to treatment. This effort includes an award-winning prescriber outreach program in addition to pharmacy edits and pharmacy lock-in which have resulted in a significant reduction in opioid prescriptions. 

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Behavioral Health

  • Center for Information and Study on Clinical Research Participation (CISCRP)
    Redefining American Healthcare Award Winner

    CISCRP’s core mission is to provide accessible, relevant, useful, high quality educational resources, programs and services that increase awareness and understanding of the clinical research process; recognize and appreciate the unprecedented gift of participation in clinical trials; enhance and enrich the participation experience for patients and their families; and promote engagement and partnership between clinical research professionals, patients and the public.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Increasing Clinical Trial Diversity

  • Central Texas Food Bank

    The Central Texas Food Bank is the largest hunger-relief charity in Central Texas. Their mission is to nourish hungry people and lead the community in the fight against hunger.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Child Ready Program
    Redefining American Healthcare Award Winner

    The Child Ready Program strives to engage communities and healthcare facilities to provide quality care to ill or injured children in certain underserved areas through pediatric emergency care. They prepare community response tactics and promote injury prevention practices for children. They also extend support and guidance to providers caring for the children in need and coordinate a multidisciplinary workforce of providers who are Child Ready.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Chrysalis House
    Redefining American Healthcare Award Winner

    Chrysalis House specializes in treating pregnant and parenting women with substance use disorders.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Behavioral Health

  • Closing the Health Gap

    Through advocacy, education, and community outreach, Closing the Health Gap works collaboratively with hospitals, government, associations, and businesses to address prevalent health disparities and social determinants.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Vaccine Acceptance

  • Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona

    The Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona responds to the root causes of hunger, and seeks to restore dignity, health, opportunity and hope to people living in poverty. Their mission is to change lives in the communities we serve by feeding the hungry today, and building a healthy, hunger-free tomorrow.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Community Health Care Van

    The Community Health Care Van (CHCV), created by Dr. Frederick Altice of the Yale AIDS Program, is a 40-foot, mobile medical clinic that travels directly to New Haven’s poorest neighborhoods impacted by HIV/AIDS, illicit drug use, homelessness and mental illness. It overcomes traditional medical care barriers by bridging the gap to link patients to medical and social services.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Community Servings

    Community Servings’ mission is to actively engage the community to provide scratch-made medically tailored meals to individuals and their families experiencing critical or chronic illness and nutrition insecurity. We commit, in all our programs and business practices, to prioritize racial and economic justice and health equity.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Connecticut Mental Health Center (CMHC)

    CMHC provides recovery-oriented mental health services for over 4,000 people in the Greater New Haven area each year. As a training site for the Yale Department of Psychiatry, the Center hosts trainees in psychiatry, psychology, nursing, social work, and chaplaincy. CMHC is also a center for scientific research into the causes of, and treatments for, mental illness and substance use disorders.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Behavioral Health

  • CW Williams Community Health Clinic

    CW Williams Community Health Clinic improves the spiritual, physical and psychosocial status to the residents of Mecklenburg and surrounding counties by providing access to the highest quality comprehensive family health and ancillary services to all regardless of their inability to pay.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Behavioral Health

  • CyncHealth

    CyncHealth is the state designated health information exchange for Nebraska. With near-universal participation in the state, CyncHealth makes accessing patient information and records seamless to put the flow back in your workflow, support safe, effective, high-quality care, and improve patient outcomes.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Interoperability

  • Delighted to Doula

    Delighted to Doula Birth Services exists to eliminate maternal mortality in communities that
    have the lowest quality of care by offering anti-bias-based, judgment-free education and
    postpartum support to mothers.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Variations in Care Delivery

  • Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBIC)
    Redefining American Healthcare Award Winner

    The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, is a federally recognized Indian Tribe committed to meeting the needs of its people. EBIC identified three health issues – diabetes, substance abuse, and depression – to prioritize within its services to the community.


    Area of Focus: Behavioral Health

  • Empire Health Foundation
    Redefining American Healthcare Award Winner

    Empire Health Foundation boldly advances health equity in eastern Washington and beyond. As collaborators, we pursue innovative solutions and transform systems to improve health and quality of life.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • EverThrive Illinois

    EverThrive Illinois advocates for equitable health policies, encourages community engagement, and develops strategic partnerships that lead to innovative solutions and prioritize the needs of the communities we serve.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Vaccine Acceptance

  • Everyone On

    EveryoneOn helps unlock social and economic opportunity by connecting people in underserved communities to affordable internet service and computers, and providing digital skills trainings.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Broadband Access

  • Feed More

    Feed More collects, prepares and distributes food in order to bring hunger relief to neighbors in need throughout Central Virginia.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Feeding America

    Feeding America is the largest hunger-relief organization in the United States. Our mission is to advance change in America by ensuring equitable access to nutritious food for all in partnership with food banks, policymakers, supporters, and the communities we serve.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • First 5 LA

    First 5 LA, in partnership with others, strengthens families, communities, and systems of services and supports so all children in L.A. County enter kindergarten ready to succeed in school and life.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Variations in Care Delivery

  • God’s Love We Deliver

    The mission of God’s Love We Deliver is to improve the health and well-being of men, women and children living with HIV/AIDS, cancer and other serious illnesses by alleviating hunger and malnutrition. We prepare and deliver nutritious, high-quality meals to people who, because of their illness, are unable to provide or prepare meals for themselves. We also provide illness-specific nutrition education and counseling to our clients, families, care providers and other service organizations.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Great Plains Food Bank

     The Great Plains Food Bank’s mission is to end hunger together. We are the largest hunger-relief organization in North Dakota and serve as its only food bank. Each year, we touch the lives of one in six individuals who seek emergency food assistance. 

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Greater Chicago Food Depository

    The Food Depository is part of a united community effort working to bring food, dignity and hope to our Cook County neighbors. We act as the hub for a network of more than 700 food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters and other programs. These programs provide food where it’s most needed. We also address the root causes of hunger. Public benefits outreach and job training programs offer support for our neighbors to overcome poverty.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Greater Cleveland Food Bank

    The Greater Cleveland Food Bank works to ensure that everyone in their communities has the nutritious food they need every day. 

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Green & Healthy Home Initiative

    The Green & Healthy Homes Initiative is dedicated to addressing the social determinants of health and the advancement of racial and health equity through the creation of healthy, safe and energy efficient homes. By delivering a standard of excellence in its work, GHHI aims to eradicate the negative health impacts of unhealthy housing and unjust policies for children, seniors and families to ensure better health, economic and social outcomes for low-income communities of color.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • HEAL Collaborative

    HEAL is a not-for-profit community-based organization that focuses on Educating, Informing, Advocating and Engaging under-served minority populations on the availability of healthcare-related services, accessibility to emerging treatment options, and consequential community benefit impact.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Health In Her HUE

    Health In Her HUE is a digital platform that connects Black women and women of color to culturally competent and sensitive healthcare providers, and offers health information and content that centers their lived experiences.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Disparities in Care Delivery

  • Health Net of West Michigan

    We work to improve the health of our community by bridging the healthcare and social services systems. As a neutral convener, we ensure our community members are connected to the resources they deserve to live healthier lives. We work alongside our clients from an empowerment perspective to provide tools for problem-solving and advocacy to reduce barriers they might be facing.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Healthy Together

    Healthy Together provides access to underserved communities through equitable accessibility. Healthy Together currently has a higher percentage of underserved community usage compared to the U.S. population breakdown.


    Area of Focus: Interoperability

  • Heart of Florida Health Center (HFHC)
    Redefining American Healthcare Award Winner

    HFHC provides care that is high quality and affordable to the residents of Marion County. Services include family medicine, internal medicine, pediatric medicine, maternity, gynecology, adult & pediatric dentistry, pharmacy, behavioral health, case management, and telehealth.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Behavioral Health

  • Houston Food Bank

    Houston Food Bank distributes food and other essentials to those in need through a network of more than 1,600 community partners. In addition, we also provide programs and services aimed at helping families achieve long-term stability including nutrition education, job training, health management, and help in securing state-funded assistance.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Human-I-T

    Human-I-T creates equitable access to opportunity by providing devices, internet access, digital skills training, and tech support for communities left on the wrong side of the digital divide—while at the same time, empowering businesses and organizations to do good by diverting technology from landfills to protect our planet.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Broadband Access

  • Hurdle Health

    Hurdle provides Culturally Intentional Teletherapy and respects the unique needs of everyone. With cultural humility, we create a safe space where all people can show up as they are and feel understood. We are committed to providing culturally responsive, and evidence-based care to all people, while focusing on serving  People of Color and other minority groups.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Behavioral Health

  • innovaTel

    innovaTel relies on its clinical background to foster compassionate partnerships with organizations and telepsychiatry providers to improve access to behavioral health care and ultimately improve patient outcomes.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Behavioral Health

  • Integrated Behavioral Health, Montana Primary Care Association*

    Integrated Behavioral Health is a team-based approach that provides on-site teamwork with unified care plans as a standard approach to care for designated populations. This model combines a multidisciplinary team that integrates treatment, program structure, systems of programs, and payment to provide whole person care rather than treating isolated symptoms or diagnosis.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Behavioral Health

  • Iris Telehealth

    Iris Telehealth's mission is to help patients, providers, and healthcare organizations achieve their goals through clinically sound and financially sustainable psychiatry programs.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Behavioral Health

  • John Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions

    The mission of the Hopkins Center for Health Disparities Solutions is to generate and disseminate knowledge to reduce racial/ethnic and social class disparities in health status and health care through research, training, community partnerships and advocacy.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Variations in Care Delivery

  • Kumanu

    Kumanu delivers customized, full-service solutions for leveling up (or replacing) your current wellbeing platform. Kumanu centers on the root causes that produce authentic experiences and address the Personal, Social, and Organizational Determinants of Health.


    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Lazarex Cancer Foundation
    Redefining American Healthcare Award Winner

    Lazarex Cancer Foundation is focused on improving patient access to cancer clinical trials. Their vision is to provide all patients with the support and healthcare access they need to fight cancer.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Increasing Clinical Trial Diversity

  • Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC)

    LISC’s approach to improving health in underserved places is holistic: we promote affordable, green housing, safety, good education, job opportunities and financial stability—all of which factor into the health and wellbeing of a community. LISC also shores up three fundamental resources every neighborhood needs to keep residents well: easy access to pri­mary health care, affordable, nutritious food and safe places to exercise.


    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas

    Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health provides diagnosis and ongoing treatment for patients with cognitive disorders and support services for family members who care for them, integrating research and education at every level.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Behavioral Health

  • Mama’s Kitchen

    Mama’s Kitchen strives to provide nutritional support to San Diego residents at risk of malnutrition due to critical illnesses such as HIV, cancer, congestive heart failure, type 2 diabetes, and chronic kidney disease. Together with hundreds of volunteers, businesses, and community supporters, Mama’s Kitchen strives to help our clients stay healthy, preserve their dignity, and keep their families together by providing, medically tailored home-delivered meals, along with pantry services and nutrition education – all at no cost.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Manna Food Center

    Manna Food Center strives to eliminate hunger through food distribution, education, and advocacy.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Manna Homes

    Manna’s mission is to help low- and moderate- income persons acquire quality housing, build assets for families through homeownership, revitalize distressed neighborhoods, and preserve racial and ethnic diversity.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Meals on Wheels America

    Meals on Wheels America is the leadership organization supporting the more than 5,000 community-based programs across the country that are dedicated to addressing senior isolation and hunger. This network serves virtually every community in America and, along with more than two million staff and volunteers, delivers the nutritious meals, friendly visits and safety checks that enable America’s seniors to live nourished lives with independence and dignity.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • MedHaul

    MedHaul enables access to safe, quality, and inclusive transportation services for often overlooked populations, improving their quality of life and care.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Meharry Medical College
    Redefining American Healthcare Award Winner

    Meharry Medical College is “a global academic health sciences center advancing health equity through innovative research, transformative education, exceptional and compassionate health services and policy-influencing thought leadership. Meharry provides opportunities for people of color, individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds, and others, regardless of race or ethnicity, to receive excellent education and training in the health sciences and conduct research that fosters the elimination of health disparities.


    Area of Focus: Increasing Workforce Diversity

  • Mental Health America

    Mental Health America (MHA)'s work is driven by its commitment to promote mental health as a critical part of overall wellness, including prevention services for all; early identification and intervention for those at risk; integrated care, services, and supports for those who need them; with recovery as the goal.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Behavioral Health

  • Mercy Medical Angels

    Mercy Medical Angels removes the barrier to medical care with transportation on the ground with gas cards, bus and train tickets and in the air with flights flown by volunteer pilots and the commercial airlines. Mercy Medical Angels is the largest charitable medical transportation system in the world.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Mid-Ohio Food Collective

    Mid-Ohio Food Collective is committed to building healthier, hunger-free communities. Achieving that vision requires every person to have equal access to the resources, health care, and community supports they need to thrive.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Modivcare

    Modivcare addresses the social determinants of health by bringing quality patient transportation, remote patient monitoring, meal delivery and personal in-home care to homes all across America. 

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • My Brother’s Keeper, Inc.

    My Brother's Keeper works to reduce health disparities throughout the United States by enhancing the health and well being of minority and marginalized populations through leadership in public and community health practices, collaboration and partnerships.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • National Digital Inclusion Alliance

    National Digital Inclusion Alliance advances digital equity by supporting community programs and equipping policymakers to act. 

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Broadband Access

  • National Health Foundation (NHF)

    NHF is committed to improving the health of under-resourced communities by partnering with residents, local organizations, and government entities in order to achieve health equity for all. NHF four health equity initatives are food access, built environment, education, and housing.


    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Northern Illinois Food Bank

    Our vision at Northern Illinois Food Bank is for everyone in Northern Illinois to have food they need to thrive. We serve our neighbors in 13 counties with dignity, equity, and convenience, providing 250,000 meals a day. We bring together manufacturers, local and corporate grocers, area farmers, corporations, foundations, and individuals who donate food and funding, and each week nearly 1,000 volunteers help us evaluate, repack, and distribute food. We also partner with more than 900 food pantries, soup kitchens, shelters, and youth and senior feeding programs to provide nutritious food and resources.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Open Arms

    Open Arms of Minnesota is a nonprofit organization that prepares and delivers nourishing meals free of charge to critically ill Minnesotans and their families.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Open Hand

    Open Hand seeks to eliminate disability and untimely death due to nutrition-sensitive chronic disease.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Open Hand Atlanta

    Open Hand provides medically-tailored meals & nutrition interventions to medically-fragile, senior, & underserved individuals challenged by chronic disease.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Palmetto Care Connections
    Redefining American Healthcare Award Winner

    Palmetto Care Connections is a telehealth network that assists healthcare providers in connecting rural and underserved South Carolinians to quality services through broadband, technology and telehealth programs.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Broadband Access

  • Partners in Care Foundation (PICF)
    Redefining American Healthcare Award Winner

    PICF aligns social care and health care to address the social determinants of health and equity disparities affecting diverse, under-served and vulnerable populations.


    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Patient AirLift Services

    Patient AirLift Services is a nonprofit that arranges free flights for medical patients requiring medical diagnosis, treatment or follow-up who cannot afford or are unable to fly commercially.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Patients R Waiting

    Patients R Waiting is an initiative dedicated to eliminating health disparities by increasing diversity in medicine.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Increasing Workforce Diversity

  • Philabundance

    Philabundance seeks to drive hunger from our communities today and end hunger forever.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Philadelphia FIGHT
    Redefining American Healthcare Award Winner

    Provide culturally competent comprehensive primary care, and state of the art HIV primary care to low-income members of the community, along with research, consumer education, advocacy, social services and outreach to people living with HIV and those who are at high risk, including family members, communities with high rates of HIV, formerly incarcerated persons, and young people at risk; and access to the most advanced clinical research in HIV treatment and prevention.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Disparities in Care Delivery

  • Presbyterian Healthcare Services

    Though initially focused on encouraging tobacco cessation and the broader prevention of unhealthy substance use, Presbyterian's behavioral health initiative works to fully address mental health and substance use to include prevention and treatment. This includes supporting internal and external policy changes to support more robust behavioral health services in New Mexico.


    Area of Focus: Behavioral Health

  • Project Angel Food

    Project Angel Food prepares and delivers over one million medically tailored meals each year, free of charge to homes of men, women, and children affected by life-threatening illnesses.  

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Project Angel Heart

    Project Angel Heart was founded in 1991 to address a major challenge for Coloradans who are ill: getting the nutrition they need to get stronger, heal, and remain at home.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Prostate Health Education Network

    Prostate Health Education Network works to increase the participation of African American men in prostate cancer clinical trials through education, awareness, support and collaborations.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Increasing Clinical Trial Diversity

  • Protocol for Responding to and Assessing Patients’ Assets, Risks, and Experiences (PRAPARE)

    PRAPARE is a national effort to help health centers and other providers collect the data needed to better understand and act on their patients’ social determinants of health.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Interoperability

  • Rafiki Coalition

    Rafiki Coalition strives to achieve its focus by providing health and wellness services including, but not limited to, health education, movement classes, health screenings, advocacy, transitional housing and case management services for people living with HIV/AIDS, trauma resiliency and mental health circles, and other health-promoting activities.


    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Ride Health

    Ride Health partners with healthcare organizations and transportation providers to manage transportation benefits, strengthen enterprise transportation programs, and improve access to care and social services for complex populations.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Root Causes Fresh Produce Program

    We aim to work as health professionals to support the sustainable and humane production of food in combination with access to healthy food. Through our programs, we hope to involve the Duke medical community in improving the health of our patients and community through a stronger local food system.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care

    Rutgers University Behavioral Health Care is dedicated to a mission of excellence that includes, the delivery of evidence based and compassionate behavioral health and addiction services to individuals and families across New Jersey, advancing the science through programmatic research, and educating the next generation of health care professionals.


    Area of Focus: Behavioral Health

  • Sabin Vaccine Institute

    The Sabin Vaccine Institute is dedicated to making vaccines more accessible, enabling innovation and expanding immunization across the globe.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Vaccine Acceptance

  • Second Harvest Heartland

    Second Harvest Heartland believes no one should ever go hungry, as our region produces more than enough food for everyone. Helping hungry neighbors find their next meal—so they can thrive at work, in the classroom and in their communities—is what drives Second Harvest Heartland, its partners and supporters. Beyond feeding hungry neighbors, Second Harvest Heartland believes in the importance of our work to help sustain our environment.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Share Our Strength

    Share Our Strength's mission is to end hunger and poverty in the U.S. and abroad.


    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Sixteenth Street Community Health Centers

    We are at the heart of our healthy communities, Sixteenth Street Community Health Centers has proudly cared for the south side of Milwaukee and Waukesha for over 50 years. We provide the highest quality medical, behavioral health, and substance use care to every person who walks through our doors. But what separates our care is the deep understanding of social determinants of health and the years of development of programming to address these factors, both inside and beyond our clinic walls.  It has been woven into the Sixteenth Street experience from day one.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Behavioral Health

  • Socially Determined

    Socially Determined delivers an unparalleled Social Risk Intelligence platform and scalable solutions that are the key to unlocking improved business performance, clinical outcomes, and health equity.


    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • St. Louis Area Foodbank

    Building a stronger bi-state region by nourishing people, empowering communities, and transforming systems.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • St. Mary Development Corporation

    St. Mary Development Corporation executes its mission through real estate development and service coordination, building accessible, safe, and affordable apartment homes for older people, and giving them access to in-house experts who help them navigate complex networks of healthcare, social service, and government agencies to get the care and services they need.


    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Teen Kitchen Project

    The Teen Kitchen Project is a nonprofit organization that brings young people into the kitchen to learn to cook delicious and nourishing food. The meals they prepare are delivered  to individuals and families who are in crisis due to a life-threatening illness like cancer. 

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Texas A&M Center for Population Health and Aging
    Redefining American Healthcare Award Winner

    Promote population health and successful aging through innovations in research, education and practice that examine social, behavioral, economic, environmental, and technological solutions linking academic and real-world clinical and community settings.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • The African American Wellness Project

    The African-American Wellness Project was organized to respond to inequities in the health care delivery system. Originally focusing, on the African-American community, we have found that many consumers need to know how to organize their health care delivery options in a way that allows them to best utilize health care services. The African-American Wellness Project focuses on those tools that you need to get the best quality healthcare regardless of insurance or circumstance.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Variations in Care Delivery

  • The Center for Workplace Mental Health

    The Center for Workplace Mental Health provides employers the tools, resources and information needed to promote and support the mental health of employees and their families.


    Area of Focus: Behavioral Health

  • The Colorado Trust
    Redefining American Healthcare Award Winner

    The Colorado Trust provides funding and other resources so that all people have the power to make decisions that improve their lives and the lives of their neighbors.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • The Community Transformers Foundation

    The Community Transformers Foundation  (CTF) is a private independent foundation serving communities in the Commonwealth of Virginia. CTF was established to advance health and social equity. The Foundation  seeks to address the social determinants of health, promote wellness and equality in communities that are historically underserved and underrepresented.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • The Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition

    The Gretchen Swanson Center for Nutrition is an independent research institution providing scientific expertise, partnership and resources to improve diet and physical activity behaviors among youth and their families to help grow a healthier next generation.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • The HealthCare Connection

    The HealthCare Connection provides medical, dental and behavioral health services to patients that may not otherwise be able to afford the healthcare services they need. We provide quality, affordable and accessible primary healthcare services to everyone regardless of their ability to pay. We work with patients on a sliding scale to provide services that are more affordable to them.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Behavioral Health

  • The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) Center for Telehealth

    The MUSC Center for Telehealth is the statewide headquarters of the South Carolina Telehealth Alliance, and a national Telehealth Center of Excellence, one of ONLY two in the country! Our telehealth partnerships between MUSC Health and providers across the state seeks to provide all South Carolinians with access to high quality care, regardless of where they live.


    Area of Focus: Broadband Access

  • The Memory Center at the University of Chicago
    Redefining American Healthcare Award Winner

    As part of a world-renowned academic medical center, The University of Chicago Medicine Memory Center offers leading-edge care by fully integrating the newest scientific research with the most current clinical knowledge. Our highly multidisciplinary team approach offers patients the breadth of sub-specialty care addressing memory illnesses combined with deep expertise in each discipline.


    Area of Focus: Behavioral Health

  • The Project

    The Project provides confidential, free or low cost services to help people living with HIV move through the stages of HIV medical care. From the time of diagnosis, staff help patients connect to care, access resources that will help them achieve the best possible health outcomes and overcome obstacles that many stand in their way to a long and happy life. The Project also focus on prevention, providing outreach and access to the most effective tools to prevent HIV infection.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Variations in Care Delivery

  • The Trevor Project

    The Trevor Project's mission is to end suicide among lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer & questioning young people.


    Area of Focus: Behavioral Health

  • Tigerlily Foundation

    Tigerlily Foundation is a national breast cancer foundation providing education, awareness, advocacy and hands-on support to young women (15-45) – before, during and after breast cancer. Tigerlily Foundation’s Clinical Trials Program is a transformational initiative to accelerate the delivery of innovative treatments to our patients, with a strategic focus on populations that are facing the highest disparities. 

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Increasing Clinical Trial Diversity

  • Toledo/Lucas County CareNet

    CareNet coordinates a charity care network with primary care, hospital and specialty services, creating a uniform approach to charity care by identifying and serving the uninsured and addressing the access issues of awareness, coordination, cost and transportation.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

  • Tulip Tree Family Health Care

    Tulip Tree Family Health Care is committed to improving the health of individuals by offering high quality, affordable services regardless of income. Tulip Tree Family Health Care provides primary health care, dental care, behavioral health, and other related services, including education, diagnosis and treatment through a community facility.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Behavioral Health

  • Vital Start Health, Inc.

    Vital Start Health, Inc. provides technology to improve postpartum care. They are focused on mental health and education. It utilizes digital technologies (virtual and augmented reality) to assess, screen, and treat patients for behavioral health needs.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Behavioral Health

  • Wholesome Wave

    Wholesome Wave is a U.S. nonprofit organization that creates partnership-based programs that enable underserved consumers to make healthier food choices by increasing affordable access to health, locally and regionally grown foods. The organization addresses complex problems through simple solutions with a vision towards healthy, affordable food for all.

    Social Media:
    Area of Focus: Social Determinants of Health

Redefining American Healthcare Award Correspondence & Press Releases