Connecting the dots between housing and health in ChicagoConnecting the dots between housing and health in ChicagoConnecting the dots between housing and health in ChicagoConnecting the dots between housing and health in Chicago
  • Our Focus
  • Our Process
  • Who We Are
Search
Close Search Box
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Enhanced Capacity
  • Connecting the dots between housing and health in Chicago
July 19, 2018
Chicago and Cook County Housing for Health Strategic Plan

Connecting the dots between housing and health in Chicago

This week, Polk Bros. Foundation and Michael Reese Health Trust were awarded the 2018 HUD Secretary’s Award for Public-Philanthropic Partnerships. This post is about the work recognized by the award, and was originally published on the Council of Foundations blog. 

By Debbie Reznick, Senior Program Officer at Polk Bros. Foundation and a board member of Funders Together to End Homelessness

2018 winner of the Secretary’s Award for Public-Philanthropic PartnershipsWhen I learned Polk Bros. Foundation and Michael Reese Health Trust would be presented with the 2018 HUD Secretary’s Award for Public-Philanthropic Partnerships, I was glad to have an opportunity to share what we’ve learned in our work to connect the dots between housing and health in Chicago – and to also highlight housing’s essential role as a social determinant of health.

A Locally-Unprecedented Partnership

Fifteen years ago, Michael Reese initiated and Polk Bros. supported the Chicago Housing for Health Partnership study to better understand how housing – or the lack of it – affects health. The study drew strong connections between improved housing and improved health, and helped set the stage for Chicago’s housing and health sectors to more meaningfully and formally work together. Guided by the study, Polk Bros. and Michael Reese partnered to facilitate the success of our shared supportive housing and healthcare grantees as they navigated a rapidly-changing healthcare environment. Together, we found ways to fund pilot projects that fostered relationships and highlighted shared goals between permanent supportive housing and healthcare providers.

The conversations we initiated, the stakeholders we convened and the pilot projects we funded all helped lay the groundwork for the Chicago and Cook County Housing for Health Strategic Plan (H2), the locally-unprecedented public-private partnership recognized by this award and supported by Polk Bros., Michael Reese and the Chicago Community Trust. We hope, by sharing what it took to make this happen, we might inspire similar funder-led endeavors. Because H2 is making incredible and scalable strides in its goals to create additional housing opportunities for people experiencing homelessness, share data across the housing and health systems, and provide cross-sector training and coordination. It is a highly-effective partnership that brings together important stakeholders who might otherwise be isolated from each other – including city, county, state and federal leaders, healthcare systems, housing-focused nonprofits, health-focused nonprofits, and private foundations.

Greater Impact by Collaborating Beyond our Sectors

Our partnership with Michael Reese illustrates how much more impact we can have as funders when we collaborate across sectors. Polk Bros. was deeply engaged in solutions to end homelessness as one of our areas of focus, and Michael Reese had expertise in the healthcare sector and was forward-thinking about the social determinants of health.

Partnering gave us the opportunity to spur innovation. We figured out how our collective resources could best be coordinated and leveraged to create momentum, attract public funding and lead to systemic change.

Through our work together, we remained aligned that sufficient and long-term support would be critical. Both our organizations have long invested in finding solutions to homelessness and opportunities for improving the health of vulnerable people: Polk Bros. for 30 years and Michael Reese for over 20. Through our collaboration, we helped launch – and we and other funders continue to support – the Center for Housing and Health, the lead agency that initiated and fostered the development of the H2 plan.

We know safe and affordable housing is critical for people’s health, their ability to get and keep a job, and their children’s development and success in school. Do the people reached by your organization have access to stable housing? If not, could you make faster progress toward your organization’s goals by collaborating with others on housing?

Share

Related posts

Take Five blog header
June 9, 2022

Take Five with Brenda Palms Barber of North Lawndale Employment Network


Read more
Roberto Herencia and Raymond Simon
December 13, 2021

Roberto Herencia joins our Board of Directors; Raymond F. Simon retires


Read more
Kayla Eldridge
November 3, 2021

Polk Bros. Foundation welcomes Kayla Eldridge as executive assistant


Read more

Search

Close Search Box

Categories

  • Arts Access and Learning
  • Education
  • Enhanced Capacity
  • Featured Equitable Recovery Posts
  • Featured News
  • Health
  • News
  • Strategic Collaborations
  • Strong Communities
  • Strong Families
  • Uncategorized

About Polk Bros. Foundation

Polk Bros. Foundation is a private independent foundation dedicated to building and strengthening Chicago's families and communities, especially those most affected by poverty. The Foundation focuses its work at the intersection of Chicago's most pressing issues to address the complex roots and devastating effects of poverty, challenge inequity, and ensure that all Chicagoans have the opportunity to reach their full potential. Learn more.

Media Contact

Tracy Kremer
tkremer@polkbrosfdn.org
312.445.2659

Newsletter

Archived Issues

Latest posts

  • Take Five blog header0
    Take Five with Brenda Palms Barber of North Lawndale Employment Network
    June 9, 2022
  • Roberto Herencia and Raymond Simon0
    Roberto Herencia joins our Board of Directors; Raymond F. Simon retires
    December 13, 2021

Follow Us on Twitter

Polk Bros. Fdn Polk Bros. Fdn · 1 day ago
@PolkBrosFdn
Congratulations to The Resurrection Project ( @TRPistas) on receiving this year’s @PolkBrosFdn Affordable Rental Housing Preservation Award for Casa Veracruz!

Watch: https://t.co/7s5bBObIy0

#CNDA28 #CNDAs
View on Twitter
2
4
Polk Bros. Fdn Polk Bros. Fdn · 2 days ago
@PolkBrosFdn
We’re honored to sponsor the 28th Annual #CNDAs, awarding the best of Chicago’s neighborhoods!

Watch live at 4pm today (June 29): https://t.co/IQvTCVJRTB #CNDA28. https://t.co/YgvxGpaXSP
View on Twitter
PolkBrosFdn photo
0
2
Polk Bros Foundation Logo

Polk Bros. Foundation
20 West Kinzie Street, Suite 1110
Chicago, IL 60654-5815
312.527.4684 │ info@polkbrosfdn.org

Quick Links

  • Grants Portal
  • Grantmaking Guidelines
  • Financial Statements
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Use
  • Newsletter

Stay Connected

© 2021 Polk Bros. Foundation | All Rights Reserved | Site Map
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Custom