Houston Health Foundation

Environmental Health - in a continuing effort to address the spread of covid-19 in greater Houston, two innovative projects identified novel systems for detecting covid-19 in city wastewater, thereby enabling identification of zip codes and vulnerable communities at greatest risk. Funded by the cdc Foundation and the rockefeller Foundation, Houston Health department bureau of environmental Health and rice faculty collaborated to develop pilot programs, which were then shared with communities throughout the united states. For more information see schedule o

See to succeed (sts) is an evidence-based public Health program dedicated to illuminating a path for underserved students to realize their full potential by providing access to diagnostic eye care and high-quality corrective eyewear at no cost to the families. See to succeed improves vision and vision-related Health, education, and social factors by providing free vision exams and corrective eyewear to school children 6 - 18 years old. During the fall of 2021 see to succeed celebrated its 10th year marking a milestone of serving over 92,000 houstonian school children since the program's inception. For more information see schedule o

My brother's keeper (mbk) is part of a national movement to improve outcomes and reduce opportunity gaps for boys and young men of color. As students returned to school and in-person activities following the height of the covid 19 pandemic, mbk Houston worked with numerous houston-based partners including schools, universities, and mentoring organizations to develop a citywide framework for working collectively on initiatives that would be particularly impactful for students. Through the freeport lng rise scholarship program and by working with partner mentoring organizations such as the urban scholars institute, 8 million stories and 100 black men, 11 high school seniors were awarded scholarships to two and four-year colleges in Texas and other states.

Basics Houston (bh) the basics is a nationally-recognized initiative that empowers families to care for and cultivate healthy beginnings for their children by providing resources for healthy childhood development. The 25 in 25 by 2025 initiative helps to raise kindergarten readiness by 25 percent in at least one geographic area of at least 25 cities, towns, and counties by 2025. As a basics learning network affiliate, bh issues this challenge to our home community by offering leadership and mentorship. An important milestone was reached in 2021 with publication of the brainy clinics landscape study report, a comprehensive assessment of the critical elements required to implement a city-wide plan to enhance the systems and culture of Houston area clinic systems regarding early brain development engagement with families and communities. Through tool kits, training, an implementation rubric, and family coaching sessions, a growing cadre of primary care givers and Health systems are regularly engaged in serving young children and their families. These people and organizations have suggested and committed to ways in which they could improve their support services by including the basics Houston in various ways. Hhf initiated the next phase of the basics Houston development through a project to design, pilot, and iterate the brainy clinics framework of training and services to embed early childhood brain development curriculum of the Houston basics within community-based primary care providers with individual clinic customizations to be developed. In addition to the program services already described, Houston Health Foundation (hhf) works with several local agencies. These agencies address the physical and emotional needs of the most vulnerable people in the greater Houston area. Some of these local area agencies are: o area agency on aging - serves 65,000 senior citizens in the greater Houston area connecting them to vital resources and services for healthy aging. O community nutrition - provides sustainable alternatives for obesity prevention, promotes healthy lifestyles by increasing access to nutritious food. This includes developing community gardens. O diabetes awareness - supports member and community programming through the diabetes awareness and wellness network and cities changing diabetes (dawn). The dawn program utilized funding from the cigna Foundation to offer culturally competent services to the denver harbor community. Dawn was able to hire two bilingual staff to engage with community members to provide education and behavior change interventions for the management and/or prevention of type 2 diabetes. Activities and services were offered in-person, prior to the covid-19 pandemic and transitioned to virtual platforms when social distancing was required. Through this funding, the dawn program provided 457 services to 54 unique individuals - an average of 8 personalized engagements with each member. O hire Houston youth - hire Houston youth serves as the facilitator to connect youth, ages 16-24, to seven- weeks paid summer jobs and internships at the city of Houston, public, private, and philanthropic sectors. O nurse family partnership - this is an evidence-based 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. Through this program specially trained nurses regularly visit young, first-time moms-to-be, starting early in the pregnancy, continuing through the child's second birthday. The program serves pregnant mothers from the sunnyside and acres homes neighborhoods and within harris county. O project saving smiles - provide free dental screenings, dental sealants, fluoride varnish, and oral Health education to at-risk second graders. Hhf also provides fiscal management for the following programs: o anti-human trafficking (aht) - provides education to healthcare providers, treatment to victims and survivors, and research to inform clinical care and public policy. O Houston recovery initiative (hri) - hhf supports the work of the Houston recovery initiative, by serving as a fiscal agent for multiple funding sources. The Houston recovery initiative is a community-based consortium of over 50 recovery related organizations, all working to improve access to resources and outcomes for those overcoming addiction.